With rituals over, people
by Ed Wojcicki
Rituals are still meaningful. That was
evident January 11 in Springfield's
Prairie Capitol Convention Center
as Gov. George H. Ryan took the oath
of office, and the state's first woman
lieutenant governor, Corinne Wood,
was sworn in along with four other
state constitutional officers. Two days
later, members of the Illinois House
and the Illinois Senate were sworn in
at the state Capitol and opened the 91st
General Assembly.
An air of solemnity, seen less and less
in this era of increasing informality,
lent dignity to the ceremonies. Such
rituals are good for the human soul.
They remind us that others came before
us, and still others most assuredly will
follow us. As Ryan said before officials
took their oaths of office, inauguration
day is one of those times when
Illinoisans come together to celebrate
who we are as a state.
Best wishes to all of the new
statewide officials and legislators.
We asked our readers last fall to
advise the new governor on
what his top priorities should be. They
frequently mentioned education
funding, transportation and various
kinds of campaign finance reforms, as
well as economic development. Readers
were responding in the thick of the
campaign season.
Almost absent from our reader
responses was any mention of gun
control or tough-on-crime measures,
in contrast to the heavy emphasis on
those subjects in the campaigns.
A few readers did mention health
care, managed care reform and property tax reforms, but education seems
to be primary in our readers' minds.
A Centralia reader listed "Education!!!" as his top three priorities, not
just the first one. "If we do not educate
our children," he wrote, "our state will
continue to decline to a point beyond
repair."
Ryan and Wood say they want
education to be their top priority, too.
It's timely to mention there's a new
book about all of Illinois' governors
— and you'll see it advertised in this
magazine. This historical collection is
the second edition of Mostly Good and
Competent Men, published this month
by the University of Illinois at Springfield.
The first edition, crafted by now-
deceased Chicago Tribune writer Robert
Howard, is more than 10 years old.
With the change in power at the State-
house, we decided to add chapters on
Govs. Jim Edgar and George Ryan.
This is among the first assessments
of the Edgar Administration in book
form. Written by Illinois Issues editor
Peggy Boyer Long, it puts Edgar into
context, with a focus on the fiscal
problems he inherited. Its balanced
analysis is well worth reading.
Illinois Issues February 1999 3
are still talking 'education'