Michael Eric Dyson, the purveyor of “Niggerdom” to speak at MLK Luncheon

The Public Employees for Community Concerns’ annual MLK Luncheon usually comes and goes before most people know it happened. However, this year, the logistics of putting on the luncheon is turning out to be quite the spectacle. Who knew that when Forest Whittaker pulled out, that things would get so interesting?

About five days ago, a group known as the Colored Ladies Book Club began a rather commendable war of words against Whitaker’s replacement speaker, Tavis Smiley and threatened to boycott the luncheon. While being careful to not offend the group that hired Tavis for the MLK Luncheon, the Ladies kept the lines of communication open, but continued to move forward with an editorial in the local newspaper entitled “Tavis Smiley does not speak for the black community”.

The Ladies of the book club hold a high level of gravitas and is inclusive of Illinois Appellate Court Judge Mary McDade, Barbara Penelton, a retired professor of education at Bradley University and Ernestine Jackson, wife of the President of the Illinois NAACP; along with Kathryn Timmes, Valerie Timmes, Gloria Campbell, Jeanne St. Julian and Joan Wesley.

I know some of us are surprised that in 2012 a group of ladies are good with referring to themselves as “colored”. For most of us, the term is considered outdated and not very p.c. But it’s kind of hard to totally denounce it when the word “colored” happens to be the “C” in the acronym NAACP. Black folks of a certain age don’t consider it derogatory, so they use it.

If you read this blog, you know I don’t like Tavis and I too thought he was a rather provocative speaker to bring to the luncheon. However, this close to MLK Day, there are not a whole lot of speakers out there, so of course Tavis was available to speak on MLK Day when Whitaker dropped out.

Today, reports are that Tavis has now been replaced with a new speaker, Michael Eric Dyson. I’m curious though, did the Ladies approve this choice? Michael Eric Dyson is slick in how he has managed to play both sides, but most of are not fooled and know he is just as messy as Tavis. After all, he was/is the third part of the cross country Tavis Smiley and Cornell West: Barack Obama Haterade Bus Tour:

It is commendable that the Public Employees for Community Concerns want to accommodate and not offend some of their most distinguished benefactors, but boy did they open a can of worms on this one.

SMDH...

... wow. A convicted felon can get a FOID card, but he can't run for school board - how does that work?

Today in Judge Shore's courtroom, General Parker set out to fight for his right to run for the school board. Parker argued that he felt the State's Attorney brought this action to "intimidate, harass and cause him personal hardship".

Today the State's Attorney went to work on behalf of the people. It took two (2) judges; in two (2) courtrooms; and a two (2) hour trial to stop General Parker from "doing harm to the public by allowing them to vote for a person who can't hold office".

William Atkins, Lyons' chief Assistant State's Attorney, wanted it to be clear that the motivation of the State does not matter and for Parker to "claim other motivation muddies the issue". Atkins went on to say that the State's motivation is irrelevant and they have prosecutorial discretion. He told the judge they sought this action against Parker "on behalf of the public" - "nobody came forward to object, the State's Attorney had to do the right thing".

Several Parker supporters who were in the courtroom encouraged him to appeal. On appeal, Parker's case would go before the Third Distirct Appellate Court. Third District - isn't that where the Honorable Judge Mary McDade sits? It'll be interesting to see what she thinks about the lower Court's decision.

Good showing locally by African-American Women in November 2 election

Jehan Gordon Illinois House 92nd District
Incumbent state Rep. Jehan Gordon, D-Peoria, easily won re-election Tuesday for a second two-year term to the 92nd Illinois House District seat. The 29-year-old Ms. Gordon, won by beating out Republican Peoria City Councilman Jim Montelongo. Final Numbers: Gordon 62% - Montelongo 38%

Ms. Gordon was the first black woman to win the 92nd District when she was first elected in 2008; and the second woman to represent a district that includes the southern two-thirds of the city of Peoria, including Downtown, West Peoria, Peoria Heights, Kickapoo and portions of Bartonville and Limestone Township. Source




Mary McDade 3rd District Appellate Court Justice retained her seat. She was less than popular because of her decision and consequential defense of reducing the prison sentence of Dione Alexander (a/k/a “the Woodruff High School shooter”) from 24 to the minimum six years. Final numbers: 26,174 Yes - 11,186 No.

Judge McDade, the first African-American to hold public office in the ever progressive Peoria, was elected to the District 150 BOE in 1968 and served a five-year term that ended in 1973. She was president of the board in 1972-73. During that time she was part of the effort to desegregate the schools, to increase the number of minority teachers, and to include multicultural textbooks, and she personally worked diligently to try to stem the tide of what she considered “exponentially-increasing expulsions”.

She is also a co-founder of the Human Service Center; and was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Peoria Public Library where she served three years. Source

County Board District: 3 Lynn Scott Pierson, Democrat. Twenty-four year incumbent Lynn Scott Pearson, 68, of Peoria was challenged by Republican Karrie Alms, 51, of Peoria. Final numbers: Pierson 783 - Alms 319.

Mrs. Pearson, a retiree of Caterpillar, Inc., has an extensive background of community service. She has served as President of the Board of Directors for Friendship House and Chairperson of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission. She has also served as a member of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program Advisory Council and the Peoria County Democratic Women Committee. District 3 is all in the city of Peoria and includes Downtown and northeast along the river, with boundaries of Knoxville, Nebraska and Glen Oak Park. Source


County Board District 1: Bonnie Hester, Democrat. Mrs. Hester ran uncontested and has spent 35 years in the public sector: 25 for the Peoria City/County Health Department and most recently as Program Assistant for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

Before her retirement from the Health Department, Mrs. Hester served on the Health Care Committee for Peoria County Employees and as president of local union AFSCME #3665. She was president for 14 years. District 1 boundaries: Rt. 116 in City of Peoria south and city and township limits. Source

County Board District 5: Rachael Parker, Democrat. Mrs. Parker ran uncontested and is currently employed by the City of Peoria as a Development Specialist in the Department of Economic Development.

Mrs. Parker was elected to the District 150 BOE in April, 2007, to serve District 2. She is also a small business owner with two home based businesses. She will be required to forfeit her seat on the BOE in order to serve on the County Board. Source

Honorable mention:
Recorder of Deeds: Evonne Fleming, Democrat.

Evonne Fleming has worked in the Recorder's Office for 21 years. She ran on the platform of improving the indexing system to be more user-friendly, protect historic information and increase office morale. Final Numbers: 20,585 Fleming - 29,337 Horton.

Unfortunately for Ms. Fleming, we Peorians are notorious for our belief that family members should inherit elected positions, which makes it no surprise that Fleming would loose to Republican Nancy Horton, who was appointed to the post in March, after the Jan. 29 death of her husband, former Recorder Brad Horton.
Source

Will there be other videos of this type this election season?

Out of all of the elected officials who need to be removed from office come November, only the Honorable Judge Mary McDade has garnered her own little kick her behind out of office election video. Why do you think that is?

Who you calling black?

In an editorial in today's pjstar Mayor Ardis asked that citizens "remember this outrageous decision" (referring to a decision made by Appellate Court Judges Mary McDade and Mary O'Brien) when they come up for election and retention. Really?

If only it had been implored upon citizens by some high level official to apply the same practice to Mayor Ardis when he was up for re-election.

We bloggers complain about how deals are made and how the City is run and there is a great deal of validity in those complaints (see today's Peoria AntiPundit post entitled "Where's our head.." for a fairly thorough list). However...

Unfortunately the Mayor was under no pressure to do better when he was up for re-election. Therefore, the Mayor didn't promise Peorians a city free of crime, or any of the other things that we expect (i.e., a Mayor and Council that care about all of Peoria), he didn't have to.