Leadership Quote by James R. Thompson

Thompson is doing two things at once: blessing the past and selling it. The opening posture of gratitude ("very fortunate") is the classic politician's soft landing, a way to turn preservation into a feel-good consensus instead of a budget line item. Historic structures "add immeasurably" to cultural life, an intentionally un-auditable claim that preempts the bean counters. You cannot spreadsheet "immeasurable", so you are invited to feel it.

Then comes the pivot that gives away the real audience: tourism. Thompson ties heritage to revenue, quietly recasting old buildings as productive infrastructure. The phrase "which by the way is our number one industry" has the breezy aside of a man slipping a statistic into conversation as if it were common knowledge. Subtext: if you care about jobs and growth, you should care about preservation. He's triangulating between constituencies - arts advocates who want dignity, business leaders who want returns, and voters who want a state that looks like it believes in itself.

The context matters. In late-20th-century state politics, "culture" often sounded like a luxury, especially outside major cities. Thompson's rhetoric treats it as an economic engine, a strategy that anticipates today's "creative economy" arguments without the jargon. It's also a subtle defense against the Illinois anxiety of decline: historic structures become proof of continuity and legitimacy, a way of saying the state isn't just a balance sheet with problems; it's a place with a story people will pay to enter.