By Greg Halbleib
BLOOMINGTON – The Democratic challenger for Congress in the 18th District said ending racial tensions begins with dialogue.
Junius Rodriguez has seen successful examples of racial dialogue in his classes at Eureka College, where he is a history professor.
“Issues that might be a bit confrontational sometimes people simply choose to clam up and not really confront things,” Rodriguez told WJBC’s Terry James.
“But the beginnings of trying to find answers is trying to find common ground, and the only way to find common ground is listening to one another and having those difficult conversations.”
Rodriguez said those conversations have been kicked down the road for the last century.
Rodriguez also favors federal support for local job creation efforts.
“The federal government doesn’t have to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution,” Rodriguez said, “but the federal government can actually support the kind of work that needs to be done at the local level to ensure that people gain access to the opportunity where they can get the degrees and the certifications that they need.”
Rodriguez said job creation is important not just for the local economy but for representation in Washington.
“We still have a lot of folks moving out of the state and that type of bleeding of population has to stop,” Rodriguez said. “Keep in mind that we lost a congressional seat because of folks moving out. We used to have 19 districts in the state and now we’re down to 18.”
Rodriguez faces incumbent Darin LaHood in November.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at greg@wjbc.com.
