Jim Dey: Publicists taking Bennett praise a little far

Jul. 29—It's time once again to dive into another round of quick takes on the people, places and events that were being talked about over the past week:

Hanging it up

Republican state Sen. Tom Bennett of Gibson City announced this week that he is retiring after his current term expires.

That's definitely news, but GOP publicists got a little carried away when they decided to spruce up his political credentials.

Here's what they wrote.

"Illinois State Senator Tom Bennett (R-Gibson City) announced his plans to retire from his storied and successful career in the General Assembly at the completion of his current term representing the 53rd District."

Storied? That word is defined as "celebrated in story or history."

Bennett was certainly a conscientious and responsible legislator, but let's not get too carried away with the rhetoric. Illinois legislators are a dime a dozen, hardly the stuff of legends.

Nonetheless, Bennett's planned departure will further dilute the minimal strength of super-minority Republicans in the supermajority Democratic legislature.

Bennett, who is 67, faced an easy re-election campaign, and he described serving in the Senate as a "challenging, amazing and rewarding" job. But he said it's time to take a new direction in his life.

"The only way I know how to do this job is full-time, often six or seven days a week and my family and I have decided that after this term it is time to slow down," Bennett said.

Before being appointed to fill a Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Jason Barickman, Bennett served in the Illinois House from 2015 until 2023. His constituents include residents in Bureau, Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, LaSalle, Livingston, Marshall, McLean, Peoria, Putnam, Tazewell, Will and Woodford counties.

Prior to serving in the legislature, he was a member of the Parkland College Board of Trustees.

Another member of the state Senate announced this week that she's resigning. But few will miss Chicago Democratic state Sen. Patricia Van Pelt because she hasn't shown up in Springfield for months.

Claiming health woes she attributed to hip replacements, Van Pelt said she has been working from her office and holding meetings via Zoom.

Van Pelt, a member of the Senate for 10 years, made an unsuccessful run for mayor of Chicago in 2011. Her resignation will take effect Aug. 1, and the timing is no accident.

Under rules legislators have established, the Aug. 1 date allows Van Pelt to collect pay for the entire month of August.

Edgar's fellows

The 2023 Class of the Edgar Fellows Program will meet from Aug. 6-10 on the University of Illinois campus, and the roster of 40 public policy leaders includes a sizeable number from East Central Illinois.

The program was started in 2012 and is housed at the UI's Institute of Government & Public Affairs. It was designed by former Gov. Jim Edgar to "inspire respectful and collaborative leadership to address the state's significant challenges."

The bipartisan program intended to improve government in Illinois, obviously, has failed miserably so far. But there's always hope for the future.

Among area politicians and government officials participating are new state Sen. Paul Faraci of Champaign, Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher, Decatur Mayor Julie Moore-Wolfe, Vermilion County Auditor Erika Ramsey, Peoria County labor leader Clint Drury, State Farm Insurance general counsel Kristin Givens, Springfield lobbyist Jelani Saadiq, Illinois Farm Bureau official Ryan Whitehouse of Bloomington and attorney general deputy press secretary Annie Thompson of Springfield.

Edgar said the program, by design, brings together people from a variety of backgrounds.

"They share and learn from those different life experiences, but they also find out that they have more in common than they might realize," said Edgar, who was governor from 1991 to 1999.

Edgar Fellows will hear from a variety of experts on issues affecting government that include economic development, climate change, supply chains, Medicaid, education, transportation, the judiciary and intergovernmental cooperation.

The newest class will bring the number of Edgar Fellows to more than 400. The program is funded by donations from a variety of groups and individuals including representatives of business, labor and philanthropic organizations.

Grandiosity of government

The more that government fails to meet its most basic duties to the public, the more grandiose it becomes in pursuit of unrealistic and extravagant goals.

Here's the most recent example of that truism.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed legislation that he hopes will end "functional homelessness" in Illinois.

"For those who don't know and who may be listening, it's a measurable metric of success that reduces homelessness to something that's brief and rare and nonrecurring," Pritzker said.

His order is essentially a reshuffling of the bureaucratic morass created to address this seemingly intractable issue.

The legislation — House Bill 2831 — formalizes in law a 2021 Pritzker executive order that "centralizes programs across 17 state departments and agencies to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to combat homelessness."

The governor's dream of reducing homelessness to something that is "brief and rare and non-recurring" is unquestionably laudable. But the real world problems of those who are homeless has less to do with poverty than it does with mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction.

Pritzker gave himself an out with his goal to end homelessness by adding the adjective "functional". It sounds good anyway, and that's the real point of such vacuous political promises.

But Pritzker is certainly putting the taxpayers' money where his mouth is.

Center Square reports the state's budget "sets aside $360 million for the task force, with $118 million to support unhoused populations seeking shelter and services. Also appropriated is about $40.7 million for the Emergency and Transitional Housing Program, $50 million in Rapid Rehousing services for 2,000 households and $40 million in Permanent Supportive Housing. The funding is an $83 million increase from last year's budget."

Free speech is not free

It can cost taxpayers a lot of money when university professors violate their students' free speech rights.

The latest example of that comes from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, where university officials agreed to pay $80,000, revise policies and require three faculty members to attend "First Amendment training sessions" to settle a student's lawsuit.

Maggie DeJong, who recently graduated from SIU-E's art therapy counseling graduate program, filed suit after university officials retaliated against her for expressing opinions not shared by some of her fellow students.

A federal district court refused to dismiss DeJong's lawsuit in March, prompting SIU-E lawyers to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers representing DeJong.

DeJong's sin, in the eyes of SIU-E representatives, was sharing her views via social media and classroom discussion on issues including "religion, politics, critical race theory, COVID-19 regulations and censorship."

After at least three students complained that DeJong's opinions constituted "discrimination" and "harassment," SIU-E officials issued three no-contact orders barring DeJong from "any contact" and "indirect communications" with other students in the class. SIU-E officials also alerted their police department.

SIU-E acknowledged that DeJong did not violate any school policies, stating its "no contact" orders were intended to "prevent interactions that could be perceived by either party as unwelcome, retaliatory, intimidating or harassing."

DeJong's lawyer charged the opinions SIU-E officials were trying to suppress were informed by her religious faith and conservative political viewpoint. They argued SIU-E's official actions were a clear violation of DeJong's free speech rights and that the pariah status forced on her was personally traumatic.

DeJong's lawsuit against SIU-E drew significant national attention as another example of the ongoing campus assault on free speech.

"It's a sad day for civil dialogue and freedom of speech when universities can issue gag orders like those against Maggie for nothing more than expressing her beliefs — beliefs held by millions of Americans," said Gregg Walters, DeJong's lawyer.

Ironically, one of the tweets that landed DeJong in hot water was a quote from pastor and author John MacArthur that said, "Those who dare to take an unpopular stand. ... will inevitably be marked as troublesome. Compromise has become a virtue while devotion to truth has become offensive."