TIME TO TRY ANOTHER WAY

For decades we have pursued a strategy of enticing businesses and industry to relocate in Southern Illinois by offering free or low cost land, tax breaks, low wages, employee training at public expense, and other incentives.

What’s wrong with Southern Illinois that we should have to pay businesses to locate here? We have a good land—full of good, hard-working people. We should take more pride in Southern Illinois. If we would first establish an economic foundation based on our native resources and skills, then business and industry would seek us out and not the other way round.

We have coal, limestone, and fluorspar; apple and peach orchards; vineyards and wineries. We raise corn and soybeans; cattle and horses. We are bordered by two of the world’s great rivers, the Mississippi and Ohio. The Shawnee National Forest lies within our borders and provides abundance of recreational and tourism opportunities. We have a beautiful land. We are the prize to be won, not beggars going hat in hand to anyone with a job to offer.

It is time for all Southern Illinoisans to enjoy the prosperity that has eluded so many of our citizens for decades. We are all Southern Illinoisans, and we will not prosper until we find it in our hearts to adopt that common identity and not allow ourselves to be divided into competing towns, counties, regions or special interests.

It’s time to try another way. It’s time for a philosophy of self-reliance and personal initiative. It’s time for a philosophy of government that recognizes that a man is entitled to keep the rewards of his own effort—that it is not the role of government to take from one man to give to another. This is a world of abundance; there is enough for everyone. But the key that unlocks the door to that abundance does not lie in the hands of government but in the imagination, initiative, and energy of each individual.

Freedom and responsibility are inseparable. With every responsibility that society delegates to government there is a corresponding loss of personal freedom.

Southern Illinoisans are a strong and hardy people. We do not lack the will or strength to labor for the well-being of our families and communities. What we lack is a unifying common vision.

Our destiny lies in our own decisions and in our willingness to unite in a common cause—not in the policies and paternalism of government!