I knew it was bad but reading that Chicago has over twice the number of car jackings as New York and Los Angeles combined still shocks me. What is it about Chicago that our rate of car jackings is 8 times higher than those cities? New York probably has fewer cars but LA has more per capita. Both cities had extended pandemic school closings, suffer high rates of poverty, homelessness, public education problems, and issues of police trust in minority communities. But then I read today's CBW account of the 18 year old that killed the Chicago police officer last night. Police caught him in a pretty serious shooting incident last summer but prosecutors let him off with a misdemeanor and later dropped that. His 22 year old partner in that incident was let out on $200 bail and three weeks later robbed a women at gunpoint. Somehow between our policing strategies and our lax prosecution and judicial system these criminals in Chicago know that their chance of facing consequences for their actions are very low. Brandon Johnson's solutions of more summer jobs for youth (did he not see all the help wanted signs everywhere last summer??) and diverting police funds to additional mental health facilites are not going to make a dent in this uniquely Chicago crisis.
i don't often read mary schmich's pieces when EZ publishes them in the PS - which is a shame, because i enjoyed reading MS regularly when she wrote for the Trib. MS' piece today, on Miss Lil and her undermining of racial orthodoxy in the old South, was exquisite.
John Williams’ commentary on the song “No Hard Feelings” reminds me of my mom. She was aware of everything, including her very long decline, but did not complain (much) or get agitated at the world. It was a great example of dealing with life on its own terms and focusing on what actually matters to you.
I like the comic strip "Dilbert", but I heard/read Scott Adam about three years ago and thought when it comes to commentary he should stick to making comics. Eric you are 100% correct: "What an idiot". But I kind saw that coming eventually.
And in regards to Lori Lightfoot I hope she turns into a great and helpful ex-mayor. Something all the other ex-mayors could never really accomplish.
One of your best issues yet: outcomes of alternative voting methods (Sophia King is the other one besides Kam Buckner whom I hope to see more of), cautions about Brandon Johnson (despite the fact that I cannot vote for Vallas), the Visual Tweet, and more. The best: Miss Lillian. I'm still choked up.
America is politically divided, harshly, so that anyone from the other team is completely unacceptable. But within all-Democratic Chicago, it’s almost as bad. People seem more concerned about stopping the “extremists” on both ends than choosing someone good. Somehow they picked two candidates and now the battle is to mark the other one as unacceptable.
My favorites among the cool bemulleted presidents are Eisenhower and Wilson. Hilarious (though, truth be told, many of the faces don't look quite right, especially around the mouth).
Lovely thoughts on education. A few counter-thoughts:
Baldwin worried about misusing education to foster a compliant citizenry. I think that's the wrong worry for our place and time. The real difficulty is getting young adults to care much at all about the wider world outside their phones. That's the bigger hump for most students and teachers. Kids are leading their own lives and, by and large, have little interest in or understanding of that wider world. They're not typically spending much time contemplating the universe, much less questioning received wisdom (except in the most asinine, TikTok-inspired ways, e.g., Helen Keller is bullshit, a meme I heard repeated by quite a few students last year https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20220722/debunking_helen_keller_denial_meme). Contemplating the universe is what the Baldwins do. But he was of a highly intellectual bent that characterizes few teenagers. (Not "no teenagers," but relatively few.) It was probably ever thus. I'd be happy if kids were more attuned to receiving wisdom of any sort, to be honest.
I'm reminded of a high school world history curriculum I encountered as a student teacher. In many ways, it was a great curriculum. But the big idea was to dispel a Eurocentrist "dominant narrative." Okay, but the kids don't really come in with a Eurocentrist narrative, or any narrative, to dispel. As I jokingly suggested to colleagues to some chuckles, the curriculum begins with, "Forget everything you know about world history!" to which an honest response at second five would be, "Okay, done!"
Meanwhile, those who do care typically have a view that's shallow, shrill, and rigid. It's frequently far too confident and far too under-informed or misinformed. "Half-baked" would be a generous description. One again, this is natural and to be expected. Kids are kids. But, for the kids who do care, I would be less concerned with fostering a spirit of challenge -- instilling the courage to "fight" society, as Baldwin has it -- than a spirit of open, honest, rigorous, and generous inquiry. There are obviously fights that need fighting, and I really admire young people, past and present, who take up such challenges. But resisting authority is the natural way for kids -- at least, American ones. I'm not sure they need to be taught that instinct. The intellectual virtues are what need activation and exercise.
Progressives like Casten often assume that that's what progressives do and it's mainly the right that seeks to indoctrinate. Not so. As I've ranted about before, CRT-ish stuff, for example, is pretty indoctrinatey in practice, and intellectual currents on the left are increasingly flowing in an intolerant, anti-intellectual direction. And, putting aside hot-button issues like CRT, curriculum is often subtly aligned around progressive priorities and has been for some time. (As with, for example, that urgent goal to dispel the "dominant narrative" nobody has.) That's not to say those progressive ideas are clearly wrong or should be banned or anything like that. But ask yourself, do you think any conservative viewpoints get a fair hearing in, say, typical Chicago-area high school social studies classes? I'm pretty doubtful.
What's needed now most urgently isn't cultivation of a "fight the man" ethos that pretty much comes standard with teenagers. What's needed is something far harder and far less comfortable or natural: an insistence that kids give a shit and, thing two, engage in ways serious. The thing about democracy, as attenuated or warped as ours may be, is that we pretty much get what we deserve, and any system of popular sovereignty has a non-negotiable obligation to foster citizenship worthy of the name.
I was not surprised by the departure of Supt. Brown nor the short notice. Brown had no support from anyone other than LIghtfoot, including from within the department. He had no reason to stick around, even if Lightfoot had been reelected and had obviously been looking for a while since he already has a new job lined up. Hanging around for a transition would have been frustrating and not very useful since nobody would care about his direction, insights, or assessments. An interim from inside the department will at least have some deference and respect inside the department as someone that might be around for a while.
Mincing Rascals was fun and interesting again, as usual. I think that Vallas has a good chance of picking up a large segment of the people that voted for Lightfoot, Garcia, and Wilson. I also hope that the candidates will share clear views on the issues and their preferred solutions. The media could help by asking specific policy questions instead of asking for responses to buzz words (like Defund the Police) and opponent comments.
I am sad about the death spiral of print news media and the associated dearth of journalists for their digital replacements. But the simple fact is that the customers are unwilling to pay a high enough price to support the businesses. They do not value the content, or they believe that it should be cheap or free (in either print or digital form). We can only hope that a new business model emerges and isn't delayed or crushed by poor regulation. Maybe a shared pool of journalists across local TV, radio, and 'print' media could be created to support the dedicated, lead/senior journalists of each outlet. This might allow for an efficient coverage of a broader range of stories, more in-market journalists, and still maintain unique editorial focus of the outlets.
I had been -- for a few years now -- avoiding what I imagined would be a depressing endeavor of looking up current newspaper circulation numbers. The graphics you shared confirmed that fear. Seeing Springfield at 9,000 breaks my heart. I am, however, pretty happy to see the Sun-Times at 97,000. And I'm really surprised that the Tribune has 120 people still in the newsroom. The daily product and quality of copy and content editing certainly don't reflect that.
A piece from one of the on-line publications today on the low voter turnout for Chicago elections quoted one registered voter as saying they didn't even know there was an election going on. It sure seems that might have been more the rule than the exception.
There's a lot to worry about these days when we think about the future of the republic and the many threats it faces. At the top of the list is the decline and fall of the daily newspaper in every city and town and hamlet across the country. Who's going to be left to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable?
I knew it was bad but reading that Chicago has over twice the number of car jackings as New York and Los Angeles combined still shocks me. What is it about Chicago that our rate of car jackings is 8 times higher than those cities? New York probably has fewer cars but LA has more per capita. Both cities had extended pandemic school closings, suffer high rates of poverty, homelessness, public education problems, and issues of police trust in minority communities. But then I read today's CBW account of the 18 year old that killed the Chicago police officer last night. Police caught him in a pretty serious shooting incident last summer but prosecutors let him off with a misdemeanor and later dropped that. His 22 year old partner in that incident was let out on $200 bail and three weeks later robbed a women at gunpoint. Somehow between our policing strategies and our lax prosecution and judicial system these criminals in Chicago know that their chance of facing consequences for their actions are very low. Brandon Johnson's solutions of more summer jobs for youth (did he not see all the help wanted signs everywhere last summer??) and diverting police funds to additional mental health facilites are not going to make a dent in this uniquely Chicago crisis.
i don't often read mary schmich's pieces when EZ publishes them in the PS - which is a shame, because i enjoyed reading MS regularly when she wrote for the Trib. MS' piece today, on Miss Lil and her undermining of racial orthodoxy in the old South, was exquisite.
John Williams’ commentary on the song “No Hard Feelings” reminds me of my mom. She was aware of everything, including her very long decline, but did not complain (much) or get agitated at the world. It was a great example of dealing with life on its own terms and focusing on what actually matters to you.
I like the comic strip "Dilbert", but I heard/read Scott Adam about three years ago and thought when it comes to commentary he should stick to making comics. Eric you are 100% correct: "What an idiot". But I kind saw that coming eventually.
And in regards to Lori Lightfoot I hope she turns into a great and helpful ex-mayor. Something all the other ex-mayors could never really accomplish.
One of your best issues yet: outcomes of alternative voting methods (Sophia King is the other one besides Kam Buckner whom I hope to see more of), cautions about Brandon Johnson (despite the fact that I cannot vote for Vallas), the Visual Tweet, and more. The best: Miss Lillian. I'm still choked up.
America is politically divided, harshly, so that anyone from the other team is completely unacceptable. But within all-Democratic Chicago, it’s almost as bad. People seem more concerned about stopping the “extremists” on both ends than choosing someone good. Somehow they picked two candidates and now the battle is to mark the other one as unacceptable.
My favorites among the cool bemulleted presidents are Eisenhower and Wilson. Hilarious (though, truth be told, many of the faces don't look quite right, especially around the mouth).
Lovely thoughts on education. A few counter-thoughts:
Baldwin worried about misusing education to foster a compliant citizenry. I think that's the wrong worry for our place and time. The real difficulty is getting young adults to care much at all about the wider world outside their phones. That's the bigger hump for most students and teachers. Kids are leading their own lives and, by and large, have little interest in or understanding of that wider world. They're not typically spending much time contemplating the universe, much less questioning received wisdom (except in the most asinine, TikTok-inspired ways, e.g., Helen Keller is bullshit, a meme I heard repeated by quite a few students last year https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20220722/debunking_helen_keller_denial_meme). Contemplating the universe is what the Baldwins do. But he was of a highly intellectual bent that characterizes few teenagers. (Not "no teenagers," but relatively few.) It was probably ever thus. I'd be happy if kids were more attuned to receiving wisdom of any sort, to be honest.
I'm reminded of a high school world history curriculum I encountered as a student teacher. In many ways, it was a great curriculum. But the big idea was to dispel a Eurocentrist "dominant narrative." Okay, but the kids don't really come in with a Eurocentrist narrative, or any narrative, to dispel. As I jokingly suggested to colleagues to some chuckles, the curriculum begins with, "Forget everything you know about world history!" to which an honest response at second five would be, "Okay, done!"
Meanwhile, those who do care typically have a view that's shallow, shrill, and rigid. It's frequently far too confident and far too under-informed or misinformed. "Half-baked" would be a generous description. One again, this is natural and to be expected. Kids are kids. But, for the kids who do care, I would be less concerned with fostering a spirit of challenge -- instilling the courage to "fight" society, as Baldwin has it -- than a spirit of open, honest, rigorous, and generous inquiry. There are obviously fights that need fighting, and I really admire young people, past and present, who take up such challenges. But resisting authority is the natural way for kids -- at least, American ones. I'm not sure they need to be taught that instinct. The intellectual virtues are what need activation and exercise.
Progressives like Casten often assume that that's what progressives do and it's mainly the right that seeks to indoctrinate. Not so. As I've ranted about before, CRT-ish stuff, for example, is pretty indoctrinatey in practice, and intellectual currents on the left are increasingly flowing in an intolerant, anti-intellectual direction. And, putting aside hot-button issues like CRT, curriculum is often subtly aligned around progressive priorities and has been for some time. (As with, for example, that urgent goal to dispel the "dominant narrative" nobody has.) That's not to say those progressive ideas are clearly wrong or should be banned or anything like that. But ask yourself, do you think any conservative viewpoints get a fair hearing in, say, typical Chicago-area high school social studies classes? I'm pretty doubtful.
What's needed now most urgently isn't cultivation of a "fight the man" ethos that pretty much comes standard with teenagers. What's needed is something far harder and far less comfortable or natural: an insistence that kids give a shit and, thing two, engage in ways serious. The thing about democracy, as attenuated or warped as ours may be, is that we pretty much get what we deserve, and any system of popular sovereignty has a non-negotiable obligation to foster citizenship worthy of the name.
I was not surprised by the departure of Supt. Brown nor the short notice. Brown had no support from anyone other than LIghtfoot, including from within the department. He had no reason to stick around, even if Lightfoot had been reelected and had obviously been looking for a while since he already has a new job lined up. Hanging around for a transition would have been frustrating and not very useful since nobody would care about his direction, insights, or assessments. An interim from inside the department will at least have some deference and respect inside the department as someone that might be around for a while.
Mincing Rascals was fun and interesting again, as usual. I think that Vallas has a good chance of picking up a large segment of the people that voted for Lightfoot, Garcia, and Wilson. I also hope that the candidates will share clear views on the issues and their preferred solutions. The media could help by asking specific policy questions instead of asking for responses to buzz words (like Defund the Police) and opponent comments.
I am sad about the death spiral of print news media and the associated dearth of journalists for their digital replacements. But the simple fact is that the customers are unwilling to pay a high enough price to support the businesses. They do not value the content, or they believe that it should be cheap or free (in either print or digital form). We can only hope that a new business model emerges and isn't delayed or crushed by poor regulation. Maybe a shared pool of journalists across local TV, radio, and 'print' media could be created to support the dedicated, lead/senior journalists of each outlet. This might allow for an efficient coverage of a broader range of stories, more in-market journalists, and still maintain unique editorial focus of the outlets.
I had been -- for a few years now -- avoiding what I imagined would be a depressing endeavor of looking up current newspaper circulation numbers. The graphics you shared confirmed that fear. Seeing Springfield at 9,000 breaks my heart. I am, however, pretty happy to see the Sun-Times at 97,000. And I'm really surprised that the Tribune has 120 people still in the newsroom. The daily product and quality of copy and content editing certainly don't reflect that.
A piece from one of the on-line publications today on the low voter turnout for Chicago elections quoted one registered voter as saying they didn't even know there was an election going on. It sure seems that might have been more the rule than the exception.
There's a lot to worry about these days when we think about the future of the republic and the many threats it faces. At the top of the list is the decline and fall of the daily newspaper in every city and town and hamlet across the country. Who's going to be left to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable?