Re Marilyn Lemak, I am struck by the lack of compassion and forgiveness reflected in most of the comments. I wonder sometimes why we’re struggling so valiantly to save our democracy when we’ve done such a sh@&#y job of creating a culture that provides a less harsh, self-absorbed, status-seeking, wealth obsessed population and replaces it with a more humane, inclusive and collaborative approach to life. Punishment in our system seems much more like revenge than justice. No mother on her right mind kills her children. Living with that seems punishment enough for Marilyn.
Joseph Bernardin to replace Columbus as an Italian icon in the public square? Please, no. Besides first amendment concerns, his shielding and hiding child sexual offenders while archbishop of Cincinatti (https://www.wcpo.com/news/national/chicago-archdioces-his-decades-of-child-abuse) should be an automatic disqualifier. To excuse that behavior in light of the great work he may have also accomplished would be sadly ironic.
As for Ron Santo -- he already has a statue right where it belongs. Otherwise, your suggestions were good.
Agree. The first people that I thought of was Garibaldi or Mazzini, but I don't think that either had any connection to Chicago. I like Fermi or Da Vinci. Also, Franco Modigliani is a Nobel economist that taught at the U of I.
The bloviating indignation expressed by some of the readers about Lemak has a whiff of sanctimony about it, kind of like the people that insist that a moral person is duty bound to refrain from listening to the music of any artist accused of a horrible crime, or else we are approving of that crime. News flash: everyone opposes murdering children. There’s nothing special about you for thinking that someone who killed her kids should stay locked up until she’s decrepit and senile. Get over yourselves.
From my amateur’s vantage point, it doesn’t appear that Lemak is much of a threat to harm anyone, providing she doesn’t seek out and secure any babysitting gigs. And as far as the supposed need to keep her locked up forever as a way of deterring similar crimes from being committed, let’s just say that I doubt that there are many women out there wrestling with the decision of whether or not to murder her own kids, who might decide to act on it after looking at this case and saying, “Well, there was that lady in Naperville who did it and she ONLY did 23 years!”
Regarding the drifting problem, the City of Chicago often employs its salt trucks to block traffic, as it did downtown during the riots and recently as patrons were exiting Lollapalooza. How about (slowly) driving a couple of those trucks into the intersections where drifting is taking place? Pretty sure the cars would move out of their way quickly.
I may have said this before, but the important thing will be consistent and city-wide enforcement. The city has let people get away with this stuff for years, as anyone that lives near lower Wacker knows. Responding to a couple of events on a couple of weekends won't do it. I hope that the fines and seizures hold up, but I doubt it. Penalizing poor people with large fines, it was grannie's car, dad can't get to work, can't prove I was driving, I was just watching, non-violent and no priors, etc. And this is a police department and prosecutors that can't convict hit-and-run cases that they have on camera and can't convict carjackers that they catch in the cars. We need more police, a re-construction of a dysfunctional police department, and prosecutors that are on the same page.
Does Merilyn Lemak deserve mercy? What strikes me is the notion that she ‘deserves’ clemency, which seems to go back to this harebrained idea that the “Zoloft made me do it (kill her three children)”: That excuse hasn’t been substantiated and is wild speculation at best. It isn’t hard for me to imagine the hypothetical of a person stressfully flipping-out and in a fit of angry rage, say, throwing a ceramic plate against a wall, but it goes too far to say – on unsubstantiated grounds -- that murdering three innocent children is somehow excusable. No, I don’t think she ‘deserves’ mercy -- although she may become a recipient of it unjustifiably -- something people don’t deserve but, as I understand it, are granted by the state for any given reason: Justice demands accountability whereas mercy shows benevolence.
I am really struggling with how to think about heinous crimes committed by the mentally impaired. We know so little about how the brain works, are so limited in our ability to understand how rational and irrational thought can be separated, and we have no objective standard for the minimum of rationality. So, it seems very difficult to assess the 'why' and various causes, let alone assess when someone is 'better'. And what makes the person worthy of consideration? Is one mental issue or type of person more sympathetic than another? Are serial killers and mass shooters, to be considered? Why are some assassins considered and others not? Are all family murderers in the same group with Lemak? Maybe the crime itself is sufficient for permanent exclusion from society. There is certainly no contribution to society by which the criminal can atone or recompense for what they have done.
On Mincing Rascals, Eric postulated that the names of streets, cities, and places were a lower order of honor than monuments and therefore not likely to be challenged in the same way. I disagree. There is no way to claim that DuSable, Ida Wells, and Frederick Douglass are properly honored with streets, buildings, and parks and then say that Columbus and Balbo are not honored or recognized by their streets. I doubt that people that are troubled by statues, buildings, and parks would see any difference. There are only three places in history - contributor, villain, and bystander. No one cast into the villain class can be justifiably honored in any way. It's just a matter of time before the aggrieved make their concerns known.
If we accept the proposition that the prefrontal cortex is not fully formed until the age of 25, Gindorf presents a better case for clemency than Lemak. In addition, I am not buying the Zoloft defense. That bring said, 20 plus years seems like a long enough sentence.
Still not buying the Zoloft defense. Every case cited in your last newsletter (with the notable exception of Lemak) involved a gun. One could certainly make the argument that easy access to guns by people who are unstable and severely depressed is an even worse idea than taking Zoloft. You also lost me at Houston (class action) attorney. In my former life, my run-ins with those guys does not predispose me to find them principled warriors of justice.
Re Marilyn Lemak, I am struck by the lack of compassion and forgiveness reflected in most of the comments. I wonder sometimes why we’re struggling so valiantly to save our democracy when we’ve done such a sh@&#y job of creating a culture that provides a less harsh, self-absorbed, status-seeking, wealth obsessed population and replaces it with a more humane, inclusive and collaborative approach to life. Punishment in our system seems much more like revenge than justice. No mother on her right mind kills her children. Living with that seems punishment enough for Marilyn.
Thank you - well said.
Thanks, Ann. Appreciate our shared values.
Joseph Bernardin to replace Columbus as an Italian icon in the public square? Please, no. Besides first amendment concerns, his shielding and hiding child sexual offenders while archbishop of Cincinatti (https://www.wcpo.com/news/national/chicago-archdioces-his-decades-of-child-abuse) should be an automatic disqualifier. To excuse that behavior in light of the great work he may have also accomplished would be sadly ironic.
As for Ron Santo -- he already has a statue right where it belongs. Otherwise, your suggestions were good.
Agree. The first people that I thought of was Garibaldi or Mazzini, but I don't think that either had any connection to Chicago. I like Fermi or Da Vinci. Also, Franco Modigliani is a Nobel economist that taught at the U of I.
The bloviating indignation expressed by some of the readers about Lemak has a whiff of sanctimony about it, kind of like the people that insist that a moral person is duty bound to refrain from listening to the music of any artist accused of a horrible crime, or else we are approving of that crime. News flash: everyone opposes murdering children. There’s nothing special about you for thinking that someone who killed her kids should stay locked up until she’s decrepit and senile. Get over yourselves.
From my amateur’s vantage point, it doesn’t appear that Lemak is much of a threat to harm anyone, providing she doesn’t seek out and secure any babysitting gigs. And as far as the supposed need to keep her locked up forever as a way of deterring similar crimes from being committed, let’s just say that I doubt that there are many women out there wrestling with the decision of whether or not to murder her own kids, who might decide to act on it after looking at this case and saying, “Well, there was that lady in Naperville who did it and she ONLY did 23 years!”
Regarding the drifting problem, the City of Chicago often employs its salt trucks to block traffic, as it did downtown during the riots and recently as patrons were exiting Lollapalooza. How about (slowly) driving a couple of those trucks into the intersections where drifting is taking place? Pretty sure the cars would move out of their way quickly.
Or just use them to block escape routes, then move in to write tickets and seize cars.
I may have said this before, but the important thing will be consistent and city-wide enforcement. The city has let people get away with this stuff for years, as anyone that lives near lower Wacker knows. Responding to a couple of events on a couple of weekends won't do it. I hope that the fines and seizures hold up, but I doubt it. Penalizing poor people with large fines, it was grannie's car, dad can't get to work, can't prove I was driving, I was just watching, non-violent and no priors, etc. And this is a police department and prosecutors that can't convict hit-and-run cases that they have on camera and can't convict carjackers that they catch in the cars. We need more police, a re-construction of a dysfunctional police department, and prosecutors that are on the same page.
Does Merilyn Lemak deserve mercy? What strikes me is the notion that she ‘deserves’ clemency, which seems to go back to this harebrained idea that the “Zoloft made me do it (kill her three children)”: That excuse hasn’t been substantiated and is wild speculation at best. It isn’t hard for me to imagine the hypothetical of a person stressfully flipping-out and in a fit of angry rage, say, throwing a ceramic plate against a wall, but it goes too far to say – on unsubstantiated grounds -- that murdering three innocent children is somehow excusable. No, I don’t think she ‘deserves’ mercy -- although she may become a recipient of it unjustifiably -- something people don’t deserve but, as I understand it, are granted by the state for any given reason: Justice demands accountability whereas mercy shows benevolence.
I am really struggling with how to think about heinous crimes committed by the mentally impaired. We know so little about how the brain works, are so limited in our ability to understand how rational and irrational thought can be separated, and we have no objective standard for the minimum of rationality. So, it seems very difficult to assess the 'why' and various causes, let alone assess when someone is 'better'. And what makes the person worthy of consideration? Is one mental issue or type of person more sympathetic than another? Are serial killers and mass shooters, to be considered? Why are some assassins considered and others not? Are all family murderers in the same group with Lemak? Maybe the crime itself is sufficient for permanent exclusion from society. There is certainly no contribution to society by which the criminal can atone or recompense for what they have done.
On Mincing Rascals, Eric postulated that the names of streets, cities, and places were a lower order of honor than monuments and therefore not likely to be challenged in the same way. I disagree. There is no way to claim that DuSable, Ida Wells, and Frederick Douglass are properly honored with streets, buildings, and parks and then say that Columbus and Balbo are not honored or recognized by their streets. I doubt that people that are troubled by statues, buildings, and parks would see any difference. There are only three places in history - contributor, villain, and bystander. No one cast into the villain class can be justifiably honored in any way. It's just a matter of time before the aggrieved make their concerns known.
If we accept the proposition that the prefrontal cortex is not fully formed until the age of 25, Gindorf presents a better case for clemency than Lemak. In addition, I am not buying the Zoloft defense. That bring said, 20 plus years seems like a long enough sentence.
The description/header of this week’s column in my inbox: “Does Marilyn Lemak deserve me…” Well, that sure me read it.
Still not buying the Zoloft defense. Every case cited in your last newsletter (with the notable exception of Lemak) involved a gun. One could certainly make the argument that easy access to guns by people who are unstable and severely depressed is an even worse idea than taking Zoloft. You also lost me at Houston (class action) attorney. In my former life, my run-ins with those guys does not predispose me to find them principled warriors of justice.
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