Former Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell made headlines for the $800,000 in money stuffed in shoeboxes discovered when he died. For greater than half a century, a Powell-established $250,000 belief sustained his legacy. However the account that maintained his birthplace as a museum will quickly run dry.
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Former Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell made headlines for the $800,000 in money stuffed in shoeboxes discovered when he died. For greater than half a century, a Powell-established $250,000 belief sustained his legacy. However the account that maintained his birthplace as a museum will quickly run dry.
AP
How do you honor a legend?
Paul Powell was an Illinois Secretary of State, and a former Speaker of the state home, who famously picked up the scent of political offers and mentioned, “I can odor the meat a-cookin’!”
He left behind loads of smokin’ pork. When Paul Powell died in 1970, about $800,000 in money was found in shoeboxes and attaché instances in his closets. He additionally had 1,000,000 {dollars} in racetrack inventory. Horse racing is a state-regulated enterprise.
I simply saved baseball playing cards in shoeboxes. Why did not I believe greater?
The IRS, attorneys, and the state of Illinois took their reduce of Paul Powell’s ill-gotten positive factors, and the remainder of his property has been used to take care of his residence in southern Illinois as a museum for his memorabilia (shoeboxes not included). However that fund has run out. Paul Powell’s residence might go on the block.
A College of Illinois research finds that regardless of all vows to abolish shoebox and pork-barrel politics, Chicago stays probably the most corrupt metropolis within the nation, judged by the per capita variety of indicted officers. Illinois is the third most corrupt state.
4 of Illinois’s final ten governors have gone to jail, three Democrats and one Republican. It says “LAND OF LINCOLN” on state license plates, however maybe there needs to be high-quality print beneath: “HANDMADE BY A FORMER GOVERNOR.”
I’ll attest, as a son of Illinois, that many voters are appalled by corruption. But we will also be barely proud. When the Cubs, Bulls, and Bears have dropping seasons, within the league of political corruption, we’re nonetheless champs!
Perhaps Illinois ought to simply embrace its historical past and set up the positioning of Paul Powell’s previous residence in southern Illinois as a theme park for political profiteering. Name it Payola World!
As a substitute of a trip known as Pirates of the Caribbean — Pirates of Vienna, Illinois!
Kids can pose behind iron bars, alongside AI reproductions of convicted public officers. “Smile, youngsters! Say, ‘shoeboxes!'”
Disney theme parks provide a Princess Expertise, the place kids in tiaras can meet actors costumed as Jasmine, Belle, or Elsa. Why not a Governor’s Expertise at Payola World? Households can slip money to somebody in a go well with with excellent hair, who can inform them, as Governor Rod Blagojevich as soon as mentioned in regards to the likelihood to nominate somebody to an open U.S. Senate seat, “I’ve received this factor and it is f***ing golden!”
And naturally they’re going to be a restaurant at Payola World. You recognize what they must serve: pork!
