Aurora Beacon-News
January 19, 2002
Five-part platform: Prairie Parkway among top concerns for faith-based Aurora group
By John Zaremba
STAFF WRITER
AURORA &emdash; The outer-belt highway gained an unexpected foe Friday when an activist group of church leaders said fighting the roadway will be among its top objectives.
The Aurora Area Religious Organized Network's objection to the 33-mile Prairie Parkway is among five causes the group has undertaken in its 2002 political platform, released at a press conference Friday.
The group, which draws its members from seven Aurora churches, argues that the highway will starve already struggling downtowns and drive blighted parts of the Fox Valley further into poverty.
"We see businesses relocating, tax bases dwindling, schools suffering," said the Rev. Roy Brown, pastor of Progressive Baptist Church. "If this should come to pass, we will see an exodus of businesses."
Also topping the group's priorities is an overhaul in the allocation of money for public schools. The platform says school funding "must be based on equal revenue sharing among all school districts in the state, regardless of the socio-economic level of the local school district."
School improvements such as renovations and teacher salaries are issues best handled by the the state legislature, group leaders said. Local bond issues and referendums &emdash; 10 of which will be on Fox Valley ballots in March &emdash; penalize children "simply because they and their parents comprise a voting minority in that particular local community," according to the group's platform.
Those two directives are the most-urgent on the five-point agenda, said the Rev. Wayne Miller, pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church. Other proposals for reform include:
Housing opportunity &emdash; The group recommends several changes, including a crackdown on slumlords and a move that would make 15 percent of new housing available to middle- and low-income home buyers.
Immigrant rights &emdash; Leaders want to make it easier for immigrants who have no Social Security number to open a checking account "so every dime they earn stays in their pocket," said group member Juan Escareno of St. Nicholas Catholic Church. Through the widespread use of taxpayer identification numbers, which are easier to obtain than Social Security numbers, immigrants also would be eligible for driver's licenses and insurance.
Public safety &emdash; Ex-convicts have little trouble obtaining guns and drugs but do not come across jobs so easily, group members said in calling for job training and tutoring programs.
"That's exactly the opposite of the way it should be," Brown said.
Drafted after more than a thousand interviews with church members, the agenda was announced deliberately at the same time of year as the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., group leaders said.
Miller said the Aurora Area Religious Organized Network, formed in late 2000, has used King's work as a basis and example for its own.
That means lobbying, back-room meetings with those in the seat of power and, if necessary, aggravation of public officials.
"If we have to upset someone's protocol to get these agenda items where they need to be, we will upset someone's protocol," Brown said.
The platform's release marks the first time the group has entered the political circuit in time for a major election. Members do not expect to endorse individual candidates.