Get a move on, judges!

& a not-so-fond memory of Congressman Danny Davis

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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.

Tuesdays 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.

Justice delayed

On Jan. 5 — more than two months ago — a coalition of business groups filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court seeking to keep the “Bring Chicago Home” referendum off the March 19 ballot. The coalition argued that the wording of the ballot question violated Illinois law — read about the claim here — and while it seems to be a difficult legal question, it’s not two-months-to-decide difficult.

In fact it’s kind of urgent, given that ballots have since been printed and early voting has since gotten underway. Yet there seems to be no haste, no giddyup, on the part of the court system, which has been taking more than its sweet time deciding what to do.

Cook County Judge Kathleen Burke didn’t issue her ruling against the referendum until Feb. 23 and God knows who is dithering and why in the appeals process. For now, voters are registering their opinions on the referendum but those votes won’t be tallied or reported in any way, unless a higher court rules that Burke was wrong in which case the vote will count, giving the City Council the requisite authority to restructure the property-transfer tax.

The harm in this delay is that both pro and con sides are still expending money and energy on persuading voters; money and energy that they may well need should the appeals fail and the city comes back in November with a similar referendum question that passes muster with the courts.

UPDATE — The day after this posted, the Illinois Appellate Court overruled Judge Burke and re-authorized the referendum.

In an opinion written by appellate court Justice Raymond Mitchell, the court argued it cannot interfere with the legislative process by removing the question from the ballot, and called the complaint “premature.”

“The holding of an election for the purpose of passing a referendum to empower a municipality to adopt an ordinance is a step in the legislative process of the enactment of that ordinance. Courts do not, and cannot, interfere with the legislative process,” the opinion read. “Courts are empowered to rule on the validity of legislative enactments only after they have been enacted.”

Meanwhile, we see headlines like this —-

— and ask ourselves what in the green-eyed, bloody-blue fuck are these jurists doing with their time that’s so important that they can’t issue rulings and hear cases of this importance with some urgency?

The Trump immunity claims have been thoroughly briefed. And Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has heard all the arguments about whether DA Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade should be kicked off the racketeering case against Trump because they were romantically entangled.

There is no honor in dilly-dallying, your honors.

This month, I am observing the 20th anniversary of when I lost respect for U.S. Rep. Danny Davis

Mayor Brandon Johnson added his name Monday to the list of local pols endorsing 14-term South Side Democratic congressman Danny Davis in the March 19 Democratic primary. I don’t live in his district, but to this day I remain disturbed by Davis’ participation in a March, 2004 coronation ceremony in Washington for the controversial Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife.

Davis took an active role in the preposterous pageantry, carrying to the dais on a velvet pillow one of the jeweled crowns that were placed upon the heads of the robed Moons.

“People crown kings and queens at homecoming parades all the time,” Davis said when I called him a few months later to ask what the hell he’d been thinking. “We do a lot of things in our society that are simply symbolic.”

Davis told me it was his understanding that the crowns represented the Moons’ achievements as “true parents, both to their own children and I guess to lots of children and other people. I think they were being fêted for their promotion of parenthood, of family values and family traditions.”

That’s quite a thought. In its heyday, Moon’s cultish Unification Church was famous for separating adherents from their families and promoting mass arranged marriages that violated American family traditions.

And the “Crown of Peace” honor that Moon in effect bestowed upon himself that day in the federal office building was no mere Good Daddy prize.

As he made clear toward the end of his speech to the gathering, Moon, who died in 2012 at age 92, believed himself to be “God’s ambassador, sent to Earth with his full authority.”

Moon said, “I am sent to accomplish his command to save the world’s 6 billion people, restoring them to heaven with the original goodness in which they were created.”

Moon went on to tell the gathering in simultaneously translated Korean that he’s been in communication with the spirits of Hitler, Stalin, Marx, Lenin and “the founders of five great religions,” and that these men and other notables have unanimously “declared to all heaven and Earth that Rev. Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s savior, messiah, returning lord and true parent.”

Rep. Davis told me, “I think he was simply saying that he’s a promoter of a message and that he thinks his message of peace and world peace make sense, not that he’s a messiah in the traditional sense.”

It’s disturbing that Davis, who had spoken and appeared at numerous other Moon-sponsored gatherings, would have missed the plain assertion in Moon’s speech, an assertion Moon had made frequently and that Davis said conflicted with his own Christian beliefs.

Davis expressed no regret about assisting in the pageantry designed to burnish and inflate the reputation of a man who, divine or not, wants to abolish Western-style democracy, compares gay people to dung-eating dogs, and in exhorting Jews to convert and follow him, told them: “You have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity, Hitler killed 6 million Jews.”

I asked Davis whether, in retrospect, it had been a mistake for him to lend his good name and credibility to Moon.

“A mistake?” he asked, chuckling in that distinctive, friendly baritone. “No, not a mistake. This was about the promotion of peace. That’s all. We were recognizing Rev. and Mrs. Moon as parents. I find it difficult to see that as far out in any way.”

Who are you?

Last Tuesday I created a very basic, six-question, anonymized survey to find out more about who reads this newsletter and why. And in at least one place I gave you a bum link. Here is the correct link if you haven’t yet taken the survey. I’ll report on the results in Thursday’s issue.

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

My item “WBEZ should be expanding local on-air talk programming, not cutting it back” based on the news that the city’s storied public radio station was cutting “Reset,” its only locally produced daily news-talk show, down to one hour, drew a lot of response. Much of it was along the lines of the perennial nostalgic complaint, “the station isn’t as good as it used to be.” Here is some of the feedback, the first a Facebook comment from audio producer and former WBEZ staffer Jesse Dukes:

Jesse Dukes — I haven't spoken to the “Reset” people, but to me, the question isn't how many hours a day of local programming, but what is the quality of that programming. In my opinion “Reset” was understaffed. Basically, every producer had to produce a segment nearly every day (pitch, schedule, prep) and they made a podcast on top of that, and generated content for the web. It's technically possible, but it leaves precious little time for planning, reflecting on past shows, more ambitious experiments with field reporting and other formats, and turns illnesses and vacations into staffing crises. If they're keeping the same staff but going from two hours to one, I think that will lead to a more humane, sustainable working experience, and ultimately, a better show. If, on the other hand, the move corresponds to less staffing, I think I would feel differently.

JakeH — I have fond memories of WBEZ's locally produced midday programming when I was in college and law school and listened regularly and avidly. “Eight Forty-Eight” with Steve Edwards, “Worldview” with Jerome McDonnell and “Odyssey” (my favorite) with Gretchen Helfrich, were all excellent, serious shows.

Melinda A K — I agree that WBEZ needs to focus more on locally produced radio. Otherwise, why should I listen to my local NPR station when I can listen to all those national shows on demand or streaming from any NPR affiliate? I love and support local public radio and want local content as well as national programs.

Rich Ramlow — I don't listen to NPR stations for local info. I like the national shows. “Reset” is very dull to me. And “Curious City” just sounds provincial. Not that I'm necessarily right. I’m just so preoccupied with the national and international news that Chicago politics seems petty. I'm glad others care more about that than I do.

Mary Lenehan — Less local programming is aligned with the worst trends in media and the opposite of what I subscribe to public media for.

Zorn — Like all legacy media, radio is struggling to remain relevant and healthy in an era of heavy competition for attention and support. If putting a new focus on “compelling daily video content on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram,” as station’s announcement said, is the route to sustainability and even growth, I’ll be surprised but pleased.

David Leitschuh — You linked approvingly to the news story headlined,“Public school students outperformed tax credit scholarship recipients at private schools, report says” and wrote that it “ought to spell the end of efforts to revive the discontinued program that diverts tax money to parochial schools through the sleight-of-hand of tax credits.” But the headline is misleading. The report compares the math and reading performance of Invest in Kids scholarships to the performance of students throughout Illinois.

But the overwhelming majority of children in this program are in Chicago and a key objective of the program was to offer children an alternative to the failing Chicago Public Schools. So for a true apples-to-apples comparison, their reading and math performance should be compared to CPS students. Given the abysmal percentages of CPS students who can read and do math at grade level, I believe the Invest in Kids students would reflect superior performance.

Zorn — You’re right that the comparisons were flawed and therefore the headline misleading. The story itself adequately aired the skeptical challenges to the study and I should have paid more attention to that. A serious effort to evaluate the program would have only compared like with like, looked at longer term results and interrogated the many possible reasons for different outcomes.

But academic outcomes notwithstanding, I remain strongly opposed to tax money going to support parochial schools where “teachers see prayer as a way to connect with students and address disruptive behavior” and where families are asked to “sign statements of faith.”

Pete Prokopowicz — You approvingly quoted JB Pritzker’s line, “The term ‘medical debt’ shouldn't exist. A sign of the broken system of the past, it's become one of the leading causes of bankruptcy. “ Really? Housing debt leads to foreclosure. Education debt? That should be erased. Transportation debt? Transportation is a necessity that shouldn’t require debt for anyone.

Zorn — I’m a big believer in Medicare for all and of the idea that health care should be a shared responsibility in a civilized society. Many of us can choose what level of housing, education and transportation debt (car loans, I guess you’re referring to ) we incur, but most us can’t predict what illnesses or syndromes or accidents will befall us.

Mark Komissarouk – The “Tom Freakin’ Skilling” image you posted last week is almost certainly a reference to this hilarious skit on the WGN morning news show a few years ago:

Zorn — Probably! Skilling was a great sport who loved to play against type and frequently volunteered to play versions of himself in the in-house comedy videos for the Tribune’s annual awards ceremony. This is priceless. Thanks.

Tom T. — University of Iowa women’s basketball superstar Caitlin Clark announced that she is entering the WNBA draft next year. I thought she would stay at Iowa to use up her fifth year of eligibility, but I understand her reasons for wanting to start her professional career. It will be interesting to see if she is able to maintain the same popularity as a pro.

Zorn — I recently made the case why she should stay in college, but I too can see why she might want to go pro. Playing a fifth season would put an asterisk by every unbreakable record she would set and she might be ready for different challenge in a different setting. I doubt it’s about the money, as she might even be taking a pay cut to turn pro.

I’ll have a bit more to say about Clark in Thursday’s edition.

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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