Ronald Reagan's birthplace

Ronald Reagan was born in an apartment on the second floor of this small-town bank building (which previously was a general store).  It is in the community of Tampico Illinois, which has a population of somewhere around 772.  

That's according to the 2,000 census; we've got a new one coming up next year--which for some reason has excited great controversy in right-wing circles.  Rep. Michelle Bachmann is refusing to fill the form out, and TV commentator Glenn Beck might not fill out his either, but is fearful that if you don't, you won't be able to get a permit for a gun.  Bachmann thinks the information may also used to round people up and put them in internment camps.  All this is of course ridiculous, preposterous fear-mongering fantasizing, but it is in keeping with destructive spirit of present-day Republicanism.  If you can't beat them, then knock over the game board!

And of course one census worker has been killed, apparently for being a "government agent."  The word "fed" was written on his bound, naked body.  Were Bachmann and Beck complicit?  I don't think all the facts are out in this case.  Some theorize it was really suicide, apparently.

But, back in reality-land, there are ten questions on the 2010 form; filling it out takes about ten minutes, and you can see it if you want on-line now, but you can't fill it out there.  It comes in the mail.

As to privacy, I imagine Google knows a heck of a lot more about you than the Census Bureau does.

However, I doubt that the Reagan family itself resisted being counted.  Actually, I hope at least that they were proud to be counted as Americans.  Lots of Reagan's ideas and policies ended up hurting the country badly, but I don't doubt that he had a genuine love for the US.  And he should:  he was the product of an "opportunity story," just like Barack Obama is.  Start poor, rise high.

Anyhow, the reason the census exists is to provide a basis for the apportionment of representatives among the states, which is determined (in the House, but not the Senate) by population.  In more "modern" times, it also has a considerable influence on the flow of some types of federal financial aid, where population is an important allocational factor:  bigger states get more. It was provided for by Article I, Section II of the Constitution.  Originally it counted all free persons; excluded Indians not taxed; and did also include 3/5ths of "other" persons, which is to say, slaves.  That was, of course, a great compromise.  If slaves had been counted one-for-one, that would have increased the representation of the slave-holding states and probably encouraged the spread of slavery further.  (These are the facts behind the "liberal" myth that African-Americans' were considered to be only three-fifths of a person.  Even Condi Rice  has said her ancestors were only 3/5ths of a man).

Anyhow, Reagan was a small town boy, living in a number of different places in north-central Illinois.  There is a "boyhood home" in Tampico, and another (which is open to the public) in Dixon IL.  There is a "Ronald Reagan Trail" that you can drive; it begins in Tampico, and in the past two weekends, I have driven most of it.

I liked Tampico well enough to go there twice lately, but really, there isn't a place there to get a cup of coffee, other than the Casey's General Store.  However, at Halloween there was a little girl dressed as a pirate who wore a pirate ship hanging all around her.  That was definitely worth seeing, and probably I will go back sometime again.