A Heat Advisory?

Today in Phoenix we are under a heat advisory until WEDNESDAY. I really think that a heat advisory here is an oxymoron. I mean, really, heat? Phoenix? August? People really have to be out of it to think that there will be not be adverse heat conditions here at this time of year.

But, Illinois is having heat issues, too. That figures as school is just starting there. We always had a heat wave once school started, and there was no A/C in the student area of the building. Oh, administration offices had the coolness, but the learning part of the schools were unbearable. Made for a great environment. Teachers and students alike were more worried about sweat lines than "getting those test scores up".

I am going back to Illinois next week to promote my book, "Growing Up Doughnut." I will be getting there in the height of Labor Day weekend and staying until the Tuesday after Labor Day. I wish I had more time to see friends and places, but I do have to get back and spend some time with my family before returning here.

Hoopeston and Paxton are two towns very close to my heart. One was the city of my youth, the other the town of my adulthood. I learned many lessons in both of them, and most of my 1260 Facebook friends are from one of these experiences. There are a few from Morning Sun, IA, and a few from Eureka College, but for the most part I either a Cornjerker, a Mustang, or a Panther for most of my life.

I have not been back to these communities in almost three years, and I wonder how much they have changed. Paxton has a few less bridges and Hoopeston has fewer downtown stores. But what has not changed in either of these hamlets is their passion for their towns and their identities with these population centers. Hoopeston has a new project called, "Be a part of it!" and Paxton has its Main Street group. Both are trying to breathe life into towns hit hard by the recession and are holding their heads high.

One thing bothers me about all this. Both communities have vast resources of people who want to work. Hoopeston has factories sitting idle as does Paxton. Why are companies going overseas to get workers and helping those economies instead of helping the US economy right here? That is a question for legislators in Washington and Springfield and Phoenix. Why have they allowed companies to basically abandon the US to help countries in far corners of the world at the expense of our own people? Did the Free Trade Agreement that Reagan thought would create global equalization lead to the problems we face today?

It is time to give politicians who would allow jobs to go overseas a heat advisory.