Preparing for the Illinois 200 Bicentennial, Governor Rauner cited our economic, academic, and political achievements. I’m sure if we look hard enough we can scrape up something to be proud of, but Illinois at 200 is a debt-ridden embarrassment that forces kids to compete with public worker retirements. Our political contributions are inertia, reckless spending, abusive government, and forcing taxpayers to support our politicians even after they are out of office and sit in prison. None of this is anything to be proud of, but we might feel some sense of pride when we finally summon the courage to leave this state.