Marion mayor: Bring Gitmo detainees here
Some folks consider it a horrible idea to send terrorism suspects now held at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to locations in the United States. Others consider it an opportunity.
While other cities across the United States have balked at taking in any of the more than 200 detainees from the infamous lockup in Cuba that President Obama hopes to shutter, Marion is part of a small contingent seeking out the prisoners – and the money and jobs they might bring.
“We have the facility, and I say: Bring them on,” Mayor Robert Butler said.
Ah, a remember of the good old days of the last big economic downturn — the 1980s — when every other city in Illinois was begging the state and/or the feds for a prison of their very own.
The assumption was that we’ll always need places to hold criminals. I mean, what kind of idiot politician is ever going to close a prison, right?
And as someone who has lived in and reported from three communities that house prisons, I can assure you residents do not give a crap what happens inside the walls of the facility they pass every day on their way to work. Nor do they really want to read stories about what goes on behind prison walls. Too depressing.
Just hand them the cash and don’t bother them with the details.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
