State of Illinois … really?

Happy post-election day! I’m so glad the election is over. I was so tired of all the superhero candidates professing in their political ads all that they should do, would do, could do in order to get voters to elect them.

As I write this column, I have no idea who will be the next Secretary of State. But what I do know is this: My plate sticker always expires on Halloween. And because Halloween fell on a Monday this year, that is also the day of the week that the majority of the Secretary of State offices are closed.

I learned that lesson the hard way because I was on the South Side and drove over to the Bridgeview location only to find it closed. Which location was open? The one 10 minutes from my house off of Diversey and Cicero. All my plans were now dashed as I had to traverse back toward my house in order to give up my hard-earned cash. And yes, you better pay with cash because if you use a debit card, they charge you an extra 3%. Why? Cuz they’re ripoff artists!

When I pulled into the parking lot for that facility, I saw the line was out the door. I immediately knew I was not going to be a happy camper. I must give kudos to the security guard at that location. He was efficient, and even cracked jokes. When a guy wearing a Sox hat asked him a question, he told him he couldn’t answer because he only dealt with Cubs fans. They both laughed and it was a hilarious moment for the rest of us. Surprisingly, the wait outside was less than 10 minutes and the weather wasn’t too terrible. Inside was even faster. Two minutes later my wallet was now short $151.

Now if you have to spend $151 on something, the least it could be is pretty. But no, our politicians are so busy ripping us off, the little green piece of plastic just says ’23’ and ‘Illinois.’ There’s not even an image of the state on it. Nor is your plate number on it. So you can imagine how many of those things are going to be snatched off to be placed on other cars by people who don’t want to spend that kind of money.

As I stood in line, I saw a sign on the wall. Considering how the police get cussed out constantly by the driving public and put their lives on the line, it’s amazing to me that the Secretary of State feels their employees are entitled to special consideration. What is abusive language? It’s very subjective. There’s some people who use MF as a noun, verb, adjective, whatever when they talk. So for them it’s their normalcy.

And what is the state doing with all that money they collect? Our roadways do not look like super-smooth airport landing strips. In fact, anybody who has to go south on Cicero (it’s a state road) and cross that bridge at 67th and Cicero knows they’ve been working on it forever. Our money goes down the endless drain known as public works.

They’re never public finished!