Admittedly, I am an emotional person and when I see People being deprived of the “good life” because of the selfish interests of the more powerful, I tend to be militant in taking up the cause, even when it appears to be a losing cause. To me, democracy and the self determination of People are sacred; I believe in the power of the People.
There is power in wealth; but, wealth cannot produce anything, wealth cannot build anything, and wealth cannot create anything; only People can produce automobiles, and build airplanes, and create electronic devices that can communicate with and reach the most desolate places on the earth.
People need freedom to crate and , only in a democracy do they have that total freedom to create.
When I was growing up, my home town of Decatur Illinois was a proud industrial city and modern in every way. We had industries like the Staley company, the Mueller company, and the Hi Flyer Kite company that supplied the whole world with goods and services and Decatur also had the farmland that fed the world. Decatur Illinois was the “Soybean Capital of the World and the Railway hub of Illinois, tucked away in the middle of some of the richest farmland in the world; Decatur hasn’t moved but time has passed it by.
Decatur is my native city; I no longer live there, but I was born and raised in Decatur. I didn’t grow up in Decatur, because I’m 83 years old and I never grew up; I just couldn’t stand to become “an old White man”; I was a mature seventeen year old and never got any older and I try to think positive and not remorsefully. It is impossible for me to forget my roots and I still visit my Decatur at least once a year, or more, depending on circumstances
My problem with Decatur is that there is no longer any viable public transportation to get to or from Decatur from anywhere else; no trains, no planes, no rapid transportation of any kind. It is a sad state of affairs.
It is with very fond memories that I remember when they built the Decatur Airport; my friends and I were adolescents and the airport is only a few blocks from where I lived. The construction company left all their huge equipment, like earth moving equipment called “Kangaroos”, out in the middle of what is now the airport; the equipment wasn’t locked up, and in the dark of the night, my friend ‘Fat’ Gentry, would get in and drive those big machines all over the landing field, night after night. Fat was crazy about driving and didn’t have a license to drive legally, so he was in his glory driving all over that vast field that was to become the airport; he hated to see them finish building it.
When the airport was finished, we took great pride in the new first class airport in Decatur; I’ve always been convinced that Decatur was the greatest place in the world for a kid to live and become a man and personally, I was most fortunate to have both the Decatur Airport and Lake Decatur as “my growing-up territory”; I was lucky to live where I lived when I was a kid.
After I became an adult and my work took me away from Decatur, I used to fly Ozark Airlines into Decatur; I flew into Decatur many, many times and then suddenly, the world seem to come to believe Decatur wasn’t really a modern industrial metropolis and home of Staley’s syrup and Mueller’s bathroom plumbing, I literally could not get home by plane or train anymore; passenger planes and trains just didn’t serve Decatur.
My dad had worked for the Wabash Railroad for 42 years, helping to build fantastic steam locomotives and when I was 5 years old, I stepped on a train in Decatur and got off of a train in Los Angeles California. Today, you can’t even find a train to step on and Decatur is the Rail Head of Central Illinois. Children in Decatur grow up never seeing and waving at people in a choo-choo!
Most recently, I discovered that Decatur again had air service to Decatur from Chicago. I understand it is very good service, the planes seat 8 passengers, but the planes lack a men’s room; now I have a 83 year old prostate and I am too proud for Depends, so a year ago, I flew from Chicago, with a men’s room, to Springfield Illinois where I then I rented a car and drove to Decatur. There is NO public transportation from Springfield to Decatur less than forty miles away.
My son is 50 years old and he flew to Decatur to be with me; he flew from Chicago sans Men’s room and I met him at the Decatur Airport. While at the airport waiting for his plane, I noticed there were huge cylinders all over the landing field and I ask the one employee of the airline, “What are those big cylinder shaped things on the airport; they looked like cylinder bales of hay.”
“Those are bales of hay!” he answered.
When I took my son to the Airport a week later to return home, the hay was still there.
Don’t get me wrong; I think growing hay on the airport is great, but shouldn’t the hay be stored in the barn off of the airport?

HAY BALES HARVESTED ON DECATUR IL AIRPORT

AIRLINER TAXIS THRU HAY BALES AT DECATUR IL AIRPORT

DIRECTING THE AIRLINER TO ITS GATE; HE IS ALSO THE TICKET AGENT

PASSENGERS DISEMBARK THEIR AIRLINER: DECATUR IL AIRPORT
In my lifetime, I’ve traveled some, and I was impressed by public transportation that the Europeans’ have. In spite of what politicians tell you, Europeans are not old fashion and dumb. Typically, I fly into Zurich, get off the airplane, take an escalator to the Railroad station in the terminal, and I get on a train and go anywhere in Europe, including my destination 20 miles away. Here is a hint for Decatur; there’s a railroad track that runs along the edge of the Decatur Airport that could run to the airport terminal and bullet trains could carry passengers to Chicago or St. Louis or anywhere along the way, if Decatur was a modern industrial city with trains, planes, and electricity. Not just Decatur, but all of Macon County would benefit from having modern public transportation into and out of Decatur; Springfield Illinois, the capital of Illinois, is only minutes away from Decatur by Bullet Train.
When the Decatur Airport was built, it became the property and responsibility of the Decatur City Park District; even at my young age then, I knew that the Airport was not supposed to be a park! Now, it appears the Decatur Airport has morphed into a hay park.
The Decatur Airport needs to be more political and it needs to belong to the People of the whole metropolitan area, the whole county. The Decatur Airport cannot be a functional airport when it is treated like a park; the Decatur Airport needs political clout from the People of the entire area served by the airport. The Decatur Airport needs to become the Abraham Lincoln Airport of Central Illinois and owned an operated by the Abraham Lincoln Airport agency.
Often, I wish I was back, living in Decatur. I would rise up and tell the People that our Decatur is “of the People, by the People, and for the People”. I would organize the metropolitan area of Decatur to march on City Halls and the County Supervisors to demand that we the People have an airport that is for serving all of the metropolitan area and all of Macon County and the neighboring counties. The Decatur airport is not a park for growing hay, and airplanes flying to and from Decatur should have a men’s room.
We the People demand that you, the Decatur City Council, the Mt. Zion City Council, the Forsyth City Council, and the County Supervisors lead us in a march on Springfield and a march on our Congressmen to get passenger Bullet Train service and viable airline service for all the People of Macon County and our neighboring counties; we won’t stop till our demands are met.
Decatur and central Illinois needs 21st Century public transportation; we the People and our city deserve it. It is a necessity for we the People to thrive, for our industry to thrive, for our workers to be employed.
Of course, I tend to be just a little militant in my pride and expectations for Decatur; but there must be someone in Decatur who feels as I do, and can get this done.