Our recent Town Hall, and the tragedy in Uvalde
This past Tuesday I had the honor of meeting with many of you who came out to our Progressive Caucus Legislative Town Hall. It was great to be able to connect, share a recap of the progressive victories won in the recent legislative session, and hear your questions and feedback. If you weren’t able to attend, you can still watch the live stream here.
Throughout the Town Hall, our amazing panelists - State Representative Delia Ramirez, State Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, and State Senator Omar Aquino - were able to discuss the impact of our legislative victories as well as address pressing policy concerns posed by community members. We also heard from policy experts in different areas about the victories they won this year: Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain of Live Free Illinois talked about public safety and violence interruption, Luvia Quinones of ICIRR talked about Medicaid Expansion, and Norma Rios-Sierra of Palanque LSNA and the EITC Coalition spoke on tax breaks for families.
We also engaged in an interactive exercise with neighbors to get a sense of the issues that folks were most passionate about. We learned that our neighbors really want to see us tackle high healthcare costs, make meaningful investments in holistic public safety, and provide more funding to help students thrive.
However, the most pressing and urgent issue that we discussed was gun violence. Prior to the start of our Town Hall, news had just broken of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. It's been a truly heartbreaking week. As I'm sure you all are, I'm back and forth between feeling disgusted, angry, sad, and outraged. I'm certain all those feelings would be amplified exponentially if I had a child I was sending to school this week. I just can't imagine.
Here in Illinois, we take the job of preventing mass shootings very seriously. Last year we passed sweeping gun safety legislation creating universal background checks, putting in place a stolen gun database, and investing in mental health and trauma recovery for victims of violent crimes, their families, and their communities.
And it goes without saying that there’s still a lot of work to do, in our state and across the country, when it comes to enacting policy that can prevent these preventable tragedies — and the tragic gun violence that affects our city with such devastating frequency as well.
But unfortunately, the solutions we need the most have to come from Washington. As long as our border states have gaping loopholes in their gun laws, and as long as the federal government doesn't go after illegal interstate gun trafficking, one city and one state will never be able to control the influx of guns into its borders. We need to elect representatives to Congress who will stand up to the NRA and finally do what's right.
As we all grapple with the tragic news of the week, I hope you and your family can find some solace. If there's anything our office can do to support you all, please reach out. And know that your state legislators are committed to bringing true safety and security to all our families.
Sincerely,
Will