Abortion-rights foes must think they're just not being loud and annoying enough

So Chicago is moving to get them to pipe down

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Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise.

Losing at the ballot box, abortion foes have been turning up the volume

In “Aldermen move to establish quiet zone around downtown abortion clinic” (Tribune) we learn:

Following anti-abortion protests and alleged “attempts to harass and intimidate women seeking health care services” at a downtown abortion clinic, aldermen moved Monday to create a new “noise sensitive zone” in the streets surrounding the facility.

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted to bar protesters from using a bullhorn, loudspeaker or hitting a drum or other object “to produce a sharp percussive noise so as to interfere with the functions” of Family Planning Associates clinic.

For years, foes of abortion-rights have attempted to get up in the faces of women entering clinics, often to obtain abortion services, and they have bellyached loudly at any attempt to prevent them from dogging patients and attempting to shame them individually in the name of “counseling.”

The right of these so-called counselors to speak will be safe if they are required to pipe down and keep their distance. They will still be free to preach, scold, cajole, shout, condemn, sing and inform.

Some of those protests have included “sound amplifiers so loud it was difficult for clinicians to hear patients inside,” (sponsoring 34th Ward* Ald. Bill) Conway said in a release, in addition to reported incidents where protesters rushed at patients and volunteers walking them in, attempting to hand them religious pamphlets.

That behavior sometimes crossed the line of the city’s current “bubble” ordinance, Conway said. That rule makes it illegal to “engage in unwanted communication” — including protesting, leafleting or trying to provide education and counseling — “within 8 feet of someone in a 50-foot radius from the entrance of a medical facility.

Recent protests have included speakers placed against clinics or right next to the building. The existing “bubble zone” ordinance was passed to control the fraught and sometimes frightening demonstrations in which protesters were known to try to fool patients into thinking they were safety escorts from the clinic. And of course we all get why it's important to allow public protests, even when those protests infuriate, embarrass or baffle others.

But most of us also get why people want to be able to move through life and go about their business without being harassed — insulted, patronized, chivvied, pestered.

Most of us are OK with the time, place and manner restrictions on demonstrations such as those that prohibit the picketing of private homes in residential neighborhoods, outlaw protest stalking and threats of violence and create quiet zones around hospitals.

Most of us agree with the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who in 1928 characterized the right to be left alone as "the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men."

Foes of abortion rights have been taking a beating at the polls lately even though (or perhaps because?) they have been trying for years to badger and annoy and shame people into embracing their position.

Maybe it’s time for some other tactics?

*The 34th Ward includes portions of Chicago's Loop, West Loop, South Loop, Greektown, and Little Italy

Notes and comments from readers — lightly edited — along with my responses

Marty G. — The name of the new Cubs manager is Craig Counsell, not Greg Counsell.

Dennis A. — Ouch! Texas Rangers won this year’s World Series, not the Arizona Diamondbacks

Zorn — Ouch indeed. The Picayune Sentinel regrets the errors. I fixed these mistakes online as soon as readers made me aware of them (instantly), and my only excuse for these brain-os is that, once the Oakland A’s won enough games that they were not going to finish with the worst record in modern Major League Baseball history, I stopped paying any attention at all to the sport.

I wasn’t alone. In “MLB World Series 2023 is least watched on record,” SportsPro Media reports that

• Viewership for the 2023 Fall Classic was below the previously lowest average of 9.95 million viewers set for the 2020 series.

• TV audiences dropped by 23 per cent from last year’s World Series.

• MLB postseason averaged 4.45 million viewers across Fox, TBS and ESPN, which was down eight per cent on last season.

Steve T. — Perhaps baseball managers’ in-game decisions don’t affect outcomes as much as we think, but isn’t the most important managerial skill getting all of those young men, who’ve been praised since childhood as athletic phenoms, to perform together at the highest level under extreme scrutiny for 162 games?

Zorn — Certainly there is a psychological element to sports performances and a good manager or coach needs to keep his players feeling confident while making sound strategic decisions. To what extent, though, do baseball players “perform together” outside of relay throws, double plays and so on?

Baseball can be a very cruel sport because so much of it is individual. It’s you at the plate trying to hit the ball. It’s you in the field trying to catch the ball and then throw it accurately. What difference does it make if you love or hate the players in the other positions?

Intermissions in movies?

JakeH — Thank you for the link to Michael Phillips’ Tribune essay, “Should movie theaters provide intermissions, even if filmmakers don’t?” Auteurs like Martin Scorsese have tried to put the kibosh on intermissions. But his new movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” is 3 hours, 26 minutes long! When you figure in time for previews, you're bumping up on four hours in the theater. Does he prefer that people miss some of the movie? Or that they sit in discomfort?

Steven K. — Movies that exceed two and a half hours in length should have intermissions, but the filmmakers should make sure that they are edited in a way that the delineation point is evident and an abrupt break isn’t just jammed in at the discretion of the theater operators

The first movie that I saw theatrically that had an intermission was “Scarface” at the long gone River Oaks Theater in Calumet City. The intermission was perfectly placed (between the scene that ends with him gazing upon the airborne blimp and the “Take It To The Limit” montage), and if the edit wasn’t intended as an intermission break, the director certainly couldn’t have complained that it interrupted the flow in any way.

The only problem was that we couldn’t use the intermission for the usual bathroom or concession break, since the two friends I was with and I were all twelve, and had snuck in to see it (after buying tickets for “A Christmas Story,” which we had already seen). We were afraid that if we left our seats we might get caught and thrown out.

Zorn — Ah, the price of crime. Streaming has spoiled me as far as taking viewing breaks “to pay the water bill,” as Phillips so delicately phrased it. I would think intermissions would be good for concession sales at theaters as well. And the results of my click poll were resounding:

New columinsts?

Dennis A. — I couldn’t agree more with your call for Chicago newspapers to bring aboard a new generation of columnists. The list of those now gone whom I miss is far too long. Neil Steinberg is the only reason to subscribe to the Sun-Times.

Lara W. — That's a nice wish. In today's climate, where the Trib is owned by a group that cares primarily about the bottom line, I don't blame editors for keeping what staff they still have as hard news reporters. They're trying mightily to cover a major city with a relatively small staff. It seems understandable that they wouldn't put "groom a young general interest columnist" at the top of the priority list. I can think of about a dozen beat positions that would probably come first, if we're hiring in this theoretical world.

And just what audience would these columnists be writing for? The 55+ set would likely scoff at a younger voice/mindset. And the under-55 set has plenty of voices they follow on the platforms they use, which are not daily newspapers. I'm sure there's a unicorn out there that would take on the assignment with great success, but I think what you might really be pining for is a time machine.

Zorn — I don’t think there are a dozen beats more important to newspaper readers than news and cultural analysis by trusted, familiar voices. An a newspaper without personality is extra vulnerable to competition. But as far as demographics, sadly, you may be right. Yet I continue to believe it would be worth the investment to hire some new voices — after all, the Tribune just found the money to hire a new editorial writer, so it’s not like the corporate pockets are empty.

I would not want a time machine if it meant re-living 2020. My wife and I just watched the episode in season three of “The Morning Show” that recapped what went on in the world that year, and I realized I’d blocked out how bleak and scary and dull and upsetting that first year of COVID-19 was. And we had jobs we could do from home and enough savings and toilet paper to make it through without serious consequences.

Sanctuary and school board votes?

Aviva P. — You made the argument that we shouldn’t fear having a referendum on Chicago's Sanctuary City status because “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."

But if the alders who are pushing the referendum don't know that basic fact, how can we expect the voters will? People who are concerned about public spending on the asylum seekers will vote yes to abandoning the policy which will deliver a huge, election-year propaganda victory for the whole MAGA crowd. It will feed the narrative that no one wants immigrants in their community, while not producing any actual benefit for either the proponents or opponents of the referendum, or the people of Chicago as a whole.

Zorn — I suppose it’s natural to fear the opinions of an uninformed electorate. But that doesn’t stop us from holding elections. I will concede, however, that my point was somewhat undercut by this passage in the Alice Yin/ Laura Rodríguez Presa story in Monday’s Tribune, “City ID card event cancellations frustrate migrants desperate for official identification:”

Before even crossing the U.S. border, Carolina Olachea knew she wanted to be a Chicagoan. The 38-year-old from Venezuela heard Chicago was a sanctuary city that could grant her the fresh start she yearned for after fleeing a dangerous hometown where people struggle to find food and there are no jobs.

But speaking of an ill-informed electorate:

Dave J. — School board elections will simply present voters with another cast of characters on the ballot about whom most will know next to nothing.

Mary G. — An elected school board in Chicago will be a disaster. Other communities have had problems with book banners and those interfering with teaching of subjects they object to. These nut-jobs will be trying to impose their beliefs on the community, not necessarily to improve educational outcomes.

Zorn — Maybe. Or maybe elected board members sponsored by the teachers’ union will take charge. Letting the mayor be ultimately responsible for public schools isn’t great, for sure, but I’ve come to think it’s better than having education policy emanate from a fractious board of ideologues who’ve been funded by agenda-driven outsiders.

Are you a hugger?

Tom T. — You wrote that “even though COVID-19 may not be done with us, we are done with COVID-19,” and one bit of evidence you cited was that “shaking hands is back.” But why? Isn't a fist bump or a wave enough of a greeting these days? Haven't we learned that nothing good comes from physical contact with others?

Joanie W. — We are social animals. We like to touch each other. When we do, our bodies produce wonderful chemicals like serotonin and oxytocin. During the early stages of COVID I went for a year without hugging another person. I’ll never forget how I felt when I hugged someone (my daughter) for the first time after that year. I just started crying and I realized how badly I had missed physical contact. I want to go back to touching, hugging, sharing breath, spewing droplets--all those good things!

Lynn T. — I loathe all this Midwestern hugging (except for immediate family), but I suck it up. The worst was a friend's mother who insisted on kissing on the mouth. Fist bump please.

Jake H. — I've never been much of a hugger. I do like a touch of touching among strangers, though, i.e., a nice palm-shmushing, however gross. Makes me feel good. It's a signal of openness, sociability, peace, recognition that we're both humans on, in that moment, equal footing, both possessed of well-traveled hands, both aware of germs but willing to take that tiny risk for the sake of the pro-social signal that, for now anyway, we're good friends, neither of whom is holding a sword or a dagger.

The worst is hug anxiety, which isn't about the hug so much as, What are we both doing? How do we feel about each other? Are we doing a hug, half-hug, handshake, fist-bump, the germaphobe's upward-turned hand plus the slight bow of the head and a smile. What's about to happen? And then you discover that you and the other person had something different in mind, and, just as you predicted, the world ends.

Zorn — I’ve become more of a hugger — not necessarily the close, double-armed embrace, but the clasp around the shoulders, the pat on the back. Shaking hands with good acquaintances seems oddly formal and simply nodding in greeting seems cold. But I have noticed that some men, in particular, are not that comfortable with anything more than a handshake. I suggest they go online and order one of these buttons:

Meanwhile, where are you on hugging?

Another entry in my beloved ‘Beloved Watch’ feature

NBC Sports Chicago

Popular? Yes. Impressively skilled? No doubt. But c’mon, headline writers!

Going blue

“I fuckin’ love you man. I love the shit out of you, man … these fuckin’ guys right here.”

Twenty years ago, this profane outpouring of emotion from Sherrone Moore, Michigan’s interim head football coach, might have been a scandal. But now that streaming video has desensitized us to swear words burbling from our TVs, it came off as an amusing, almost touching moment of raw emotion after an important victory.

And what Moore said about Michigan alumni? Spot on!

This checks out

You can also ask Siri (and maybe your other digital assistants) to flip a coin or roll the dice.

Ya gotta see these tweets!

Here are some funny visual images I've come across recently on social media. Enjoy, then evaluate:

Vote for your favorite. I’ll share the winner in Thursday’s main edition.

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

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll!

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