By John Kass

Sunday May 31, 2026

 

 

We talked about this on the Chicago Way podcast, recently but I wanted to amplify it just a touch, so I decided to write a column about this drama of Vox Populi at JohnKassNews.com

Vox  Populi , from the Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people.” And in modern times” the voice of the people” meant “letters to the editor.”

I first learned about this almost 50 years ago , at the great gothic skyscraper on Michigan Avenue, Chicago, when I was a copy boy at “the paper,” sorting the mail.  Letters addressed to the editor were put into the box marked Vox Populi,derived from the Roman proverb, “Vox populi, vox Dei” which means “The voice of the people is the voice of God.”

America prized the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech back then and I was an acolyte of this church. I am still a Free Speech absolutist. The left had already taken the universities and the federal bureaucracy and was just setting the groundwork to take the newspapers. Then ,a few short years ago, “the paper” that I once loved was taken.

But even with the newspapers groaning in capitulation, in parts of America there was still reverence for the tradition of citizens publicly speaking their minds. It was becoming a religion with me, best expressed by the iconography of Norman Rockwell from his “Four Freedoms” series. At the top of this column is Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech, depicting a haggard young soldier standing up at a town meeting having his say, and an older guy with a knowing expression—perhaps a he was a veteran of the previous war, looks on.

That freedom is everything to me but it is constantly under threat, now from the Democrat left which is the political party of the neo authoritarians. The freedom of  Americans to speak our minds is the lifeblood of liberty itself, and as we prepare for America’s 250th birthday coming in July it might be worth  reflecting upon those freedoms we are losing. One of the institutions we are losing is independent news.  And last year we lost a champion of Freedom of Speech, the editor of the Chicago Tribune, R. Bruce Dold. And at the funeral, I felt we were at at the funeral for  Chicago journalism itself. I  called that column Requiem:

Bruce was a good editor and a better man. Though he was from New Jersey, Bruce was Chicago all the way. When Eleanor ‘Sis’ Daley died, Bruce knocked on my office door. “We’re going to the wake.” I didn’t want to go. Why? I’d feuded with Mayor Daley. But  Bruce knew that i had to go to the wake. It was the Chicago thing to do. You go to the wake. If you don’t know that, you don’t know Chicago. And R. Bruce Dold knew Chicago.

But even Bruce didn’t win all his important journalistic battles. He tried to continue the time honored journalistic practice of publishing mug shots of alleged violent offenders. But the left, which opposes incarcerating repeat violent offenders if they are black or brown won as did their champions ,such as Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle, the CTU Boss Stacy Davis Gates and their puppet Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson.  . But the newspaper’s readers lost, and circulation continues to drop as the paper became increasingly irrelevant.

The left constantly moves to shut down debate, or censor  words, and I promised myself that when University of Missouri professor Melisa Click, became the poster child of  leftist suppression that I would not ever forget her name.

If they don’t like what you write they scream, they yell, they foul the nest. They employ the heckler’s veto. In his book “Rules for Radicals” the hard left communist  community organizer Saul Alinsky- a hero of former President Barack Obama- outlined the tactics you see today on the nightly news. They used rule #13 on me: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”.

What one thing that binds the writer to the reader is giving the reader a chance to engage in dialogue. We had the message boards which allowed readers- who are also subscribers- to  leave comments under columns or podcasts. And this provided readers with a vehicle to reach out to the writers. Emotional connections are vital. But the left didn’t like that and periodically they would send their trolls to the message boards, to harass other readers and columnists. Some were so fanatical they signed up under different names and aliases thinking they would outsmart me. But using the experience of Tiny, the famous rat killing Mancheter Terrier  who famously  killed hundreds of rats in an hour I tasked our technical  staff to help rid us of them.

There is a new sheriff in town.

The message boards are now open but there are some rules. Anyone who violates common decency will have their subscription fee forfeit and commenting privileges revoked. I won’t allow anyone to belittle or harass other readers. So be brave. And be on good behavior. I love to read the comments under the columns, and I think many of you do as well.  President Ronald Regan once said, “America is the land of the free because of the brave”. But we all need good manners don’t we?

 

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About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

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