I heard Mayor Johnson saying that all parents bereaved by gun violence shed the same tears and that NO-ONE deserves to die because of the insane proliferation of guns in the US. If it weren't for the latter, both Officer Preston and Adam Toledo would be alive.
Mayor Johnson: “The tears of Adam Toledo, his parents, the tears of Adam Toledo’s parents are made of the same sorrow as the parents of Officer Preston’s parents.” Those tears were caused by deaths in both cases that are directly attributable to the proliferation of guns. A lovely young woman and a 13-year old boy are dead ... Is Catanzara saying that some lives are more important than others or that deaths are cheapened by circumstances?
I heard the mayor saying that the criminals are victims and that we need to spend oceans of money to solve every social ill. He did not say anything about getting guns off the street or policing or bringing Officer Preston's killers to justice. It was an elaboration on his root cause message. Less policing, more spending, less crime.
Thank you for including the Mary Schmich posts. It's reassuring to be able to relate to her thoughts and recollections because they are so genuine and familiar.
Thanks for reintroducing me to Stan Rogers' "The Mary Ellen Carter," almost forgotten after 40 or so years of my first hearing it. The wonderful refrain "rise again, rise again," replaying on an endless loop in my aging mind's jukebox, has more meaning now than it ever could back then.
It's so good. If you like uplift, about a year ago I featured "Another Train" by Pete Morton https://youtu.be/IzVS1xCGSXM
There's another train.
There always is.
Maybe the next one is yours.
Get up and climb aboard
Another train.
The tempo isn’t bouncy or upbeat, but the song is quietly, forcefully inspirational. You will find there are times when it’s just the song you need to hear.
Another fine song, thank you! But what makes The Mary Ellen Carter exceptional (at least for me) is the allegorical nature of its inspiration. Like all good poetry, what you need to hear is sometimes best absorbed indirectly.
I bring it up only to defend, again, as necessary, the honor of the newsroom and the ideals of truth. As soon as John stops spewing his self-pitying lies, I'll shutup about it.
Some high-end phone cameras are notorious "off" in their colors. I'd like to learn Mary Schmich's opinion of the accuracy of the photo. I do remember that some Misty Harbor coats were a pastel yellow, which could fade with time & laundering.
OMG. I just re-subscribed to you thinking you were done with the Kass diatribes.
Definitely not a "fervant fan", but do think he's right on a couple issues.
1. After his FIRST Soros article the Chicago Tribune Guild accused Kass of "invoking the odious anti-Semitic conspiracy theory". His article just said that Foxx and other prosecutors were Soros funded. A fact which Soros embraces. This CTG accusation was as false as the May 4th comment that you had a "sometime racist opinion of Willy Wilson".
2. If you go to work for a union shop, I think you should be required to join and support the union, but if the union comes to your shop, it is your right to try and find a "workaround". Do you really think he did not join so he could "freeload" or was it just his distaste for unions?
I sent you a comment when this first happened and asked: "Do you think the CTG would have written the letter accusing him of anti-Semitism if he wasn't the only metro columnist at the paper that didn't join their union?"
You replied: "A resounding yes." I respectfully disagree.
Thanks for resubscribing, and I would hardly call today's aside a diatribe. I will continue to repost that entry of mine every time he attacks his former colleagues with his lies. My narrative specifically says that I don't think Kass deliberately sounded an anti-Semitic dog whistle. And it was far from just his colleagues who objected strenuously to the needless repetition of Soros Soros Soros.
Kass never explained why he didn't want to sign a union card -- still hasn't as far as I know -- though one could certainly speculate that he didn't want to kick in any union dues because the union was unlikely to do him any particular good. Fair enough. The same was true with me, frankly. People at my pay grade were not likely to benefit. But our younger colleagues would, and so I signed in solidarity.
He calls the Guild "Marxist," which may be how he sees all unions. He's free to explain this view in more detail and I hope someone alerts me if he does.
You are free to have your outsider's opinion of the newsroom dynamics at the Tribune as you are free to overlook the lies and deceptions that I chronicled and continue to take John's side here.
The "aside" wasn't the diatribe. I made the mistake of clicking on the link to the 1900 words of your Kass-Bash. :)
And I'm not "taking sides" on these tirades.
I was just trying to make two points.
1. That what he originally wrote and was called out on by the CTG, which started this
ball rolling, was not anti-Semitic. We disagree on their motive.
2. That he should not be forced to join or to explain why he didn't join the union.
The continuing jabs at Kass, "Whiff of fuckery", "self pitying bullshit", "Indiana-based", "opaque land trust",... is tiresome. We'd all be happier if you said farewell to your "bitter, thin-skinned egotistical old crank".
I thought the tears statement was spot on and very touching in that it focused on the grief of those who lose loved ones to violence, regardless of the perpetrator.
As for the community's grief, Adam was the victim of police brutality which has (or should have) as much of an impact on all of us as the death of a police officer. In some ways, it has even more. When some random person kills another it is an individual breaking the law. When a police officer kills someone it is betrayal of the public trust and an abuse of power. That hurts even more. Especially when the victim is a child.
Except that the claim that this was an example of "police brutality" is highly disputed. Laquan McDonald would have been a better victim to point to if he wanted to try to make the point you wanted to make.
Claims of police brutality are always highly disputed. There are still legions of people who dispute that the murder of George Floyd was anything more than good policing that tragically went wrong, even after a court of law found that not to be the case. How can anyone who watched the video of a child being shot with his hands in the air and watched the life disappear from his eyes, not consider that as horrific as any other shooting death?
Even when the child was out gang banging and shooting a gun, presumably at some other human being? Remember, the police only showed up and chased Adam because a shot was fired and if that bullet had hit its target someone else could have died. Should the police have just let him go running away with his gun, possibly to shoot again?
Yes, even when the child was out gang banging. When the police say drop your weapon, show me your hands, and the person drops their weapon and shows their hands, there is no justification to shoot them. taze them, or brutalize them in any manner.
Anyone notice the Scott Stantis penned "Prickly City" comic strip now has a one man band newspaper called "The Daily Peccary" which uses a font very similar to the one used here. In today's strip it is mentioned that the paper is owned by a hedge fund so I'm guessing Scott is going with a mashup of the Chicago Tribune and the Picayune Sentinel. That way he can do jokes about either or both of them. As a former Mincing Rascal I wonder if Scott asked permission before publishing this new character. Either way it is fun to see.
July is my favorite month. I love summer, which is at its zenith. Also, it begins with a wonderful celebration of America’s birthday, and ends with a wonderful celebration of my birthday.
I guess when it comes to politicians I am an abused child. Abused children do not listen to folks but watch what they do. So often they hear sweet things said only to be immediately hit or kicked. So they watch for action and ignore the talk.
I think Brandon Johnson was trying to be uplifting in his speech - but they were just words. I await his actions and accomplishments to judge his motives.
I see Johnson’s point in the sense that sorrow is sorrow in whatever context it is experienced, tears are tears, heartache is heartache – grief is grief. This is a reference to the internal emotional experience all grieving people have, whether death is a result of a morally tragic or reprehensible shooting or not. Like a bowl of s*** stew, few people after tasting it would eat it unless they had to; so, few people would welcome grief into their lives if they didn’t have to.
On the other hand, the external contextual status of the two morally different deaths makes it controversial – was Adam Toledo’s shooting a “good” one or not, indicating it was a justified shooting/killing or a coverup? People are largely not in agreement here and want a just, official judgment (which in Chicago they may never get) generally. They want “justice” as they see it, often mitigated civilly through aggressive, direct mob action.
Most people would agree on its face that both deaths are tragic losses, but the one can without question easily be viewed as morally reprehensible – the shooting of Chicago police officer Areanah Preston (perhaps a prestigious act amongst criminals) – while the shooting of Adam Toledo is viewed as a heroic act on the part of the CPD, the Chicago Police Department? Why not issue a commendation to Officer Eric Stillman?
This sounds more to me like a cookie-cutter judgment often generally and uniformly exonerating most every shooting by the CPD, Chicago Police Department; and, following their lead, it dismisses any claims to the contrary – like the questionable civil, legal/moral dichotomy inherent in these shootings.
What is the ethical and journalistic responsibility in this case, as well as the obligation on the part of the questionable veracity of the CPD and City Hall?
Both Adam Toledo and Areanah Preston were subject to lethal gunfire – we know this much is factually true, -- but what is the ethical journalistic and civil responsibility in this case?
Justice delayed is justice denied (Magna Carta, which states that nobody should be "denied or delayed right or justice") ... and in what sense?
Well, that is the question, isn't it? I'm suggesting that from an external viewpoint the connotation suggests a cultural bias in favor of the police based on status and tradition -- Adam Toledo was immediately labeled a strongly suspected wrongdoer off the bat -- he was carrying a pistol, enough to get you killed if you have it out and are waiving it around near a Chicago cop, while Chicago police officer Areanah Preston was the rather clearcut victim of gun violence, according to common reports. I'm drawing a contrast between the moral character of the two judgments based on their external status and their meanings, as I said. Yes, ... in this sense, it seems to me they were viewed as two morally different deaths.
I found out that when you refuse to check any of the boxes, it insists you choose at least one. I chose urban legend but my preference was "none of the above". They were all pretty awful and I don't think I was tempted to laugh even a little bit at any of them.
I heard Mayor Johnson saying that all parents bereaved by gun violence shed the same tears and that NO-ONE deserves to die because of the insane proliferation of guns in the US. If it weren't for the latter, both Officer Preston and Adam Toledo would be alive.
If that were what Mayor Johnson had said, I would welcome it. Unfortunately, that is not what he said.
Mayor Johnson: “The tears of Adam Toledo, his parents, the tears of Adam Toledo’s parents are made of the same sorrow as the parents of Officer Preston’s parents.” Those tears were caused by deaths in both cases that are directly attributable to the proliferation of guns. A lovely young woman and a 13-year old boy are dead ... Is Catanzara saying that some lives are more important than others or that deaths are cheapened by circumstances?
I heard the mayor saying that the criminals are victims and that we need to spend oceans of money to solve every social ill. He did not say anything about getting guns off the street or policing or bringing Officer Preston's killers to justice. It was an elaboration on his root cause message. Less policing, more spending, less crime.
Thank you for including the Mary Schmich posts. It's reassuring to be able to relate to her thoughts and recollections because they are so genuine and familiar.
I particularly enjoyed the article about Mary Schmich's mother's yellow coat.
I have a pink one bought at the Pink Elephant.
To all Moms!
Mary is a treasure. I'm grateful she lets me use her stuff in the Sentinel
Thanks for reintroducing me to Stan Rogers' "The Mary Ellen Carter," almost forgotten after 40 or so years of my first hearing it. The wonderful refrain "rise again, rise again," replaying on an endless loop in my aging mind's jukebox, has more meaning now than it ever could back then.
It's so good. If you like uplift, about a year ago I featured "Another Train" by Pete Morton https://youtu.be/IzVS1xCGSXM
There's another train.
There always is.
Maybe the next one is yours.
Get up and climb aboard
Another train.
The tempo isn’t bouncy or upbeat, but the song is quietly, forcefully inspirational. You will find there are times when it’s just the song you need to hear.
A better but slower recording is here https://youtu.be/Z3IndKzuEq8
Another fine song, thank you! But what makes The Mary Ellen Carter exceptional (at least for me) is the allegorical nature of its inspiration. Like all good poetry, what you need to hear is sometimes best absorbed indirectly.
"Mayor Johnson's unwise decision to invoke the death of Adam Toledo" - nice start, first week, for the next 'Michael Jordan' of Chicago politics.
You won. John Kass lost. Enough.
I bring it up only to defend, again, as necessary, the honor of the newsroom and the ideals of truth. As soon as John stops spewing his self-pitying lies, I'll shutup about it.
The coat looks white to me as well, and NOVA had an excellent episode last night about perception deception:
https://www.pbs.org/video/your-brain-perception-deception-0mqxyc/
Some high-end phone cameras are notorious "off" in their colors. I'd like to learn Mary Schmich's opinion of the accuracy of the photo. I do remember that some Misty Harbor coats were a pastel yellow, which could fade with time & laundering.
Correctly pronouncing "dour" has always been my forte.
I see what you did there!
OMG. I just re-subscribed to you thinking you were done with the Kass diatribes.
Definitely not a "fervant fan", but do think he's right on a couple issues.
1. After his FIRST Soros article the Chicago Tribune Guild accused Kass of "invoking the odious anti-Semitic conspiracy theory". His article just said that Foxx and other prosecutors were Soros funded. A fact which Soros embraces. This CTG accusation was as false as the May 4th comment that you had a "sometime racist opinion of Willy Wilson".
2. If you go to work for a union shop, I think you should be required to join and support the union, but if the union comes to your shop, it is your right to try and find a "workaround". Do you really think he did not join so he could "freeload" or was it just his distaste for unions?
I sent you a comment when this first happened and asked: "Do you think the CTG would have written the letter accusing him of anti-Semitism if he wasn't the only metro columnist at the paper that didn't join their union?"
You replied: "A resounding yes." I respectfully disagree.
Thanks for resubscribing, and I would hardly call today's aside a diatribe. I will continue to repost that entry of mine every time he attacks his former colleagues with his lies. My narrative specifically says that I don't think Kass deliberately sounded an anti-Semitic dog whistle. And it was far from just his colleagues who objected strenuously to the needless repetition of Soros Soros Soros.
Kass never explained why he didn't want to sign a union card -- still hasn't as far as I know -- though one could certainly speculate that he didn't want to kick in any union dues because the union was unlikely to do him any particular good. Fair enough. The same was true with me, frankly. People at my pay grade were not likely to benefit. But our younger colleagues would, and so I signed in solidarity.
He calls the Guild "Marxist," which may be how he sees all unions. He's free to explain this view in more detail and I hope someone alerts me if he does.
You are free to have your outsider's opinion of the newsroom dynamics at the Tribune as you are free to overlook the lies and deceptions that I chronicled and continue to take John's side here.
The "aside" wasn't the diatribe. I made the mistake of clicking on the link to the 1900 words of your Kass-Bash. :)
And I'm not "taking sides" on these tirades.
I was just trying to make two points.
1. That what he originally wrote and was called out on by the CTG, which started this
ball rolling, was not anti-Semitic. We disagree on their motive.
2. That he should not be forced to join or to explain why he didn't join the union.
The continuing jabs at Kass, "Whiff of fuckery", "self pitying bullshit", "Indiana-based", "opaque land trust",... is tiresome. We'd all be happier if you said farewell to your "bitter, thin-skinned egotistical old crank".
I thought the tears statement was spot on and very touching in that it focused on the grief of those who lose loved ones to violence, regardless of the perpetrator.
As for the community's grief, Adam was the victim of police brutality which has (or should have) as much of an impact on all of us as the death of a police officer. In some ways, it has even more. When some random person kills another it is an individual breaking the law. When a police officer kills someone it is betrayal of the public trust and an abuse of power. That hurts even more. Especially when the victim is a child.
Except that the claim that this was an example of "police brutality" is highly disputed. Laquan McDonald would have been a better victim to point to if he wanted to try to make the point you wanted to make.
Claims of police brutality are always highly disputed. There are still legions of people who dispute that the murder of George Floyd was anything more than good policing that tragically went wrong, even after a court of law found that not to be the case. How can anyone who watched the video of a child being shot with his hands in the air and watched the life disappear from his eyes, not consider that as horrific as any other shooting death?
Horrific, tragic - yes. Example of police brutality - no.
Even when the child was out gang banging and shooting a gun, presumably at some other human being? Remember, the police only showed up and chased Adam because a shot was fired and if that bullet had hit its target someone else could have died. Should the police have just let him go running away with his gun, possibly to shoot again?
Yes, even when the child was out gang banging. When the police say drop your weapon, show me your hands, and the person drops their weapon and shows their hands, there is no justification to shoot them. taze them, or brutalize them in any manner.
Can we vote sorta funny and tasteless on Coffin Flop?
The Coffin Flop survey needs another response “Not particularly tasteless and not particularly funny”.
It was tedious. Just tedious.
Anyone notice the Scott Stantis penned "Prickly City" comic strip now has a one man band newspaper called "The Daily Peccary" which uses a font very similar to the one used here. In today's strip it is mentioned that the paper is owned by a hedge fund so I'm guessing Scott is going with a mashup of the Chicago Tribune and the Picayune Sentinel. That way he can do jokes about either or both of them. As a former Mincing Rascal I wonder if Scott asked permission before publishing this new character. Either way it is fun to see.
I love Scott Stantis and he has my blessing to make fun of me if he wants to!
July is my favorite month. I love summer, which is at its zenith. Also, it begins with a wonderful celebration of America’s birthday, and ends with a wonderful celebration of my birthday.
As a July Leo myself (and married to one too), I'm with you on July as #1.
I guess when it comes to politicians I am an abused child. Abused children do not listen to folks but watch what they do. So often they hear sweet things said only to be immediately hit or kicked. So they watch for action and ignore the talk.
I think Brandon Johnson was trying to be uplifting in his speech - but they were just words. I await his actions and accomplishments to judge his motives.
I see Johnson’s point in the sense that sorrow is sorrow in whatever context it is experienced, tears are tears, heartache is heartache – grief is grief. This is a reference to the internal emotional experience all grieving people have, whether death is a result of a morally tragic or reprehensible shooting or not. Like a bowl of s*** stew, few people after tasting it would eat it unless they had to; so, few people would welcome grief into their lives if they didn’t have to.
On the other hand, the external contextual status of the two morally different deaths makes it controversial – was Adam Toledo’s shooting a “good” one or not, indicating it was a justified shooting/killing or a coverup? People are largely not in agreement here and want a just, official judgment (which in Chicago they may never get) generally. They want “justice” as they see it, often mitigated civilly through aggressive, direct mob action.
Most people would agree on its face that both deaths are tragic losses, but the one can without question easily be viewed as morally reprehensible – the shooting of Chicago police officer Areanah Preston (perhaps a prestigious act amongst criminals) – while the shooting of Adam Toledo is viewed as a heroic act on the part of the CPD, the Chicago Police Department? Why not issue a commendation to Officer Eric Stillman?
This sounds more to me like a cookie-cutter judgment often generally and uniformly exonerating most every shooting by the CPD, Chicago Police Department; and, following their lead, it dismisses any claims to the contrary – like the questionable civil, legal/moral dichotomy inherent in these shootings.
What is the ethical and journalistic responsibility in this case, as well as the obligation on the part of the questionable veracity of the CPD and City Hall?
Both Adam Toledo and Areanah Preston were subject to lethal gunfire – we know this much is factually true, -- but what is the ethical journalistic and civil responsibility in this case?
Justice delayed is justice denied (Magna Carta, which states that nobody should be "denied or delayed right or justice") ... and in what sense?
"... two morally different deaths ..." Really?
Well, that is the question, isn't it? I'm suggesting that from an external viewpoint the connotation suggests a cultural bias in favor of the police based on status and tradition -- Adam Toledo was immediately labeled a strongly suspected wrongdoer off the bat -- he was carrying a pistol, enough to get you killed if you have it out and are waiving it around near a Chicago cop, while Chicago police officer Areanah Preston was the rather clearcut victim of gun violence, according to common reports. I'm drawing a contrast between the moral character of the two judgments based on their external status and their meanings, as I said. Yes, ... in this sense, it seems to me they were viewed as two morally different deaths.
I have to say that I found this week's crop of Tweets to be well below your usual standards. Pickings must be slim.
I found out that when you refuse to check any of the boxes, it insists you choose at least one. I chose urban legend but my preference was "none of the above". They were all pretty awful and I don't think I was tempted to laugh even a little bit at any of them.