The following comment was received from a lady in response to 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo’s press release opposing putting Gitmo prisoners in the Quad Cities:
Here’s the email I sent off to Congressman Manzullo this morning.Congressman Manzullo:
I live in Carroll County just 6 miles from the Thomson Correctional Center. I happened to hear your interview this morning on WGN.
I am amazed that you are against bringing the Guantanamo detainees to our prison.
You are I’m sure, well aware that Carroll County has a 10.5% jobless rate and ranks 32nd in Illinois in unemployment.
You also must know that Carroll County has a per capita income of only $18.688 and that 9.60% of the population is below the poverty line.
With this in mind, HOW can you in good conscience, be against a plan that will bring more jobs and businesses to our area?
The purchase of the Thomson facility by the Federal Government will be a huge gain for us.
It will mean that people will move to Carroll County, purchase homes and pay taxes.
Aren’t you putting politics above your constituents?
The surrounding towns are little more than ghost towns. There are no businesses to speak of.
People have to travel to Clinton, Iowa to shop, leaving the sales tax they pay to plump up Iowa’s coffers, not Illinois’.
You are OK with this?
In your interview, your rational(e) left much to be desired.
Do you believe your constituents to be ignorant farmers?
Your statement that Al Qaida and the Taliban will travel to O’Hare Airport to visit the prisoners is ludicrous.
Certainly there are terrorist cells here on US soil, but these are very covert operations.
I hardly think Al Qaida will flock through O’Hare and schlep all the way out to Carroll County to visit their friends.
They hardly seem to care about sentimentality. They wouldn’t want to be visible, and advertise their presence in that way, so your argument reeks of that same old Republican scare tactics.
In addition, the detainees in Gitmo are hardly capable of arranging a jail break from a super-max prison.
I don’t see how this would be a concern. Most were merely teens when captured and are hardly the threat you make them out to be.
Please, for once put your partisanship aside and think about what is good for your constituents.
If you are unable to do this, you may find yourself unemployed.
Great letter from a constituent to a Congressman. Will he read it? Will he respond? Or will an aide reply, thanking her for writing and adding trite about something totally unrelated?
Manzullo’s opposition to bringing Gitmo prisoners to the Thomson Correctional Center is misguided and for awhile it also appeared tinged with bigotry as well.
How is it that we house extremely violent street gang members, the mafia and serial killers without much trouble but we will not be able to incarcerate these alleged terrorists? Huh?
Do these detainees have superpowers? Is Cuba their kryptonite and as soon as we put some distance between them and Gitmo their going to overwhelm our federal marshals, FBI and other law enforcement and penal institution officers? I don’ t think so.