What does an alder have to do to deserve censure, anyway?

Ramirez-Rosa creditably accused of bullying colleagues in order to prevent voters from weighing in on Chicago's sanctuary city status

11-9-2023 (issue No. 113)

This week

• Last week’s winning tweet

• Abuse of power and disdain for the voters in the City Council

• Word salads — Served up by Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates

• News and Views — On Donald Trump, Craig Counsell, Bob Fioretti and more

• Land of Linkin’ — Where I tell readers where to go

• Squaring up the news — Where Charlie Meyerson tells readers where to go

• “Songs of Good Cheer” update — A new take on a dreary old carol

• Mary Schmich — A beautiful photo of the city

• Bring back local newspaper columnists in Chicago!

• “The Mincing Rascals” podcast preview

• Re:Tweets — The winning visual tweet and this week’s contest finalists

• Tune of the Week — “Ain’t No Ash Will Burn”

Last week’s winning tweet

No one actually agrees to terms and conditions. We just click so we can make them go away. — @catcerveny

Here are this week’s nominees and the winner of the Tuesday visual-tweets poll. Here is the direct link to the new poll.

Abuse of power and disdain for democracy

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, was credably accused by several colleagues of using strong-arm tactics last Thursday in an attempt to prevent a quorum of the City Council from forming. His larger purpose was to prevent his colleagues from putting on the ballot an advisory referendum asking if Chicago should remain a sanctuary city for those in the country without legal documentation.

Several alders said Ramirez-Rosa threatened to use his position as chair of the council’s zoning committee to block development in their wards if they entered the council chambers, and CBS2 video shows him attempting to physically block the path of Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, on her way in to vote.

Ramirez-Rosa denied explicitly making such threats, telling reporters, “The interactions that we had, I can see why they would interpret (them as a threat). But that was not my intent.”

Right. We can safely call bullshit on that denial, and we can confidently assert that Ramirez-Rosa was way, way out of line in throwing around his weight as zoning committee chair and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s floor leader.

Ramirez-Rosa resigned both leadership posts and abjectly expressed regret on the council floor:

I dramatically overreacted to the intensity of what was happening in that meeting. And there’s no excuse for that. I sincerely apologize to my colleague, Emma Mitts, for the disrespectful interaction that we had outside the council chambers, and for my overzealous attempts throughout the day to try and convince you not to be part of it.

Fine. But apologies don’t make everything better and he deserved a formal censure — a symbolic reprimand that says to him and to the public, this is not how the City Council does business. (I’ll pause here for you to laugh derisively.)

Self-styled reformer Johnson tried to circumvent the censure motion by deeming it out of order, lost that effort and then cast the tie-breaking vote not to censure.

Eh.

The thing that’s most curious to me about this is how Ramirez-Rosa piddled away his power fighting against an attempt to place an advisory referendum on the ballot. Like, what, he and the mayor are afraid of the results of what amounts to a glorified public opinion poll on the idea of Chicago officially being a welcoming, sanctuary city for those who have entered our country illegally?

Technically, the challenging influx of asylum-seekers from South America has nothing to do with Chicago’s sanctuary city status, a designation that forbids local law enforcement from working with federal immigration authorities to detain and deport undocumented people. The Venezuelan migrants are here legally, pending the resolution of their asylum cases.

Symbolically, though, the designation seems to have inspired Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to bus thousands of migrants here, as if to test the limits of residents’ commitment to the general idea. And it may serve as a magnet for the undocumented.

Voters ought to have the opportunity at least to be heard on the question. And if they are given that opportunity, I will make the argument that being a sanctuary city is on balance beneficial because it allows for productive interactions between local police and the immigrant community. We don’t want people afraid to call police in cases of, say, domestic violence or afraid to report crimes. We don’t want them fearing to obtain essential health and educational services.

I will point voters to “The Effects of Sanctuary Policies on Crime and the Economy,” a Center for American Progress report that says:

The data are clear: Crime is statistically significantly lower in sanctuary counties compared to nonsanctuary counties. Moreover, economies are stronger in sanctuary counties—from higher median household income, less poverty, and less reliance on public assistance to higher labor force participation, higher employment-to-population ratios, and lower unemployment.

I’m not afraid of the debate. Why is Mayor Johnson?

Word salads

Brandon Johnson

Johnson was asked by a reporter this week if he supported an investigation of the allegations against Ald. Ramirez-Rosa. I cannot possibly summarize his answer, which I offer to you here in full:

You know, look, having an opportunity to have a transition from these past six months, we have to do it in a thoughtful way.  Look, he's admitted where he missed the mark. He admitted that. And there's a commitment for him to work towards restoration. And as far as how other attachments to government, engage — Look, people have their right to signal, in any way, their desires to have some recourse. And  I understand that there are some real deep emotions and feelings around that and how, what has been the accusations that have been put forth and how those accusations are  investigated or substantiated or not, that the process that allows for that to take place. I've never been an obstruction to any form or any level of government.

Lots of verbal roughage there, but I think the translation is “no.”

Stacy Davis Gates

Meanwhile, here is the response to the controversy by Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, a major supporter of Johnson, as told to Chicago Reader columnist Ben Joravsky on Joravsky’s podcast Tuesday starting at the 10:30 mark:

Those of us who lead in justice and equity are human. And we get to be multidimensional. See, the worst part of this is that Carlos cannot be human in this moment. That's the worst part of it. And to be human means that you get to be a complex figure. You get to do very wonderful things. And he's done very wonderful things in six short months. And you also get to make mistakes. And he says, he made a mistake, and he begged for forgiveness.

And Emma (Mitts) hugged him in acceptance of that contrition. If only we all could be met with that sort of acceptance when we fall down.  So I hate that we have had a front-row seat to other people's machinations. I hate that we continue to sensationalize human frailty. Right? People can hold with what Emma said in that chamber of  the trauma that was triggered in her in that moment. See, people see things, but they don't always feel things.

So you can give Emma her humanity — and we better give her her humanity — and we also have to give Carlos his as well. And that's what they demonstrated today in that chamber. They gave each other their humanity. And God bless them for that. Right?  For that example. And God bless our mayor, for being steady throughout this, for not going high or low, but for telling the whole story and still calling us to something more. …

(This) is a little emotional for me. Because number one, I don't like other people telling Black women's stories, and everyone told her story before she spoke today. That's a problem.

And I also don't like that Carlos wasn't able to get the benefit-of-the-doubt inquiry from his colleagues, I ain't even talking about anyone else. But that should have been in their chamber. Shame on15th Ward Ald.) Ray Lopez for breaking their fraternity-sorority. Like, that's a space that they inhabit together that they get to moderate and modulate and deal with themselves.

You understand what I'm saying? Like the intrusion of social media before they were able to level set. And they gotta get that right, because they're grownups. They deserve to be vulnerable with each other, without all of us judging it from the outside.

They get to make mistakes without them being in headlines. And then they also get to beg for forgiveness. And they get to be wrong, too. We're human. You know, it's like, give people a break. But to the point that I was about to make about the mayor and the leadership in this moment, is that people ain't high fivin' Mayor Johnson for his leadership in this moment, and I was a little offended until I thought about it a bit. People don't even see or feel his leadership in a way because they are so taken with everything that's happening in this moment.  

News & Views

News: When prosecutors asked Donald Trump on the witness stand who in the Trump Organization was responsible for preventing and detecting fraud, he answered, “Everybody.”

View: Failing to blame his accountants and nameless devious bean counters was a spectacular error. Here’s Laurence O’Donnell on MSNBC:

Trump incriminated himself and his children with the only one-word answer that he gave all day. … (He) destroyed any shred of defense in the case for himself and his co-defendants, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, You can spend weeks trying to think of a stupider answer than that, and you cannot come up with one.

News: Cubs will pay a record $8 million a year to new manager Craig Counsell.

View: No way is any manager worth that kind of money. As sports editor Neil Paine of 538 reported in 2014:

Sabermetrics tells us that most dugout decisions barely have any effect on the outcome of the game. Furthermore, if we look at effects on player performance, it’s evident that hardly any manager can distinguish himself from his counterparts. Based on my analysis, 95 percent of all managers are worth somewhere between -2 and +2 wins per 162 games. (In 2013) alone, 21 batters and seven pitchers were worth more to their teams than nearly every manager of the last 112 years. 

This worth is measured not by wins above replacement (WAR) but by projected wins above average, using data across multiple years. That’s the closest approximation to a player or manager’s talent that we have. ...  If we expand our search further and take the data back to 1901, only 36 of 490 managers supplied enough evidence for us to know whether they were anything but average. 

Now, it’s true, two extra wins last season would have put the Cubs in the playoffs with a better regular-season record than the World Series runner-up Arizona Diamondbacks, but an investment in players seems far sounder.

It’s a mystery to me how, for example Cub manager Joe Maddon could be hailed as a genius in 2016 when the team won its first World Series in more than 100 years, and then given the gate in 2019 after the team failed to make the playoffs? Was he making worse decisions? Forgetting the tactical know-how that had everyone gushing in 2016?

News: The Illinois General Assembly is working on plans to accelerate the installation of an all-elected school board in Chicago.

View: I’m on record as predicting that school board elections in Chicago will be a certain kind of show, to quote Joe Scarborough. See “Nasty, expensive school board elections for Chicago? Hard pass.”

We’re going to see periodic epic mud fights between people from all over the country with competing philosophical interests in education policy and hopes of influencing how we run our schools. In the naive hope of giving interested local parents a “seat at the table” in electing 20 school board members and a president, we will, like Los Angeles — where spending on just seven board seats has closed in on $20 million — give special interests from coast to coast a lever to yank on without definitive proof that students are better off when school boards are elected.

I’d rather delegate the responsibility for schools to the mayor — as we do responsibility for law enforcement, fire protection and other vital matters — and vote accordingly every four years.

News: Bob Fioretti is running for Cook County state’s attorney as a Republican

View: The strangely blond septuagenarian former alderman is unable to take a hint from the voters. Since leaving the City Council in 2015 he’s 0-6 with the voters in runs for:

• Mayor of Chicago (2015 and 2019)

• Illinois Senate (2016)

• Cook County Board president (2018 and 2022)

• Cook County States Attorney (2020)

Even Willie Wilson (three runs for mayor, one for U.S. president and one for U.S. senator) has got to be saying, “Dude, give it up.”

Land of Linkin’

• Chi Welcome “is a Chicago-based, all-volunteer, grassroots mutual aid group formed to assist migrants /refugees/asylum seekers currently housed in temporary shelters and in police stations.”

• Refugee Community Connection is “an all-volunteer Chicago based mutual aid organization that seeks to ease the transition of our newly arrived neighbors (refugees, asylees, and others forced to flee their home country) into permanent housing in the Chicago area, by providing resources, information, and household necessities through a personal connection with welcoming neighbors.”

• Michael Phillips’ Tribune essay, “Should movie theaters provide intermissions, even if filmmakers don’t?” cries outfor a reader poll. So here:

• Claire Berlinski in Politico: “Twitter gave us in indispensable real-time news platform. Was a Vital platform. X Took It Away.” “The degeneration of the quality of information on X means that journalists who are still on the platform waste far more time looking for the signal in the noise. They waste more time running down rumors. They are at greater risk of sharing fake information.”

• “Crimo and punishment: Father's plea deal in parade-shooting case is not a 'beacon' for anything.” My take on the surprise conclusion of the reckless-conduct case related to the Highland Park July 4 parade shooting.

• Tuesday was the publication date of “Lost in America: Photographing the Last Days of our Architectural Treasures'“ by local authors Richard Cahan and Michael Williams. The book “focuses on 100 buildings that have been torn down over the past 90 years. Some―like New York's Penn Station and Chicago's Stock Exchange―were majestic. Others―like a tiny bridge in rural Montana and a small farmstead torn down for Denver's International Airport―were modest. But they all reflected America's story before they were razed.”

• The Picayune Sentinel preview: Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. I talk with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams about what’s making news and likely to be grist for the PS mill. The WGN listen-live link is here.

Squaring up the news

This is a bonus supplement to the Land of Linkin’ from veteran radio, internet and newspaper journalist Charlie Meyerson. Each week, he offers a selection of intriguing links from his daily email news briefing Chicago Public Square:

■ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke:  Tuesday’s elections spell “serious trouble for the Republican Party.”

■ One for the books: Tuesday’s losers included the repressive Moms for Liberty.

■ The nonprofit free-expression group PEN America is among those condemning Moms for Liberty for siccing the cops on Florida librarians.

■ Reader columnist Ben Joravsky mocks Chicago Ald. Ray Lopez’s defeated move to regulate Little Free Library boxes.

■ Columnist Liz Dye looks at Trump’s Truth Social page so you don’t have to and finds “a riot of witness intimidation.”

■ Popular Information outs journalists who’ve been straight-facedly reporting Republicans’ disingenuous plan to fund military aid for Israel by cutting funding for the IRS.

■ The climate newsletter Heated exposes the environmental truth behind Kim Kardashian’s commercial for “a bra with built-in hard nipples.”

■ 404 Media: “AI cameras took over one small American town. Now they’re everywhere.”

■ The Verge: Google’s antitrust trial has revealed, for the first time, which searches make Google the most money—or at least did in 2018.

You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.

Cheer Chat

To my mind, “The First Nowell” is the dreariest of the famous Christmas carols, repetitive and plodding, a holiday soporific that I think of as “The Worst Nowell.”

C. Michael Hawn, head of the pastoral music program at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, wrote this in a “History of Hymns” post:

British hymnologist Erik Routley (1917–1982), never one to mince words, noted: “But may we not whisper that “The First Nowell,” beloved though it is, is really a terrible tune?” Recalling the extreme repetition, he concludes, “Something has gone amiss, surely, with the transmission of this tune” Perhaps, however, the musical structure is closer to the medieval storytelling form chanson de geste. This musical structure was used by clerics between the eleventh and twelfth centuries to tell epic stories in northern France. While little of the music is preserved, the chanson de geste repeated a simple melodic formula to tell the story, very similar to the melodic structure of our carol. For this author, this seems to be a more logical explanation of the extreme repetition in the melody rather than some other speculations, including notions that the singer forgot the proper melody, or it was transmitted improperly.

Well, we have found a peppier, pub-singing version of “The First Nowell” to lead at “Songs of Good Cheer” this year. Here’s a snippet from last Sunday’s rehearsal:

And yes, “Nowell” is the correct spelling. In a 2006 interview, Northern Illinois University history professor and Christmas carol expert William Studwell confirmed this to me. A passage on Nowell/Noel confusion appeared in the chapter on  common misconceptions in his book, "An Easy Guide to Christmas Carols"

"The song comes from Cornwall (a region in England)," said Studwell, who died in 2010. “‘Nowell' is the British spelling, and all the early published versions in the 1800s spell it ‘Nowell.'"

Why did so many 20th century typographers switch to the Frenchified  "Noël"?

Probably because "Nowell," a word that dates back at least to Chaucer's time, "looks antiquated," Studwell told me. “‘Noël' is more familiar, more modern, more trendy. It looks better. But there's nothing at all French about the words or the tune."

But however you want to spell it, come sing with me, Mary Schmich and our all-star band. Songbooks provided. Dec. 7-10. Here is the ticket link.

Want to try to win tickets? This year, Mary and I are reviving one of the most successful reader contests we’ve had: Tell us the story of your most memorable holiday gift.

A memorable gift can be a great gift. Or an awful one. Your story can be funny. Or moving. Things you might want to include in your story: What did the gift look like? What do you remember about the moment you received it? Where is it now? How do you feel now when you summon the memory?

We ask that you keep your entry to 200 words or fewer. The deadline is the Monday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27. Email submissions only — use this link or write to ericzorn@gmail.com using the subject heading “Memorable Gift Essay.”

Winners will get two free tickets to “Songs of Good Cheer” ($108 value!), a caroling party at which Mary and I are joined by a band of accomplished local musicians who lead the audience in familiar and unfamiliar songs of the season.

Winners will also get the chance to join us on the stage to read their essays.

Mary Schmich: ‘This view of Chicago never gets old’

View through the Peoples Gas Pavilion in Lincoln Park / Mary Schmich

The ‘leaf’ that’s left

From Wednesday’s Neil Steinberg column in the Sun-Times:

There’s a poignant Tom Waits song, “Last Leaf,” where the plucky flat arboreal appendage speaks. “I’m the last leaf on the tree,” it sings. “The autumn took the rest/But they won’t take me.”

Kinda like being among the last regular columnists for a daily newspaper in Chicago. Waits also has a song called “Hold On.” That sounds like a plan. Defy the wind. Sometimes the best you can do is squinch your eyes shut, cling to that branch with all your might, and wait for better days.

The words “among” and “regular” are doing some work here. Both major Chicago dailies have sports columnists whose offerings appear several times a week, and both have a stable of regular op-ed contributors. Think Willie Wilson in the Tribune.

But Steinberg, 63, a former competitor who is also a friend, is the only remaining classic general interest local news columnist — one who writes three or more times a week about a wide range of topics — in the major dailies.

That’s a shame and mistake. Columnists inspire reader loyalty and sharply differentiate one publication from another. They are the faces of their newspapers — almost literally, given that their mug shots adorn their work.

They offer analysis and report stories in ways that straight news reporters don’t, and they often share their private thoughts and experiences in ways readers can relate to. During my more than 30 years occupying one of the columnist pulpits at the Tribune, I frequently had readers tell me they felt like they knew me, my wife, my kids, my parents, even my dog. I also frequently got calls and letters from readers who had delivery issues they wanted me to sort out.

My entire cohort has moved on or taken buyouts, and no one has taken our places.

Before the tree is totally bare, the major dailies need to bring along a new generation of general-interest columnists to speak to the next generation of readers. The writing talent is clearly there — I’m impressed by the stylish work of some of the young journalists in town — but for some reason, management seems content to let the tradition fade out.

Like I said, a shame and mistake.

Minced Words

Cate Plys, Austin Berg and I ran through the big stories of the week — city, state and national — with host John Williams in Wednesday’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. In the video pre-roll, Cate explains why she has not gotten the latest COVID-19 booster.

Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.

Common colds are going around again

I have a mild cold this week. My wife had one last week. Several friends have reported coughs, sneezes and sniffles. Just like the old days! Because of pandemic precautions, I went more than two years without catching a cold, and the return proliferation in my circle of this mild seasonal malady is yet another sign that even though COVID-19 may not be done with us, we are done with COVID-19.

Masks are off. Distancing is passe. Shaking hands is back. So stock up on NyQuil and nasal spray, and get plenty of rest.

Re: Tweets

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers vote for their favorite, and I post the winner here every Thursday:

The new nominees for Tweet of the Week:

• Hello darkness, my old friend. Why are you here? It’s 4 p.m. — @jonnysun

• One thing Americans got right is the English language. It literally just makes the most sense. I can't even understand other languages at all. — @furby_hancock

• People who whistle along to the music in Trader Joe's: How can I hurt you? — @meantomyself

• Every person you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Make it worse by asking if they’re drinking enough water. — @BobTheSuit

• I wonder what the part of my brain that used to store people's phone numbers is doing now. — @MediocreJoker85

• Flight attendant: Is there a doctor on board?  Me: I have a doctorate in physics. Flight attendant: This man is dying. Me: It's OK,  the plane will weigh the same. — @Tanya_Sabrinaaa

• I'm sorry I walked away in the middle of your story, but in my defense it was tedious and I don't like you all that much — @MelvinofYork

• As far as I'm concerned, if you snooze, you win. — @wildethingy

• My superpower is being able to watch a movie three times and getting something new out of it each time (because I was scrolling Twitter each time). — @suecorvette

• I love when my husband says, “correct me if I’m wrong,” like I would pass up that opportunity. — @MumOfTw0

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

Usage note: To me, “tweet” has become a generic term for a short post on social media.

For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.

Tune of the Week

It’s not often you get a truly beautiful song about dead romance, but give a listen to songwriter Walt Aldridge’s “Ain’t No Ash Will Burn.”

It’s been covered numerous times by traditional, folk and country acts, but I’m linking here to a version by Ranch Romance, the first band to record the song back in 1989.

Love is a precious thing I'm told
Burns just like West Virginia coal
But when the fire dies down it's cold
There ain't no ash will burn

Aldridge, whose 68th birthday is Sunday, wrote such country hits as "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me" (Ronnie Milsap, 1981); "Holding Her and Loving You" (Earl Thomas Conley, 1982); "Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde" (Travis Tritt, 2000); and "I Loved Her First" (Heartland, 2006). He is the father of recording artist Hannah Aldridge.

Consult the complete Tune of the Week archive!

The Picayune Sentinel is a reader-supported publication. Browse and search back issues here. Simply subscribe to receive new posts each Thursday. To support my work, receive bonus issues on Tuesdays and join the zesty commenting community, become a paid subscriber. Thanks for reading!