This week…
Two very different stories out of Illinois that reveal hope and change on multiple levels of society.
The next level in “shifting the powers that be”
Two weeks ago we looked at Chance the Rapper’s Grammy win, explaining how in many ways this was a sign of “shifting the powers that be.” We used Chance’s unconventional rise to fame (which completely bucks against the “system”) to highlight how the powers at the top of major societal arenas, such as the media, are experiencing an earthquake of change. We also mentioned government as one of those major arenas.
This went to the next level recently as news broke out of a difficult meeting between Chance and the Governor of Illinois. If you’re wondering if there is a literal shift of power happening, this is a perfect example of it. Upon Chance’s three Grammy wins, he was publicly congratulated by Gov. Rauner through Twitter. Chance took the opportunity to immediately request a meeting with the Governor. This led to a back and forth dialogue between the two . . . all of it made public on Twitter.
Now we don’t know if the Governor really wanted to meet with him or not. But since it was so out in the open, it seems he had no choice but to meet with Chance. The two ended up having a “frustrating” conversation about Chicago’s public school crisis. After the meeting, Chance felt the Governor was playing political games during their dialogue. Chance explained that funding for the schools was being held back for political reasons.
We don’t know the full story here. We also want to acknowledge that funneling money into a crisis doesn’t necessarily solve anything. That being said, this meeting has sparked a nationwide conversation and now the Governor of Illinois is being pressured into fresh action (right now Chicago students are facing the possibility of a shortened school year because there’s no money). Furthermore, Chance has since announced that he is giving one million dollars from the ticket sales of his upcoming tour to help a struggling school in the South Side of Chicago.
When writing about this Grammy win and the bigger story of influence upon societal strongholds, we didn’t expect such an immediate follow-up involving Chance and a major politician. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Either way, we are in a new day where God is raising up new voices who are putting their money where their mouth is.
A new path to fusion
While Illinois faces an incredible crisis within its public school systems, there is another important story coming out of the University of Illinois. In partnership with Rice University and the University of Chile, researchers there have recently set forth a possible new path toward achieving nuclear fusion.
You may not be familiar with that phrase, but understand that this could be one of the biggest technological breakthroughs in human history (up there with the computer and the wheel). Nuclear fusion already exists deep within stars, but there is a theoretical hope that one day we will be able to create nuclear fusion in the lab, which would give mankind clean and limitless energy.
The main problem with this is that you can’t get two particular atoms to “fuse” together to release the desired energy, because they have opposite charges and push each other way. But a team from Illinois and Rice postulated a new way that involves lasers (and other complicated stuff). Just like the public school crisis, there is much work to be done, and much at stake . . . But there is a lot of hope that progress is being made and new ideas and new paths forward are being forged.