Daily Herald: Des Plaines weighs its history against maintaining budgetThis is a terrible place to look to fix the budget, ESPECIALLY when next year is our 175th anniversary, when the historical society is poised to grow and become even more important. When you cut out all the things that make your city special, you take away any reason to live there and not somewhere else. The Historical Society does important work to archive our heritage and educate. It is worth more than the TWO-TENTHS OF ONE PERCENT of our budget. If we as a city have that little pride, it is truly shameful.
But Historical Society President John Burke does say something that gives me pause. "There's an awful lot of people in town who have seen with their own eyes the visible reminders of our past are disappearing so rapidly."
Except for the Kinder House itself, the historical society has never made much of an effort to save historic places, including Kinder Hardware. The society's job is to record and archive history and artifacts, and to educate. Des Plaines is 175, it's time we do something to encourage saving our heritage. Des Plaines has 0 protected historic places. Des Plaines has 0 historical markers. Des Plaines has 0 incentive to restore anything. Is it any wonder we've watched it hauled to the landfill?
The city needs create a Heritage Conservation Commission to encourage keeping our history outside the walls of the historical society alive, encouraging investment and making Des Plaines a better place to live. A city without a history is hardly worthwhile.
I know that money is tight everywhere. Finding the money to save the History Center would not be quick and easy, but it seems that dropping it from our city budget should not be quick and easy either. Is the Historical Society, and the city it supports, being given enough time to pursue alternative funding from grants and donations? I agree that a city that does not cherish and preserve its history loses an important piece of its own worth. I hope that Des Plaines citizens who care about our history and want the chance to preserve it will show their support: come to the City Council budget meeting at City Hall on Thursday October 22 at 6:30 PM, sign the petition at the History Center, and/or call and email your alderman and mayor.
ReplyDeleteWhen you pose the question about pride, it carries no weight when you yourself use the screen name BWChicago, instead of BWDesPlaines. Where good sir, is your pride?
ReplyDeleteMy pride is written all over this blog; but you raise a valid point, Anonymous. The name is leftover from my email address, which I chose so that I wouldn't have to spell it out and people would remember roughly where I was from when I meet people around the country. But you're right; it has no place here, and I'll see what I can do to change that.
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