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Editor's Notebook: Thoughtful public affairs journalism takes planning and financial resources

Peggy Boyer Long
WUIS/Illinois Issues

Why can't politicians behave like the work-for-tomorrow ant instead of the live-in-the-moment grasshopper?

Illinois Issues raised this question in January as we launched our year-long celebration of the magazine's 30th anniversary. In his thought-provoking response, political scientist Christopher Mooney explained why this state's elected officials have little incentive to plan ahead. 

That was just one of the questions we challenged our writers to explore this year. We asked Lori Andrews, a legal scholar in bioethics, how policymakers might frame the contentious debate over the beginning and end of life. We asked business journalist Maura Webber Sadovi what lies ahead for government and corporate leaders as the state and the nation go gray. And we asked political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain — our first Paul Simon Essayist — whether religion can enhance civic life.

Some of the answers turned out to be controversial. Elshtain, for instance, whose essay "Civic Virtues" appeared in our May issue, believes we need more religion in politics. 

"The difference religiously derived morality makes," she wrote, "is that it is more likely to get us up and out of the house and into civic life than the alternative of no religious connection or a very thin one." 

Still, this nation's fundamental tension between politics and religion won't be resolved anytime soon. 

"Privacy - of others, that is - is an irritating obstacle to self-fulfillment, self-expression, or at least self-indulgence. Our narcissistic culture has produced a generation of Bubble children who dwell, blithely unaware, in a portable Me-ville." - James Krohe Jr

  Nor will the ethical and policy dilemmas over when life begins and ends. Nevertheless, Lori Andrews warned us in March, beyond the political heat generated by a handful of life and death issues, "the very boundaries of what is human are being changed by genetic technology. Yet hardly anyone in the public or the legislatures is paying attention."

Government and corporate planners are starting to pay attention, though, to an entire generation of workers as it marches toward 60. 

There may be disagreement on the impact of this coming demographic change, Maura Webber Sadovi wrote in April, "but there is no question that some employers already are beginning to see a not-so-distant future in which a new kind of retirement will emerge, along with a need for new menu-like benefit packages and assistance in intergenerational communication." 

Meanwhile, federal and state officials already are beginning to experience a fiscal crunch in the growth of entitlement programs for older Americans. Some trade-offs are likely, too, in that not-so-distant future.

Trade-offs are at the heart of this month's issue. As Congress revisits the USA Patriot Act, we asked reporter Daniel C. Vock to assess how much privacy we are ceding to the fight against terrorism. 

Then we asked writer James Krohe Jr. to consider ways in which the very concept of privacy has changed in this high-tech era. Some of his conclusions might surprise you. For starters, he argues we have blurred the line between public and private. We aren't sacrificing private space so much as developing an obliviousness to public space. "Privacy — of others, that is — is an irritating obstacle to self-fulfillment, self-expression, or at least self-indulgence," he asserts. "Our narcissistic culture has produced a generation of Bubble children who dwell, blithely unaware, in a portable Me-ville." 

For three decades, readers have turned to Illinois Issuesfor such insights. But publishing thoughtful public affairs journalism takes planning and financial resources. And this is where you can help. 

As we prepare the remaining issues in this anniversary year, we ask you to prepare for the future, too, by making a contribution to the magazine's next 30 years. 

Whatever changes lie ahead, Illinoisans will need more than mere news to make sense of it. And Illinois Issues is the only publication devoted exclusively to analyzing government and politics, as well as the social and cultural life of this complex state. In fact, there are only a handful of magazines in the nation that report on their respective state governments.

We ask you to weigh the value of this and become a visionary, a leader, a patron or a friend. Make a financial commitment to Illinois Issues by filling out the return card in this issue.

Then join us for a special 30th anniversary luncheon at the Union League Club in Chicago on Friday, September 30. (Look for more details on that event later this summer.) 

We plan to use the opportunity to continue the magazine's year-long exploration of some of the policy challenges Illinois could face in the coming decades. As part of that effort, former Gov. Jim Edgar, a member of our advisory board, will moderate a panel discussion on the state's future. Can policymakers plan for the long-term? 

Like Christopher Mooney, we believe they can. But an informed electorate will need to provide the incentive. "We get the government we ask for," Mooney concluded in our January issue. "If we want ants running state government, we need to stop electing grasshoppers." 

 

Rookie reporter raises fiscal concerns

Ten-year-old Adam Sykes of Decatur made this magazine proud to call him one of our own when this spring he asked Patti Blagojevich a "tough question." 

For 35 years, Harristown Elementary School students have represented the Statehouse Press Corps and interviewed the governor's wife at the Executive Mansion. Teachers help them write and practice their questions, learn etiquette and protocol, and design their press badges, says Principal Glenda Weldy. 

Assigned to represent Illinois Issuesby his teachers — Mr. Deremiah, who started the program, and Mrs. Poole — Adam asked this question: "One of the most pressing issues facing Illinois is the state budget deficit. In what ways have you streamlined the budget at the mansion?"

He says he was pretty excited and doesn't recall all of the answer. But, "I remember she said she had to decrease staff at the mansion." In fact, staff has fallen from 16 to 10 since the Blagojeviches took office in 2002.

Bureau Chief Pat Guinane needn't worry about his job. Adam doesn't want to be a reporter. He wants to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Editors


Peggy Boyer Long can be reached at Peggyboy@aol.com.

Illinois Issues, June 2005

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