Post Campaign 2007 
 

Looking Back at The 2007 Election "In Hindsight"... I Have to Say that It was a Very Interesting and Educational Experience for Me. I Learned a Lot About Politics in General and a Little More About "People In General". Specifically, I Learned a Lot More About Cairo... and It's People... and Their Attitudes and Expectations.

It Was Unfortunate that I Didn't "Win"... but Then Again... I Didn't Expect to. My Primary Goal Was Not to "Run to Win"... but to "Run to Address Issues"... and to Make All of The Candidates More Responsible to The Public and The Political Process. In That Respect... I Won.

It Was "More Unfortunate" that Cairo Didn't "Win" Either. While there were Many "Honest and Competent" Candidates for City Council... None of The "Best" Ones Were Elected. By "Best" I Mean "Have The Will and Capacity to Effect Positive Progressive Change". In an Honest and Legal Election... I Think They Would Have Been Elected. And while a Few "Basically Honest" People were Elected... They Lack The Competence, Vision and Courage to Be Effective Leaders of The Cairo Community.

While It Is Vitally Important for Cairo to "Stay Positive" and Try to "Believe" in Our Elected Officials and Our "Hopes for The Future"... It Is Critical That We Stay Focused and Alert. And It Is Important That We Continue to Emphasize "Accountability and Disclosure" in All City Activities.

Also... It Is Important for The People of Cairo and Little Egypt to Realize that "Political Corruption" is Still Very Ingrained in Area Politics. I Barely Made a "Dent" in It. But... I Tried... and That Makes Me a Winner. If We All Would Just "Try a Little"... to Become More Aware of Corruption and Expose It and End It... Then We All Would Be Winners and Not "Victims" of The Manipulative Corrupt and Self Serving.

The "Problems" of Political Corruption and Integrity in The Voting Process is a National One... Effecting Everyone and Every Local Community. It Goes from Simply "Buying Votes" to Manipulating Voters to Manipulating Voting Records to Tampering with Voting Machines (just to name a few). The Results Can Be Devastating to Democracy... and In Many Cases Can "Tip" an Election. That's The Point! Especially, in Town's with a Small Population (like Cairo)... It Doesn't Take Much "Voter Manipulation" to Throw an Election. Sometimes, a Corrupt Candidate (and/or Their Sympathizers) Can "Buy" an Election for Less Than a Few Hundred Dollars.

Cairo Politics has Been Historically Guilty of Vote Buying and Voter Fraud. It Continues to Be to This Day. In My Estimation... There Were at Least 2 Members of The Current City Council (2007 Election) Who Were Primarily Elected as a Result of Vote Buying and Voter Fraud. And They're "Not The Good Guys". Since I Cannot "Prove" It... I'm Not Going to Mention Names. But... They Know Who They Are. Most of The People "In The Know" at Cairo Know Also.

Hopefully, This is All Changing to Some Degree. Cairo "Evolved" to a State of Corruption from Indifference and Apathy Over Many Years... and Will Only Be Ended by a Concerted Effort by People Willing to Literally "Guard" The Voting Process and Actively Seek Prosecution for Offenders of The Political System. "Prosecution" Has Always Been a Problem... and Is Still a Major One Today! They Are Involved!

Also, Vitally Important is "Record Keeping"... and People of Integrity "In The System". Only by Replacing The "Fox" with Honest "Roosters" (Metaphorically Speaking) Can We Make the "Hen House" Safe from Vermin. Previously, We Have Had "The Fox Guarding The Hen House". Not Too Smart...

On a Grander Scale... We Have Corporate Corruption on the National Level... which Seeps Down through Every Crevice of Our Political System. It Has "Always" Been a Cancer Eating Away at Our Society and National Integrity... but the Last few Decades has Seen an Explosion of Corruption in Congress and State Government... in Relation to Corporate Special Interests. Obviously, the Oil Industry is in The "Top Ten"... along with The Pharmaceutical, Mining, and Logging Industries. But, as Eisenhower Warned Us Many Years Ago... It Would Be The "Military-Industrial Complex" That Would Bring Us Down. He Was Absolutely Right... and Corrupt Politicians in Cahoots with the Military-Industrial Complex... may Well Usher in The Eventual Death of Our Economic System... and Nation as a Whole.
 

Hint: End The Stupid "Oil Based" Corporate Serving War!
 

One of The Reasons I Became Involved in "Local Politics"... and Ran for Mayor... Was to Effect "National Politics" on a Local Level. While It Is Hard to "Effect Change" in a Well Entrenched Corrupt Congress... We Have at Least a Hope of Effecting Progressive Change on a City and County and Area Level. That is Why I Tried to Bring All of Little Egypt into My Campaign... and Emphasized The Need for All of The Towns of Little Egypt to "Work Together" in Mutual Cooperation... both Individually and Collectively... for Everyone's Benefit. Cairo Needs Little Egypt... and Little Egypt Needs Cairo. Corruption in State Politics has Historically Served Mainly Cook County... throwing Southern Illinois a "Few Crumbs" here and There. Individually, as Townships "Divided"... There is Little We Can Do. But as Towns and Communities and Citizens "United"... We Can Make a Difference. Politicians Only Understand Basically One Thing: "Voter Power". Little Egypt... As a United Area can "Put People in Office" or can "Take Them Out". The Chicago Area has Hogged The Gravy for Way too Long. It's Time for Southern Illinois to Be Recognized and Revitalized. It's Time for Our Politicians to Start Serving Us More Effectively... and Stop "Playing Both Sides". And It's Time for Our Institutions to "Grow Up"!

It's Also Time for Many of the Smaller Southern Illinois Towns to Start "Helping Themselves". Cairo Especially! In Many Ways, We have "Gotten What We Deserve"... Wearing Our Apathy and Myopic Vision like Its Something to Be Proud Of. We Have Set Back... and Done Nothing... Assuming That "Someone" Would "Take Care of Us and Our Interests". Well... That's Not How It Works! Our Responsibilities Do Not "End" at The Polls... They Only "Begin". Some Politicians are Worthy of The Position They Serve The People Through... but Very Few! Most are Simply "Self Serving" Opportunists... but Some are Wolves in Sheep's Clothing... Serving The Corporate Hand that Feeds Their Campaign. Getting "Elected" and "ReElected" is What It Is All About... No Matter What. "We" are Only a "Means to an End"... and We Usually Gobble Down the Crap They Feed Us like Naive Fools. And It Seems the More We Are Betrayed... the More Desperate We Are to "Believe"... or at Least Have "Something to Believe In". And "That" both Bothers Me and Makes Me Angry. It Should You To!

The Nation is Starting to "Wake Up" Though... and Become More Actively Involved in National and Local Politics. The Arrogance and Over Confidence of Many Corrupt Politicians... Who Overestimated Their "Power"... has Become Their Undoing. They are Getting "Blind Sided" by Voters Who have "Gotten a Clue" as to Their Game... and Been Defeated by Incumbents They Didn't Think "Had a Chance". The Corporate Controlled Media is Being Circumvented by a Still Open and Free Internet... Becoming Flooded by People Wanting to Know The Truth... and Demanding Integrity and Responsibility from Our Public Servants. Corrupt Legislation and "Pork" is Becoming Increasingly Harder to "Slide Through" Congress... with Citizen Hawks Watching Their Every Move... and Reporting to The People on an Hour by Hour Basis. Finally, There is "No Where to Hide"... and The "Secrecy" that is So Needed by The Political and Corporate Corrupt... is Day by Day Disappearing... Making Their "Game" Harder and Harder to Play Out as It So Easily Did in The Past.

They Are Getting Desperate... and It Shows. The War Mongers and Corporate Whores Are "Running Out of Time"... and Are Trying to Push Through Measures Under the Public's Radar on a Daily Basis. And Many "Bought In" Politicians Are Actively or Passively Helping Them. They Are Going for "All or Nothing"... and The Lengths of Depravity They Will Go to Is Incredible. We Had Our Chance to "Impeach" both Bush and Cheney and Their Regime... and We Have Probably Wasted It! Too Bad... That So Many Basically "Right Thinking" Politicians... are Screwing This Up! So Many Conscientious Americans Have "Told You So". Are You Confused... or Perhaps a Little "Sold Out" Too! Where Is Your Allegiance?

Yes, We Are Entering a "New Era" of Politics. And While Most of The Political Dinosaurs of Yesterday are too Confident and Stupid to Figure It Out... The Younger and More Publicly Engaging Politicians Are Well Aware of The New Playing Field. Some "Not So Honorable" Politicians Will Learn to Play a Little More Clever... but None of Them Will Be Able to Con Us to The Extent They Have in The Past. Just The Reality of This Situation... Will Help The Public "Keep Them Straight". Just the Fact That They Know That "Historically"... Their Acts Will Become "Public Record"... Will Detour the More Cowardly and Weak Willed Users from Exploiting Their Communities... and Betraying The Public Trust.

My Campaign Slogan was "Make Injustice Visible"... and I Constantly and Continuously Emphasized "Accountability and Public Disclosure". I have been Pushing for a City/County/Area Website for Years. And I Have Gotten "Little to No" Interest and Response from Our Current Politicians. There is a Reason for That! They "Don't Want to Be Accountable to The Public"... and "They Don't Want to Have to Disclose Their Political Activity to Anyone". Especially, They Don't Want to Be "Publicly Visible"... to Literally The Whole World!!! They Wouldn't Be Able to Get Away with Hardly Anything. Even "Kick Backs" Would Be Hard to "Pull Off" with a Bunch of Smart Pubic Hawks Constantly Putting "2 and 2" Together... and Asking Question and Initiating "Probes" into Suspicious Activity and Behavior.

Let Me Make It Emphatically Clear: An Honest and Professional Politician "Wants" Their Administration Open to The Public. They Want Everyone to Know What They Are Doing. Indeed, They are "Proud" of It. To Put It Simply... Those Who "ARE NOT FOR" a City/County/Area Web Site (with a Means of Accountability Built In)... Probably Have Something to Hide... or Are So Incompetent That They Don't Want The Public to Know They are Buffoons! Regardless, Public Officials Who Support and Promote "Unaccountability and Undisclosure" Should Be Ushered Out of Office as Rapidly as Possible. They ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS... and They WILL NOT SERVE YOUR POLITICAL INTERESTS! Period!

How Can You Make for Better Politics and Politicians? Become Involved. Start Networking. Start Supporting a Web Site That Serves The Public Interest. Demand Accountability and Public Disclosure from Your Government Offices and Officials. Promote Legislation that Serve These Purposes. Make Sure Politicians "Keep Their Campaign Promises". Support and Encourage "Good" Public Servants... and Make Public the Behavior of "Bad" (Corrupt or Incompetent) People in Office. Publicly Embarrass The Hell Out of Them. Make It Obvious That "History" Will Keep a Record of Their Discrepancies.

Another Important Thing that Voters Can Do... Is to Realize That a Politician "Telling You What You Want to Hear"... is Probably Either "Lying" or "Incompetent". Of Course, We All Want to Believe that Some Things are True... and We Let "Wishful Thinking" Influence Our Perspective. Sometimes Politicians are Just as Gullible and Naive as The Public They Are Courting for Their Vote.

Like I Said... I Didn't Expect to Win. But... I Was Disappointed in The Amount of Votes I Did Get. And I Knew that My "Campaign Platform" Would Cause Me to Lose a Lot of Votes.

I Did Not Support The "Grain Ethanol" Plant... and I Emphatically Opposed The "Coal Gasification Plant". I Had My Reasons... and They Were Well Founded Ones.

In Retrospect, We Now Know that Grain Ethanol is Not a Sustainable Technology... and Has Detrimental Effects on World Food Supply and Irresponsibly Contributes to Deforestation, Ground Erosion and Chemical Pollution. Congress has "Pulled Much Support" for This "Major Program" That Was Enthusiastically Backed by Congress just Years Earlier. The Public Was "Getting Wise" a Little Too Fast... and Their Political Careers Was More Important than Catering to The Agricultural Industry. 

We Now Know that "Coal Gasification" is Not the "Non-Polluting" Industry that It Has Claimed to Be. We Know that There is No Such Thing as "Clean Coal". And We Know that There are Many Cases of Cancer Associated with Coal Gasification Plants. Plus, They Stink!

Most Importantly, It Is Not Wise (Nor Advisable by Experts) to Put a Coal Gasification Plant Close to a "Geological Fault Line". The Sequestering of CO2 is a Questionably Secure Technology in and of Itself... but an Earthquake of any Magnitude which Would Cause a Ground Shift... Would "Rupture" the Reservoir and Release Its Contents (Probably Millions of Cubic Feet of CO2) in The Surrounding Area... Either Killing or Seriously Injuring Everyone in a 10 Mile Radius. Who Knows How Far the Gas Would Travel... or The Extent of Injury. Why Would Any Sane Community Take That Chance??? Why Would Any "Informed and Responsible" Politician Support It? They Wouldn't!

The Good News... is The Coal Gasification Plant is "Not Going to Happen"! Some More Good News Is... We Weren't Scammed Out of Our Airport! We Usually Bite... Hook Line and Sinker! And... While the Citizens of Cairo Didn't Have the Foresight to Save Itself Again... Fate Somehow Played the Right Cards and We Come Out Smelling Like a Rose (more or less)... At Least "This Time"!  But Just Think About How Much Time, Energy and Money We Wasted on These Fiascos???

The Bottom Line... Is Cairo and Alexander County Are Desperate for Progressive Business and Jobs. And I'm Actually "For" Industry that Would Help Agriculture in The Area and Create Jobs... Along with Other Positive Progressive Industry. But Citizens Need to Realize that All Industry "Foremost" Serves Itself... and Not Necessarily The Public Interest. Ideally, We Find Ways to Promote Programs that "Both" Serve The Industry "and" The People "At The Same Time". But I Have Little Time and Patience for Self Serving and Predatory Industry... and I Hope You Do To!

My Campaign Was About Promoting "Tourism and Historic Preservation". Also... I Strongly Promoted "Renewable Energy"... and Introduced Ideas and Plans that Would Not Only Move Us "In That Direction"... but Create Business and Jobs in Cairo and Alexander County. The Government is Rapidly Moving to Enacting Legislation Supporting Renewal Energy... and also Funding is In The Works for Jobs in The Field of Solar and Wind Energy. And Where Are We???

For Those Who Are "Paying Attention"... I Was The Only Candidate with a Responsible and Viable Platform. I Was The Only Candidate Who Told The Voters What They "Needed" to Hear... Not What They "Wanted" to Hear. I Was Right About Grain Ethanol! I Was Right About The Coal Gasification Plant! I Was Right About Moving Us Toward Renewable Energy. I Was Right About Promoting and Supporting Tourism and Associated Industries within Little Egypt. And I Am Right About Supporting "Sustainable Agriculture".

And... I'm Right About Keeping Our Airport. We Need to Give It a Good "Kick In The butt"... but We Don't Need to Lose It. It's More of an Asset than a Liability. We Need to Work on The "Asset" Part Though! It Needs to Expand Its Service to Better "Serve" The Area... Rather Than a Few Individuals Who Are at Least "Using It".

At This Time... I Plan on Running for Mayor in 2011. And I Plan on Continuing Telling The People of Cairo and Alexander County and "Little Egypt"... What They Might Not Particularly Want to Hear... but Need To!

You Might Want to Seriously Consider "Not Voting for Me"... Again. Why Change What Doesn't Work? And Why Not Just Keep The Corrupt and/or Incompetent in Office? It's Worked "So Well" for Us in The Past. Why Change Things???

In The Meantime... Check Out My "People for Little Egypt" Web Site: http://People4LE.Net. As Usual... No One is Jumping on My Bandwagon. I Expect That from Politicians and Our Primarily Conservative and Historically Bogged Down Institutions. Actually, I Expect It from The Mostly Complacent and Indoctrinated Public. But... for You Independent and Individualistic "Thinkers" and "Believers" Out There... Here's Your Chance to Stand Up and "Say Something" Relevant and Meaningful... and Get Involved!

OK... I Guess That is a Rather Scary Thing to Do. But... at Least Read Some of The Many "Alternative News" Postings I Make Frequently. Who Knows... You Might Just Find Yourself Becoming an "Activist of Sorts" in Your Own Right... or Even an Earth Shaker!!! Or... Perhaps "Just Better Informed"!  :)

Overall... Just Try to Keep It Real!

Best of Life, Love and Friendship,

And...  Best of Freedom & Democracy,

Lonnie J. Burris
Past & Future Political Candidate
City of Cairo, Illinois