Changing of the "Gubernatorial" Guard

A new era of sorts has begun for the state of Illinois this month with the inauguration of Bruce Rauner as the new governor.

While I was unable to take in it live because I was at work, I did catch parts of the inauguration on aired on WGN that I taped.  (It's unfortunate that the majority of the coverage of the Illinois constitutional officers inauguration was limited to live internet streaming and cable channels.  These inaugurations are a big deal in the workings of our government, and should be more easily accessible to people on regular TV.)

The newly-inaugurated Governor Rauner gave a great inaugural address, truly speaking to the unsatisfactory condition Illinois is currently in, and rallying people in the hope that it's in our power to make Illinois great again.  The one word that stood out to me from this address was "sacrifice".  Governor Rauner said all parties involved, government officials and citizens, must be willing to sacrifice to make Illinois prosper again.  That word definitely speaks to the reality of the hard work ahead, the kind of efforts that make for lasting results.

But before diving too deeply into the hard work, there was quite a celebration to be had, as Oak Park Township Republican Committeeman Linda Tibensky writes about so well in this piece.

And so we bid farewell to Governor Pat Quinn, who has returned to life as a private citizen, which I feel will suite him well.  In many ways, he doesn't make for an effective government official, but his personality makes him a great neighbor, someone you'd enjoy having around on the block, like one Chicago Tribune columnist I read put it.

There were a few instances where I witnessed him as a person of the neighborhood, showing up at Ascension Parish in Oak Park from time to time, for example, for Ascension School's Centennial Year OPening Celebration, at some of the Triduum liturgies back in 2013, and at Mass one Sunday in May 2013 when I got this picture with him:

Now it's time to leave the ineffective Quinn years behind, which were exacerbated by the way Pat Quinn didn't take lightly his defeat in the 2014 election, and then his absence at the inauguration festivities.

We're in a new age in Illinois, marching along with our fearless new leader, Governor Bruce Rauner.