Bud Trunk

.@adamcarolla is right — but in Illinois, this isn’t just hypocrisy. It’s willful indifference, enabled by a media that protects it. My daughter, Katie Abraham, was killed by someone who should never have been here. That same night, another young woman was killed, and others were severely injured. Multiple lives shattered. Preventable. For 14 months, @GovPritzker has never said Katie’s name. Not once. Instead, he elevates tragedies in other states when it fits his narrative, while ignoring the consequences of his own policies here at home. That’s not leadership. That’s political self-preservation. @SenatorDurbin sat feet away from me for over two hours during a Senate hearing where I was present. Other Democratic senators, @SenAlexPadilla and @SenPeterWelch, acknowledged Katie, and I appreciated that. We can disagree on policy and still act like decent human beings. Durbin said nothing. @SenDuckworth told me she didn’t even know Katie’s story. Not oversights. Choices. And it doesn’t stop with politicians. Too much of the Illinois media trades truth for access and Pritzker money, running interference, shaping narratives, and shielding those in power. We’re already seeing it again with the Sheridan Gorman tragedy: twisting a preventable act into confusion, bad luck, or “wrong place at the wrong time,” while sympathy is redirected to the perpetrator instead of the victims. In this environment, victims are minimized, and responsibility disappears. This is what happens when leaders become so ideologically rigid they treat their own righteousness as untouchable. No reassessment. No accountability. And no place for public safety when it conflicts with the narrative. Katie was 20 years old. She mattered. The other young woman mattered. Every person injured that night matters. They will not be erased to protect political careers, or the media that shields them. If nothing changes, it will be business as usual. And that should outrage every person in Illinois.