Illinois reporter shaves 'budget beard' grown during impasse

[TexasTowelie]

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — It's gone. A political reporter in Illinois has finally had his beard shaved after more than 13 months of growing the bushy facial hair to bring attention to the state's budget impasse.

Chris Kaergard of the Journal Star newspaper in Peoria promised not to shave until Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-dominated Legislature reached a deal.

After an entire fiscal year without a budget, Rauner signed into law last week a stopgap spending plan to keep state government operating for six months.

It was enough of a compromise for Kaergard to go under a barber's blade Saturday.

Read more: http://hosted2.ap.org/PAPIT/d3444c3add384b05a39deb3258f13309/Article_2016-07-10-US--Illinois%20Budget-Beard/id-fcc7bd0a3da54d10a6e7403db10b8b65

[No Vested Interest]

1. I've never understood the supposed power of letting one's beard grow as a protest measure.

Why should anyone take meaning from hair growth, which is going to occur anyway?
Is it the lack of cutting or maintenance which supposedly has meaning and may even change minds regarding whatever issue is being challenged?
Should you or I care about someone else's beard length?
Would anyone beyond the bearded one's immediate family be affected ?
Should women protest by letting underarm hair grow?

Now, going on a fast from food is another matter, though that also can become quite foolish.
Unless there is a truly important cause, as in the Irish prisoners, some of whom fasted unto death, in protest of British rule in Northern Ireland.