Springfield, IL (my former hometown as a kid) made the news in a bad way but at least it wasn’t for a race riot.
As you can see above, that’s the current mayor who was also mayor when I lived there, I remember how he got boo’d during the Redbirds’ season opener in 1981, one guy yelled “Lower my property taxes!” Anyway, I digressed. In the photo above he’s handing Cobra Commander the key to the city. Yup, the mayor is a Republican. Sure Cobra is a terrorist organization yet they’re one we can do business with and they support our local economy. Did he mention they’re also anti-Communist?
Quick reality interruption. Springfield, IL is going to be hosting a GI Joe convention. Back in the Eighties, Cobra had a fake town called Springfield where they trained soldiers, built super lasers, the works. Since they lost the bid to be the Springfield of The Simpsons, I’m guessing the local government decided this runner-up award was better. Being Republicans, they also didn’t see the irony.
I’m not too surprised. The middle of Illinois is at the crossroads between Yankees (my family) and Hillbillies (many neighbors). If there’s guns, explosions and a convenient surrogate to express their racist attitudes, you can count on a large segment to get off from the stupidity.