Wi oh Wi?

The SJ-R tells us that AT; dropped their plans for city-wide wireless internet access in Springfield. There's one more reason for young people to leave town.

Springfield has a hard time deciding whether it should be a real city or an overgrown farm town. The Chamber of Commerce and local governments are working on the Q5 initiative to expand the local economy by bringing in new businesses and jobs.

If we're going to expand our private sector economy in the area then we need to work on making Springfield a little more appealing to young people and those who want something resembling a metropolitan lifestyle and culture. Building the kind of infrastructure that attracts modern businesses and an educated workforce involves a lot more than new roads and sewers.

That's why talk about making wireless available only to out-of-town visitors in the downtown area misses the point. Its about improving the quality of life for residents and making all of downtown a more appealing place for people to be. Ultimately, all downtown businesses will benefit from free wireless internet available to everyone.

Besides that, my experience has been pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to using wi-fi in downtown businesses that offer it. Too often the service is out and no one on duty knows how to fix it. Having an open system downtown would allow businesses to offer wi-fi without the hassle and expense of managing it on their own.

I hope the news about AT; is only a setback to city-wide free wireless internet rather than the end of it.

Enviro Blogs

Clean Energy Springfield blog has a new poster named Kevin. I'll let him decide how much of an introduction he wants to give for himself on his jasmine live blog, but he's very knowledgeable on a variety of energy and environmental issues.

His first post is on an issue I've had many people bring up lately: mercury in compact florescent light bulbs. I've heard a few people bring up the mercury content of CFL's with a defeatist attitude, suggesting that they aren't an effective way of reducing mercury pollution, but Kevin points out they're still a good product as long as they're disposed of properly.

CES Blog was originally meant to be a group blog, but other than a couple posts I wrote early on, it has been written entirely by Greg Claxton. Its definitely nice to have Kevin join the blog. While you're over there, check out the cool graphic in the sidebar representing the wind speed at the farms supplying Springfield's wind energy.

I recently added EarthlingAngst to my list of Illinois blogs. Her focus is on global warming and her post yesterday focuses on one of my favorite topics, clean car alternatives.

One of the arguments the auto industry lobbying groups make against better car emission regulations in Illinois is their spurious claim that it will limit consumer choice. I find it unlikely, given current gas prices, that consumers are going to eagerly demand cars that get fewer miles to the gallon when they're finally given a choice of better mileage vehicles.

My own frustration is the lack of choices American car companies are currently offering those interested in hybrid, or plug-in hybrid cars. Even when American car companies do offer hybrids, its typically an SUV or sedan that makes limited use of hybrid technology with disappointing mileage improvements. Why should I spend the extra money on an American hybrid if I'm only getting 30 or 45 mpg instead of the 60 mpg I can get with a Prius? American auto companies and workers are the ones suffering most from this half-hearted approach that doesn't respond to consumer demands.

Military Mom asks support for troops

There's a letter to the editor in today's State Journal-Register that I think is worth re-posting.

Too often "support the troops" is used as a slogan by those who are more concerned about people supporting the war. You can tell the difference between those who really support the troops and those who are using the troops for political purposes by their attitude toward troops who come home and speak out against the war. When those chaturbate commentators start attacking any veteran who speaks out against the Iraq war, it reveals that they're more concerned with the political future of the Republican Party than they care about the future of the troops. Veterans and soldiers deserve personal support no matter how they feel about the war.

I don't know Cindy Kaylor but I'm thankful that she expressed her opinion of how people should support the troops. Its a view that always made more sense to me. The fact that I have friends in the military is one of the reasons I opposed the war in Iraq before it began.

I think Ms. Kaylor is wrong about one thing. There are a lot of people speaking out against the Iraq War because they want soldiers to come home safe.

What's lacking are political leaders speaking out. Its amazing how easily most politicians can be scared into doing the wrong thing with the simple threat of calling them a left-wing wacko peacenik "cut and run" appeaser. The war in Iraq will end when more Congressman are scared that they won't get re-elected if it continues.

Back to Ohio

I had a great time volunteering for Barack Obama in Cleveland last weekend. I knocked on doors in a couple of neighborhoods and had a very positive response. People are fired up!

I helped sign up new volunteers at a jasmin live campaign in Cleveland. An enthusiastic crowd of about 400 people came to hear speakers and find out how they can help Obama win Ohio.

Congressman John Conyers of Detroit was the featured speaker for the event. He said this is the most exciting Presidential campaign he has ever seen and that goes back to Adlai Stevenson.

The campaign is encouraging people to vote early and they have good reason to do so in Cleveland. Cuyahoga county was recently ordered to adopt new voting machines just a few weeks before the election, leaving little time for the public or election judges to familiarize themselves with the new system before election day. People thought this would be a lower turn out election on which to test the new system. But now, the Democratic Presidential nomination could be decided by results from Cleveland and the rest of Cuyahoga.

At the least, I expect returns to come in slowly from Cuyahoga, which has the largest number of Democratic voters of any county in the state. If I lived in Cleveland I'd be voting early too.

William Seward

When I took Paul Simon's History of the Abolitionist Movement class at Southern Illinois University I did a research paper on William Seward. He's one of the most interesting characters in American political history and I've been thinking about Seward often as the 2008 Presidential campaign rolls on.

What I respect most about him is his life long commitment to fighting for the most vulnerable in society. He spoke up for the rights of prisoners, recent immigrants, the mentally insane, and slaves. He earned a long list of accomplishments even before becoming Lincoln's Secretary of State including public funding for universal education and prison reform in New York.

In 1860 Seward was a nationally recognized leader of the anti-slavery movement and the new Republican Party. As a former Governor and current Senator from New York he had the experience, national recognition, and political allies to secure the Republican nomination for President. Most people believed his selection as the party nominee at the 1860 Republican convention in Chicago was inevitable.

The primary political experience of his obscure rival, Abraham Lincoln, was in the Illinois State Legislature and two years in Congress. What little national recognition he had was for publicizing a series of debates during his US Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas.

The central argument used against Seward was that he was too polarizing to win a national election. His statements about laws higher than the constitution and a looming irrepressible conflict with the South were highly controversial. If opinion polls existed at the time the press would have pointed out his high negative ratings despite his popularity among those against slavery.

Seward underestimated the Republican convention's desire for a fresh face and the political skills of Lincoln's campaign manager, David Davis. A convention hall packed with Lincoln supporters from Illinois didn't hurt either.

Of course, I'm not trying to compare Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln. But its one of those peculiar oddities of history that almost 200 years after Lincoln was born, another relative political newcomer from Illinois, who also came to national prominence for delivering good speeches, is once again ready to upset a more experienced, polarizing, and supposedly inevitable Senator from New York.

If you'd like to read more about Seward and the 1860 election (or confirm what I wrote) a recent book I enjoyed is "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The biography of Seward I read in college is out of print.

Green City news on TV

If you weren't still out for Valentine's Day Thursday at 10:00pm you might have seen the TV 20 news coverage of Springfield being named a top Green City by Popular Science magazine. They showed clips of interviews with Mayor Davlin and myself.

The city put out a press release about the list which spurred local news coverage. I said in the interview that it's good to see the Mayor and other city leaders take pride in the agreement and the recognition Springfield receives for it. Spending a little more time bragging about what we're doing instead of worrying about the controversy of getting it passed will earn the city even more recognition around the country. Naturally, I was very happy to see this story in the news.

Over the next year the city council will have the chance to approve further energy conservation efforts and a green buy-in program as part of the Sierra Club agreement. The next steps can earn Springfield additional recognition while doing more to reduce global warming emissions and other pollutants.

After featuring the recognition in "breaking news" online the State Journal Register had a short story in the Business section that didn't mention the wind power purchase or the Sierra Club agreement that are primary reasons for the listing. Odd.