PENALTY SHOTS: The white noise of politics
We are a deeply divided nation, and it's playing out at both the state and national level.
I will admit that most days, I wake up to check the national headlines to see what the latest controversial tweet is from President Trump.
He is unconventional to say the least, but he has acted on some of the broader promises of his campaign - a travel ban, a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, economic and federal deregulation.
And Trump also isn't shy to confront those who stand in his way, as U.S. attorney Preet Bharara found out last Saturday after refusing to resign after being requested to by Trump's administration.
Bharara, attorney for the Southern District of New York and a major player in the battle against Wall Street corruption, took to Twitter to announce that he did not resign from his position, he was fired.
It's the second high-profile "firing" of Trump's fledgling administration. Then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates was shown the door in late January for refusing to defend Trump's executive order on closing the nation's border to people from predominantly Muslim countries.
It's long been a belief of Japanese culture that the nail that stands out is the nail to be hammered down and the early months of Trump's presidency seem to reflect that.
The first few months of Trump's administration have shown a president at war with the media, increasingly frustrated with leaks of information from the White House and dogged by alleged connections to Russia and pro-Turkey lobbying by members of his cabinet.
While this has been going on, there have been organized marches around the nation and the world. It started with the Women's March on Jan. 21, an event originally planned solely for Washington D.C. until the idea caught fire and spanned the globe.
Since the Women's March, there has been a series of "A Day Without…." marches, of varying success, with whatever cause being featured filling in the "X" of the equation.
All of this has led me to the singular question of what happened to America?
Diversity used to be celebrated, not it appears to be victimized.
Here at home, we have a governor who has taken more hits than a punch-drunk boxer. While Trump has the advantage of a Republican House and Senate, Gov. Bruce Rauner must play nice with the Democrats to accomplish anything on his so-called "Turnaround Agenda."
Add in a bitter fight with AFSCME, a continued lack of a state budget, a losing public relations battle with Chicago Public Schools and a growing political feud with State Comptroller Susana Mendoza and Rauner's prospects for reelection in 2018 appear in danger.
A troubling sign for media is Rauner appears to be taking a page out of Trump's playbook with a series of Facebook Live videos apparently intended to take his message straight to voters without the press getting in the way.
At this juncture in time, I struggle to come up with major accomplishments in the Rauner era, at least for our portion of the state.
Reopening the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro as a Life Skills and Re-entry Center for adults is a plus, but the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta is still not open to the public - only groups with pre-existing agreements can shoot there.
Rauner visited the complex, which is a big economic engine for the region, last year and media have thus far received only vague answers from state politicians on the future of the facility.
Part of the reason why media exist is to provide accountability in government. People deserve and have a right to know where and how their tax dollars are being spent.
People also have a right to know whether their elected representatives are appropriately defending the public's trust.
In a non-biased and most professionally-curious way, I ask "Is this the America you voted for?"
<strong>Oops</strong>
In a recent column about retiring Chester High School athletic director Mike Coffey, I failed to mention he also has granddaughters through his son Jason. The omission was purely accidental and not intentional.