We may have our share of leadership issues and year after year of budgetary

blunders, but by golly, Illinoisans stand behind Pluto.

This week marks the three-year anniversary of Pluto’s fall from grace — when the International Astronomical Union demoted the ninth-in-line from a planet to a dwarf planet (citing concerns that it was no longer big enough to knock obstacles from its path). As the move once again surfaces in national and international media, so does the Prairie State’s recent support for the “unfairly downgraded” planet.

On Feb. 26, the Illinois Senate approved a resolution requesting that Pluto be “reestablished with full planetary status” and that March 13 be declared “Pluto Day.” It looks like we’re sticking by the good ones — Clyde Tombaugh, a native of Streator, Ill., discovered the planet in 1930.