Wait. Jen Wrote a Book?!
- Jen McMillin
- Aug 22
- 10 min read
Welcome back to Sunshine Strategies Radio, friends! I’m Jen McMillin—your host, and the founder of Sunshine Strategies, a nonprofit supporting families and strengthening communities across central Illinois.
If you’ve been listening for a while, you know this show doesn’t shy away from politics. Last week I encouraged folks to grab a petition and run for office. The week before, we unpacked the gerrymandering mess.
And today? Well, today’s no different—but it is personal.
Now, I know politics makes a lot of people cringe. But for me? I love it. Not the cable-news, mud-slinging, sound-bite version of politics. I love politics because I see it as something bigger: community building. Service. Even joy.
And let’s be honest—joy is something American politics could use a whole lot more of.
For me, joy looks like going back to the basics. Riding the circuit, like Lincoln once did. Listening to neighbors. Tackling the problems they point out. Sharing the results.
So why can’t we do that at the state level—or even nationally? Because the system is broken.
For the past two years, I’ve been wrestling with how to make a living as what I call an “unelected politician”—a community organizer outside the party system. And I’ve asked myself: how do I take what I’ve learned and use it to help friends climbing the political ladder?
Here’s the truth: democracy won’t fix itself. We have to reassert ourselves and force it to work as it was meant to.
I don’t claim to have the full solution—but I do believe I’ve got part of it. And that’s what I want to share with you today.
Which brings me to something I’ve been working on quietly—and now, finally, out loud.
It’s a book called Rebuild the Union: A Guide to the Third American Reconstruction.
At its heart, the book is simple: America’s greatest legacy isn’t perfection—it’s reinvention.
We’ve rebuilt before—after the Civil War, and again during the Civil Rights Movement. And now, facing division, inequality, and distrust in our institutions, we have to do it again.
This isn’t just history—it’s a roadmap. I break down what went wrong with past reconstructions, what worked, and how everyday people—not just politicians—can take part in rebuilding democracy today.
If you care about justice… if you’ve ever felt like politics is broken beyond repair… or if you’re simply searching for hope and direction in messy times—this book is for you. It’s not a lecture. It’s an invitation: to imagine and then to build a country that finally lives up to its promise.
Now, here’s the thing: I’ve never written a book before. Honestly, this is my first real dive into writing outside of this podcast and my Substack.
But.
I wasn’t raised reciting “with liberty and justice for all” just to watch it not be true. I wasn’t taught by my heroes to sit back when I know I can help. And writing this book felt less like a choice and more like a calling—to share what I’ve seen, and to call on others to reclaim this country, for us and for our kids.
So, on today’s episode, I want to share the introduction with you. I hope you enjoy.
7/11/25
As I sit down to embark on this next epic adventure, I have to ask myself:
What’s my angle?
It’s the same question my friend Bill asked me during our last visit. Not out of doubt or disrespect—Bill never deals in cheap shots—it was his way of cutting straight to the heart of it:
What’s the fight I’ve picked, and why?
Because let’s be real—I am picking a fight.
Six months ago, I sat in Bill’s living room pitching a wild idea. Back then, it felt like a pretty big one: A midlife entrepreneur trying to buy Lincoln College—Bill’s Alma mater—and turn it into a laboratory for fixing democracy.
Even writing that sentence makes me laugh a little. Not because it’s a bad idea—but because it’s just… audacious enough to maybe work.
And the thing is—it needs to.
The college has sat empty for five years.
Logan County desperately needs new energy, new investment, new hope.
And I used to work there. I know that place.
More importantly, my whole career has been about rebuilding community.
Now, to be clear, I don’t own the college. I’m still working on the funding. But here’s what I do know:
After years spent bridging the gaps between public, private, and nonprofit work, I’ve learned this truth the hard way
Anything is possible with the right motivation and a solid plan.
Planning is where most people stumble. Not me. I’ve got a historian’s lens—I see how today’s chaos echoes yesterday’s battles. And I know how to take the tools around me and build something new.
With Lincoln College, the foundation was already there:
A shuttered campus.
A community ready for revival.
A country starving for civic reawakening.
So I started with the facts, rooted in local needs. I layered in values pulled straight from American history—caring for the future, fighting for the common good, and believing in second chances.
And I asked a simple question: What if we turned this forgotten campus into a national destination for American culture, civic education, and democratic renewal?
But this story isn’t just about Lincoln College anymore.
The mission has grown.The fight is bigger.The moment demands more.I’m not just trying to help fix democracy.I’m trying to change the conversation.
Because the truth is, what I saw in Lincoln College was just a mirror of what I was seeing everywhere else—a nation full of shuttered institutions and unmet potential, waiting for someone to believe again. So, before we fix the systems, before we repair what’s broken in our towns or schools or elections—
We need to face the truth. The real crisis in America isn’t just political. It’s not red vs. blue. And it’s sure as hell not just the GOP.
The real issue is this: We’ve forgotten how to be American—together. And that’s where my work begins.
And if you are a fan of American history, you, too, may have an idea of why we’ve forgotten. It’s because we’re living in the aftermath of a promise we haven’t kept. Not just to each other—but to the generations that came before us, and especially to the ones coming next. We were handed this beautiful, unfinished project called American democracy—messy and flawed, yes, but full of potential. And somewhere along the way, we let it fracture. We outsourced our civic soul. We abandoned places like Lincoln College—not just the buildings, but the people, the culture, the idea of public good.For me, that realization didn’t come all at once. It showed up in quiet ways—through heartbreak, through hard lessons, through the ache of watching communities I love struggle and shrink.
My moral awakening wasn’t a lightning bolt—it was a slow burn. A growing refusal to accept that things have to stay broken just because they’ve been broken for a while.And that’s why this work feels urgent now. Because we don’t have the luxury of waiting. The ground is shifting fast beneath our feet—socially, economically, politically. And while some folks are clinging to the past, hoping for a return to something that never fully worked in the first place—I’m here to say: this is not a return. It’s a rebuilding.This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about construction. It’s about choosing to believe that we can build something better—fairer, smarter, more sustainable. And that belief isn’t naive—it’s necessary. It is clear that American democracy is on her last legs at the moment, with both immigrants and native born citizens in fear of our federal government on a daily basis and our own representatives in Congress are too intimidated to do what they know is right.
We must do this because We The People need to reassert our authority—even over the three branches of government. That might sound bold. Maybe even reckless. Maybe like I’m calling for a revolution, or something dangerously close to civil war.
But I’m not.
I’m calling for something deeply American: a Reconstruction.
Not the first. Not the second. The next.
Some will say, “You can’t have a Reconstruction without a war.”
But maybe that’s just an unfortunate side effect of being American. We seem to require a crisis before we get serious about change.
But I don’t think bloodshed should be the barrier to progress. I believe a Reconstruction becomes necessary when the people have lost the plot—when our shared purpose, our collective story, has been hijacked, hollowed out, or forgotten.
That’s where we are now. And it’s why this moment matters.
And, if we do this right, we’re not just restoring trust between each other — we’re laying a foundation our children can stand on without fear and continue to refine American democracy for the next generations.
No—this isn’t the Second American Reconstruction.
We already had that. We just didn’t call it that.
We called it the New Deal. And it changed everything—whether we realized it or not.
So let’s be honest about what this moment demands:
Not a return.
Not a reset.
A rebuilding.
And it starts with us.Most Americans know about the First Reconstruction—that fragile, furious window after the Civil War when we tried, for the first time, to make the Constitution mean what it said for everyone. For a moment, we reached for a multiracial democracy. We saw Black men elected to Congress, public schools created across the South, and new laws aimed at equality. It was bold. It was moral. And then—just as quickly—it was violently undone.
But history doesn’t end with failure. It echoes. It rhymes. And seventy years later, America found itself once again facing mass suffering, political upheaval, and a broken economy that exposed the rot at the foundation.
That moment gave us The New Deal—and whether we name it as such or not, it was the Second American Reconstruction.
Because what is a Reconstruction if not a radical re-imagining of the social contract?
The New Deal wasn’t just an economic stimulus. It was a reckoning with the failures of unregulated capitalism. It redefined the role of government—from aloof bystander to moral actor. It said, out loud: the government has a duty to protect people’s dignity.
Just like the First Reconstruction tried to build political rights, the New Deal attempted to build economic rights:
The right to a job.
The right to security in old age.
The right to unionize.
The right to be protected from market cruelty and corporate excess.
It created Social Security. It protected workers. It established public works programs that transformed the physical landscape of America—and with it, the psychological landscape too. It gave Americans a glimpse of what shared power could look like in practice.
And yes, like the First, the Second Reconstruction was deeply imperfect. The New Deal left out Black domestic and agricultural workers. It reinforced redlining and racial hierarchies in housing and labor. But we cannot deny its scale or its ambition. It brought millions of Americans out of desperation. It restored faith in a system on the brink. It proved that government could serve—not just rule.
So let’s name it plainly:
Reconstruction isn’t one moment.
It’s a cycle.
A reckoning.
A choice to begin again.
We’ve done it before—in blood and in hope, on the battlefield of Gettysburg.
We did it again in truth and in courage, as our role in the world and its economy changed.
With the roadblocks in Congress to the divides we see at the dinner table, it’s clear we are overdue for the third.
___________________________________________________________________________
Those words—written just a month ago—pushed me to finish the first draft of this book and send it out to a few good friends. A special thank you to Ron, Bob, Peggy, Ethan, and Cindy for believing in me when I needed it most.
So—what now?
If you want to keep listening, or keep reading, I need to ask a favor.
My original plan was simple: release the book on my website and Substack, cross my fingers, and hope for the best. But a few wise voices in my life convinced me to take this more seriously. So, I reached out to actual publishers—and I’m excited to share that IngramSpark has agreed to help turn this book into a reality. They’ll publish it in print and digital formats, and even make it available in public libraries.
Now comes the part where I need your help. To launch this book, I need to raise $1,000.
Here’s the deal: with a contribution of $20 or more, I only need fifty of my closest friends to chip in. In return, I’ll hand-deliver an early copy of the book—and if you know me, you know it’ll come with the biggest hug you can imagine.
I’ve included a link to my Venmo here, or email me for a mailing address if you’d prefer to contribute by check. Thank you all in advance!
And now onto the weekly news roundup—packed with what’s happening nationally, in Illinois, and right here in our own backyard.”
1. National Spotlight
First, on the national front: Several states—Illinois among them—are exploring mid‑decade congressional redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms. While Illinois’ map is already Democratic‑leaning and unlikely to see major shifts, this is emblematic of a broader trend of politically charged boundary-drawingThe Washington Post
2. Statewide Headlines: Illinois
Moving to Springfield and beyond:
Attorney General Kwame Raoul has spearheaded Illinois’ entry into a multi‑state lawsuit challenging new federal conditions on crime victim funding under the Victims of Crime Act. The state argues those conditions violate constitutional separation of powers and could jeopardize approximately $54 million in support services.
Also making headlines: Governor Pritzker signed a bold new law expanding student financial aid eligibility to all Illinois residents, regardless of immigration status—opening doors for undocumented, DACA‑mented, and mixed‑status students. The move’s supporters praise its inclusivity, while critics argue it unfairly burdens taxpayers.
3. Central Illinois & Local News
Here at home, in central Illinois:
Mental Health Aid for Families: Memorial Health has teamed up with public libraries—like Jacksonville’s—to provide free family mental health kits. Designed for kids as young as 3, the kits include books, grounding exercises, coloring pages, and local mental health contacts. They’re aiming to spark important conversations at home—and you don’t even need a library card to check one out!
Public Input on Gas Rates: The Illinois Commerce Commission will hold public hearings on August 27 in Springfield and August 28 in East St. Louis to discuss Ameren Illinois’ proposed $134 million gas rate hike. Alongside oral testimony, written comments are welcome via the ICC’s website or phone
Weather Relief Incoming: Finally, great news for those of us who've been sweating through summer—more comfortable, drier air is on the way, with highs dipping into the low‑ to mid‑80s and only a slight chance of isolated afternoon showers.
4. What This Means for Central Illinois Families
Here's what to take away:
Education Access: If you or someone you know could benefit from expanded financial aid eligibility—regardless of immigration status—reach out to your school or financial aid office soon.
Speak Up on Rising Bills: Community members have a golden opportunity to weigh in on energy rate hikes. Attend a hearing or submit your comment—your voice matters.
Family Mental Health: These free library kits are a valuable tool for nurturing emotional health at home. Ask your local library if they’re participating.
Relief from the Heat: Finally, plan ahead for more pleasant weather—and that’s something we can all appreciate.
That’s all for this week—thanks for listening to Sunshine Strategies Radio. Stay informed, stay engaged, and take care of yourselves and your neighbors!
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