A babbling brook . . . thoughts of eternity . . . a window-rattling 747 closing in on O`Hare International Airport. One never knows the source of poetic inspiration.
The first two inspired 19th Century British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. The third inspired 20th Century Illinois Rep. Mary Lou Cowlishaw (R-Naperville).
At a news conference last week to announce legislation that would set up a commission to develop noise-relief plans for O`Hare-area residents, Cowlishaw said the plan ”somehow” reminded her of Tennyson`s poem about a brook:
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
Calling the proposal a fair compromise between progress and comfort, city and suburbs, she added her poetic endorsement to the plan introduced by House Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels (R-Elmhurst).
”We need to make that first step today,” Cowlishaw said, ”because that noise, like Tennyson`s brook, will go on forever.”
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Terrance B. McLelland, an unsuccessful Du Page County Board candidate in the March 17 Republican primary, has been named assistant clerk of the Illinois House of Representatives.
The 29-year-old Carol Stream resident, most recently an aide to Daniels, finished 12th among 13 candidates to fill four seats in the newly created District 6 in western Du Page County. He was selected for the assistant clerk`s position by Daniels and approved by the House.
McLelland was a member of the Carol Stream Library Board in 1991 and a Bloomington Township Republican precinct committeeman in 1990. He worked for U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in Washington in 1983-84.
”Terry brings a wealth of experience from both the federal and state goverments,” Daniels said. How that experience fits in with the job of assistant House clerk, Daniels did not say. Among McLelland`s duties will be announcing bills that are introduced or to be voted upon.
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Sen. Beverly Fawell (R-Glen Ellyn), tired of the General Assembly imposing mandates on schools without passing along the money to pay for them, has introduced legislation that would allow local boards of education to stop programs the state has required but not funded.
Also sponsored by Fawell is a bill that would require potential dropouts to fill out and have a parent sign a form before they can quit school.
The cost: ”Virtually nothing,” according to information supplied at a Fawell news conference by one of the supporters of the bill, the Illinois Alliance for Troubled Youth.
”Certainly, there may be some incidental costs,” the group said.
”Some letters or phone calls to parents or guardians. Some photocopying of information to help a potential dropout to understand the gravity of his decision.”
Incidentally, Fawell`s bill provides no money to cover those costs.
