"All politicians should have three hats--one to throw into the ring, one to talk through, and one to pull rabbits out of."-Carl SandburgAh, the wisdom of Carl Sandburg--one of America's most brilliant writers. Carl Sandburg's house in North Carolina is a beautiful national park site that pays tribute to the man, his family, and his legendary writing. He was a native of Galesburg, Illinois and thought so highly of his home state that he requested to have his ashes returned to his birthplace upon his death. So, Carl Sandburg's final resting place, in the shadow of his birthplace, became an Illinois State Historic Site. The ashes of Sandburg, his wife, and two of their daughters are buried underneath "Remembrance Rock" behind the cottage where he was born.
Unfortunately, unless Illinois' most notorious politician, Governor Blagojevich, pulls a big rabbit out of his hat before Sunday, November 30, 2008, at 5:00 p.m., Carl Sandburg's birthplace will CLOSE to the public along with a number of other sites. According to today's
State Journal-Register, the bill to restore state site funding is still "sitting untouched on the governor's desk." People here have given up hope that he will sign it. Carl Sandburg would not approve. But wait, the story gets more heart-wrenching. The current site manager at Carl Sandburg's birthplace who has worked there for 20+ years and put his whole heart into the site, who is also dying of kidney cancer and has a very ill wife, is getting laid-off on November 30. The thought makes one want to curl up and cry. The part that upsets this man the most is that he won't be passing the site off to anyone--it will just be CLOSED, and its future is more than uncertain. The current IHPA director has already said that she thinks the site is a waste of money and would like to get rid of it.
You know that a situation has gone to pot when, in one day, you see two grown adults cry about it. Today was another fun but heart-breaking day of traveling to historic sites, helping them pack up their things, and wishing them luck in the uncertain future. Linda and I left bright and early today for Bishop Hill, Illinois, which was a Swedish Utopian settlement started in 1846. The town is absolutely fascinating, and IHPA owns about half of the town's buildings--all of which will close on November 30. Bishop Hill's most famous resident was a painter named Olof Krans who painted some fabulous folk art scenes of the Midwest. IHPA owns 103 of his paintings, all of which have been on display in Bishop Hill but which will soon be locked up and covered with cotton sheets. Linda and I got to meet all of the Bishop Hill employees who are such sweet, wonderful people. The site manager there is the only one there not being laid-off--she's supposed to figure out how to maintain all of the buildings by herself--and when she was telling us about the other employees who are being laid-off, she started to cry. There is a delightful older man named Dan who has worked at the site for a number of years. When he found out that I was the person from the far away place of Orem, Utah, who had written the petition about the historic sites, he couldn't believe it. :-) He was so cute! He said, "Wow, the chances of me meeting you had to be one in ten thousand. That is very admirable that you would take the initiative to do that." The thing that makes me feel bad is that, for all intents and purposes, the petition hasn't fulfilled its purpose, and there's nothing I can do to help all of these nice people.
Most of the morning was spent taking artifacts off the walls, tables, etc., and putting them in more secure areas. Here's an action shot of Linda and me removing one of the many mirrors from the walls of a cool old hotel there in town. The neatest thing we did was build a gigantic triangular box out of two other boxes to accommodate a gigantic wall clock. As was the case at the Pierre Menard Home last week, the Bishop Hill people are packing everything up and hoping that no one breaks into the buildings.
After our busy morning, the dear Bishop Hill people wanted to go to lunch with us at an awesome local place called the Filling Station. I've been snapping some pictures for next spring's internship report I'll need to give to my professors and classmates, and Linda and I realized that we needed a picture in front of an eating establishment, since the best parts of our road trips have been lunch :-) The Filling Station was wonderful--I had a great hamburger.
After lunch we bid our goodbyes and headed south to Galesburg. We did a little Christmas shopping and got ice cream on our way to the Carl Sandburg Birthplace. Mom and I stopped at the Carl Sandburg site in May on our way home from school, but unfortunately we got there after 5:00, so we weren't able to see inside. So Linda wanted to make sure I got to see the Sandburg cottage and meet the site director. He is such a dear, sweet man, and I have been crying all evening as I've been thinking about him. He was the second person we saw cry today when he was talking to us about his wife. A layoff is the last thing he needs. He truly loves the Carl Sandburg site, and he's realized that the IHPA director (and the governor) don't care one whit about it. It truly is heartbreaking. I hope that someday Governor Blagojevich has to answer to Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, and a whole bunch of other people for his actions--or non-actions. I'm hoping that he'll have some kind of "Christmas Carol" experience before November 30 where he's visited by the spirits of all of the historical figures he's essentially tossed into the trash.
I can't even describe what a sad disaster this whole situation is. Like I said last week, it's more than just the history being pushed aside--it's people's
LIVES! The most upsetting thing is that things could be fixed--if Blago would sign the freaking bill--but he won't. Basically, everything can be explained by these words: those who WOULD do something to help fix things
can't, and those who COULD do something to fix things
won't. To again quote Carl Sandburg, "Life is like an onion: you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." Seeing this IHPA situation first-hand has definitely shown me the "onion" side of life--potent, bitter, and capable of making one cry. So I say, "When life gives you onions, let them rot for a while, take them to Chicago, and place them under Blago's pillow."
Seriously? Seriously. You won't believe this--but unfortunately it is true. Today Blago decided to sign the bill to reverse his budget cuts . . . EXCEPT for the part where the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency would get some money back. Seriously. It doesn't make any sense. He said that the decision to reject the proposed money to keep the state historic sites open was made "with great reluctance," but "sound financial management" and "prudent fiscal policy" required him to turn down the IHPA money. (Yes, I'm throwing up in my mouth a little.) Somehow he manages to keep making the situation worse. Now, as you can imagine, the IHPA employees being laid off feel even worse than they did before. :-( This is how everyone feels about Governor Blagojevich: 
