Illinois Senate Floor Debate — July 2, 2004

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise for the point of a personal privilege, as well as for an announcement. First, for the point of personal privilege. Immediately to my right, Senator Ray Soden has his lovely bride of fifty-eight years, Shirley, here with us today. We’d like for her to be recognized by the General Assembly. And, secondly, we call for a Republican Caucus immediately upon adjournment. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. Just a -- a brief announcement. The -- in our Leaders’ meeting, and the Governor had indicated to all of us and I know you all applaud that decision, the -- the Governor decided not to call a Special Session for Saturday, Sunday or Monday. And -- but that -- that doesn’t have anything to do with regular Session. So I talked to the Minority Leader and said, well, maybe we should call a regular Session. We can still have the power to call regular Session. But -- and the -- the Minority Leader said, if we call it, he would be here with us, but I don’t want him to be alone. So -- so -- so the Members -- the Governor feels that the Members may want to go home and participate in parades and enjoy the 4th of July. But hopefully when we do return Tuesday, we can begin to bring a closure to this very, very long Session. So we’re going to go into a brief caucus then we will be returning to the table on the budget negotiations and collateral issues.

Yes. I do appreciate the President’s comments and remarks and I appreciate the Governor letting us go back to our districts and talk to the people that we represent and enjoy the 4th of July with our families, and I think it’s a -- a good gesture. I want to make one quick comment here about Adeline Geo-Karis. Yesterday was actually the first day that Adeline Geo-Karis came to the United States in 1922, and when she came to Illinois, it was actually July 4th of that same year. So, 2  STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 139th Legislative Day 7/2/2004 Adeline has lived a -- long years of service as an immigrant to this country, has represented her country - her -- her home country of Greece - in a manner that we should all be proud. And, Geo, I appreciate the cupcakes and, obviously, your -- your service to the people of Lake County for all these years, and I appreciate very much your friendship also. You’ve been a wonderful lady.

Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate, it means a lot to me to be here. It means a lot to me that my mother and sister and I traveled from Greece to Chicago and -- and -- and I arrived in Illinois the 4th of July. So the 4th of July is a very, very dear date to me and I’m very happy that the President of the Senate, my Leader, Frank Watson, and the President of the -- and the Speaker of the House and the Minority Speaker -- the Leader rather, Tom Cross, and all of you and the Governor have decided to give us this time off, because on the 4th of July I will be in a parade wearing a red, white and blue, believe it or not, speckled vest that was made by a constituent of mine, because I believe in the red, white and blue. This is the best country in the world. This is the country that’s given me all of my opportunities with God’s many blessings, and I want to tell you that I appreciate it going back, because I could never explain to them back home why I’m not there the 4th of July. So, Governor, if you’re listening, and Leaders, I thank you for all your efforts, because there’s no better country than the USA and we’ve got to remember its traditions. So all of you have a nice, safe time, and thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind words, Frank, and thank you, thank you, thank you, folks, for taking me into your hearts. God bless all of your on the 4th of July.