Despite all the angst at the Statehouse over the state budget and ethics, elements of the post-ROD BLAGOJEVICH honeymoon between Springfield and Gov.
PAT QUINN remain in evidence. The first Governor’s Prayer Breakfast attended Wednesday by Quinn since he took over his current office was a place where just being a regular person with respect for the venue went a long way to make people glad that a page in Illinois history has turned. The fact that Quinn arrived 10 minutes early to the Crowne Plaza for the 47th annual breakfast was contrast enough. But Quinn did more, by taking time to introduce family members of nine fallen servicemen his office had invited to the event. During his years as lieutenant governor, Quinn often attended funerals of those killed overseas. “There are no words in the English language to relieve the pain of losing someone you have known from the day they were born,” Quinn said Wednesday. “I think it is important today, on this day of prayer, that we acknowledge our permanent debt of gratitude to these young men and women. … Our faith teaches us that we will see them again and we will thank them for their lives of service.” SALLY and RUSSELL NATION of Hillsboro were among those Quinn asked to stand. They are the mother and stepfather of Army Cpl. RYAN BUCKLEY, who was 21 when killed in Baghdad on June 23, 2006. He was a gunner on a Humvee hit by a roadside bomb. Sally Nation told me she’s not a political person, but noted that Quinn spoke at her son’s funeral, and said the prayer breakfast &mdash her first &mdash was something she felt good about attending.
“The only thing that’s gotten me through all this is my belief in God,” she said.