re-published from The Art of Politik
My Experience meeting the governor amid a tragedy
A lot of us find it hard to imagine (relatively) simpler times for Illinois politics.
The idea that Roland Burris could garner even 29% of the Democratic primary vote for Governor in 2002 seems far fetched on hindsight, particularly given the eventual connection to Blagojevich.
Seems absolutely ridiculous to think that in that same election, a decade younger Barack Obama endorsed Roland Burris, and of course eventually backed the Governor on winning the nomination.
It's difficult to even remember how close the Governor came to not even winning the Democratic nomination in that same primary.
It would seem a stretch to accurately connect the Blagojevich campaign theme of "change" to the one of Barack Obama, who worked to a limited degree with Rahm Emanuel to elect Blagojevich.
It is that message of hope that resonated with Illinoisans and the same view of the Governor that I had when I walked into Altgeld Hall of Northern Illinois University to hear the Governor speak that Feb 15th, 2008 -- the day after the horrible events that took the lives of a High School classmate of mine.
Perhaps it was true passion within him that moved him to come give a press conference because he felt as Governor it was his duty to try to bring comfort to his constituents.
Perhaps it was the political instinct that drove the decision.
Perhaps it was pure self-interest... in either case, it seems pointless to think about today.
His presence and words managed to console a few of us students who were interested enough or simply too distraught to do anything else but show up.
As I sat watching alongside a good friend, I decided I was going to measure up Blago.
The situation was too informal for anyone to stop me from approaching him, and the early time for the press conference assured the audience would be small.
In the end it was the Governor himself who noticed me and my friend Kevin attentively listening to him give answers to the media's questions.
The emotion emanating from me and my friend must have triggered a response; we were still too numb to try very hard at getting his attention, if we did try at all.
Surprisingly, the photographers and reporters while still surrounding us gave us enough breathing room to talk.
The genuine empathy in the Governor's words was simply too real to deny.
What I found was that same relatable down-to-earth guy who everyone says they would never think would do what he did. It was his true un-feigned personality who listened to what we were saying and truly did feel compassion for what we as a collective student body had been going through.
This lapse in security and the loss of life was completely foreign to us and our community, and the Governor cared enough to listen.
He helped share the pain we felt that day, heartfelt or not.
For at least a short while, his crimes were forgotten, and the idea that this man may have once wanted the job for the right reasons seemed much more palatable than it does today.
He said to my friend and I that he would renew a push for an outright gun ban in the state of Illinois -- a position I eventually softened on once more. Blago made that promise with a resolve few would dare question.
Clearly, his time to accomplish that deed was not enough, as this was precisely around the time which Blagojevich would've been shopping around the President's Senate seat.
It's invariable that the humanity of people who commit crimes, who become corrupted in some way or another by their passion and desperation for success is largely forgotten.
That person's own lack of empathy makes it okay for some to simply view the person with that same lack of compassion, lowering themselves to the level of the accused.
The media has no shame in doing this. Their coverage of a corruption trial is almost always absent of any reminders of a human aspect, and Blagojevich's increasingly erratic behavior surely was no help.
This is no excuse, no reduction of the severity of what's been done -- Blagojevich will get what's coming to him.
For many people who have come from the bottom of the totem pole, getting that small taste of success by achieving political victories tends to be more for them than they can handle.
Many people who come from humble beginnings are desperate for success - many blind themselves, fool themselves into thinking that gaming the system if even 'just a little bit' is okay to finally get a little ahead, think its okay because they've earned it, or even feel like the spoils of the position are outright owed to them.
Many want to be that Cinderella-man politician who goes from rags to riches thanks to the lovely constituents who elected them in the first place. Many assume that's the road to be traveled once elected.
This distortion of reality and sordid view of politics is in-bred from the cynicism that politics is a dirty business, and if I don't profit from it, then someone else will.
This attitude must change not just among those who seek to serve the public, but the public needs to change the attitude in themselves. If a culture of ethical politics is to come, the public needs to believe it is at least possible. Cynical and eventually corrupt politicians will continue to flow from a public that feels that corruption is something that is perpetually unchanging.
The betrayal of the public's trust is a grave sin, but it changes not the humanity of the person committing the sin.
Those little girls will be without a father for a very long time.
I knew then that he was embattled and likely to be indicted for some crime in the near future. I was no more naive about Blagojevich then than I am now.
Still, I chose and choose to believe that even for the most heinous of crimes, there's always someone real inside, not the caricature they've become.
The next morning, my friend and I were slated to appear on CNN to discuss the events. We were begged by CNN reporters until we accepted.
We slept through the frantic phone calls of reporters wondering where we were.
We had enough of the news media's insatiable appetite for one tragedy.