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Notes and comments from readers —lightly edited —- along with my responses
Some of these messages are in reference items in last Thursday’s Picayune Sentinel.
Edward C. — Still think regular-season conference titles don’t matter?
This terse email included a photo of the University of Illinois basketball team’s coaches and players celebrating deliriously after winning the Big Ten co-championship on Sunday afternoon. And my answer is yes, for major college teams regular-season conference titles don’t — or shouldn’t — matter, no matter how much the coaches, players and fans exult in them.
Almost no one aside from crazed stats geeks will care or remember who won the regular-season Big Ten title in this or any other year, just like no one aside from crazed stats geeks cares or remembers who wins divisional titles in baseball. Sure, that doesn’t stop the ridiculous merrymaking in the baseball locker rooms when players pour champagne on one another for advancing one step closer to the World Series, but history remembers the finalists, not the also rans.
Illinois was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament last year having won the Big Ten post-season tournament — woo hoo! Then the Illini lost in the second round to Loyola University Chicago — d’oh! A season to remember became a season to forget.
Wishing good luck to all Big Ten teams in the NCAA — men and women — but if they once again don’t even make the round of 16, well, ho hum.
Rick L. — What was recently indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s motivation all these years? It doesn’t appear that he tried to enrich himself so he could live a lavish lifestyle. No yachts, no vacation mansions or the like that I’m aware of. He didn’t hobnob with rich and famous or have courtside seats to Bulls games. It appears that he led a pretty simple/humble sort of life. Was he driven solely by the desire for power for the sake of power? Does he have huge stashes of money hidden away for his kids? Grandkids?
I’m very eager to read my former colleague Ray Long’s book “The House That Madigan Built: The Record Run of Illinois' Velvet Hammer,”which will be published two weeks from today, to see his take on this question. Madigan’s house in the city’s West Lawn neighborhood (pictured here) isn’t simple and humble, but neither is it grandiose. He may have lavish vacation homes galore and a massive fortune based on his earnings as a property tax attorney, I have no idea. But he certainly never sought celebrity or even higher office, never showboated or became the face of a movement or a cause.
In fact, I’m not sure I could articulate just what he believes, what he truly cares about when it comes to public policy. My sense is that, yes, he was all about acquiring and maintaining political power, pretty much for its own sake, and that he followed as well as led his fellow Democrats in order to keep his caucus strong. Whatever his true feelings about abortion, gay rights, the death penalty and so on, he generally knew how to get the legislative results that would best strengthen his grasp on the levers of power.
I’ll be surprised if we learn that simple greed was his downfall; that a grubby desire for more and greater wealth motivated the actions for which he was indicted. Power seems to be a currency all its own, heady, addictive and irresistible.
Jim T. — Major League Baseball should shorten game by eliminating warm-up tosses for relief pitchers entering the game. No other sport stops the game to allow substitutes to warm up when coming off the bench. This is especially dumb since they were already warming up in the bullpen. Imagine a Bears game stopping to allow Nick Foles to throw a few passes to his receivers before subbing for Justin Fields.
Agreed, though I’d make an exception for when a pitcher is injured and the reliever had no time to warm up in the bullpen. The argument from baseball folks is that there is no act in all of sports that puts a greater stress on the human body than pitching a baseball at high speed, so you want pitchers to be warm and loose in order to avoid injury. I have no idea if there is empirical data that supports the benefits of warm up throws or how many are optimal — this may simply be one of those “it’s the way we’ve always done it” things.
If we’re about saving time, the gap between innings could easily be shortened by limiting pitcher warm ups and the practice of throwing practice grounders around the infield. No other sport does that during breaks in the action. Of course the time between team at bats is when commercials run on TV so there would have to be more in-game spots if the interval between last out and first pitch were shortened to, say, 90 seconds. But I do think some big changes are in order if baseball is going to grow in popularity in the era of shorter and shorter attention spans
Marianne — Your post declaring Volodymyr Zelenskyy a hero caused me to think also of Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. And butchered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the women who have spoken up against powerful men who have abused them (I am watching the Cosby documentary and grew verklempt at the testimonies being shared), Darnella Frazier (who recorded the murder of George Floyd), and Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who had the presence of mind to distract rioters away from Senate chambers without concern for his own safety. Also, of course, Russians who have taken to the streets to protest against the invasion of Ukraine. Anyone who speaks the truth knowing it won't be rewarded (and may be punished punitively) is my hero.
Those are good, though I think it overstates the case to refer to those who turned their camera phones on the murder of George Floyd as heroic. Another commenter nominated for hero status Alexi Navalny, “who survived poisoning and still returned to Russia, knowing he’d be imprisoned.” Another suggested “people who donate organs, especially those who donate to strangers, and people who care for disabled children day in and day out, people who care for old folks and grandparents who raise their grandchildren.”
I consider the caregivers to be noble, selfless and thoroughly admirable, but to my mind heroism requires courage in facing down serious risk. Hero is the wrong word.
Dianne M. — Regarding your view of the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman tragedy of 10 years ago, you overlooked the vigilante mentality that Zimmerman exhibited and the danger of “stand your ground” laws. Remember, the police dispatcher asked Zimmerman over the phone if he was following Trayvon. Zimmerman responded he was, and the dispatcher told him he didn’t need to do that. I believe you can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman didn’t commit a crime that night.
We tell neighbors and concerned citizens that when they see something, they should say something. That’s what Zimmerman did. He saw a person whom he suspected was up to no good and he called police. Myths notwithstanding, he didn’t take the law into his own hands by chasing after Martin in an attempt to effect a citizen’s arrest. The dispatcher told him not to follow Martin, yes, and he didn’t. He moved to a vantage point where he thought he could keep an eye out for Martin so he could tell police where he was when they arrived. His aim was to help police rather than to act as the police, which is what a “vigilante” does.
There’s no evidence that he failed to take an opportunity to retreat from Martin, which is where the stand-your-ground laws would apply. That’s why his defense didn’t argue that law at his trial. I have very little doubt about what happened that night, but the burden of proof —beyond a reasonable doubt — is on anyone who says Zimmerman committed a crime
David L. You’re being disingenuous when you bring up Trump's phone call to President Zelenskyy, but conveniently omit then-Vice President Biden's call to Zelenskyy explicitly threatening to withhold US aid if Zelenskyy did not remove Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma, the energy company that had made massive payments to Hunter Biden for doing absolutely nothing.
You right-wing trolls piss away all your credibility on that "Biden extorted Ukraine to get rid of a prosecutor because he was looking into Hunter" nonsense. Here’s the USA Today fact check, one of many fact checks that make the same point about this silly claim:
"It's true that Joe Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to persuade Ukraine to oust its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in March 2016. But it wasn't because Shokin was investigating Burisma. It was because Shokin wasn't pursuing corruption among the country's politicians. As European and American diplomats pressed Ukraine to clean up its corruption, they focused on Shokin's leadership of the Prosecutor General's Office, which he took over in February 2015... Biden was acting alongside our European allies. Everybody was of a single mind that this prosecutor was not the right guy for the job. Daria Kaleniuk, the co-founder and executive director of the Anti Corruption Action Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, credited Biden, the International Monetary Fund — which threatened to delay $40 billion in aid for similar reasons — and others with the prosecutor's removal."
Had an ongoing investigation of Shokin’s actually been aborted, you might have the glimmer of a point, even though, again, Biden was acting at the direction of the White House, not as his own agent, so probably not. Biden was not acting in his personal capacity. The Trump family, meanwhile, is a walking, swaggering conflict of interest and anyone who connects the dots with Burisma's efforts to win favor with Biden (do you have any evidence that Joe Biden ever did or said anything that advantaged Burisma in any way whatsoever? I'll spare the reader any suspense, no you do not) has to look at China's efforts to win favor with the Trumps through fast-tracking patents for Ivanka.
I’m content to let any investigations of Hunter play out, but the rabid right has been banging this particular spoon on the highchair for a very long time now, and so far nothing. Burisma gave Hunter a do-little job for which he wasn't qualified in hopes of currying favor with the Obama White House, but big donors give millions to politicians here in the U.S. hoping to curry favor with politicians of both parties.
So your point is….?
Jerry B. — Well how is the paid Picayune Sentinel going? Better than expected I hope. It appears that you have not had to police the comment thread much. My guess is that opening comments only to paid subscribers keeps the rift-raff out. I say with a smile on my face and as your "friendly --not exactly friend" that the only unhinged commenter appears to be, at times, you.
It’s going pretty well, thanks. My goal was to earn enough from the Sentinel to cover the eye-popping costs of continuing my family’s health insurance coverage through COBRA since Alden Global Capital did not include benefits in the buyout package. And I’ve reached that goal.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the tone of the comments — though some have been inane and I do not stint from calling out offenders in strong terms, as you observe — and I attribute that to the commenters having a literal investment in the success of the site. As time goes on and the number of paid subscribers grows, I hope and expect that the back and forth will become more robust.
Ya gotta see these tweets!
I often run across tweets that are too visual in nature to include in the Tweet of the Week contest (the template for the poll does not allow the use of images). Here are a few good ones I’ve come across recently:
There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll!
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Thanks. When you started the Paid Edition, I was wondering about the value. No wondering anymore. You make me think a little (sometimes uncomfortable which is good) but also make me smile
I believe I am the victim of unfair editing. In my list of heroes I included All Winners of the Medal of Honor which seem to meet your definition of hero but you only mentioned the folks who donate organs and care givers as not being heroes. Be fair.
Next you say you are looking for some major sacrifice for someone to be a hero and then agree that Alexander Vindman is a hero. Well he spoke truth to power - but hero - not really.
You seem to think risking his career makes him a hero. I think a hero needs to act in an altruistic manner for the good of others. Alex did a good thing and now he is busy defending himself.
This is a slippery slope - another guy- Mike Pence - spoke truth to power by just doing his job and counting the Electoral Votes. He put his political career on the line by doing that. Yet I do not consider Mike Pence a hero.