Rich Means Memorial Service
The Celebration of Life virtual service for Richard K. Means will be live-streamed on YouTube on SATURDAY January 30 at 1 pm CST. This Celebration service will include some of Rich’s favorite music, photo montages, poetry, eulogy, and tributes from selected family members and friends.
The service will be available on YouTube here. It will be activated for the live-stream about five minutes before the 1 pm start time. You do not need a password, nor is any registration required for the YouTube portion. This is a public event. The video will be archived on the Unity Temple (UTUUC) channel, so you can even go back and view it later if you miss the live-stream version on Saturday. The Order of Service for the Celebration of Life for Rich is attached here.
Immediately following the YouTube service, Rich’s family will host a more informal “reception” on Zoom, where guests will be invited to share – if they wish to do so – brief (e.g. one minute or less, to keep things flowing) remembrances about, and/or toasts to, Rich. The Zoom Reception can be accessed here. IVI-IPO members can contact iviipo@gmail.com for the password.
IVI-IPO Statement on January 6 Insurrection
Civil society is only possible when people feel connected to each other, and feel that they have a stake in each other’s success.
The insurrection was a movement of people who felt that the institutions of our nation no longer represented them. They no longer believed that our government was “we the people,” but “they the people.” For much of this new century our nation has been moving towards a fractured uncivil society, in which policy emerges from one simple question: “does this come from us or them?”
The new administration promises to bring a welcome team of qualified, progressive, and adult professionals. The victory of the first African American senator and the first Jewish senator from Georgia not only affirms the historic coalition that worked to bring civil rights to the deep south, but gives a sliver of breathing room for the new administration.
These developments allow us the hope that our government will be able to resume functioning. A qualified team can begin to bring an effective response to the pandemic. Many of the most egregious atrocities of the outgoing administration can be halted. Many of the terrible policies can be suspended, and the work of replacing them can begin. The hijacking of the census to disenfranchise much of America will be blocked at the federal level.
The fracturing of our nation, however, will not be easily healed. We have no common set of facts, and no ground for dialogue. We have no appetite for listening and seeking common ground, only an increasing aptitude for spiking the ball on each other in social media.
Our differing communities seem to believe that the key to our nation’s health is the total capitulation of the other side. Even our progressive communities are separated by those who demand purity and those who seek incremental change.
What we can do in these times is work. Join organizations like the IVI-IPO with a mission to lead and heal. Our charter is to expand dialogue, seek qualified and effective leaders, and engage our neighbors. These are the tasks I have set before our board for this year.
We cannot do this work alone. To begin, each one of you who reads this should reach out to one person who could join with us. Each person reaches another person may seem like a small way to begin such a mammoth undertaking, but it is the kind of small step that begins the most important of journeys.
Josef Michael Carr, Jr.
State Chair, IVI-IPO
Anjanette Young Video Op-Ed
IVI-IPO Community Action Chair Emmanuel Andre comments on the Anjanette Young Video
Chicago police video of Anjanette Young should shock America. It doesn’t shock Chicago.
Bereavement Notice: Rich Means
It is with great sadness that IVI-IPO notes the passing of Richard K. Means, our State Chair from 1991-1993, of COVID complications. Rich was a fighter for justice and a standard bearer for open, honest government. One of the top election lawyers in Illinois, respected by attorneys and activists of all political persuasions, he helped innumerable candidates navigate the web of ballot access laws and clear the hurdles of petition challenges.
Rich devoted many years to IVI-IPO both before and after his service as State Chair. He was a regular fixture of our A-Z Campaign Workshops as producer and presenter of our most popular class: “How to Get on the Ballot – and Stay There!” Any candidate who took that class came away with a wealth of knowledge, especially recognition of the importance of that earliest phase of a campaign. Rich never used the opportunity to sell his services, but he always stressed how important it was for candidates to get legal assistance – because if they didn’t get on the ballot none of the other skills we were teaching for the rest of the campaign would help them! He communicated with passion and with humor and many current office holders owe their political start not only to his skills, but his patience and kindness.
Rich also advocated for legislation and judicial action to increase government transparency. Public access to government documents, online debate and voting records of the state legislature, lobbyist disclosure, and campaign financial disclosure, are among the good government policies that came to fruition through Rich’s efforts. He twice won IVI-IPO’s coveted Legal Eagle Award, for his work in both election law and redistricting reform. Rich was involved in many political and legal efforts including LEAP, Common Cause, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and most recently as President of the Northeastern Illinois Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action. He was an honest, ethical, principled champion of the independent movement and we will miss him greatly.
Memorial donations can be made to Americans for Democratic Action https://adaction.org/, Beyond Hunger https://www.gobeyondhunger.org/ or the UTUUC Abundance Fund www.unitytemple.org
Read Rich’s obituary and sign the guest book at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/chicagotribune/name/richard-means-obituary?pid=197322052