Sometimes it has to be all about garnering attention.

That is just what Anthony Rayson, George Ochsenfeld, and a band of anti-Peotone Airport combatants are doing with their analogy and their artistry.

The analogy

Rayson and Ochsenfeld, founding members of STAND, Shut This Airport Nightmare Down have decided to ceremoniously transfer, even if only for a little while, the legendary Curse of the Billy Goat from the Chicago Cubs to the Peotone Airport. Being how the legend is sports-related, it is something most folks throughout Illinois and beyond can relate to. At least that is Rayson’s hope.

The curse that dates back to 1945, was supposedly placed on the Cubs when Billy Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern—the local eatery made famous years later by the Saturday Night Live skit where patrons ordered “Cheezborgers, cheezborgers, cheeps, and Coke, no Pepsi”—was invited to leave a game because his pet goat began eating other fans’ food. Needless to say Sianis was miffed. In response he vowed the Cubs would never win a World Series game because his goat was insulted. The Cubs lost the World Series that year, in a curse that has plagued them ever since.

Rayson wants to transfer that curse from the Cubs, of which he is partial, to the Peotone Airport. The state of Illinois has spent tens of millions of dollars against all logic and common sense, trying to revive an idea that first surfaced in 1968, shortly after O’Hare International Airport proved to be a lucrative prospect for its owner, the City of Chicago. Instead of picking on the Cubs, Rayson would rather see the state never win the game they have been playing, the game that has harmed so many in eastern Will County, not to mention all of Illinois taxpayers who have paid for the state’s folly.

The artistry

The artistry involves the cutting of a farm field, symbolic of potential loss to some of the best farmland known to man, in the shape of a giant no-airport symbol. The symbol, which has long been the insignia of anti-airport sentiment involves the international symbol for air transportation —an airport—in combination with the international symbol for no, which is a circle and a slash.

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The protest of the South Suburban Airport dates back to 1985. STAND grew out of RURAL, Residents United to Retain Agricultural Land, a group I co-founded with several other residents of the area who met outside a meeting in Beecher to discuss the proposal. We couldn't’t believe what we were hearing so we formed to stop it. So far we have, but the state is undaunted.

I can attest to the fact that the issues that spark the angst of Americans throughout the country, regarding government ignoring the people they are elected to represent, has been going on in Illinois for almost 30 years. It isn't about what is good for the state, or good for the people; it is about what is good for the politicians who are addicted to control and greed.

And that’s not all

To further the satire, Rayson insisted on naming the goat, Gary, to pay homage to the Gary/Chicago International Airport, that has long been the official third Chicagoland airport that Illinois officials like U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., the most vocally supportive of the Peotone Airport boondoggle, refuse to acknowledge. Yet, the Gary airport is a viable airport complete with infrastructure to serve it, support by an entire state contingency, and a runway longer than Chicago’s second airport, Midway.

Gary/Chicago is in the process of expanding that runway. Once it does, there will be no doubt of its potential. Perhaps then, this Peotone fiasco can finally be put to rest, as it should have many years ago.

Enjoy the video. 

My thanks to Tony Rayson for the farm field photo and to Ann Baskerville, willcountynews for staying on top of this issue and all the other topics that are vitally important to an informed electorate.