A Conversation with Our Readers

Leadership leadership and more

Readers:

James Krohe's essay about leadership in this issue is timely (see page 30). Beginning this month the Illinois General Assembly and the U.S. Congress will have Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. No one can predict exactly what this will mean for public policy, but it most assuredly gives Republican leaders a dramatic opportunity.

Krohe's essay is a thoughtful analysis of Garry Wills' new book on leadership, Certain Trumpets. Krohe recommends Wills' book, which cites the importance of followers in the leadership equation and argues that leaders and followers must share "a common goal" for leaders to function well.

The fact that I disagree with Krohe's opening comment — "Life in the U.S., especially political life, offers us no real leaders," — does not diminish the overall effectiveness of his essay. I agree with what Wills says in his book: "We do not lack leaders.... We lack sufficient followers." Krohe carefully takes this one step further and examines the attributes of today's "poor followers."

"Our vices as citizens are well-catalogued," he writes. "Indifference. Irrationality. Meanness. Exaggerated expectations. Ignorance." All of this makes Krohe's essay, Wills' book and this issue of Illinois Issues worth your time — and reflection.

Following Krohe's essay, our Statehouse bureau chief, Jennifer Halperin, talked with Wills to provide a deeper explanation of his views on leadership. See the Q&A Interview on page 33.

This issue continues its theme on leadership in other articles. Columnists Charlie Wheeler ( page 6) and Jennifer Halperin (page 8) talk about the challenges facing the new Republican leadership in the General Assembly. Michael Bakalis, in reviewing two books, talks about a "crying need for leadership" in reforming Chicago's public school system (see page 36). And columnist Manuel Galvan offers some advice to candidates for mayor of Chicago (see page 42).

Readers interested in economic development will find several articles of great substance in this issue. Our cover article documents the history of jobs in Illinois since the late 1970s - the dramatic decline in manufacturing jobs and the increase in "service jobs" by the tens of thousands. Written by Donald Sevener, this article is longer than most we publish, for a good reason. In recent years all politicians have said they want to stimulate jobs for their city, district or the entire state. Sevener's essay analyzes what has actually happened with jobs in Illinois and offers perspectives on where the jobs of the future most likely will be. Among Sevener's discoveries:

Several Illinois leaders say our schools are not doing a good enough job preparing today's students for the needs of the marketplace. See page 12.

A companion piece to the jobs essay is another by Chicago AT&T executive William Clossey. He examines what corporations need to do to thrive in an economy dominated by globalization. See page 24.

Readers say be careful in reporting 'health' In November our Question of the Month was related to our cover article. The question was: In covering political campaigns, should the media publish and broadcast news accounts of candidates' medical problems, such as heart surgery and cancer?And you said: Yes: 34    No: 15 Maybe this question was a little too easy. Most respondents said that if a person's condition is life-threatening or one's health problem is likely to affect his or her performance on the job, then the medical problem is a legitimate issue for the media. But some of you offered some interesting twists on this point of view. A reader from Cary agreed that health is an issue, but complained that we made too big a deal of it: "This is a silly, inconsequential issue to raise. If you want to raise some serious questions, why not deal with the question of how many persons in Illinois have no health care coverage?" Several readers said the medical issue is legitimate but should not be overblown. "What is wrong," wrote a Champaign reader, "is for both media and other candidates to hang health problems over the candidates. Release the information and leave it at that. Let the voting public, not the media, decide to what degree health is an issue." But a few readers expanded the definition of "health issue" and suggested a broader look at candidates' "health habits" might be worthwhile — "heavy smoking and boozing are problematic as social examples, and certainly they should be reported if their habits are illegal, as in unlawful drug use," according to a Kankakee reader. He added: "The media should also be aware that its reporting can have a harmful effect on the patient. Hubert Humphrey noted that reading about his terminal cancer had a harsher emotional impact upon him than his physician's delivery of the same message earlier." A few readers raised the issue of mental illnesses, too. Wrote one: "Mental illness is also a factor regardless of the privacy with which a candidate would like this factor to be handled." The readers who answered "no" mostly raised the issue of privacy. "What has happened to privacy?" one asked. "I have admiration for anyone who can rise above the pain and depression of any devastating illness and become a concerned citizen and productive in his or her chosen field." "What is important," wrote a Rock Island reader, "are positions on issues and voting records, not health, race, religion, sexual behavior and such. The media give very little time or space to a balanced and objective (i.e., unslanted) presentation of candidates' voting records and statements on issues." I got the biggest chuckle from a suburban man who suggested coverage of health issues in 1994 made no difference anyway. "Case in point," he wrote. "What difference has the reporting of Gov. Edgar's health made to the potential of his being re-elected? None!" Ed Wojcicki

January 1995/Illinois Issues/3