It's time for an Illinois tea party

Now that the Daily Herald has proclaimed, in a front page news story, that Cook County is perfectly within its right to mount red-light cameras within municipal boundaries and cite violators, the time has come for the citizens of Illinois to initiate their own version of a tea party and make fundamental political and legal corrections to our system.

Before Illinoisans quiver in fear of breaking a sacred law let us look at the pages of American History to find prescient for our actions. On Dec. 16, 1773, a band of brave Bostonians took action vs. an oppressive Tea Act passed by a totally unresponsive British Parliament and tossed a cargo into the Harbor. The Colonial rationale for the radical action", as noted in the Declaration of Independence, was "no taxation with out representation." The 2010 rationale for us should be: no action by totally unresponsive regional political units.

Illinois residents need to support our local patriot leaders.

Popular opposition to unjust laws is not a bad thing. We have several strong historic examples right here in Illinois. Local rulings overturned the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and a compromise of the U.S. Congress and its view of Article 4 Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. In 1913 Illinois women broke with conventions and the law, used the telephone and automobiles, as tools, to gain suffrage rights. During the 1960s, Illinois residents joined the Civil Rights Movement. Before the Illinois Constitution of 1971, many Cook County taxpayers refused to pay an oppressive Civil War era personal property Tax. The odious, dated tax was finally repealed in a new State Constitution

The bottom line is: citizens need to support responsive leaders today. Then go to the polls in November to remove from elected office unresponsive politicos. This is our aggressive tea party.

William J. Kiddle

Buffalo Grove