Goals

It Goes Without Saying... All Goals Should Serve The Needs and Interests of The Town and Its Citizens... In an Honorable and Just Way!

While My Primary Concern is The People in General... I am Especially Concerned with The Young and Elderly. For Both... We Need Activities and Interests and Challenges. For The Very Young and Very Old... We Need to Ensure and Provide for Their Security and Welfare.

We Will Take Care of Those...

Who Can't Take Care of Themselves.

No One... especially The Young and Old Should Ever Go Hungry in Our Town... or Suffer from Excess Heat or Cold. Safety for The Elderly Should Be a Major Project... especially during The Winter Months. Too many Fires are Started and Lives Lost from Faulty Wiring or Space Heaters. We Need to Ensure Our Fire Department is Equipped and Capable... and Is In Continual Training for Improvement.

Goals are "Targets" that You Shoot For. They are "Destinations of a Journey"...  so to speak. Sometimes they are General and Sometimes they are more Specific. Typically, a Well Rounded "Plan of Action" would include both. Not only Should We Describe The Intended "End Result"... but also "How" We are Going to Accomplish That End. That is Not Always Easy to Do... but Regardless, We Have to Have a "Tentative Plan"... that is Specific but Not too Rigid to Adapt Easily to Changing Situations and Goals Themselves.

So... in Making My "Goals" List... I am Expressing The More Abstract Nature of The General "Destinations" of The Journey. For Example... "Independence" is "What" We Want to Achieve... and The Following "Discussion" will Go Into More Detail as to How I Plan to Achieve It. And of Course... The "Projects" Section will Fill In many of The Gaps not covered in This Section.

While it is Important to Realize that Many of Our Problems as a City and Community are Specific to Cairo... The Solutions and Resolutions to Many of Those Problems are Not So Specific. For Instance... Economic Development Requires for Us to Look Beyond Cairo's Borders. Sure... there is a Lot that The Community and Business can Do to Promote and Stimulate Economic Growth... but there is So Much More We Can Do if We Think More "Globally"... or at Least in Terms of Our Immediate Area. Also, Industry is an Option... but It Itself is Very Limited. And... If We Go for The Industry "Quick Fix" without Taking into Consideration Tourism and Entertainment... then We May Just Be "Shooting Ourselves In The Foot" so to speak. We "Have" To Have Priorities... and Tourism and Entertainment "Has" to Be On The Top of The List!

Any Industry that Jeopardizes Tourism for Cairo and The Little Egypt Area... Is Not Good For Any of Us! To Obstruct The Future of Tourism for Little Egypt... is to Kill The Future of Cairo! It Is Really That Simple!

That Is Not to Say That "Industry" is In Itself Bad. Tourism Itself is an Industry! And Many Industries can Be a Primer and Catalyst for The Growth of Tourism and Entertainment in Cairo and The Little Egypt Area. We Cannot Though... Let Industry that Would Scar The Landscape and Pollute In "Any Way" The Air, Land, and Water to Even "Think" of Coming to Significant Tourist Areas of Little Egypt and Southernmost Illinois (Including Carbondale). The Loss of Tourist Revenue that Will Grow from Year to Year... will Hardly Justify The Wages and Revenue from a Few Jobs from Industry. Plus... when You Consider The Loss of Revenue and Resources "From" The Area "To" Somewhere Else... even The Consideration of Turning to Negative and Destructive Industry is a Fool's Game.

With a Proper Setting and Perspective... Many of The Major Goals I have Set can Be Realized. Of Those... Independence and Self Expressions are of Primary Importance. People Expressing Themselves and Being Actively Involved in Personal and Family and Social Endeavors is What Gives Meaning and Excitement to Life. We are Like a City that is "Waiting... and Waiting... and Waiting". What Are We Waiting For??? Why Are We Waiting... When We Can Make Whatever Needs to Happen... Happen. And Even If We Can't Make It Happen Overnight... We Can Damn Well Get The Ball Rolling in The Right Direction...

First... The People Have to Take The City Back! And Keep It! And Dedicate Themselves to Making It Work with Integrity and Purpose! It Can Be Done... With Or Without City Hall! But... It Can Be Done a Lot Easier with a City Government Composed of Individuals Who Perceive Themselves as True Public Servants... and are Going to Dedicate Themselves to Work "Just As Hard" as The People They Represent. That Has Not Been The Case in Cairo's Infamous History... albeit there has been Some Spotty Progress along The Way. Credit Should Be Given Where Credit Is Due... but Overall and In The Critical Areas... Cairo City Government and many of its Institutions Has Failed It's People Significantly. Placing "Blame" Will Not Help Our Situation. But... Learning from Our Mistakes Will. Yesterday is Gone. Tomorrow Can Be a Dream Beyond Our Wildest Imagination! Today is All We Have to Work With. It Is What We Do with The Present that Matters!

Help Me to Work with Today to Make Tomorrow a Better Future.

Keep Your Eye on The Star...

Thanks for Your Time and Interest...

As Mayor...

I Will Work for a Better Cairo... Today and In The Future. What is The Point of "Cleaning Up Cairo"... If We Can't "Keep It Clean". That Goes Not Only for Individuals without Integrity Who Have Been Using and Abusing The System and Community... but also for Organizations and Business with The Intent of Exploiting Our Natural Resources for Negative Gain. Especially... I Will Work to Keep Out Industry that Pollutes The Environment and Is a Threat to The Tourism & Entertainment Future of Cairo and Little Egypt.

Thanks for Your Support & Vote!

Lonnie J. Burris

Candidate for Mayor

The City of Cairo, Illinois