Knox in the News

Excerpt from the Register-Mail’s Editors Roundtable:

What should the city do with its study on downtown development?

Need overall city plan first
The development ideas are interesting, although it’s difficult to understand why the public doesn’t have access to the whole study now. The community helped make this plan, paid $47,000 for the study and should see the entire proposal that’s now being considered by the council.

Among the items proposed are making the Public Square a downtown anchor, connecting Knox College to downtown via a civic mall along Broad Street and closing the intersection of South and Seminary streets….

Excerpt from a guest opinion in the Register-Mail:

I attended the courthouse committee’s meeting Tuesday evening and spoke briefly on the likelihood of the courthouse reverting to Knox College pursuant to the language contained in the 1869 deed. I concluded that the reversion was unenforceable (stale) due to two Illinois statutes.

But the meeting caused me to think about larger issues: what to do with the courthouse and how the public library’s problems could be solved as well. Here are my conclusions….

Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and his Republican challenger Steve Sauerberg debated on the Knox campus Thursday, October 9, 2008.

Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune:

Only days after backtracking on questioning Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s patriotism, Republican challenger Steve Sauerberg reheated the issue Thursday by accusing him of actions that “emboldens the enemy” and “puts our soldiers in danger” in Iraq.The remarks by Sauerberg, during a debate at Knox College in Galesburg, prompted Durbin to ask “where the bottom is” in his opponent’s campaign.

Two days earlier, during a joint appearance at the Tribune’s editorial board, Sauerberg said of questioning Durbin’s patriotism, “Maybe that’s fair. Maybe it’s not.” Sauerberg also then told Durbin, “I apologize if you’re upset with me” and praised the incumbent’s work on behalf of the troops.

But on Thursday night, in the last debate before the Nov. 4 election, Sauerberg told an Illinois Radio Network audience that he was only voicing a frequent concern of voters by questioning Durbin’s patriotism.

The Register-Mail visits with students and attendees:

Maury Cohn looked a little young Thursday night seated inside Knox College’s Kresge Recital Hall…..

Cohn admitted he will turn 14 next month and is a freshman at Galesburg High School. He passed on whatever it is soon-to-be 14-year-olds normally do to attend a debate.

Just to be clear, this was a debate between two people who don’t have Obama, McCain or Palin as a last name.

“I’m interested in how politics work,” Cohn said. “But I’m not interested in going into politics. I like to know what’s going on, what’s happening in the world I live in.

Excerpt from WGIL radio:

150 years and two days might have been worth the wait for another major political debate to come to Galesburg.

Incumbent U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and Republican, Doctor Steve Sauerberg, at times, verbally slugged it out on the Knox College campus Thursday night, in a debate heard live on WGIL and WGIL.com.

The two differed on every topic thrown at them, including earmarks. Durbin says he’s always been transparent when it comes to earmarks, especially some that have been pretty good to this area….

….Sauerberg, when asked by Springfield Bureau Cheif Melissa Hahn about the possibility that the City of Galesburg is hopeful for federal money for three proposed railroad overpasses, that would likely come in the form of earmarks, said the city probably shouldn’t get that lucky.

Excerpt from the Daily Illini:

Knox College hosted the Lincoln-Douglas debate 150 years ago. Thursday night, United States Senate candidates Steve Sauerberg and incumbent Democrat Dick Durbin made their arguments for the seat.

The majority of the debate was related to the economy, and both candidates attempted to relate the issues to the Knox College students in attendance.

The debate began with discussion of the crisis on Wall Street and the bailout plan proposed by Congress.

Excerpt from the Register-Mail:

When Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held their historic debate at Knox College a century and a half ago, the pair had to clamber through a window to get to the podium, as Knox President Roger Taylor recounted Thursday.

Sen. Dick Durbin and Steve Sauerberg found it a lot easier to get to the podium, when they debated at Knox last night 150 years and two days after the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate.

But, while the way to the podium may have been easier, the debate was just as ferocious as it was then.

Excerpt from WGIL radio:

An annual series of discussions about Illinois’ favorite son comes to Galesburg tomorrow (today), just in time for last week’s Lincoln-Douglas Debate anniversary.

The annual Lincoln Colloquium is being held in Galesburg this year on the Knox College campus, one of several rotating sites in the state for the annual discussion and presentation of scholarly works on Lincoln.

Knox College Lincoln Studies Center Co-Director Douglas Wilson will moderate many of Saturday’s discussions, and tells WGIL the great debates will be the focus during the morning sessions.

Excerpt from the Register-Mail:

The day of the Lincoln-Douglas debates on the Knox College campus on Oct. 7, 1858, was marred only by the weatherman. A cold wind and steady rain fell throughout the day. Thousands witnessed the historic event that put Galesburg and Knox College on the national map. More importantly historians have concluded that the debate propelled Abraham Lincoln into the presidency two years later.

The 100th Anniversary of the debate on Oct. 7, 1958, was celebrated with even more pageantry than the original. Ironically, the weatherman decided to participate again, as a steady, drenching rain came down to duplicate the 1858 event. And because of the rain the 1958 debate reenactment on the east side of Old Main became even more dramatic. The participants and spectators proved their Spartan character by their enthusiastic attendance. The difference from 100 years previous was that many wore raincoats and carried umbrellas.

Excerpt from WGIL radio:

Two Knox College professors are receiving what is described as the state’s highest award for their ongoing work researching the life of Abraham Lincoln.

The State says Rodney Davis and Douglas Wilson are two of a host of recipients of the state’s “Order of Lincoln” award, and will receive it formally February 7th.

Davis tells WGIL he wasn’t expecting such an award, but feels he’s in great company. “My colleague, Doug Wilson and I, we’ve been placed in a very impressive list of Lincoln scholars. I think there are about 30 of us who are getting this distinction,” Davis said.”

Davis and Wilson are co-directors of the Lincoln Studies Center on the Knox College campus. Davis tells WGIL some of the names on the list of winners have either spoken at, or have been on the board of directors of, the Lincoln Studies Center. “We’ve had a pretty remarkable run of Lincoln scholars come through here over the years and speak publicly,” Davis said. “We’re glad they’ve all been gathered together and given this distinction all at the same time.”

The state says the winners were specially chosen for their Lincoln work with the anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates this year, and the anniversary of Abe’s birth next year, and range from a Mary Todd Lincoln biographer to famed artist LeRoy Neiman, who created a portrait of Lincoln in 1969 that’s considered a classic.

Excerpt from the Register-Mail:

Two local Abraham Lincoln scholars will be among 30 to receive the highest honor awarded by the state of Illinois in February.

Douglas Wilson and Rodney Davis, co-founders of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College and authors of several Lincoln books, are two of the honorees who will be given the Order of Lincoln at a ceremony Feb. 7 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. Recipients will become Lincoln Academy of Illinois Bicentennial Laureates.

“I’m flattered and extremely honored by this distinction,” Davis said of the award. “We (he and Wilson) are only two honorees among many. There’s a long list of people being honored this year (and) everybody is interested in bringing as much enlightenment as possible to the subject of Abraham Lincoln.”

The Lincoln Academy was established in 1964 to honor Illinois’ most distinguished citizens, either by birth or residence, who have brought honor to the state by their achievements. Past honorees have included Ronald Reagan, Chicago Bears player Walter Payton and Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks.

Excerpt from the Register-Mail:

The crowd that gathered Saturday to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Lincoln-Douglas debate at Knox College differed from the 1858 crowd in several noticeable ways.

The contemporary audience — numbering in the hundreds — rode in on bicycles or automobiles instead of by buggy or rail like the thousands who came from Galesburg and the surrounding communities 150 years ago.

They wore jeans and chatted on cell phones, sat in lawn chairs and snapped photographs — and had the benefit of hearing a simplified, and amplified, version of the historic words spoken on Oct. 7, 1858.

Those who attended the event Saturday also had the benefit of a sunny, clear-skied fall afternoon, a far cry from the cold, windy day of the debate.