Ship of Fools: A Journey to Reparations by Other Means
By John Kass
November 10, 2023
A pause in the federal corruption trial of Edward Burke—a defense attorney came down with COVID—offers the rest of us a chance to step back and look at things with soft eyes.
Not about your soft attitude, or my soft attitude, or his. Burke is a hard-eyed realist. I’m not writing a bedtime story.
He’d despise that.
But soft eyes are necessary. Why? It’s a way of looking at things. Soft eyes help us see where we’re going on this ship of fools we’re on, out of sight of land, as the world gets ready to visit Chicago for its Democrat National Convention. The mayor has no clue.
As the blundering captain steers one way, then the other way, the confusion is ridiculous. Our focus becomes blurry and lost, all focus becomes lost, as federal crime-busters pursue those old political men in pinstripe suits, hunting the law, hunting and demanding order, even as barbaric mayhem visits taxpayers at their homes, in their cars, in their places of business, leaving them dead trying to drive home from a White Sox game in the city that used to work.
Is there a name for this? Taxpayers struggle living in fear of urban crime, people are afraid to say a word, even a peep, lest some group or another is angered by that fear and they are denounced as racists by political actors who despise them, and by legacy media that mocks and ignores them.
“I don’t think there’s a name for what you’re describing,” said a friend Mike who lives in oh-so woke Evanston. “Crime is happening all over, downtown, that woman in Beverly, and that woman shot at the ATM in Worth.
“I don’t know what to call it but reparations by other means.”
I don’t know what to call it either, but it sounds just about right.
It reflects our politics, the reality and the anguish of the people, as the Democrat Party’s imposes rogue prosecutors who won’t prosecute repeat violent offenders in the name of racial “equity”:
Reparations by other means. I can hear the knee jerk leftist reaction now. But all this was planned out, this offensive pose that racism could be couched as “social justice.” You could trace this back to George Soros, the billionaire financier who realized that he could swing district attorney (prosecutor’s elections) by heavily funding candidates who supported his twisted ideas of justice that is not justice but all about race.
It is the Marxist approach, focusing on de-prosecution and decarceration, Democrat Party buzzwords that are simply naked appeals to race-based politics.
The destruction proceeded from Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in Chicago to George Gascon in Los Angeles, Alvin Bragg in New York, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, and 75 other cities.
American cities suffered. The people suffered. The great exodus to the red states intensified. Refugees fled. Justice suffered. Those of us who dared criticize Soros’ ruinous Marxist criminal justice policies were singled out for slander and intimidation, for cancellation by the rabid mob.
I suppose that by focusing so tightly on the federal corruption cases against Burke and Boss Madigan that I’ve done the one thing that a writer should never do:
Blind myself by my tunnel vision., as blind as some leftist apparatchik, blind to the consequence and cost of single-minded pursuit. In my career, I’ve focused on political corruption, perhaps as revenge for that 8-year-old boy who was told by his father to fill a shopping bag for the political hacks from City Hall who saw a way to squeeze a small businessman, and give a kid a lesson in The Chicago Way.
You’ve heard about tunnel vision? And soft eyes? Soft eyes are the opposite of hard eyes, sometimes called a hunter’s eye, or a predator’s eye. But hunters need a different perspective to see what’s out there, to notice patterns in the brush, seeing what shouldn’t be there, hearing the quiet sound of the dog that didn’t bark, but should.
Like the tiny white ring on a ringneck pheasant. The cottontail of a rabbit. What a politician avoided saying. A clue at a homicide scene.
What would soft eyes tell you?
That even while the federal Justice Department hunts Ed Burke, even as it protects Joe Biden, has protected his son Hunter and the rest of the Biden Crime Family, law enforcement pulls back on prosecutions of those who cull our neighbors, viciously. People are being killed as the Department of Justice chases politicians.
The neighborhoods are hollowing out. Michigan Avenue is becoming a ghost-town right before Christmas. They will flee Bridgeport because if they don’t, they know they’re next. The Democrat political clique that runs things keeps insisting that criminal justice should be all about “equity,” that political success should me measured by the decarceration of black and brown inmates at the County Jail. But the victims of repeat violent offenders are black and brown and white, and they are ignored by the “social justice” warriors that control the hammer of criminal justice, who are themselves protected and shielded by the corrupt legacy media.
The people look for a place to hide.
They’re growing sullen. A tinderbox eager for the spark. They see FBI hunting Burke and Madigan, and the editorial boards and pundits like me talk of the law, of order, and of political corruption. But rage becomes a white hot noise in their ears as they see is a series of arrogant thugs, killers and barbarians committing violent crime after violent crime, not being prosecuted by Foxx, the Democrat Party making excuses, media lecturing them about “social justice” and “restorative justice.” And the violent do it again, and again, filling the city’s river of violence that sweeps them all away.
There was Jonnie Angel Klein, 31, single mother of a 14-year-old son and a 10-year old daughter. She was the sole caretaker of her mother who is ill with cancer.
Klien was shot Saturday afternoon at Chase ATM. Police arrested two suspects, Tamara Jailynn Johnson, 22 and Jason Jerry Joseph Johnson, 23, both from Harvey and linked to a crime spree in the area and Northwest Indiana.
Chicago is that once-great city by the lake that is now on the verge of dying from an overdose of uncontrolled, rising violent crime. It is a real place suffering real pain. Some say the city is on life support, which is a polite way of saying it is dying.
And it’s not just Chicago. Violent crime is spiking in urban centers across America, from New York to San Francisco. This is what happens when the law is not enforced. Thugs are emboldened. And all people–black, brown and white–suffer.
The street gang wars are killing the city. But if politicians and media talked in terms of street gang wars, they’d be expected to do something to the street gangs. Instead, they call it “gun violence,” and push the issue to Washington and use it to organize against the Second Amendment to take the guns from law-abiding citizens.
But the street gang wars keep taking innocent lives, and in Chicago, every day more and more people avoid the city out of fear. This is not hysterical fear. It is reasonable fear, supported by evidence, from all the murders and shootings in the city, to the violent mobs descending on downtown at night, to the many hundreds of unsolved shootings on the the expressways. And through all this, the political furies of Chicago and Cook County are at work. They use Marxist notions of race and class to shape criminal justice in Cook County. These are not sisters of mercy, but of retribution and reparations. And the people suffer.
The other day there was that woman and her 12-year-old daughter confronted by armed carjackers at her home in Beverly. There was an arrest—a misdemeanor. That would be funny if the story wasn’t so depressing and sickening. CWB Chicago—the indispensable website for following crime in a city with woke newspapers—reported on it.
It it has been years now since Denise M. Huguelet, a retired 67-year-old special education teacher, was caught in street gang crossfire on the Dan Ryan shortly after leaving White Sox park in 2021. Police made two arrests, but prosecutor Foxx’s office cut them loose.
People loved Huguelet. She may not have counted with leftist ideologues like Kim Foxx or Boss Toni Preckwinkle, but many people loved her. Her students loved her. Her 11 grandchildren loved her.
No charges. Nothing.
You don’t hear Gov. JB Pritzker or Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle mention Huguelet’s name. And neither does the Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, one of the Rogue Prosecutors elected on the influence of socialist billionaire George Soros. Or Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose handling of other cases demonstrates the job of mayor is far too much for him.
Huguelet is one of the forgotten. And people like me focus hard eyes on politicians like Ed Burke, and the feds hunt down the pin stripes and a once-great city groans. I am not suggesting he’s innocent. A jury will decide. But I do wonder about our priorities as we pursue justice, and the cost.
Justice was once thought of as blind in America, and the rule of law was how we ordered our passions and ourselves. Yet now in Chicago, home of the upcoming Democratic National Convention, we confuse wisdom with naked racial politics in the criminal justice system, and many defend this monstrosity as practical politics because it buttresses their progressive ambitions, even as we allow prosecutions and mercy by race, and the country is torn apart, as if by design.
And our ship of fools floats witlessly on a course set by lunatics, toward that deadly land of reparations by other means, where republics go to die.
(Copyright 2023 John Kass)
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Comments 63
Thank you for reading.
If you’re writing, I’m reading. I currently live in Northwest Indiana and would like to visit the city I used to love but I can’t get my friends to go with me. People are afraid to go. I’ll have to be satisfied with my memories of the once Magnificent Mile.
I think of Denise Huguelet and the family and friends left to mourn this senseless loss – and crime, often. I believe that letting the criminals off scot-free is one of the biggest miscarriage of justice coming out of Kim Foxx’s office. What must her family think? How can this loss just be tossed to the wayside with no intent to pursue justice? This case speaks volumes about where society has descended in terms of culpability and human compassion.
I wonder if tragedy were to strike someone close to Foxx what her reaction would be.
I’ll stop scrolling here because MaryRose is the loveliest name I’ve ever known and has a special place in my heart.
The name Ed Burke makes me want to vomit.
As a 10 year-old boy, my Dad (a precinct captain) had me and my Mom forge petition signatures for John Brandt (33rd Ward) and a few years later Richard Mell.
We and a few others delivered our precinct 365-10 for Mell. He became alderman and committeeman. Dick betrayed us (thank God). We did not require patronage jobs.
He was a useless politician. Maybe not as corrupt as Burke, but not far off.
Of course! Couldn’t NOT read your column. This column is straight to the heart of why Chicago is dying and the MAIN causes of the demise. Thank you for the “telling it like it is” writing that we don’t get anywhere else.
Also, many on point replies from readers here as well. So sad to watch this downfall – I do so from the suburbs as I no longer go “downtown.” Miss the Sox, the museums, and the bustle of downtown Chicago, but the price might just be too steep on any given night.
The term you’re looking for John, is “balance of oppression.” Floated by some academic Marxist moron over 20 years ago, it’s based on the premise that you, safe in your low crime suburban enclave shouldn’t live comfortably while oppressed peoples in the inner city suffer from high crime and unemployment. The only way to make sure that you pay attention to the plight of the “oppressed,” is to make sure that you suffer the same problems they do, so increasing crime in formerly safe areas is seen as a good thing to these idiots, because they think it will make you act to decrease systemic oppression of targeted groups. Like every other Marxist scheme, since they can’t elevate the lowly, they have to bring down the successful so that we may all live in equal misery.
I NEED your columns. Please take good care of yourself as you are the only one to tell the real truth. I miss our trips to downtown Chicago but have come to the sad conclusion that those days have passed.
Mr Kass
Thank you for writing.
I wish your column was wrong. I wish we had the Chicago I grew up in. But you piece is right on the money and the Chicago I grew up in no longer exists. my question is, is it too late to bring it back?
Best,
Mike Melcher
John,
Another amazing look at our unfortunate circumstances. As I read your piece, I prayed my daughters in River North and Brooklyn don’t find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time when we, too, would shed voluminous tears (God forbid). I fear there’s no end in sight. This just continues and continues and continues with every CWB entry. Our only hope, if any, was for Paul to take the mayor’s office. With that gone, the table is set. Will the public ever take protests to the street and DEMAND change? Especially when the mayor claims he cannot condone corporations stealing for the brown and black man rather than not condone crash and steal. Seriously?
Thank you for continuing to publicly express your opinions over the years – during your time with the Trib and after your leaving the “dark side”. This column made me think of the last time our family spent any time (and money) in the City and I can’t remember when. I can tell you that I decided to not travel the twenty miles for events that I enjoy – an author signing in Lincoln Village, the annual Book Sale at the Newberry Library, the Van Gogh, Picasso and Dali exhibits at the Art Institute (also ended our membership after they “fired” all of their volunteers) and the meals we enjoy at Gayle Street, Manny’s, Ed Debevic’s or Connie’s Pizza.
The closest we come now is Gene & Jude’s in River Forest (and love the way the car smells for a couple of days later). There is no way I will risk our safety traveling into the city. Thankfully our daughter moved overseas seven years ago and rents her condo in Lakeview, so we’re not traveling into the City to share meals with her anymore. We miss her tremendously but I feel she is much safer where she is than living a mile from Wrigley.
We have been fortunate to have a small cottage North Central Indiana for the last seventeen years but will no longer take the Eisenhower and Dan Ryan through Chicago to make the trip – I opt for the Tri-State (although its travel safety is becoming questionable due to the increase of the wanna-be “Bonzai Runners” (Google California Freeways in the late 70’s). You can’t believe the small thrill I get fueling in Indiana preventing “Commodius” J.B from getting his $0.46/gal. fuel tax, doing my small part to not feed the Beast.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Why doesn’t it ever happen to any judges or politicians who or a member of their family who get harmed and see if their lib ideas would change
great column John…”Requiem for a Heavyweight”… Bogart movie…also an appropriate title for what is happening to one of the best known, best loved, best recognized great city in the world ..”The City of Big Shoulders”.
The new zealots, abetted by the complacent, the ill informed, the misinformed have let the “barbarians” at the gate in. We all watched it happen in front of our noses. The old regimes quietly slunk off to somewhere else, comfortable retirements. Some stayed too long (Madigan, Burke) They left left us with a caretaker (Rahm) to hold the line for a while be fore slinking off to greener patches. All of them left wealthier than they came. It seems that the longer we tolerate it, the worse the decline will become. I’m not giving up hope but I do realize s***happens.
John, keeping speaking the truth, hopefully people will start figuring out, that it is the truth. Thanks for writing, Mike Ally
Thank you for puting into words what I feel.
You tell ’em, John! That phraseology might mark me as a redneck, but I’m actually a Harvard graduate. I recently wrote them a note saying I no longer want anything to do with them.
The same goes for Chicago. I no longer want anything to do with it. Unfortunately, I must visit my hardworking son who lives there. Let me tell you, the trip raises my blood pressure, especially as we each own a Hyundai!
So I follow the spineless Chicago Tribune, and I read these numerous crime-reporting web sites so as to see how close violent crime is swirling around his once-quiet neighborhood. Way too close, and sometimes right on his street!
Who watches out for quiet, hardworking, vulnerable people in Chicago who are forced to walk its streets in order to make it to and from their jobs? Almost nobody, I think. Your mea culpa rings true, and I’m counting on you!
The retired teacher whose killers were set free died in vain due to money. No one could adequately primary Kim Foxx because she had millions at her disposal in a local race.
Soros and others like him should be banned from contributing more than say a thousand bucks in a local race. In fact, why not have public financing of campaigns altogether, and actual debates where the issues are discussed openly and transparently.
There’s a reason why the Daley never debated when they held office. They didn’t want to answer for for their corruption.
The Social Justice Warriors have taken it to a new and different level and have the local press to back them up as well.
If Paul V could have had debates in all 50 wards with Johnson, broadcast on TV he’d have cleaned his clock.
Who was it that said, “Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant”?
They are going after Madigan and Burke now because they’ve both outlived their usefulness. They are not at the cool kids table anymore. They can hold up these dinosaurs as a scapegoat to show they’re “tough on crime”.
Prosecution and penalties for law breakers has always been selective.
Evil has taken the city. It’s frightening. I can feel it and I’m stuck here. Keep writing.
I wonder how many other jkn readers would like to recommend this outstanding Kass column to family members and friends but don’t dare. Maybe most of the people you’ve been close to still sail on what Kass repurposes here as a “Ship of Fools.” I sympathize.
Many who should have learned real-world lessons still lug around the ideological fairy tales preached at nice schools and colleges run by well-bred nitwits. They still convince themselves that what Democrats have reduced Chicago to is somehow justified by justice and “equity.” So you take a deep breath and keep quiet at Thanksgiving dinner.
For now maybe we keep our heads down, keep waiting for survivors of liberal dystopia to take back the streets and courtrooms. Chicago’s newspapers went to the woke remedial class, serial predators roam more and more city streets, and I’m not sure I’d drive down from Wisconsin to see another White Sox game even without their organizational death wish. But we can get together virtually here at johnkassnews.
Good luck, everyone. Do your best to steer clear of that ship.
Hear Hear!
you’re so very kind David Bittinger
I ride CTA daily and I am flummoxed by the number of people who cannot consider others in their behavior, their noise making, their bully behavior, smoking, etc. I’ve seen an uptick in clearly mental illness acting out, like the woman facing a pillar in the subway screaming about something. It’s scary how so many cannot cope with life at all. At least I haven’t seen a gun or knife.
Still peeved at the lazy voters in Chicago who did not have enough time or sense to elect Paul V. It would have at least been a step in the right direction.
Sad but very true, they got what they wanted and deserved unfortunately were stuck with it too!,
100% this!
The city was so close to an educational renaissance and they blew it.
Perhaps he should have handed out $50 gas cards in exchange for votes, ala Lightfoot.
Amen, Brother.
Dear Geraldine, I think about you often as you use the CTA to get to work. The incivility is astounding but predictable. I wish I could give you a big German Shepherd Dog to ride with you, to protect you.
Thanks, John, but I stay away from dogs. The CPD once had to take me to the old Grant Hospital after a dog attack. I wish I were successful in avoiding dog feces…
I don’t want to restrict my movements more than necessary, and recognize you could be walking down the street and meet danger. I appreciate your kind thoughts, though!
I was at my hair cutter this AM in Lincoln Square, one of the finest urban neighborhoods I’ve seen. Crime has skyrocketed there. Six stores had their windows broken and were robbed overnight recently. Saida said one of the staff had her purse on a chair near the backdoor of the salon and someone stole it. She witnessed a punk coming up from behind a man who lifted the backpack off him. The police came fast but not able to catch him. One jerk came to the door and proposed one of the staff “service” him. They lock the door and let clients in singly. They had no problems for the prior 18 years.
I told her one factor is our L system. If you are near an L stop, you are more at risk for the thieves who commute. I also have seen young men jump the turnstiles with CTA staff watching but they are fearful of intervening. Security on the L comes in threes, but they usually are talking to one another because there isn’t much action on the platform. It’s in the cars where people are most vulnerable.
I have friends in other big cities and the wretched human behavior is no longer a surprise.
It isn’t just the politicians and district attorneys who are at fault. Also complicit are all the citizens who joked about, laughed at or even cheered every Chicago politician that “got away with it”. Also those that shrugged their shoulders at all the corruption saying, “they all do it”. It was the people who observed the corruption and wailed “where’s mine?” It was all the people who shrugged their shoulders at what was happening in Chicago’s inner cities because it was “their problem, not mine”. It was the suburbanites who promoted a drug culture in their burbs and bought their drugs from the inner city dealers. It was the Chicago politicians and citizens that were perfectly OK with the drug trade because it brought money into their pockets and communities. It was these people that let the corruption and graft of the city metastasize into what it has become today. Chicago is getting exactly what too many people were perfectly OK with for far too many years. Meanwhile, the good people are leaving.
I left. I’m glad I left. There is no utopia, but there is a hell. My heart weeps for those who would leave if they could but are unable. Strangely, I only feel numbness for those who are victimized by the very people they elect because it’s their tribe that matters most. They are like battered girlfriends who refuse to admit what is happening to them. I feel for them but I will never understand them.
Grant, i pity them for the same reasons. “They are like battered girlfriends who refuse to admit what is happening to them.”
Chicago has become a free fire zone, unsafe for law abiding people to live.
The politician’s answer is to pass anti-gun laws that only the law abiding will obey.
The loonie left babbles about “gun violence” but it’s really gang violence.
How can you solve a problem if you are afraid to even call it what it is?
Speaking of gun violence and WOKE justice system. Very few in the public have heard the TRUTH about the indictment and ‘plea bargain’ that, Robert Crimo, Jr. pled(sp?) to. He is the father of the young adult involved in the Highland Park, Ill 4th of July, 2023 mass shooting.
I write for a very small magazine in Lake County, ILL. As a small time reporter I attended the court hearing of the father this past Monday, 11/6/23. The woke S.A. of Lake County, ILL, Midget Man Eric Rinehart indicted the father of this mentally ill son. The SA said the father shared in responsibility of the sons killings because the father cosigned the application for the gun license permit when the kid was under 21. Sounds good right? But this kid killed his victims when he was, by law, an adult: 21 years old. A full 2 1/2 years after he got a license! Why should the father be responsible for an adult son. What if the kid waited 10 yrs to kill someone. Would the father be responsible? Better yet what if it was 30 years later and father was in a nursing home. Would you indict and drag him out of the home? You get were I’m going with this , right.
Well, it gets worse. This kid was known to the community and local LAW ENFORCEMENT since age 14 as a problem child. At 19, just before he applied for a gun license, he threatened to kill himself and then later that year at a family gathering threatened to kill parents and relatives with knives. Police were called but no arrests made. And here is were it gets good. The Highland Park police who responded to this last threat thought it might be a good idea to alert the Illinois State Police to see if this kid had a gun license and/or purchased weapons. If he did they would pull the license. But he did not have a license yet.
So when this kid applied for a gun license, do you think that the Illinois Sate Police, who issues the gun permit, would deny the application. After all they knew of his past. Nope the ISP DOPES issued the license and the rest is history. So who really is a codefendant for that massacre: the father or the dumb ass ISP!
Well politics took affect. Jumbo Boy’s ISP had to be protected so he got the woke Midget Man SA indict the father to cover up law enforcement mistakes. Remember Rinehart is only one of two Illinois SA who supported the WOKE SAFE T act. Just recently JB held a fund raiser for this SA. Raised big bucks,
So were is the press on this. I talked to all the reporters at hearing asking them to tell the whole story. Nope. I had a few press, friendly to me from my days as coroner, tell me the fix is in. The editors of all versions of the press are in the Dems pockets. Truth will not get out.
So the woke SA destroys the father who is innocent of participation in this massacre. The real codependents should be the ISP, HP police, and mayor of HP, WHO KNEW THIS KIDS PROBLEMS.
Great writing as always- thanks. There are two truisms that I learned as a young boy from my Dad: “People get the type of politicians that they deserve” and “You’d better be careful what you ask for as you’re liable to get it”.
When people elect (sic) “prosecutors” who won’t do their jobs, criminals are emboldened, and it is a fact that when inappropriate behavior is not addressed with consequences, it will not only continue, it will increase in severity.
When elected officials claim that they want to have “sanctuary cities”, their complaints of too many people arriving in their cities should not result in much sympathy. The people who elected them will no doubt suffer, but sadly they’ve received exactly the type of politicians that they’ve elected. And seeing people, especially children, sleeping on the floor of a CPD District or at O’Hare really doesn’t say much about us.
I worked with Black & Brown people my whole life. I haven’t had white neighbors since 1976. I worked Woodlawn and Grandcrossing for 25 years. No one I ran into was against putting criminals in prison.
Robert, I agree. normal people of different races don’t want criminals out. But how did Foxx and Preckwinkle and Judge Evans get elected and re-elected? how do the sun times and tribune defend sanctuary city and safety act and no bail?
Sadly we reluctantly left Illinois after the Floyd riots and COVID. We did so because of this very lawlessness. The fact that only 35% of Chicagoans thought it was important to vote speaks volumes of the lazy electorate at such a crucial time. As is always the case elections have consequences and Chicago is suffering from this!
we were so excited and happy to move to the city. then the BLM riots, and the Pritzker shut downs of everything..
White people have been publicly shamed for their whiteness for so long that they have been brainwashed. Reparations?? What the…? The insanity of what is going on is intensifying because criminals know they can get away with anything.
We have all been shamed into thinking that certain colors oppress other colors. Those of us who know this is bs are older. The younger generation is falling for it to all of our peril. They don’t remember the USSR or Mao. Our Marxist leaders have been using their ways in schools for decades while Soros monies appear in our candidates coffers.
Meantime, as our cities and country fall apart, where will our escape country be? Where will we be able to emigrate to when it gets so bad we need to escape? No where. There is no other United States on the planet.
And if you think this is overly dramatic, read Mao’s America by Xi Van Fleet.
I will read the book Erin. I’ve heard her interviewed by Dan. Thanks
Excellent and so true!
Thank you.
Powerful. I worked at Leo High School from 1995 to 2017. In that time, I helped bury 13 young men ( twice that many were wounded and often paralyzed) and not one thug-killer was brought to justice.
Daley, Emanuel, Lightfoot and Johnson the four horse’s asses of the urban Apocalypse wafted away the gun powder and ignored the blood.
all those kids, not many perfect, but all worth our time and concern that you and other staff at Leo gave to them. they are the forgotten, ignored by Boss Toni and her pet protege Kim Foxx. Heartbreaking
Right Pat but don’t forget the “dogs that don’t bark” like our heavyweight senior senator from Illinois and his junior partner. Where is their clarion call? Maybe they need Chuck Schumer to give them permission to speak about violence in Chicago.
That mush Durbin came to Leo when intended to don the purplefootball team?, in order to get street cred.
After a two hour tour by Bob Foster, who pointed out Leo’s glorious football past, meeting head coach Dan O’Keefe, who had just gotten the Lions into the football playoffs and two of his players, looked at the scores of trophies and photos on the walls, asked Bob , ” Does Leo have a football team?”
Bob Foster, who played on the 1956 City Championship squad with Flynn, Boyle, Winneike and Ryan, as well as Purdue, turned and remarked , ” Jesus! You gotta be as soft as baby $hit! Your gonna be a US Senator? Mother of God.”
“intended to don the purple.”
Mea Culpa!
Yianni,
We all know the city is dying a slow death by a thousand cuts, each and every day. The voters who recently elected the Marxist, empty suit, mayor, will pay a steep price for their tunnel vision. They only saw a black candidate – bought and paid for by the CTU – and not a competent white man, who could actually do the job. Ultimately, they got the government they deserved. Like the latest election results that favored the dems – as it appeared that abortion and pot were the most important issues to those voters. Forget about rising crime, no prosecutions, Soros backed DAs and SAs that free criminals, along with Illinois’ no cash bail attempt at “equality!” Not sure what the prescription should be for a conservative to win in 2024. I no longer think Trump is “the one,” in spite of his current polling. We need a leader that can muster the forces to take back the country from the amoral, evil leftists that have destroyed city upon city, without regard to humanity, under the guise of “progessive” agendas. I’m as worried as you….Theos filaxie!
its rather depressing Leo. thanks cousin.
Yianni – mind your health! We need you!
People feel helpless against the violence. The police aren’t even allowed to chase the criminals any more. The demand for concealed carry permits is skyrocketing. The two are obviously intrinsically connected.
Not because they think they’ll be the “Lone Ranger” and can shoot the gun out of the bad guys hand. Because they want to feel they have some control over their own family’s safety and feel a little less helpless.
It’s only a matter of time before someone defends themselves and their family, a la Bernard Goetz. Sadly, I believe what we’ll finally see when it happens, is a serious and aggressive felony level prosecution and conviction … of the defender.
I believe that’s part of the reason for the Governor’s push for stricter gun control and the horribly misnamed Saf-T Act. To prove his “Progressive” Bona Fides on a national level and at the same time, disarm law abiding citizens from possibly hurting a significant Democrat voting bloc.
Kssso, (I feel today the need to boldly address you how your good friends address you) your friend Mike from Evanston has lurched into a perfect phrase for what we’re experiencing – “Reparation by other means” is brilliant! Bravo to him! 👏 Now, as far as the boys in pinstripes facing the music at 219 South Dearborn, I think we should have a DOJ that can walk and chew gum at the same time whether the prosecutors have hard eyes, soft eyes or blind eyes! Crime is crime whether it’s white collar or violent! Not sure the distinction you are making. I’m going to go out there and suggest if Jim Durkin gets elected as Cook County State’s Attorney next year, we might – MIGHT – be able to plug the drain and stop the great sucking sound that is the sound of Chicago going down the pipes. I’m not a particularly big fan of his. In fact, I’ve criticized him for his feckless leadership in being aboard the Irvin for Governor express train to nowhere. But as the deterioration of our community accelerates right before our eyes, we cannot let perfect be the enemy of good. I’ve evolved in my thinking because last month I became a “Nono” for the second time, and as I peer into those little girls’ eyes, it scares the hell out of me what becomes of their future!
Soft Eyes – I love that. It was with soft eyes that I was able to discover who my Southern Planting, Slave holding ancestors truly were, or at least a major component of who they were that since the Civil War has, over time, gone missing – or hides, literally hides. That our having been raised as demographic minorities in our home homes for 12 consecutive generations, we became very much like Black (and Red) people. And this was present at the very birth of our Nation – I assure you.
When I hear reparations – I mean whether its money, or “equitable” incarceration – none of this will ever solve anything. But teach children that indigenous civilization was every bit the peer of western civilization in a COMPLIMENTARY fashion (never a threat) – this is all our families could ever do to right the wrong of chattel slavery. We never had any money to begin with! But this we have, assuming I’m not the only one left.
Our Nation was borne out of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic “middle ground” – carried out kicking and screaming and now fights to exist. What a blessed column (and columnist) this is!
I lived in Chgo my first 40 years of life. Initially in West Town, then PortagePark. Safe, almost idyllic in some sense. Neighbors watched out for each other. We sometimes didn’t need cops to ‘administer justice’. I remember when some low life queer saw me at the news stand thinking I was looking at those ‘muscle’ magazines. They were what fags liked. I was looking for the Sporting News! Got on the Irving Park bus to go home. Nobody on bus but driver. Got on and the pervert got on also and sat next to me and started rubbing my thigh. I froze like that scene in Bride of Frankenstein when bride first sees the THE MONSTER.
I couldn’t get a scream out. Anyway I left at my stop and told my parents. My father got one of those giant plumber wrenches, got in his car and drove up and down Irving stopping the buses looking for him. And…………… Vigilante justice sometimes works better than Social Justice!
PS If I offended the pervert crowd with my words: GOOD, IT WAS MEANT TO.
NEVER APOLOGIZE, NEVER SURRENDER. DO NOT KEEP QUIET OUT OF FEAR.
And I’ll shut up after this…to provide a physical illustration of the multi cultural, multi ethnic “middle ground” that was in Virginia, at the birth of our nation. I was at my ancestral home this summer – a place called “Castle Hill” – home to my ancestor Dr. Thomas Walker, who was in business with Peter Jefferson and raised Peter’s son Thomas after Peter died, when Thomas Jefferson was still a boy. Paid for his law school. Accompanied him to the House of Burgesses appearing together “very much like father and son”.
The owner of Castle Hill let us come see Dr. Walker’s grave this summer (on the property). And buried before the Walkers cemetery, and the hundreds of unmarked graves of enslaved people in the forest beyond was a guy by the name of Colin Byrd. Colin was born a Slave and asked to be buried by the Walkers as a free man in 1888. There was a quotation on his tombstone – which was taken from Matthew 25:23, the verse which says “you have done good, faithful servant – you have been faithful and I will make you ruler over many things” says Matthew.
Mr Byrd turns it inside out – as enslaved Africans always did, and his marker says, toward the Walkers and to his enslaved kin – as tho they were one people (they were) – he says…
“Y’all done good & Faithful Servant”
Soft eyes indeed. Castle Hill is a private residence that resides in the middle of the Southwest Mountains of Virginia – a little “junior” mountain range where at the north end is Montpelier, and the south end Monticello. Castle Hill – where Jefferson played the violin, and Madison danced.
John
An excellent column today.
When you included the senseless shooting and killing of Denise Huguelet without anyone being brought to justice by the Cook County States Attorney or the US District attorney it becomes clear
their agenda is not concerned with the protection of ordinary citizens.
If the ship of fools continues on it’s present course it is headed for the rocks.
Maybe the media should be asking how much is being spent on the investigation and trial of Ed Burke compared to the investigation and non-trial in the Huguelet killing.
Speaking of gun violence and WOKE justice system. Very few in the public have heard the TRUTH about the indictment and ‘plea bargain’ that, Robert Crimo, Jr. pled(sp?) to. He is the father of the young adult involved in the Highland Park, Ill 4th of July, 2023 mass shooting.
I write for a very small magazine in Lake County, ILL. As a small time reporter I attended the court hearing of the father this past Monday, 11/6/23. The woke S.A. of Lake County, ILL, Midget Man Eric Rinehart indicted the father of this mentally ill son. The SA said the father shared in responsibility of the sons killings because the father cosigned the application for the gun license permit when the kid was under 21. Sounds good right? But this kid killed his victims when he was, by law, an adult: 21 years old. A full 2 1/2 years after he got a license! Why should the father be responsible for an adult son. What if the kid waited 10 yrs to kill someone. Would the father be responsible? Better yet what if it was 30 years later and father was in a nursing home. Would you indict and drag him out of the home? You get were I’m going with this , right.
Well, it gets worse. This kid was known to the community and local LAW ENFORCEMENT since age 14 as a problem child. At 19, just before he applied for a gun license, he threatened to kill himself and then later that year at a family gathering threatened to kill parents and relatives with knives. Police were called but no arrests made. And here is were it gets good. The Highland Park police who responded to this last threat thought it might be a good idea to alert the Illinois State Police to see if this kid had a gun license and/or purchased weapons. If he did they would pull the license. But he did not have a license yet.
So when this kid applied for a gun license, do you think that the Illinois Sate Police, who issues the gun permit, would deny the application. After all they knew of his past. Nope the ISP DOPES issued the license and the rest is history. So who really is a codefendant for that massacre: the father or the dumb ass ISP!
Well politics took affect. Jumbo Boy’s ISP had to be protected so he got the woke Midget Man SA indict the father to cover up law enforcement mistakes. Remember Rinehart is only one of two Illinois SA who supported the WOKE SAFE T act. Just recently JB held a fund raiser for this SA. Raised big bucks,
So were is the press on this. I talked to all the reporters at hearing asking them to tell the whole story. Nope. I had a few press, friendly to me from my days as coroner, tell me the fix is in. The editors of all versions of the press are in the Dems pockets. Truth will not get out.
So the woke SA destroys the father who is innocent of participation in this massacre. The real codependents should be the ISP, HP police, and mayor of HP, WHO KNEW THIS KIDS PROBLEMS.
Spot on John Kass!
Ideology is not a way to govern. Yet it seems we see too much of it. Watching people leave stores with huge televisions, designer bags, costly clothing, alcohol, and other various items all in the name of equality. All this done with the chant of reparations.
It seems being a victim gives one a free pass to live in a society of no accountability.
Now I watch all the groups who are pro Palestine. Seeing gays for Palestine I face palmed my forehead. How do they not know? Do they realize if they resided there their life would be over?
I’m sad, and concerned about our future. Too many followers just follow blindly.
Being told what to think and feel is alarming.
Will we ever return to a world where if one does wrong one must face the consequences?
Thanks for another great column.
Great column John. Yes, the Pols are great at deflecting your attention from real problems. Burke and Madigan have been corrupt for decades, and suddenly when street crime is out of sight, they are being prosecuted (so called) to draw our attention from and condition us to street crime.
Preckwinkle is saving money by keeping the CCJ population down and pretends that Chicago isn’t in Cook County.
As for downtown, Mayor Big Johnson hasn’t a clue. Now more financial burdens on small businesses in the city which will drive them out! Hopefully, Democrat voters will remember how he has no regard for their concerns about the migrant issue. Oh Big J? If you want Federal help with that, just tell Crime Boss Joe to shut the frigging border! I always used to get a kick out of President Trump getting Lori Lightspeed’s temper up mentioning the crime here and threatening to send in “The Feds” to help!! Bwaha.
I’m also trying to figure out where all the jobs are that Commudous Maximus is touting for the Migrants. Does that mean that there is no unemployment in Illinois and we need more workers? Or will that be just for his hotels? Why isn’t the media asking him that question? We all know that they are not allowed.
HAND everyone. I wonder what the crime stats will be this weekend?
I’m just curious. Has anyone, maybe we can find a bored millionaire to do this, tried to have someone like Cabrini Kim fired for dereliction of duty? Failing to perform the duties of her office according to state laws? If you are a police officer who refuses to enforce state laws and city statutes you will be fired. If you are a firefighter who refuses to extinguish fires, you will be fired. A garbageman who refuses to pick up trash will be fired. States Attorneys are not elected to re interpret existing laws. They are bound by state law to enforce the states laws. File a lawsuit to have her removed from office. Fire her.
John,
You cite these people as Democrats, they are democRats in name only. Call them what they truly are; anarchists, pure and simple. Under the guise of “equity” they have released the wolves onto the population in order to build their “utopia “. Only having people of color they want to rule, not represent. The fearful live in their homes afraid to leave and are fearful of their domicile being invaded.
They have effectively dismantled law enforcement to become armed stenographers.
It was happening under Lil Daley, continued under tiny dancer, then the vilification got louder under beetlejuice. The current buffoon in city hall just doesn’t have a clue. The current and immediate former States Attorney began to decriminalize the system since 2008. Gunfights became mutual combatants, even when innocents were shot. Only sensational killings got charges approved by felony review.
We left Chicago in 2018, and haven’t looked back.