Don’t divert public money to private use

     Chicago is the only major American city with an elevated train ringing its downtown — OK, one of two, if you consider Miami to be a major city and its free little Metromover a real elevated train.
     So Chicagoans (and any stray Miamians finding themselves here) might have an easier time participating in a thought experiment I’d like to try today. Imagine if, along with an elevated train, we had an elevated sidewalk downtown. A private, members-only sidewalk, raised 20 feet in the air, with access granted to Chicagoans who pay a fee — say, $200 a week — to pass through the turnstiles, step into well-maintained elevators, or climb pristine stairways.
     Let’s call it the Sky Sidewalk, an overhead array of curving pathways — glassed in, air-conditioned in summer, heated in winter — where the choice few could avoid the cracked, dirty, windswept, crowded Chicago sidewalks (OK, not so crowded lately; work with me here). Certainly cracked and blustery, sometimes crime-ridden.
     Problems for the masses below to cope with best we can, stepping over potholes, hurrying past panhandlers. Frequently finding ourselves at street corners, shivering in the February cold, waiting for the light to change, trying not to cast an envious glance at the anointed above on the Sky Sidewalk, strolling easily across the street — no waiting on traffic for them.
     Now imagine there’s an election — actually you don’t have to imagine; there’s one for mayor in a couple of weeks. Some candidates mention a plan to address perennial pedestrian concerns: the cracks, the crime, the cars turning right whether you are trying to cross or not. You’re all ears. What is this plan?
     “So this is what we’re going to do,” says a candidate. “We’re going to take your tax dollars, and use them to buff the Sky Sidewalk. Maybe carpet part of it. Or put planters of fresh flowers. Some wind chimes perhaps. Because nice as it is, it could be even nicer. Where will the money come from? Tax dollars. Let’s give a break for people on the Sky Sidewalk. Really, why should those who don’t use the city sidewalks pay for their upkeep? They’re already paying $200 a week. Let’s give them a hand.”
     How would that fly with you?

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Paul Vallas, man of mystery

     Almost 30 years ago I wrote a profile on Bill Pinkney, the first Black sailor to circumnavigate the globe alone — I think I'll repost that later this week. In interviewing his wife Ina, the restaurateur, it came out that while married, they lived in separate homes. In my mid-30s but naive as a lamb, I remember looking up and thinking, "Golly, what's that about?"
     Cohabitation is the predominant condition of marriage — I initially wrote "natural" but that is a fraught term nowadays, when even the concept of "normality" can be seen as a weapon in the supremacist's arsenal. Whatever you call it, 97 percent of married couples manage to live under the same roof.
     In Fran Spielman's excellent interview with Paul Vallas in the Sun-Times Saturday, the former Chicago Public Schools head tries to tap dance past by various controversies that have wrapped their arms around his knees. He explains only being registered to vote in Bridgeport for only the past year this way:
     “When I left Philadelphia to go to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, my wife did not want to go with me. She wanted to move back to where she was most comfortable. She bought a home right next to her aged parents in the same house where she grew up. … My kids were still relatively young, and she thought that’s where she could be most easily supported.
     Were I to respond to that by asking, "If your own wife didn't want to go with you, then why should the city of Chicago?" But that could be seen as mean, and personal. Besides, I am not a hard-charging A-list crisis administrator like Paul Vallas, who I suppose must go wherever someone is willing to hire him. The separation can be spun as consideration, I suppose, that his wife is encouraged to live where she is happiest, even if that is in a different part of the country from her husband. That's how the jetset fly. Cohabitation is for the earthbound ordinary.
     “Sometimes, people stay married because they make certain arrangements," Vallas continued, sounding like a character in a Barbara Cartland novel. "I’ve always lived where I’ve worked. This has been our understanding. I wanted my wife to be in her most comfortable setting with her friends and family ... while she allowed me to do what I do: rescues, turnaround projects, crisis management.”
     We are certainly a city in crisis. And sometimes an outsider brings the rigor needed (such as O. W. Wilson coming in to reform the Chicago Police Department in the early 1960s). But when it comes to Chicago, Paul Vallas is not an outsider. From city budget director to CEO of the Chicago Public Schools to consultant for the Fraternal Order of Police, he has had his chance ... whoops, has had a wealth of valuable experience he could bring to the fifth floor of City Hall.
     "Understanding." "Arrangement." These are freighted words. And having endured the tight-lipped mystery wrapped in a cipher befogged by enigma that is Lori Lightfoot, I suppose anyone is an improvement. But notice how he shifted the discussion — if his residence wasn't Palos Heights, where was it? The apartment in Bridgeport he got a year ago? Louisiana? Connecticut? At least Rahm was elected to Congress, and had a semi-legitimate reason not to live here. Vallas is just a hired gun who sees a potential opportunity for a fresh gig back in his hometown and is hurrying back, pretending he never left. If he thought he could be elected mayor of Phoenix, he'd have been living in Phoenix for the past year. Or claim to.

North Shore Notes: Au Revoir For Now

By Caren Jeskey

            

     It’s been a tragically big week. It’s probably fair to say that all of us are feeling sick with sadness, terror, worry, and/or grief for our global family members in Syria and Turkey. Or we are in some form of protective denial. Every ounce of my body and mind wanted to get picked up by a jet to join everyone else in the world who’s able enough to make the journey and get there to help. I lamented the fact that no such corps was organized. Help is finally arriving, but too little and too late. Here are ways you can pitch in.
     I feel moved to offer a secular prayer of sorts. I found out back in 2015 (when I — an atheist — first tried to tolerate the god language of twelve step programs) that I can easily transpose the prayers from my Catholic childhood into a comforting form of wise well-wishes.
     The Our Father, which is ingrained in my head:

     Our Father who art in heaven,
     Hallowed be thy name.
     Thy kingdom come,
     Thy will be done,
     On earth as it is in heaven.
     Give us this day
     Our daily bread,
     And forgive us our trespasses,
     As we forgive those
    Who trespass against us.
     Lead us not into temptation,
     But deliver us from evil.
     For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,
     Forever and ever.
     Amen

     Our Father Variation (by me):

     Our parents, (parental figures, or internal parents), who are (or were) here on this earth with us,
     Let us respect you, and the memories of you.
     You have paved the way for your legacy to continue on.
     You have passed your wise advice to us, to the best of your abilities.
     We are grounded and hopeful because of you.
     We are grateful for food on our tables, and those who help us when we are without.
     We hope we can repair damage we have done to others, and to harm less, moving forward.
     We try to forgive. We believe in peace and reconciliation.
     We strive to stay connected to others in healthy ways, so we can be our best selves.
     We stay away from danger and surround ourselves with those who love and care about us.
     When we die, we hope to be remembered as people who added goodness to this world.

     God-prayers at times like this make me sad, since why would a god who allows such destruction be the one to help? That’s a rhetorical question.

     And on a separate topic — this is my last Saturday post for Every Goddamn Day, the Blog of Neil Steinberg. A combination of factors added up to propel us each into a new chapter. I’ll now be able to enjoy Neil Every Goddamn Day, myself.
     It's been a pleasure and an honor to have hitched a wagon to Neil's star for the past nearly three years. It all started with my first post as EGD's Saturday Correspondent on April 11, 2020.I will miss seeing you all here. You have given me so much. Thank you for your presence, and your thoughtful discourse.

     Please keep in touch by tuning in every Sunday at or after 8:30 a.m. Central Time to give my audio blog “Authentically Imperfect” a listen on SoundCloud. These 5-50 minute audio pieces will be recorded each Sunday morning and posted by 8:30am for your listening pleasure and comments.

     I will leave you with a suggestion if I may. Find a moment or more of joy every day, like the luminescent lake glass I gleefully discovered this week.
     Turns out that a good percentage of the glass I've found between Evanston and Fort Sheridan is known by some as Vaseline Glass because of the yellow glow that emits when the right (365nm, not 395nm) UV light hits it. The glow is caused by uranium, which Wikipedia says was first added to glass in 79 AD, and used in mosaics.
     The thought of dead-looking chemical goo dug out of a little plastic tub is not the best memory I have as a 70s child. The antidote to this proved to be a clear memory of my dear Grandma Marie who loved the stuff. Pretty sure she had a small container of it in her purse at all times, along with calendula cream (which fixed "everything" in her eyes, the duct tape of goo). Come to think of it I’m not sure what the Vaseline was used for. She also believed in the power of green beans and had a six foot tall forest of vines in her yard under the skyway in warm months. We’d head out to the labyrinth with straw baskets to collect them, sit at the table snapping them to cook, and nibble on them along the way; the crunch and green flavor filling our mouths, little beans popping out and making us giggle.
     Grandma Marie would let me rummage through her black vinyl "handbag" where I'd find interesting things. A pack of skinny menthol cigarettes and a lighter tucked into a case with two pieces of metal at the top that closed with a satisfying click, at least one rosary and a small bible, hard candy for her smoker's throat and to keep me quiet during mass, and cash in an envelope for the tithing basket. Grandma’s purse, an indoor playground.
     My Grandma was addicted to the radio — an AM prayer channel as well as WGN and WBBM news radio played from a tiny transistor radio set on her table on 95th and Commercial. I'd like to honor the memory of my Grandmother who gave me unconditional positive regard and faith in myself, even when I screwed up, or just felt screwed up. She left us, died, when I was in my late twenties. The love in her eyes was palpable and I can still see her gaze upon me, like Hanuman the monkey headed Hindu god whose eyes emit compassion. She was no angel, but I was hers. Today I am feeling grateful for my warm, green-thumbed, funny, intelligent family. We all have hobbies we are immersed in, thankfully, and the roots are clear.
     My Lake Michigan morsels are also known as "Canary Glass… a yellow-green glass mainly [used in] tableware and household items from around 1840 up until World War II. It gets its yellow or greenish-yellow color from uranium dioxide (UO2), which was used as a colorant. Vaseline glass came as glasses, plates, lamps, doorknobs, bottles, decorative items, decanters, and more.”

Jews, bicycle riders and trans folk

     Some jokes are more true than funny. A favorite of mine goes like this:
     A man stands atop a soap box in city park in Berlin in the 1930s.
     “The Jews and the bicycle riders will be the ruin of Germany,” he begins.
     A crowd gathers. The man continues his speech, repeating the refrain: “The Jews and the bicycle riders will be the ruin of Germany.” Finally someone in the crowd interrupts.
     “Wait a second,” the audience member asks, “why the bicycle riders?”
     “Aha!” the speaker replies, lighting up. “Why the Jews?”
     Now set that joke aside. We’ll return to it later. In the meantime, let’s play, “Who said it?” the game where I share a quote and you have to guess what politician uttered it. Ready? Then let’s begin:
     “Do we want our schools to impose on our children, from their earliest days in school, perversions that lead to degradation and extinction? Do we want to drum into their heads the ideas that certain other genders exist along with women and men and to offer them gender reassignment surgery? Is that what we want for our country and our children?”
     I know what you’re thinking: Ron DeSantis. The governor of Florida has been buffing his presidential credentials with a salvo of rhetoric against trans kids, and constraints against any legal or educational steps designed to help them. A one-two punch alongside exaggerating education hinting at our nation’s racist past into ooo-scary “critical race theory” that must be stamped out.

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Flashback 1998: `Wash me' sign honors grime

     With the Sun-Times marking its 75th anniversary this year, I thought I would play along on my blog now and then, since I've been here for half that span. 

     Twenty-five years ago, my column ran Tuesdays and Thursdays in a cramped spot in the features pages. This one is 590 words long, or about 2/3 of its current size. This is what I call a riff — no news, no sources, just noodling on a particular topic, thinking about something that usually gets passed over with a shrug.

     Not much sunlight this past month. But as any photographer can tell you, overcast days are great for providing clear images. Which is why our car looked extra awful, in the midwinter morning gloom, parked on the street in front of the apartment, the dirt of the season weighing heavy upon it.
     "I took it by the car filth and had it filthed," I said to my wife, floating a joke to try to make light of the situation. "They missed a spot."
     "Where?" she said, skeptically. She was right. There wasn't a clean square inch.
     What amazes me now, hours later, thinking about the scene is, at that moment, sweeping my gaze over the crusted vehicle, I felt a sort of pride.
     There is a glorious tension about a dirty car. On one hand, it screams out for soap and water. Something in your gut wants to see a mob clutching big wet sponges rush in from the wings and descend upon it, feverishly scrubbing the dirt away, making the car gleam.
     That's why strangers — who generally don't care if you have bad brakes or no brakes or a license plate that expired three years ago — nevertheless line up to trace the words "WASH ME" with their fingers in the brown film on the hoods and trunks and back windows of particularly offensive vehicles. Usually in big letters. They are willing to sully their fingertips for the pleasure of drawing public attention to your shame.
     But I suspect they also just want to touch it. There's something weirdly wonderful about dirty cars. A really squalid automobile, like, oh, a coral reef, takes a long time to reach full maturity.
     I think, at least subconsciously, those "WASH ME" scribblers just want to disturb something pristine and perfect, the way neighborhood kids will gleefully tramp through the scenic fresh snowfall in your front yard, leaving behind angels and footprints and, if you're unlucky, phrases of their own devising.
     Not that I wouldn't prefer to drive a clean car. That's a great feeling. Fresh from the car wash, looking newer than I've seen it in months, little water droplets shining like diamonds on the crystal clear windshield, the car rolling out into the street which suddenly seems all warm and friendly, with happy Mr. Sun smiling down and pedestrians and kids and dogs all stopping to gaze in admiration and dreamily sweep their arms back and forth in big waving gestures.
     But car washes take time. And who has time? After work it's dark (heck, this time of year, after lunch it's dark) and you want to get home. And nobody gets their cars washed before work. I've seen garages that will wash your car while you're working, but those usually cost about $27.50, and for that price I'd rather just wait until the dirt condenses into thick sheets and sheers off the car, spinning off to shatter on the road behind, the way big panels of snow will fly off the roofs of cars left unbrushed after being outside during a blizzard.
     Unless the finish of my car is already so mottled and corroded from never being washed, plus the drippings of acid water in decaying parking garages, that the thick sheets of dirt adhere instead of falling off.
     In that case, come spring, I can seed the car with grass and watch it grow. That would look great, for a while. I have the sneaking suspicion that, by July, it would all be scorched and dead from lack of watering and general neglect.
                  —Originally published in the Sun-Times, Feb. 3, 1998

Five days after ‘The Day the Music Died’

Waylon Jennings, left, and Buddy Holly.

     Today is Feb. 8, 2023, probably, if you are reading this in a physical, ink and wood pulp newspaper on Wednesday, and not stumbling across it on the internet some other day in the tractless span of time before, or after.
     Whatever day it is, were I to ask you what significant event occurred on Feb. 8, you might be stumped.
     Now the third of February might be easier. On Feb. 3, 1959, in what would be widely remembered as the “Day the Music Died,” pop stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.D. “Big Bopper” Richardson, along with young pilot Roger Peterson, died in a plane crash the morning after playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. The on-this-day-in-history vignette usually ends with Don McLean penning his homage, “American Pie,” a cryptic, 8 minute and 42 second hit song released in 1971.
     A shame to stop here. Because this is where the story starts to get interesting.
     The music did not die Feb. 3. Only the musicians did, and then just the top stars of the 24-date “Winter Dance Party Tour” of the Midwest. The rest of the performers went by balky, cold, broken-down bus. Where the Big Bopper, singer of “Chantilly Lace,” was supposed to ride. But he had a cold and asked 21-year-old Waylon Jennings, Holly’s bassist, for his seat on the airplane, and the two swapped. Valens won his fatal seat in a coin toss.
     The surviving musicians, shocked and grief-stricken, performed the day of the crash, in Moorhead, Minnesota.
     They played Sioux City the day after the crash. And Des Moines the day after that. Cedar Rapids the day after that. Spring Valley, Illinois, the day after that.
     The next night, Feb. 8, was the Aragon Ballroom in Uptown.

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Flashback 1995: Private Olive Still Everybody's Hero

Milton Olive III

    Sometimes when readers suggest topics, I get testy: thank you very much, but I am neither a lounge pianist nor a short-order cook. I don't take requests. 

     But Monday a reader offered an idea that could not be easily dismissed:
     "As you are aware, this is Black History Month and I would like to mention Olive-Harvey College in Chicago. Milton Olive was a young black man and Carmel Harvey was a young white man. They were both killed in Vietnam. Milton Olive fell on a grenade to save his buddies. Is there any way you can mention him? I would be very grateful if it can be done."
     Indeed it can. Not only do I know who Olive is, but I've written about him, a column I'm happy to post today, in an era sorely in need of heroes.

     Milton Olive III only had a second to react to the Viet Cong grenade that landed at his feet that October day in Vietnam in 1965. He yelled to the members of his platoon around him, something like, "Look out! Grenade!"
     Then the 18-year-old Chicago private bent over, picked up the grenade and hugged it to his abdomen, hunching over to shield his comrades from the blast that killed him instantly.
     He was the only Chicago African American ever awarded the Medal of Honor — the nation's highest award for bravery — and Sunday, 30 years to the day after his act of heroism in a war that so divided the country, about 60 people gathered at his memorial in Olive Park, Ohio Street and Lake Shore Drive, which was named for him. They invoked the legacy of the selfless paratrooper against the racial discord that now frequently divides the country.
     "He didn't pause and consider the number of ethnic and racial groups in his midst," said Jim Balcer, Chicago's director of veteran affairs. "He gave his life so that others could live."
     Rochelle Crump, of Chicago Veterans Advisory Council, said: "This should set a precedent for how we should live our lives today."
     The ceremony included a 21-gun salute, two color guards and the laying of wreaths at the plaque bearing Olive's Medal of Honor citation.
     Olive's first cousin Charles Carter spoke of the soldier everyone called "Skipper."
     "No one will ever know what went through Skipper's mind when he picked up that grenade," Carter said. "But he didn't stop to think he was saving the lives of African Americans or white men. They were comrades in arms . . . we hope Olive Park will become a symbol of racial harmony for Chicago."
     One comrade who couldn't attend, but nevertheless was thinking of Olive on Sunday, was former Capt. Jimmy Stanford. He was standing a few feet away when Olive grabbed the grenade.
     "I really didn't get to know the man until after he died," said Stanford, 60, from his home in Brazoria, Texas. "People often ask me why he did that. I really don't know — an extraordinary person. Something happens on the spur of the moment, and special individuals are there."
     Stanford agreed that Olive's actions carry a message of harmony.
     "That's one thing that combat does for you," he said. "You forget who's black, who's white, who's brown. There's no time for that."
     Stanford, father of four, grandfather of 12, great-grandfather of one, says he thinks a lot about the man who gave him the rest of his life at the cost of his own, a man of a different color, a man he barely knew. He urged others to remember Milton Olive, and his sacrifice as well.
     "Just don't forget him," said Stanford, fighting back tears.

                     —Originally published in the Sun-Times, Oct. 23, 1995