A 73-year-old Illinois man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for driving a car into a planned abortion clinic and trying to set the building on fire last year.
Philip J. Buyno of Prophetstown also was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $327,547 in restitution, prosecutors said in a news release. U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce handed down the sentence.
You’d be surprised. I am right on the border with East-Central Illinois and yes, there are a lot of rednecks in the small towns, but there are also things like a very upscale cafe in a very tiny town and cannabis dispensaries full of friendly people who love to chat.
So it’s more mixed than you would think.
Also, Casey is just a neat place.
I lived in Carbondale for a bit, which is a really neat college town. It’s home to Southern Illinois University, one of the wildest party schools in the later part of the 20th century (to the point where city officials banned Halloween celebrations because they were getting out of hand), and it seemed to me like a tolerant, cosmopolitan town in south Illinois.
But then you drive a few miles south, and you get to Anna, one of the most infamous “sundown towns” in America.
It’s definitely a big mix. Especially in the college towns. Charleston feels like that too.
I’ve never been down as far south as Carbondale, but I keep meaning to go to Garden of the Gods.