Dave Bakke: Hillary Clinton praises Springfield

People across the country were talking about Springfield last week, for the wrong reason. What captured everybodys attention was the strange listing by a magazine of Springfield as the third-most-dangerous city in the United States.

Note to local law enforcement: Take a hard look at changing the way you report the statistics to the FBI. If everyone else does it differently, theres probably a reason.

Of course, its too late. The damage is done.

But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton name-checked us on Friday, and nobody paid attention. It didnt have anything to do with crime statistics. She mentioned us for something nice.

Hill the Thrill was at a Marriott in Washington, D.C., to make a few remarks as the keynote speaker for the U.S.-Japan Councils annual meeting. The council was established a couple of years ago to contribute to strengthening U.S.-Japan relations by bringing together diverse leadership, engaging stakeholders and exploring issues that benefit communities, businesses and government entities on both sides of the Pacific.

About halfway through her speech, Hillary talked about how the March earthquake and tsunami that caused such massive destruction on Japans coast mobilized American citizens to come to Japans aid. Thats where we come in.

Americans who remembered the red and white flags on the jackets of Japanese volunteers at Ground Zero, she said, flew to Japan to return the favor. Across our country, in small towns and large cities, people raised money. Springfield, Illinois, for example, raised $32,000 selling blue jeans for their sister city in Japan.

Our sister city is Ashikaga. It was not damaged in the tsunami, but its residents took in many who had nowhere else to stay.

After the disaster, the Sister Cities Association in Springfield created a fund drive for disaster r! elief. A number of events were held, including the jeans sale, called Jeans for Japan Day. On that day, city employees could wear jeans for a $5 donation to the relief fund.

By April, all of the events in Springfield had raised a total of $32,000. So it wasnt only selling the jeans that raised that much for Ashikaga, but we will let that little mistake slide, given the positive context of Hillarys mention of Springfield.

It was a routine speech. Some Japanese media reported on it, but here in America, it went all but unnoticed. Carol Zerkle is president of the Ashikaga committee of Springfields Sister Cities Association. She didnt know Hillary had mentioned us until I told her.

Wow, she said, then pointed out that Hillary was in Springfield to visit Lincoln Land Community College in 1996, though that probably didnt factor into Fridays speech.

The State Department and Sister Cities have been partners for over 15 years, Carol says. And its really nice that Secretary Clinton recognizes the work that the small Sister Cities groups throughout the United Sates do to assist their partner communities and their country.

She was particularly happy that Hillary noticed that people in Springfield have big hearts and that we care about people halfway around the world.

Compared to the third most dangerous city in America coverage, Hillarys mention of Springfield wasnt big news. It wasnt news at all, actually. But considering what happened with the crime statistics, well take it.

Traffic lights

And speaking of how there are too many traffic lights in Springfield, as we all were a few weeks ago, I noticed two more are being put in. Oh, great.

One is at the renovated entrance to Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport because, you know, there is always a traffic jam there, what with the hundreds of people flying out of Springfield each day. And there is another one waiting to be turned on at Cook Street and E! astdale Avenue. Thats good, too, because just a few weeks ago, I spotted a couple of cars on Eastdale that had to wait to get onto Cook. Unbelievable.

Everybody has a story. The problem is that some of them are boring. If yours is not, contact Dave Bakke at 788-1541 or dave.bakke@sj-r.com. His column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. To read more, visit www.sj-r.com/bakke.