Chargers take a dip for Special Olympics

The Chargers boys basketball squad was not the only team from Dundee-Crown High School to represent its school admirably this month.

A smaller team of students from the Carpentersville high school took part earlier this month in the Fox Lake Polar Plunge, a fundraiser for the Special Olympics of Illinois.

Claira Himmel, a sophomore from West Dundee, has organized a team of friends and relatives who have participated in the event two years in a row.

"I've always been involved with volunteering for Special Olympics," Claira said. "I told my friends about (the polar plunge) and they were all for it."

For the uninitiated, a polar plunge is an event in which participants who have collected donations beforehand jump into a cold body of water wearing little more than their summer beach attire.

"It's a fun thing to do," Claira said.

Just what is pay to play? With all the ink that has been spilled over the allegations against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, one would think everyone would have a rough idea by now what "pay to play" means.

This does not seem to be the case among some current and potential board members in Community Unit District 300.

Before I begin, let me state that I am not at the moment taking a position on the proposed vendor conflict-of-interest policy. Nor am I discounting any arguments about the difficulty of enforcing such a policy.

I simply mean to address one specific argument opponents of the policy have used.

The argument runs thus: If the district effectively limits the amount vendors can contribute to board member and referendum campaigns, why should it not limit contributions from special interest groups?

In other words, why should Jack Roeser and the Family Taxpayers Network be able to pour thousands of dollars into select board candidates' coffers while tax increase campaigns and other candidates are at a fundraising disadvantage?

The answer is simple, though it needs some elaboration: democracy.

If Roeser wants to back candidates for the District 300 school board, that's his right. Likewise, if an ultraliberal millionaire wants to support school board candidates, that's his right, too.

The important distinction we have to draw is between vendors that stand to derive direct financial gain from their contributions, and special interest groups that hope only to achieve some intangible reward - say, the promotion of an ideology or set of values.

Voting and donating to promote certain values is almost the definition of democracy; giving money with the knowledge that it could lead to a big financial payoff at the least falls in a gray area.

Opponents of the conflict-of-interest policy should ditch the fairness argument and focus on more substantial criticisms.