PeoriaStory

Veterans Day ceremony

PEORIA -- A tribute to Naval Commander Frank W. "Spig" Wead highlights the annual Veteran's Day ceremony at Springdale Cemetery this year. It takes place at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 11.

The event, sponsored by the Soldier Hill Volunteers, features Springdale historian Linda Aylward in a tribute to Commander Wead, a pioneer naval aviator who became an honored screenwriter. He is buried at historic Springdale Cemetery, 3014 N. Prospect.

Weed was born in 1895, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1917, and after World War I helped promote naval aviation. In 1926 he was paralyzed from a fall down stairs, and began writing while convalescing.

He then collaborated with director John Ford on many films, and received two Academy Award nominations in 1938, for Best Original Story for Test Pilot and for Best Screenplay for The Citadel.

The well known film Wings of Eagles was based on Wead's life.

He returned to the Navy during World War II, where he helped integrate the use of escort carriers to support the main battle line and beach landings. He died in 1947.

Springdale Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and contains burial sites for veterans from all US wars including the Revolution, state and local political and civic leaders and other notables.

Anti-war actions

PEORIA -- Big national and regional demonstrations are scheduled for Sat., Oct. 27 against the Iraq war and for peace.

There's one in Chicago.

If that's too far to drive, there are the weekly Saturday demonstrations by the Peoria Area Peace Network, at noon at University and Main. A similar protest always takes place in Macomb, across from the train station.

This would be a good time to join these dedicated activists.

Check out the website for more information on the national and regional activities.

Environmental film festival

PEORIA -- The Apollo Theatre, 311 Main, will be the setting for the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Nov. 2-3. Sponsors are Pantagonia, the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club and Firefly Energy, Inc.

The presentations are:

Friday, November 2nd, 7 p.m: America’s Lost Landscape: Tallgrass Prairie. One of the major landscape features of North America was 240 million acres of tallgrass prairie. Between 1830 and 1900 the prairie was steadily transformed to farmland creating an enormous social change for Native Americans. This is a powerful viewing experience about the natural and cultural history of America.

According to a news release, "The extraordinary cinematography of prairie remnants, original score and archival images are all delicately interwoven to create a powerful and moving viewing experience about the natural and cultural history of America. Numerous awards including Best Environmental Film, Wine Country Film Festival; Best of Fest, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival, CINE Golden Eagle Award. (US, 2005, Documentary, 60 minutes." Associated website at www.newlightmedia.tv

Saturday, November 3rd 2 p.m: Birdsong & Coffee: A Wake Up Call. Discover the natural organic connection between coffee farmers, coffee drinkers and birds.

This award winning film shows how coffee drinkers hold in their hands the fate of farm families, farming communities, and entire ecosystems in coffee-growing regions. It presents experts and students, coffee lovers and bird lovers, and the coffee farmers themselves. It won the Cine Golden Eagle Award 2006 (US, 2006, Documentary, 56 minutes). Associated websites: www.communityagroecology.net and www.olddogdocumentaries.com

Saturday, November 3rd, 7 p.m: Who Killed the Electric Car? This is a murder mystery like no other featuring GM’s electric car. Unravel the puzzling demise of a vehicle that could have saved the environment and America’s dangerous addiction to foreign oil. It will make your blood boil!

Tickets are $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for children under 12.

For more information, call the HOI Sierra Club at (309) 637-1393 or visit www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org.

Good news, bad news from local officials

PEORIA -- First the troubling news: local governments in Peoria are straining to keep up with increased services required by urban sprawl without a population increase. Meanwhile, the Peoria School District 150 is experiencing declining enrollment and too many schools failing to meet state standards, members of the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria heard at a meeting Saturday on local government issues.

The good news: contrary to public perceptions, these local government officials work together for the public and are not quarreling.

The League heard Merle Widmer, vice chairman of the Peoria County Board; Bill Spears of the Peoria City Council; Tim Cassidy president of the Peoria Park District Board and Martha Ross, vice president of the Peoria District 150 School Board discuss local issues.

“You need not agree on certain issues (to) continue to work together,” Cassidy said.

“We may disagree on issues but that is democracy,” Widmer said.

Widmer said the county’s budget is balanced, and the tax rate likely will drop though an expected 6 percent increase in assessed valuation will bring in additional tax revenue next year. The county expects to hire from 14 to 18 more employees, including more sheriff’s deputies, he said. “There’s more area (to cover) and a stable population,” he said.

Bel-Wood Nursing Home remains a trouble spot, he said. The building needs $13 million in renovation, or replacement at $23 million. Instead of a waiting list, it has vacancies. Its budget is $1.6 million in the red.

Cassidy said an Illinois River Bluff Trail at Detweiller Park will soon be completed, and 27 acres of bluff land south of Singing Woods soon will be added to the park district’s nature preserves. That cost, about $1.2 million, will be covered by grants and donations, he said.

“The challenge is keeping up with new growth in Peoria,” he said. The district works with developers and city officials to set up parks and trails in new subdivisions.

Springdale Cemetery, run jointly by the park district, city and county through an appointed board, may need better professional management to become self supporting, Cassidy said. “I think it has to be controlled by the city manager,” he said, with Spears adding his agreement to this idea.

Ross said the district’s enrollment, once 30,000 students, has dropped by nearly 2,000 students in the last decade, and now is about 14,700 students.. “We have to do something,” she said.

Sixteen schools last year made adequate yearly progress (AYP) as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act. But 14 failed to meet the standards, she said. The district is looking at ways to improve, and could entertain flexible schedules and other innovations that have worked elsewhere, she said.

Spears outlined the projects of individual city council members. “We do fight to get what we want. It doesn’t mean we’re not getting along,” he said.

-- Elaine Hopkins

9/11 speakers

PEORIA -- two activists who want the 9/11 events re-investigated will speak at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20 at the Peoria Public Library, 107 NE Monroe, in the basement auditorium.

They are Kevin Ryan and Kevin Barrett, Ph.D.

Ryan, a certified quality engineer and chemist who has questioned the official reports concerning the collapse of the three World Trade Center buildings on 9/11. He will discuss the evidence of controlled demolition in the towers and WTC Building No. 7, which collapsed even though it was not hit with a plane.

Barrett is a Professor of Islamic studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and founder of MUJCA, the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for Truth about 9/11.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by 9/11 Truth, Illinois. For more info, call (309) 693-1693.

Peoria activist wins ACLU award

CHICAGO – Peoria activist Dave Weiman, a former leader of the ACLU of Illinois Peoria Chapter, will receive the 2007 Annetta Dieckmann Award for volunteer activism by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

The award is presented each year to an individual who has worked tirelessly to advance the goals of the ACLU, the nation’s largest and most active civil rights and civil liberties organization. Weiman will receive the award during a presentation ceremony as part of the 2007 ACLU of Illinois Bill of Rights Celebration, to be held in Chicago on October 20, 2007.

“We are honored to recognize Dave’s hard work, his tireless commitment to constitutional values and his personal courage,” said Colleen K. Connell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois in announcing the award.

“Time and again, Dave has been a leader – from working diligently to protect lesbian, gay, transgender and questioning students in our public schools to speaking out against the abuses of the Bush Administration. Dave is courageous and fearless in speaking out about the critically important constitutional issues.”

Weiman organized the Peoria-based Heartland Safe School Initiative. HSSI is committed to ensuring that lesbian, gay, transgender and questioning students are protected in public schools.

He worked with individuals and organizations across the Peoria area to draw attention to this crucial problem and develop new ways to bring tolerance and understanding into public schools.

In January 2007 an audience of more than 200 Peoria-area residents turned out on a cold night to hear a panel of youth and experts speak about the problem of bullying in public schools and discuss solutions for moving forward. As a result of the program, at least a half dozen Peoria-area public schools and youth serving agencies have launched new training programs for staff and administrators.

-- From an ACLU news release.

Blogger blues

PEORIA -- Two prominent Peoria bloggers have expressed frustration with the time and commitment that blogging demands.

From Bill Dennis of Peoria Pundits: "Count me along those bloggers who need a 36-hour-day to fit all the blogging they want to do into a schedule that has to include work, sleep, food and at least some social interaction with friends and family."

From C. J. Summers of The Peoria Chronicle: "I’ve been noticing lately that Billy Dennis has really stepped up his citizen journalism. He’s always been the “blogfather,” of course, but I’ve noticed an increase in his first-hand reporting lately. He’s doing an especially good job of covering the 18th congressional district race.

"I frankly can’t keep up with him anymore. If he keeps this up, I may give up my blog and just occasionally post guest commentary on his site."

Duh -- blogging can be work.

It's journalism when done right. That means covering events, interviewing people, finding information. That can be fun, but it's also work, and few people can afford to pursue full time work without a paycheck attached.

Even if a blogger/journalist doesn't need a paycheck to survive, other interesting events intervene: vacations, entertainment, family obligations. Soon it's tempting to say 'to heck with that meeting, that issue. Who cares anyway!'

That said, let's hope Bill Dennis and C. J. Summers don't become blogger dropouts. They perform very valuable services to the community, digging out information and presenting opinions and analysis that the mainstream media may not have the resources to present.

Even when they are wrong, or wrong headed, the work of bloggers -- mostly volunteer apparently -- matters as much or more to the community than the activities many volunteers pursue, from organizing fund raisers and running interest groups to backing politicians.

Information and discussion fuels our democracy and keeps us relatively free in a world that wants to control everyone.

Keep on truckin'.

--Elaine Hopkins

David Sedaris: not funny

MACOMB -- David Sedaris, billed as “one of America’s preeminent humor writers,” winner of many awards, including Time magazine’s “Humorist of the Year in 2001,“ appeared in a 90-minute gig at Western Illinois University on Oct. 17.

But he wasn’t very funny.

As a comic performer, Sedaris rates about a C minus on the A to F scale.

Fans of National Public Radio know his distinctive voice and side splitting radio essays, especially the ones that made him famous, such as “SantaLand Diaries” on NPR’s Morning Edition.

But alas -- he’s no stand up comic, as his show at WIU proved.

He spent almost an hour reading from previously published essays in the New Yorker and other places. They were only mildly amusing and often boring.

For humor they rely too heavily on shock -- four letter words, comments about homosexuality (“which one’s the man?” -- Sedaris is openly gay) and slightly comic situations such as buying drugs from hillbillies in a trailer who call their TV remote “nigger,” because “it works for free.”

Not really funny, just kind of weird.

At that point in the show, a few older people in the audience headed for the door.

The show got better when Sedaris became slightly more spontaneous by reading from the diary he says he keeps daily.

Here‘s a likely entry from his trip to downstate Illinois: to reach Macomb he flew to Peoria, was picked up (he doesn’t drive, he said) and stopped for lunch at the Hog Trough in Hanna City. Where the pie was good, he said.

When question time finally arrived, someone asked him about writing, and he said he revises a piece at least seven times before showing it to an editor. He tries out new material on audiences, he said. “The first draft is joyous, the second one is math.”

Asked why he has quit smoking, since he once famously said he moved to France so he could smoke, he said he quit because “all the decent hotels went no smoking.“

Airline travel, also, has become too difficult for a smoker, he said. “I hate being this way, but I say ‘OK, you won,’ “ he proclaimed to the current non-smoking consensus.

Then in one of his few funny lines, which may have been spontaneous, he said: “Before quitting I recruited a 17-year-old girl to take my place. I don’t want to leave a hole in the smoking world.”

Sedaris said nothing remotely political. He’s no Jon Stewart, and no Garrison Keillor either.

Keillor’s humor always has an edge that, oddly, Sedaris lacks. Keillor also makes audiences laugh heartily at the human condition without using four letter words or insulting situations. He finds comedy and satire in the ordinary. What would Keillor have done with the Hog Trough material?

In short Sedaris was disappointing as a performer. He’s a writer whose work doesn’t translate into the kind of comic performance that audiences expect.

A book reading at Barnes & Noble? Perhaps. On a stage before an audience? No.

Sigh.

--Elaine Hopkins

COMMENTS:
I wasn’t at the David Sedaris event in Macomb, but I have seen him live twice – once in Springfield and once in Bloomington. I think he is hilarious and probably one of my favorite modern writers.

Sedaris’ writing is wonderful. From word choice to mellifluous turns of phrase, he captures the comedic and the insightful in nearly everything he does. I can pick up one of his essays I have read a dozen times and still find myself laughing out loud. I don’t find his humor to be based on shock value. He is straightforward and honest, and funny to the core.

As for his live readings, I find his unique voice and fabulous delivery make his readings a lot of fun. I have had the pleasure of meeting him, and he is delightful.

Again, I wasn’t in Macomb, and perhaps he had a bad night. But I would hope that your readers that are not familiar with his work would check out one his books and decide for themselves, and not just rely on your review. Or perhaps listen to one of his books on tape.

Also, having lived in Macomb for four years, I would advise anyone to not lend credence to the fact that some “older people headed for the door.” The senior citizen crowd in Macomb has walked out on world class artists playing music of Igor Stravinsky, poetry readings by Billy Collins, and art exhibits from people who have had solo shows at MOMA. I think in that regard, Mr. Sedaris should be happy to be included in that company.

Feel free to post this in your comments section.

Jonathan Ahl
News Director
WCBU - Peoria, IL
[email protected]
309-677-2773

The Chicago Tribune has an interesting interview with Sedaris in its Oct. 19 Tempo section.

Sheriffs and gumbo fundraiser

PEORIA HEIGHTS -- This looks like like fun for a good cause.

A fundraiser for the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria on Oct. 21 will feature two sheriffs, one from New Orleans, and New Orleans style food.

The event, which takes place from 4 - 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 21 at Paparazzi Restaurant, 4315 Voss Street, will ilnclude special guest Martin Gusman, sheriff of Orleans Parish as well as Peoria County sheriff Mike McCoy.

League member and chef Ron Budzinski, CEO of PSA Dewberry, recently spent five months in New Orleans helping with architectural aspects of the resconstruction. He brought back authentic Louisiana recipes.

The menu includes a three gumbo buffet, with two varieties of jambalaya, bread pudding and bourbon sauce, local New Orleans Turbo Dog Beer and Hurricane drinks.

The event costs $25 per person or $40 per couple, with 100 percent of the donation going to the League of Women Voters Education Fund.

Reservations are helpful but not necessary. Call 309/682-5205.

Kellar trail crisis

PEORIA -- The effort to convert the Kellar Branch rail line into a hike and bike trail is stalled again.

An editorial in the Peoria Journal Star tells all about the mess.

Read it and weep. Then contact Sen. Dick Durbin and beg for his help.

City of Peoria officials could use a few calls as well, as the city has dragged its feet on the conversion, while claiming the problems are not the city's fault. (Wonder why? Consider who the Pioneer Rail Corp owner Guy Brenkman is and look at his track record.... Just type his name into Google.)

Let's hope it doesn't extend to influencing Durbin.

--Elaine Hopkins

UPDATE, Oct. 17, 2007: The Kellar trail is truly a roller coaster. Last week it was going downhill. Now it's up again, after an Oct. 11 vote by the Peoria County Board to support the hike and bike trail.

Today a committee of the Illinois Department of Transportation approved $390,600 (70 % of the amount necessary) for the construction of a trail head in Peoria Heights for the trail.

It will be located near the former Cohen’s Warehouse or the Heights library. The site will have parking, restrooms, drinking water, information kiosk, tire inflator, emergency phone, pavilion, lighting, landscaping and picnic tables.

This is a breakthrough vote, and may be the first time this type of funding has ever been used for a trailhead.

But there's a catch. The Kellar Branch recreation trail through Peoria Heights must be in existence by January 1, 2010 or the money will be allocated for some other project, according to Recreation Trail Advocate president George Burrier, who furnished this report.

UPDATE, Oct. 22, 2007: The Oct. 17 vote, above, was a recommendation. A final vote by a committee takes place at the offices of the TriCounty Regional Planning Commission at 9 a.m. on Nov. 7. Ultimately federal funds will pay for the trailhead, according to Burrier.