McHenry County Blog

The following is reprinted with Patrick Murfin’s permission from “Heretic, Rebel, A Thing to Flout.”

It’s entitled,

“Rev. Dan Larsen, A Story of Courageous Love“

The Standing on the Side of Love campaign asked for “Stories of Courageous Love” to fill a map with inspiration in advance of Valentines Day. I was delighted to share the story of the Rev. Dan Larsen who has been standing on the side of love for a very long time. Check out the page at http://www.standingonthesideoflove.org/stories-of-courageous-love/ and click on the heart over northeastern Illinois.

The Rev. Dan Larsen is the usual suspect. Recently retired from a 19 year ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock, Illinois and named minister emeritus, Rev. Larsen was the one person the local media knew that they could count on when issues around social justice and discrimination of any kind arose. They knew that one way or another Rev. Larsen and his church would be involved.

Dan Larsen has been Standing on the Side of Love for a long time. In conservative, overwhelmingly white McHenry County, located in the far northwestern corner of the Chicago Metropolitan Area, he stood for love and justice when few others dared to.

Almost immediately upon assuming the Woodstock pulpit he reached out to the Latino community creating the first county wide Hispanic Concerns Task Force and battling housing discrimination and other hurdles faced by that community.

As numbers of Latinos in the county swelled, so did an ugly racist backlash and in recent years a virulent anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by groups like the Illinois Minutemen. Rev. Larsen helped organize and lead the county’s first big immigration reform march and organized protests to Minutemen meetings.

At church, he developed special outreach and service programs for the community, including a weekly group for Latino women that combined help with learning English with support in finding employment and, when necessary, assistance.

When a faction of the Ku Klux Klan targeted McHenry County in 1997 with a rally at the County Courthouse, Dan Larsen helped organize an interfaith alternative event on historic Woodstock Square.

That event became the Diversity Day Festival which ran annually through 2010, intentionally bringing together people of different racial, ethnic, religious, language, physical and mental challenges, gender, and sexual orientation. The Festival, held in late September or early October, helped local Muslims introduce themselves as a human community in the dark days after the 9/11 attacks. It was also the first public forum in which Gays and Lesbians felt comfortable in participating.

Starting with work educating the public about the real truth about the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1990’s when local media and authorities were spreading both panic and blame on the Gay Community, Larsen has been an advocate for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgender community. He offered the church building as the only safe haven in McHenry County for Gay and Gay ally groups to meet. A support group became McHenry County Pride, the first openly gay organization in the county, which continues to meet at the church. The church also housed a pioneering counseling program for Gay teens, who were often the objects of bullying and violence in their high schools, and is the home for the county chapter of PFLAG. Larsen helped the Congregation become certified as a Welcoming Congregation and becoming a comfortable home for Gays and Lesbians. He pioneered in performing religious union ceremonies in the county and if forthrightly advocating marriage equality.

When a proposal to bring the rowing events of the Gay Games to nearby Crystal Lake, Larsen publicly spoke out at meetings packed by screaming protestors of the Park District’s decision to allow the use of the lake. All of these activities have frequently drawn public and privet threats of violence against Larsen and the Church.

This just skims the surface of a remarkable dedication to justice. It fails to mention his outstanding work in the peace movement and in advocacy for health care reform, among other issues.

Just after announcing his retirement, Larsen was diagnosed with advanced throat cancer. After several month of intense treatment, he is on the road to recovery with a good prognosis. And he is back in the saddle working with many of the same groups he reached out to as an active minister.

He was recently elected president of Principled Minds, a local non-profit that partners with other organizations to develop documentary and educational programs designed to fight racism and discrimination.

A press release from Patrick Murfin:

DIVERSITY DAY FESTIVAL SET FOR THIS SUNDAY IN WOODSTOCK

WOODSTOCK–Diversity Day 2009: We’re In This Together! will be held this Sunday, September 27 from 1 to 4 PM on the Square in Woodstock.

For the 13th annual festival will take note of “The tough economic times that have taken a devastating toll on our community and nation while the world remains in turmoil,” festival Executive Director Patrick Murfin explained.

“Sometimes fear and anxiety cause groups to turn on each other and bigots seek to exploit those fears. But in times like these we need each other more than ever. Our festival is meant to rally the whole community regardless of race, religion, national origin, language, gender, sexual orientation, age or ability in mutual respect and celebration.”

The festival program will feature live entertainment and inspiring messages from individuals and organizations working together in the face of adversity.

Musical and performance acts include The Frothy Boys, a ebullient men’s doo-wop a cappella ensemble; legendary McHenry County story teller Jim May; blind singer/guitarist Pierre Berube; pianist Matt Chopin; the Bolivian folk dancing of Corazon Boliviano Grupo de Danza Folkloria director by Julieta L. Bolivar; and folk music by Keith Johnson and Judy Matzen.

Murfin will be joined by his long time festival co-host Gloria Urch in introducing featured speakers. Joe Blanco, coordinator of the Woodstock PADS site will talk about homelessness. Suzanne Hoban of the Family Health Partnership Clinic will speak on healthcare and Julie Biel-Claussen of the McHenry County Housing Authority will discuss the challenges of finding affordable housing.

An annual highlight of Diversity Day is the Peace and Justice Award presented to an individual or individuals who have advanced the causes of justice, equity and compassion in our community and the world.

This year the recipient is Thomas Dincecco who has dedicated his retirement years to service to those in need. Among other activities, Dincecco is the coordinator of the Direct Assistance Program (DAP) of the Woodstock Community Ministry which provides emergency grants to those who fall between the cracks of the safety net. The award will be presented by last year’s recipient, Sue Rose of the Housing Authority.

Carlos Acosta of the McHenry County Latino Coalition will present this year’s recipients of the organization’s Scholarship Awards, sponsored by State Farm Insurance.

The festival also includes table displays with information from non-profit organizations, social service providers, government agencies, issue advocacy organizations, religious groups, political parties, and businesses.

Diversity Day 2009: We’re In This Together! Is organized by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock. Admission is free and open to the public.

For information contact Murfin at 815 814-5645, e-mail divday@sbcglobal.net, or visit http://diversityday.blogspot.com/.

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You see Patrick Murfin standing next to Gloria Urch.

Wednesday night I searched all the townships and municipalities in the pork bill passed by the General Assembly and put up an article about how much each township received.

They all got $75,000, but I discovered that three of the largest four—Algonquin, McHenry and Grafton—got more.

I wondered why Nunda got only $75,000, but after running the search engine twice, wrote the article and went to bed.

Nunda Township Democrat Patrick Murfin saw the piece and speculated on why Nunda got less.

He wondered whether Nunda was being punished for trying to “seize leadership in the county party, ” citing Brent Smith’s role in putting together the slate Team Nunda, which rolled to victory in both the GOP primary election and the general election in which Murfin and a running mate were challenging Smith’ wife Joni, who ran first.

(Murfin also wrote a piece on the election, which I referenced.)

So, Murfin reads my article and asks, “What gives?”

Pretty much the same question I asked myself.

Those of you who remember geometry may remember that one can reach the wrong conclusion if one starts with the wrong information.

The next day, I read Pete Gonigam’s First Electronic Newspaper and discovered he had found much more money had be allocated to Nunda than my bleary eyes had spied in House Bill 313.

I dutifully wrote a correction about missing the $175,000.

And, so did Murfin.

He observed, “Maybe Nunda is being rewarded for his increased clout.”

So, nothing unusual about the township pork. The big townships got more than the little townships, just as one would expect.

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The photo shows Brent Smith recruiting Neko Olsen for the Young Republicans at last summer’s Nunda Township Picnic.

Crystal Lake’s Patrick Murfin writes the blog

He also ran for Nunda Township Trustee this past spring with running mate Meredith Reid Sarkees.

Even though the Dems knocked on doors, they lost.

Murfin, Secretary of the McHenry County Democratic Party offered an analysis of the election.

Murfin’s comments on my township pork article and focuses on his township, Nunda, which Murfin says is

“a wholly owned subsidiary of Brent Smith Empire Builders Inc.”

More analysis, focusing on Republican Precinct Committeeman Brent Smith, a member of Local 150 of the Operating Engineers, suggesting Smith would take over from Nunda Township Road Commissioner Don Kopsel and

He has this intriguing sentence, among others:

“Smith clearly is aiming to seize leadership in the County party at the head of resurgent conservative purists out to purge ‘trimmers’ and suspected moderates like Tryon.”

Part of the article is based on my incorrect information that Nunda Township only received $75,000, as the least populated townships did. That proved incorrect, as I learned on a new Southeastern McHenry County information source, the First Electric Newspaper, written by Columbia Journalism School grad Pete Gonigam. My correction is here:

The Devil Made Me Do It

The following press release has been received from Patrick Murfin:

Planning Under Way for Diversity Day 2009

Woodstock–Planning is under way for Diversity Day 2009. The 13th installment of the annual festival will be held on Sunday, September 27 from 1 to 4 PM on the Square in Woodstock.

The theme this year is “We’re in This Together.”

“Tough economic times have taken a devastating toll on our community and nation while the world remains in turmoil,” festival Executive Director Patrick Murfin explained. “Sometimes fear and anxiety cause groups to turn on each other and bigots seek to exploit those fears. But in times like these we need each other more than ever. Our festival is meant to rally the whole community regardless of race, religion, national origin, language, gender, sexual orientation, age or ability in mutual respect and celebration.”

The festival is seeking multi-cultural entertainment for the program including musicians, dancers, and folk artists.

“We are also looking for children’s programming and activities both on the stage and around the Square,” Murfin said.

Speakers will be invited from organizations to highlight their efforts at serving and improving the community cooperatively. Non-profit organizations, social service agencies, government agencies, issue advocacy organizations, religious groups, political parties and others in sympathy with the aims and purposes of the festival may also set up information tables on the Square free of charge.

Nominations for the Peace and Justice Award, presented annually at the festival, will be welcomed through the month of June. The Award is presented to an individual or individuals who have advanced the causes of justice, equity and compassion in our community and the world. “We are especially proud of this award which is meant to not only honor deserving individuals, but highlight their work.

Sponsorship opportunities for the festival are also available, as are sustaining advertisements in the annual program book.

Diversity Day 2009: We’re in This Together! is organized by the Congregational Unitarian Church.

For more information about and opportunities to volunteer, support or participate in it, visit the Diversity Day Blog, contact Murfin at 815 814-5645 or e-mail divday@sbcglobal.net, write Diversity Day c/o Congregational Unitarian Church, 221 Dean Street, Woodstock 60039.

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You see the Latino Unidos Dancers from McHenry County College, plus Gloria Urch and Patrick Murfin, co-hosts last year.

Democratic Party candidate for Nunda Township Trustee Patrick Murfin writes some thoughts about the local election results in his “Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout” blog.

In Nunda Township, where he and running mate Meredith Reid Sarkees lost to the Republican candidates for township trustee, the Democrats went down about 60-40. Maybe a bit less.

Still a pretty hefty Republican victory.

What did the Democrats accomplish?

“By not ceding local races to the Republicans, Democrats forced them to spend large amounts of cash. We keep our campaign organizations intact and in practice between even-year general elections. And we develop experienced candidates who learn the ropes and can go on to bigger things. First time candidate Sarkees, who outdrew old timer Murfin (by only 29 votes) has all of the credentials to go on to other races.”

Murfin suggests that the GOP was highly motivated to reassert its dominance after November’s presidential and county board losses.

That certainly might be the case in Nunda Township. It surely did not look that way to me from an Algonquin Township perspective.

In Nunda, Murfin notes a close correlation between the number of people voting Democrat and the number voting for the Nunda Township Open Space tax hike—1,705 for the tax hike and 1,656-85 for the Democratic Party Nunda Township trustee candidates.

Good point, it seems to me, especially since the Dems on the ballot endorsed the measure and the contested trustee candidates did not.

The problem?

“The much larger number of folks who now vote Democratic in state and national elections, but traditionally pay no attention to local races, could not be turned out despite a concerted effort,”

Murfin wrote.

“And the sad fact is that in Nunda Township the Republicans can still turn out a bigger base than the Democrats.”

Thanks to the campaign web site of the two Nunda Township candidates for township trustee—Meridith Reid Sarkees and Patrick Murfin—Republicans are forewarned that 16 radio ads will run on Star 105.5 Saturday and Sunday.

The man who ran against State Rep. Mike Tryon—Bob Kaempfe—is popping for them.

He had $1,200 left after the campaign.

The ads will promote the candidacy of five running as Democrats for township trustee in Nunda and Algonquin Township.

The three Democrats in Algonquin Township are Frank Hyden, Robert Franks, and James McTague.

Democrats on township ballots who are identified as such are more interesting.

Two are obvious because they ran for partisan county office last fall.

The Democratic Party candidate for county auditor, Kerry Julian, is running for Greenwood Township Clerk.

District 3 county board candidate Jeff Thirtyacre is running for Burton Township Road Commissioner.

Julian and Thirtyacre are running in non-partisan elections, as are two other candidates for Greenwood Township office.

Ed Riley is running for Greenwood Township Supervisor and Tom Ganka is running for Greenwood Township Road Commissioner. Democratic Party State Representative Jack Franks sent an endorsement letter for Riley.

All races are contested.

Two Democratic Party candidates for the Nunda Township Board have a post card being delivered today.

Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees, candidates for Nunda Township Trustee, are following in the footsteps of their Algonquin Township Democratic Party candidates for the same office.

The main difference is that if the Nunda Township challengers win, they won’t take control of the Nunda Township Board.

It the three Algonquin Township Democrats are victorious, they will control the township board.

The Algonquin Township postcard urges readers to “vote the three at the top, then stop.”

In much smaller print, the Nunda Township mailing says,

No more business as usual.
No more closed club.
The People’s business first.

Click to enlarge the images.

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For those of you who don’t know much about townships, they perform three basic functions: assessing, road maintenance in unincorporated areas and hand out local welfare, called General Assistance. Crystal Lake is in four townships. The two major ones are Algonquin and Nunda. The horizontal dividing line is Crystal Lake Avenue. The western part of Crystal Lake (west of our home in Lakewood on Meridian Street, in fact, is Grafton Township. The far Northwestern corner is in Woodstock-dominated Dorr Township.)

It’s not just Algonquin Township Democrats who are feeling their oats after having seen a Democratic Party candidate carry McHenry County for the first time since the formation of the Republican Party.

Two candidates are running for Nunda Township trustee.

With only two on the ballot, the Nunda Dems cannot take control of the township board as the Algonquin ones can.

They two are endorsing the township open space referendum today. Besides the press release below, they are promoting it on their web site.

CRYSTAL LAKE—Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees, candidates for Nunda Township Trustee, announced their endorsement of the Nunda Open Space Referendum on Tuesday.

Democrats Murfin and Sarkees are running together as the “Change for Nunda” ticket and are opposed by four Republican “Team Nunda” candidates.

Both Sarkees and Murfin supported the last Open Space Referenda in which the authorization to establish the program was passed, but the funding mechanism was narrowly defeated. Both, however, wanted to take a careful look at the new proposal.

“One of our main campaign issues,” Murfin said, “has been ‘how can we best preserve our threatened ground water resources and preserve open space as citizens buffeted by the economy while tax revenues stagnate or fall?’”

He said a close examination of the referendum question in its present form convinced the candidates that it was the best option for preserving ground water and maintaining open and undeveloped land in a responsible and affordable manner.

Responding to critics of the referendum Murfin noted that intense development with its roads and rooftops really is a demonsratable threat to scarce ground water recourses. Land purchases under the program will insure that more rain water and snow melt will recharge the aquifer.

The program, which will save smaller and isolated parcels, does not in anyway duplicate or compete with the McHenry County Conservation District’s land acquisition program, which the MCCD itself has acknowledged.

The total bonding authority being requested has been reduced to 15 million dollars from the measure as it last appeared on the ballot. Yet currently falling land prices means that the same amount—or even more—land will be able to be acquired for preservation.

The twenty year level tax rate to repay the bonds means that costs to individual homeowners are reasonable and predictable—they will not rise. An average 250,000 home, for example, would see only a $44 yearly cost. “And open space is proven to enhance property values in the long run,” Murfin said, “many homeowners could find their costs offset by the rise in the value of their property.”

Murfin and Sarkees join elected officials from both parties in supporting the referendum including Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler, State Senator Pam Althoff, and County Board District 3 members Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Barb Wheeler.

The measure is also endorsed by virtually every environmental organization in the county including the McHenry County Conservation Foundation, the Land Conservancy, Boone Creek Watershed Alliance, USDA Natural Resources Conservation District, The Sierra Club, McHenry County Audubon Society, Friends of the Fox, Environmental Defenders of McHenry County, and the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District Open Lands Project.

Agricultural and land owning interests including the McHenry County Farm Bureau and the Bull Valley Association are also on board.

“We feel we are in good company joining this broad support for the public good,” Murfin said.

Since Democratic Party candidates running for township office in Algonquin and Nunda Townships were already selected in caucuses, Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt advises Democrats to skip the Republican primary elections next Tuesday.

Below is her press release:

DEMOCRATIC CHAIR ADDRESSES VOTER CONFUSION

CRYSTAL LAKE—McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Bergan Schmidt addressed confusion over the upcoming Republican Party primary elections in Algonquin and Nunda Townships in a statement released today.

“The only way voters can support Democratic candidates in these townships is to cast their ballots in the April 7th Consolidated Elections,” Bergan Schmidt said.

Republicans chose to select their candidates in a primary election scheduled for Tuesday, February 24. Democrats elected to choose their candidates by caucus, which Bergan Schmidt noted was a considerable savings to tax payers.

Winners of the Republican primaries will square off against Democrats for trustee seats in both townships. Frank Hyden, Robert Frank, and James McTague are the party nominees in Algonquin Township. Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees will be on the ballot in Nunda Township.

“If a voter chooses to participate in the Republican primary, however, he or she can still vote for Democratic candidates in the April election,” Bergan Schmidt pointed out.

Voters with questions should contact the party at 815 788-9540 or e-mail

info@mchenrydems.com.