A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): To listen to the CTU, it’s Rahm’s fault!

Chicago Public Schools boss Barbara Byrd-Bennett is out of the job, at least for the time being.

It seems federal investigators are looking into a contract awarded by the Board of Education to the SUPES Academy, a no-bid deal to the leadership institute that Byrd-Bennett once worked for.

THERE ARE THOSE who would like to think this is an “a-ha!!!” type moment of catching the Chicago Public Schools in something illegal – as though it isn’t just aldermen who are inherently corrupt.

Which is why I found it intriguing to read the statement issued by the Chicago Teachers Union with regards to Byrd-Bennett deciding to step down indefinitely from the post to which she was picked by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. To listen to the teachers’ union, it’s Rahm’s fault.

He’s the one to blame for anything that was done wrong with the schools. They may not have been successful in stirring up a majority voter support in this month’s municipal election run-off to dump Rahm Emanuel from his mayoral post. But he’s still going to be the brunt of the union attacks.

“What Barbara is being singled out for is sadly just one incident among widespread practices by the mayor’s Board of Education  appointees, and the turmoil caused by yet another top-down leadership scandale is a grave concern for all of us as the district faces a crippling financial deficit,” union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said in a prepared statement.

IT SEEMS THAT if we don’t have elected school board members for the Chicago Public Schools, the union is going to go after the one person who does get elected – Hizzoner himself.

So much for the idea that the union and the mayor have reached some sort of peace, the way some would like to think after learning last week that Emanuel and union President Karen Lewis actually had a civil conversation following Election Day and Emanuel’s 56 percent vote support.

Then again, after outspending opponent Jesus Garcia by a 5-1 ratio during the election cycle, the real miracle is that Chuy came as close as he did. It’s going to be an ugly round of negotiations later this year when Emanuel and the teachers’ union have to try to hammer out a new labor agreement if this kind of bitterness remains.

What else is notable along the shores of Lake Michigan’s southwestern corner?

CARDINAL GEORGE ASCENDS TO THE HEAVENS: Cardinal Francis George stepped down from his post as head of the Catholic Archdiocese in Chicago because of health reasons, making it possible for an orderly transition that gives us Archbishop Blasé Cupich at the head of the local church.

George’s health factors weren’t an exaggeration, as he died Friday at age 78 from cancer.

His 17 years as head of the Catholic church in Chicago was significant because he was the first Chicago-born native to return here and become the local boss – quite a rise up from a former Catholic school kid from St. Pascal School in the Portage Park neighborhood.

Particularly when one considers he was turned away from the Quigley Preparatory Seminary and was told at the time he likely would never be ordained as a priest because he had to recover from a bout with polio.

KRIS BRYANT; THE QUINTESSENTIAL CHICAGO CUB?: 0-4 with three strikeouts. That was the major league debut of Kris Bryant, the so-called top prospect whom some Chicago Cubs fans were all worked up over because he didn’t make the Cubs’ Opening Day roster.

Cubs management admitted they sent him to the Iowa Cubs roster until Friday because of a business maneuver that will delay by a full year the amount of major league service time he will have before he can someday become a free agent.

Bryant supposedly knocked the snot out of the ball during spring training, and had a couple of good weeks hitting Pacific Coast League pitching before getting his major league call-up.

But on Friday, he stunk the joint up as the Cubs lost 5-4 to the San Diego Padres. It’s only one game, but you have to admit it is so Chicago Cub-ish for the superstar of the future to fizzle out when it matters the most.

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Burial for two dozen of the indigent deceased. Too bad we can’t do more

I’m not much of a fan of the “Star Trek” series of programs and films, but there are times that I wonder if the Klingons are on to something we could all learn from.

Klingons, for those who don’t know, are a species of warriors who are prepared to, if not all too eager, to fight to the death, and find great honor in such activity. But as for the corpses themselves, they are merely “empty shells” with the essence of what made that individual unique having been removed.

THE IDEA IS, that while they have their rituals related to death, they don’t put much stock in the idea of the body being all that important – once life as we know it is complete.

I’m not saying that corpses in that television world get disposed of like trash. But there are times I wonder if we put too much attention on the rituals related to our own deaths.

I couldn’t help but think of this when I read the stories being published about how some two dozen bodies of indigent people who died with no one to claim them were finally given a burial on Wednesday.

Those bodies were among the nearly 400 that were backed up at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, with some allegedly being stacked in the halls because the giant freezers meant to slow decomposition of the flesh while the bodies are in county custody were over-packed.

EARLIER THIS YEAR, the Chicago Archdiocese of the Catholic Church went so far as to offer up to 300 graves at Catholic cemeteries so that the bodies could at least be put into a proper grave.

Like I said, that offer was made months ago. Yet it is only now that only two dozen were actually buried – specifically at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery on 111^th Street near the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, the first cemetery meant to service the South Side.

Cook County government officials would have liked to have taken up the offer much sooner, and for many more of the bodies that were never claimed – or where the next-of-kin were too poor to afford the cost of a funeral.

But it literally came down to the concerns among Cook County officials that they would be attacked in the future by putting indigent people into graves at a Catholic cemetery.

WHO’S TO SAY some indigent Protestant (or maybe Muslim) wouldn’t have some family come forth at a later date, all upset that they weren’t with their “own kind” in the after-life?

County officials literally had to spend time checking, as best they could, into the religious beliefs of these people – many of whom were so cut off from the mainstream of our society in life that I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to try to verify now if it would be acceptable that they were put into a grave next to Catholic people.

Now I respect the idea that some people have very intense religious beliefs that extend to the specific circumstances under which they want their dead treated. I’m not, in any way, looking to violate the concerns of such individuals.

But those are the people who do come forth and claim their deceased loved ones.

I CAN’T HELP but think that in cases where there is no one, accepting such a plot is only too practical for county government. It also sounds so much more respectful than some of the practices that have occurred at African-American-oriented cemeteries on the South Side – where there are people who literally don’t know if their loved one’s graves truly contain their remains, or those of somebody else!

So I can only think it encouraging that Cardinal Francis George was able to take the time to lead a graveside service for two dozen people whose remains should have been put to rest months ago. It’s only a shame we don’t know, in some cases, whose minds those dead individuals continue to live on in.

Because I honestly believe that the dead live on in the memories of the living – just as there are times when I can hear my own mother admonishing me if I’m about to screw something up (or offering her praise if I get something right).

All the rants about ritual just seem so trivial in that context.

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Dragging the Klan into the mix is nothing but foolish for Cardinal

Cardinal Francis George is correct in saying that the Ku Klux Klan has a history of being just as anti-Catholic as it has been anti-black.

Does anyone seriously believe ... 



In fact, if one goes back to the late 1910s and early 1920s when Klan chapters expanded beyond the Deep South and it almost became respectable to be a member, there were some people who joined because of their religious bigotry more than any hostilities felt toward black people.

THE REALITY WAS that some parts of the country had very few black people. The Catholics, however, were a foreign conspiracy that was taking over the world. Or so the nitwits of that era wanted to believe.

But the Cardinal made himself look like the nitwit earlier this week, and he had to go ahead and do it on television. People across the Chicago metropolitan area who happened to watch WFLD-TV’s evening newscast on Wednesday got to see and hear George when he compared the gay rights activists upset about a Catholic parish’s objections to the route for the 2012 gay pride parade to the Klan of old.

As George put it, the “Gay Liberation Movement” has the potential to “morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan” for daring to suggest that Catholic officials might be mistaken.

This makes the Cardinal sound as ridiculous as Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., who got himself international attention for his wisecrack about how low approval ratings for Congress reflect badly upon its Republican members, saying, “if Josef Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat(ic) Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine.”

NAZI PROPAGANDA IMAGES for speaking the truth about Republican partisan political tactics? Just like thinking ill of the Catholic church. It all sounds like people who are way too touchy; perhaps because on a certain level they realize their side is wrong on a certain issue – but don’t want to admit it.

Of course, just as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives shot down an attempt to censure West for his over-the-top rhetoric, I suspect a lot of Catholics are going to be quick to jump on the bandwagon of support for the Cardinal.

... these people are comparable?



Which is a shame, because this is a case where everybody would be better off if this issue withered away – instead of being prolonged by defensive talk. Which all winds up being a defense of a ridiculous position.

Now the fact that the Catholic Diocese for Chicago is concerned about the gay pride parade next year isn’t new. Parade officials altered the route through north lakefront neighborhoods, and also wanted to start the event earlier.

THE END RESULT was the potential for the parade to pass by a Lakeview neighborhood Catholic church right as Sunday morning mass was starting. There may have been some parishioners who would get offended, but there also was the potential for an area traffic jam as a large-scale parade passes the Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish (although church officials had hinted that many passengers might just skip church that morning in protest of the parade).

Which is why parade officials have agreed to alter the starting time. Now, it should pass the church a couple of hours after the Sunday morning mass is over. Which, to my mindset, makes it sound like the parade organizers are trying to be reasonable.

But the rhetoric we got from the Cardinal makes it seem that being reasonable isn’t good enough. They’re upset anybody challenged their opposition at all. And now, they want to resort to Klan analogies – hoping desperately that they will capture the support of the “middle” of our society.

Which I’m skeptical would happen, because the imagery of gay rights activists being aligned with the Klan is just too absurd to take literally. It’s even more ridiculous than the concept of a “World Series champion Chicago Cubs” team.

BESIDES, IT REMINDS me of the occasions when, as a reporter-type person, I have covered rallies involving the Klan. I have seen the robes and the hoods up-close, and I also have read their literature that attempts to make them out to be an organization promoting “American values.”

One thing I noticed is that the modern Klan, in stating who it does not want, has altered its rhetoric slightly. Catholics are no longer forbidden. Catholicism has become so mainstream in our society that many of its members now qualify as ordinary white people – in the Klan’s eyes.

Although I’m going to stop short of stating that George may well have given verbal comfort to real-life Klan members by making statements that indicate opposition to gay rights activists. I’m sure real Klan members don’t object to what he said.

But I do, and I’m sure there are many other people (both Catholic and non) who do object – particularly in these days leading up to the holiest of all holy days. The concept of bringing up the Klan at Christmas-time seems particularly venal.

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EXTRA: He’s back!!!!!!

It already is starting on the Internet. Cardinal Francis George of the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese blinked.

He caved in. He surrendered to the priest they were hoping to dump – the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Parish in the Gresham neighborhood.

THE CARDINAL ON Friday said  he was reinstating Pfleger as pastor of the parish that Pfleger has led for three decades, and has made it clear he doesn’t want to leave. Pfleger will be back behind the pulpit and delivering a sermon come Sunday services, and I’m sure his gregarious personality will run amok on that day.

Such stability at a Catholic parish officially is regarded as a bad thing. The church likes to have its priests move about from church to church throughout their pastoral careers, believing they can effectively influence many more people through the church if they don’t become too attached to any one parish.

A priest lasting more than a decade at any one church is a rarity. For Pfleger to have remained in the same parish since the early 1980s is a miracle nearly as significant as the good works done by former Pope John Paul II that may make him an official Catholic saint someday.

What has enabled Pfleger to remain at St. Sabiina is that he is that rare breed of white person who is not uncomfortable among black people. And St. Sabina is a parish in a neighborhood that most definitely has changed to a heavy African-American character.

THE PEOPLE WHO are most offended by Pfleger’s conduct throughout the years are those who have their own racial hang-ups to work through, and who wish that the Catholic church could somehow reinforce those hang-ups.

The reason that St. Sabina is a thriving parish on the South Side is because it has adapted in character to its neighborhood. Critics would say it has been tainted. I would say it has adapted to its parishioners – which is what a church ought to do.

What good is a church if the people who live in its parish don’t find it relevant?

That is why I am pleased to learn that Pfleger will continue to have a role at St. Sabina. I know full-well that if Cardinal George’s suspension of the priest had evolved into a permanent removal, it would have been taken as a sign by the people with the hang-ups that the Catholic church was taking up their cause.

THAT WOULD NOT have been a good thing – even though I fully appreciate from my contact with Pfleger as a reporter-type person throughout the years that the man does have an ego. He’s not a bashful type.

His personality can be overbearing.

Yet that would not justify his removal – particularly since I don’t think the Catholic archdiocese would be able to find a replacement who could continue to keep that parish intact.

In short, there are lessons that the Catholic church could learn from people like Pfleger when it comes to appealing to the masses and remaining relevant as we work our way deeper into the 21^st Century.

  -30-

EXTRA: Pfleger in limbo?

I’m sure there are those Catholics who are about to take offense, but it seems that the church’s Chicago Archdiocese just went ahead and put Rev. Michael Pfleger in limbo.

In purely theological terms, limbo is that place where souls that are not completely clean of sin go to wait until the day they can be admitted to Heaven. It’s not Hell, but they’re in between – with an uncertain status.

I CAN’T HELP but think that is what the church is doing to Pfleger by telling him on Wednesday that he’s still the pastor of St. Sabina Church, BUT he is suspended and cannot perform any of his duties in running the Gresham neighborhood church.

The church, in the form of Cardinal Francis George, sent Pfleger a letter telling him of his new, uncertain status,  while also telling him that his status is purely his own fault. To make sure that no one tried spinning the issue differently, they also posted a copy of it on the Archdiocese’s own website.

It seems that the Catholic Church is upset that the speculation about Pfleger’s future with the church has gone public. So they’re looking for a way to punish him, perhaps even hoping that he decides on his own to quit.

“This conflict is not between you and me; it’s between you and the Church that ordained you as a priest, between you and the faith that introduced you to Christ and gives you the right to preach and pastor in his name,” George wrote. “If you now formally leave the Catholic Church and her priesthood, it’s your choice and no one else’s.

“YOU ARE NOT a victim of anyone or anything other than your own statements,” George wrote.

Definitely not the words of someone who is looking for a way to keep Pfleger happily ensconced somewhere within the Archdiocese.

So now, we have to wait to see what Pfleger’s next move will be. Will he try to fight to keep the post that he has held for three decades and doesn’t seem to want to give up (and which the parish doesn’t seem to want him to give up)?

Or will he decide that it’s time to do something else with his life, and that perhaps the Catholic Church has become too restrictive to let him minister to the urban communities that he seems most interested in.

PERSONALLY, THERE WAS one part of George’s letter that most caught my attention – the notion that the church is upset about the talk that Pfleger is being “removed” from St. Sabina instead of being “reassigned.”

The difference, according to George, that being “removed” implies sexual or financial malfeasance by the priest, while being “reassigned” is a part of a typical priest’s working life.

Yet no one should think that Pfleger is a typical priest – in large part because of his willingness to take the church into African-American communities and make it relevant even though he’s a white guy.

Both photographs provided by St. Sabina parish



I can’t help but think that the people who are most disgusted with Pfleger are the ones who wish that he would conduct himself in such a manner that his parish would have withered away decades ago because the neighborhood residents would have found it to be irrelevant to their daily lives.

THAT WILLINGNESS TO adapt is something I have always respected about Pfleger – even if I’ll be the first to admit his rhetoric at times can get ridiculously over the top.

Which is why I fear that the people who will most enjoy the “hard line” being taken by George against Pfleger in his letter on Wednesday are going to be individuals whose own motivations are less than noble, if not downright despicable.

  -30-

Is St. Sabina worth Pfleger ego?

In the ongoing dispute in the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago about what to do with Rev. Michael Pfleger, I will be the first to admit that the St. Sabina parish in the South Side’s Gresham neighborhood probably would wither away and die if Pfleger were to be removed as pastor.

Yet a part of me wonders if that is a good enough reason to justify keeping Father Pfleger at St. Sabina – where he has served for three decades, significantly longer than the six years (12 maximum) that priests usually serve in an individual parish.

PERHAPS IT JUST is the reality that the particular parish Pfleger kept from withering away many decades ago when the white people left the neighborhood and it became predominantly African-American isn’t meant to last forever.

Because I do believe that if Cardinal Francis George takes the hard-line and insists that Pfleger move on, that the many people who currently attend St. Sabina will follow him to whatever church he becomes a part of.

It almost sounds like a cult of personality for Father Pfleger, which is a scary concept for any religious leader.

But I also have to admit that Pfleger deserves some credit for keeping the St. Sabina parish relevant in its changing neighborhood. Too many of the people who are quick to trash Pfleger are really upset because they think he has been too accommodating to the racial change --  rather than trying to take some hard-line such as many of them did when they moved out of the city into the suburbs (a trend that continues with many white people leaving the inner suburbs of Cook County for the outer suburbs of places like Will County, which had the largest percentage increase of population for the entire state in the latest Census Bureau results).

PERSONALLY, I THINK the clock is ticking for St. Sabina, which is a shame. Because it is a story that should be praised, even though too many want to focus on Pfleger’s alleged gaffes throughout the years (which mostly amount to speaking out against injustices that many people would prefer to ignore because they take place in a neighborhood they no longer care about).

Pfleger is popping up in the news a lot in recent days because of the plot that was conceived by officials in the Archdiocese that would have shifted the priest out of St. Sabina as pastor, but would have kept him in the same neighborhood by putting him in charge of Leo High School.

I’m sure someone thinks that is a wonderful compromise that pleases everybody, even though I see it as a purely political deal that will appease nobody.

The Chicago Sun-Times went so far as to send a reporter-type person to St. Sabina last Sunday, where Pfleger was boastful during his sermon, saying he remains in place at the church – where parishioners have made it clear in letters to the archdiocese that they want him to remain indefinitely.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE on Thursday found Cardinal George in west suburban Westchester, where he would only say that no final decision has been made yet concerning Pfleger’s fate.

So where do we go from here?

What I find interesting is the idea that Pfleger is now 61, a fact I find hard to phathom because I have written about his antics on so many issues throughout the years that I will always think of him as a youthful man with vigor and energy.

In short, when he was the youngest full pastor in Chicago. A part of me is shaken up that he could be approaching an age where his retirement altogether could become an issue.

WHICH MEANS ST. Sabina officials ought to be thinking of the day when Pfleger moves on, and who they want to replace him as pastor. I understand there is a priest in place who theoretically is being groomed by Pfleger to someday take over St. Sabina – but that someday is still a few years away.

Whereas George seems to want to give in to those Catholics who want to view Pfleger as an embarrassment and move him along now, and NOT on his own terms.

I fear this situation will turn out badly. Everybody is going to wind up being upset and feeling neglected, regardless of what decision is ultimately made.

Because I’m now wondering if the ultimate legacy of Father Pfleger is going to be that he merely deferred the closing of St. Sabina (a parish that easily could have died in the 1970s due to “white flight”) for a few decades.

HE POSTPONED THE inevitable. I’d hope that doesn’t overshadow his legacy.

I’d rather remember him as the Catholic priest who was willing to take on the tobacco industry for their advertisements in his neighborhood targeting black people or willing to stand up to the street gang influences – even if it means we also have to remember his “brain cramp” moment when he offended Hillary Clinton during her ’08 presidential aspirations.

  -30-

The “Things” that wouldn’t leave!

They seem to be the duo that just won’t leave, and that some people don’t want to depart.

PFLEGER: Entering his fourth decade



I’m referring to Rev. Michael Pfleger of the Gresham neighborhood’s St. Sabina Catholic Church, and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald – the federal prosecutor who locally can claim two gubernatorial notches on his professional belt.

BOTH MEN HOLD positions that have a certain protocol behind them that says there is a certain time limit to the job, after which they’re supposed to move on to other professional challenges.

In the case of Pfleger, the Catholic Archdiocese usually assigns priests to a parish for six years, and allows for the occasional extension to 12 years in a single church. For Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney is supposed to serve four years, then move on to another prosecutorial post.

That is, if they don’t decide to run for electoral office, or shift to some other city.

Pfleger has far exceeded his time limit. He has been at the church on 79^th Street for three full decades, while Fitzgerald will hit the one-decade mark come October.

WHICH IS WHY it is ironic that speculation popped up this week that both men might finally be moving on to another position.

In the case of Fitzgerald, he supposedly is in line to be the head of the FBI. The man whom many would like to think of as a 21^st Century version of Eliot Ness could become the modern-day equivalent of J. Edgar Hoover.

FITZGERALD: He should have been two AGs ago



For Pfleger, he had a sit-down with Cardinal Francis George recently to talk about his professional future. The outcry from various segments of Chicago caused the Archdiocese to feel the need to issue a statement Thursday saying he’s not going anywhere else anytime soon, because his departure would harm the St. Sabina parish.

The sad thing is that such a statement likely is true.

THE PARISH IN a one-time Irish neighborhood that long ago became majority African-American in character likely would have died off years ago had it not been for Pfleger – who throughout his years as a priest has shown a willingness to adapt himself.

He may be one of the few Catholic priests in Chicago who has any real feel or understanding for the African-American population in this city (which may be shrinking, but still accounts for one-third of Chicago).

If anything, St. Sabina is more about the Pfleger personality rather than traditional Catholic teachings, which is a fact that bothers some Catholics who would rather think it is the place of other people to adapt their views to that of the church’s establishment.

Which means that if Pfleger were to move on (the Chicago Tribune reported that church officials considered putting him in charge of Leo High School, before deciding to leave him in place for part of a fourth decade), it probably would turn off the people who regularly attend that parish’s services.

IT ALSO IS likely that Fitzgerald will remain in place for awhile longer.

He supposedly is on the short list to become FBI director. But various reports indicate he’s not necessarily the favorite.

And if he did try to leave for the Washington-based position, there would be people who would be convinced that Chicago was headed down the drain – just as much as there are some people who are convinced that Pfleger is an essential part of his parish and its surrounding neighborhood.

Fitzgerald is the guy who during his time as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor oversaw the staffs that prosecuted George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, along with one-time Chicago Sun-Times executive Conrad Black, several city officials in the Hired Truck Program, and one-time Chicago Police commander Jon Burge – who started serving his prison stint this week.

THAT IS ON top of his D.C.-based work in prosecuting former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for perjury.

There are those people who are convinced that no other person would have used the U.S. attorney position to prosecute so many people so indiscriminately.

It has gotten to the point where the political establishment that ultimately decides who gets to be the U.S. attorney is afraid to think of moving him elsewhere. Fitzgerald most likely would have to receive such a high-ranking title as “FBI director” in order to justify to his local fans that he wasn’t somehow being screwed over in being removed from the Chicago prosecutorial post.

Which is sad.

PERSONALLY, I HAVE watched Pfleger and Fitzgerald during my two-plus decades as a reporter-type person. Watching Fitzgerald assume the mantel of prosecuting political corruption and expecting government officials to actually uphold the ideals of good government sounds noble, as are many of Pfleger’s most-outspoken moments meant to eliminate the scourges of drugs and alcohol from inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago.

The problem is that keeping one official too long causes us to rely too heavily upon them. Officials start to forget that everyone eventually must move on.

The Archdiocese, in saying this week that Pfleger will remain at St. Sabina, said in part, “we believe that removing him at this time would be devastating to both our parish and the Auburn/Gresham community.”

I can’t help but think that the U.S. attorney’s office will someday have to issue a nearly identical statement that says Fitzgerald will remain in town for awhile longer.

  -30-

How important is 'public' vs. 'private'

I am a Chicago native and a graduate of the public schools, but I am not of the Chicago Public Schools.

CHICO: Public, and proud of it!


So this isn’t going to be a diatribe taking Rahm Emanuel down a notch or two because he won’t immediately commit to sending his three school-age children to a public school within the city limits.

BUT I DO believe that educational quality is important, and that a public school system is an important criteria in determining the overall quality of life within the city limits. There have been too many young couples who left Chicago because their young children were old enough for school, and they didn’t trust the neighborhood schools.

It creates the image of a city for either the elite or the losers of our society, with no one from in between being capable of living there.

I know in my own case, my parents left Chicago proper two months before I was scheduled to begin kindergarten – for that exact reason. My mother, a product of Chicago’s Catholic schools, didn’t want me enduring what used to pass for discipline in the parochial schools, but didn’t trust the city’s public school system either.

Which is why although I have lived my adult life continually moving into, and out of, the city (based on various jobs throughout the years) and consider myself a Chicago native, I claim South Holland-based Thornwood High (Class of ’83) as the alma mater.

A PART OF me wonders if this makes me a part of the problem facing our urban area. Perhaps if we thought more of our home city, we would have stayed and tried to cope and address the problems facing our neighborhoods – rather than fleeing.

EMANUEL: Private? Does it matter?



Mayoral hopeful (and former school board President) Gery Chico is trying to take advantage of people who might feel the same way, making an issue Wednesday against Emanuel – pointing out he and his own children went to public schools in the city.

By comparison, Emanuel told reporter-types that he has to talk with his wife first before deciding where their three kids would go to school, if he gets elected mayor. For the time being, they remain in a private school in the District of Columbia – which makes them just like many government officials who live a few years in Washington (including the Obamas).

I won’t be surprised if, in the end, Emanuel winds up deciding that some form of private school is best for his own kids. I’m not even sure I would hold it against him, even though I realize it would be a great show of faith in the city if he did send his kids to a public school.

BUT WOULD THAT be a real gesture, or just an attempt to use his kids as political pawns to bolster his own political credibility? Which means a part of me might be inclined to hold it against him if his kids do wind up in a public school.

In short, it’s not an easy issue to address, although I do realize that a mayor has to be concerned about public education. The problems of the public school system are those of the mayor just as much as those of the superintendent and the Board of Education.

But I also realize that being a product of a public school isn’t necessarily a quintessential part of being a Chicagoan (or does anyone think a place like Mount Carmel isn’t urban?). This is a place where the Catholic church is predominant and many people for their own religious reasons would never dream of letting their kids be “tainted” by the influence of a public education.

Personally, I think it is their loss. I think my own public school education exposed me to more people and forced me to cope with different situations than I would have encountered in any kind of private school environment.

BUT IT ALSO is their choice, and I’m not about to make an issue about one’s educational choice.

Not that I expect Emanuel (who is Jewish) to enroll his kids in a Catholic school – although the modern-day reality of Catholic schools in Chicago is that many of the students aren’t Catholic. I still remember once interviewing officials at DeLaSalle Institute (a quintessential Chicago high school if there ever was one) and having them tell me about students who were Muslim.

But I don’t see the difference between a school overseen by the Chicago Archdiocese or any other private group. They all are a part of the experience of being a Chicagoan.

So Chico may be “really committed” to Chicago and think that his own educational experience is evidence of that. But I’m not sure I want to take this particular issue and attach any real significance to it.

IN PART, BECAUSE I realize my own life experience would make me unfit to live by such a standard.

But also, because I’m not sure it matters all that much. Part of what makes life in Chicago interesting is that it is a mixture of people who have made various choices on how to live their lives, even though they’re living in proximity to each other.

If we really wanted a lifestyle where everybody lived alike, we’d have been among those who fled Chicago and never set foot within the city limits under any circumstance.

That would be boring.

  -30-

It was 50 years ago Monday, that kids became statistics instead of lives

One summer when we were kids, my brother, Chris, and I spent about a week away from our parents and staying with our Uncle Sphinx and Aunt Connie, who lived in west suburban Lombard.

They had a pool in their backyard and allowed us to spend much of our time lounging around it, while also requiring some chores (such as cleaning out the basement where our aunt operated a makeshift beauty shop for neighborhood women).

BUT ONE OF the moments of that week that stands out in my mind (and the moment that my brother most remembers) is when Aunt Connie decided to take us with her on what she saw as an “educational” outing.

We took a drive to the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in nearby Hillside.

And the reason we went there on that day in 1978 was to see the “Shrine of the Holy Innocents” memorial that had been erected there to the children who died on this date 50 years ago at the Our Lady of the Angels School, 909 N. Avers Ave.

What would have become of these children? Illustration provided by http://www.olafire.com/.

Now I had heard of the school fire previously. Occasionally, we’d see snippets of footage of smoke coming from school windows and some bodies being moved about, whenever early December would come up.

WHILE MY MOTHER remembers being in a Catholic school on the South Side when she learned of the fire (nuns quickly led her entire class in a prayer for the children at Our Lady of the Angels), for me, it was little more than an “anniversary story.”

Until that particular weekend with my aunt.

I recall her laying some flowers at the memorial, while also reciting some details of that day’s events to my brother and I, then driving home the point that life is not only precious, it also is temperamental.

It can come, and go, at any time.

IT DOESN’T EVEN have to be anyone’s particular fault that they were in a certain place when something bad happened.

So if it sounds like I’m saying people ought to treasure every moment they have, because they don’t know for sure how much longer they will live (personally, I could die tomorrow, or I could last another 50 or so years – I honestly don’t know what to expect), then it is a worthwhile lesson.

Besides, how many other people can claim to have learned a life’s lesson while visiting a cemetery with their aunt (who, sadly enough, I cannot share moments with any longer – she died this year during the summer)? It definitely is one of those stories I can tell that few people can match.

It also is a memory that has come to my mind because we’re on one of the so-called “significant” anniversaries to justify an “anniversary story” about Our Lady of the Angels.

THE BIG 5-OH.

WTTW-TV last week dredged up the “Angels Too Soon” documentary film about the fire and its aftermath. And I would expect news outlets throughout the Chicago area will be running stories throughout the day – reminding us of the fact that 92 children and three nuns have now been dead for half-a-century.

In the case of the kids, they have been gone for about four to five times longer than they were alive.

But when presented in such a manner, they can become mere statistics.

THAT IS WHY I dredged up the old Chicago American newspaper front page from “the day after,” which literally gives us the pictures of all the deceased children. It is a physical reminder that we are talking about living human beings.

Instead, they’re names engraved on a memorial at a Hillside cemetery that my brother and I checked out some 30 years ago.

So when some people will try to push the angle that the fire started in a stairwell would never have spread so fast if modern-day fire codes were in place, I’d argue that such an angle is kind of trivial.

The fact is that even contemporary fire codes would have had an effect – but the building was exempt because it was so old that city officials thought requiring the Catholic Archdiocese to pay to bring it up to standards would have been an undue financial burden.

SOME MAY EVEN get worked up over the fact that no one was ever successfully prosecuted for having done something wrong to start the fire. Maybe they dream that modern forensics could come up with some evidence that could lead to a criminal conviction.

But when I think back to that day at the memorial, and also look at a newspaper page with pictures, I can’t help but wonder what would have become of these kids – who by now would be pushing into senior citizen status.

They’d be looking back on their lives, trying to figure out just what it was they accomplished and could be proud of.

The fact that they never got to do so is the true tragedy of that day at Iowa Street and Avers Avenue.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Memories of that day on the West Side will live on, so long as (http://www.olafire.com/Home.asp) the Internet remains in existence.

I’m not alone (http://www.bluejeansplace.com/OurLadyoftheAngelsFireMemorial.html) in having visited the memorial to the fire’s victims, although I did not document it to the degree that this website does. One can find help (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8839) in locating the graves of specific people.

Catholic church should crack down on all priestly politicking, not just Rev. Pfleger

In theory, I was pleased to learn that Cardinal Francis George of the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese is cracking down on the Second City’s very own Rev. Michael Pfleger, who has managed to become yet a second “crazy black preacher” (even though he’s white) to be aligned with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

I honestly believe Pfleger’s recent remarks concerning Obama opponent Hillary R. Clinton and her expectations of support from white people are not worth much attention – in part because Pfleger’s history shows he will use his position as head of the South Side’s St. Sabina church to say just about anything.

HE’S ALSO DOING nothing more than stating the incredibly obvious when he says that racial tensions have tainted the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign.

So George’s statement issued Friday that Pfleger had promised to “not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all Catholic priests” means there will be one less person spouting inflammatory rhetoric related to the presidential candidates.

That is a plus.

But George, in his statement, also said that priests, “must speak to political issues that are also moral.” Which means there are occasions when he wants his priests to speak out and go on the attack against political people.

BUT THE QUESTION is, “What is moral” and “What is mere politicking?”

Some people might argue that Pfleger was addressing a moral issue – the way in which racial tensions that exist in this country have poisoned the presidential campaigns between Obama and Clinton.

In fact, whenever Pfleger has spoken out throughout the years, it was motivated by incidents where interests of lower-income African-American people are being ignored by the establishment. Considering that he presides over a parish that was once white Irish, but has evolved into majority African-American, one can say Pfleger is just reflecting the views of his parishioners – which is what a priest is supposed to do.

In the latest “incident,” Pfleger, when he made a special address to the congregation last Sunday at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Obama’s church, and the one for which the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was pastor for many years), was talking about what he perceived as Clinton’s racially improper conduct during her campaign.

SPECIFICALLY, HE MOCKED the tears she shed publicly at an event early in the campaign season. Some political observers believe she was putting on an act, but Pfleger went into a diatribe saying that Clinton was legitimately sad that people were taking a black candidate more seriously than they were a white woman such as herself.

“She wasn’t the only one crying,” Pfleger told the congregation. “There was a whole lot of white people crying.”

George called the Clinton comments “partisan” and said they, “amount to a personal attack.” Clinton aides really are crying now, calling the reverend’s comments unfair, and Obama couldn’t issue his statement denouncing Pfleger fast enough.

But is it really any less partisan or personal whenever a Catholic priest somewhere in the United States decides to take it on himself to deny communion to (or even go so far as to call for the excommunication of) a politician (almost always an urban Democrat) who won’t call for the criminalization of a woman’s ability to abort a pregnancy?

THIS HAS HAPPENED many times, most recently earlier this month when Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas denounced that state's governor (and possible choice of Obama for vice president), Kathleen Sebelius, for supporting the "serious moral evil" of abortion.

Some people reading this commentary will now get angry and argue that abortion qualifies as one of those “moral” issues that George, in his statement, said priests must speak to.

But I would respond that the potential of racism in this campaign is also a moral issue. Perhaps the church should be trying to encourage its members to look beyond prejudices in trying to determine who should get their votes come the Nov. 4 elections?

If it won’t do that, then the Catholic church (many of whose priests and nuns used to march in solidarity with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. back in the 1960s) becomes a part of the problem, by which people would prefer to ignore racial tensions and let them simmer – rather than try to resolve them.

I CERTAINLY WOULDN'T object in the least if the next priest who wants to play local politics with a social conservative Republican by demonizing the GOPer’s Democratic opponent were to get a similar order from their archbishop to “keep quiet.”

But I am realistic enough to know that is not going to happen.

That is why too many people view the Catholic church as being willing to allow freedom of expression, provided that people say the “right” thing that agrees with the boss. Say the “wrong” thing, and you get a symbolic whack across the knuckles with a ruler.

It wasn’t always like this. There was once a time when churches in this country viewed electoral politics as something almost sinful. They tried to stay out of the mechanizations of elections because they feared being tainted by the process.

NOW, THEY'RE ALL too eager to take sides.

That bothers me because it is not like either political party has dominance over morals – I have seen enough politicos up close to know there are sleazy people in every political party in existence. And the truly good ones are also scattered about the political spectrum.

With the influence that the church has over its members, I’d hate to think it was being wasted on behalf of certain political people just because they happen to be a part of a Cardinal’s preferred political party.

If that is the case, then the Catholic church goes from being an organization devoted to protecting the spiritual faith of its members to being one of the lowest forms of life in existence – they’re nothing more than lobbyists.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Chicago Archdiocese (http://www.archdiocese-chgo.org/) was short and sweet in telling Rev. Michael Pfleger to “shut up” about politics.

Should presidential candidates (http://tinyurl.com/3jcpgp/) downplay their religious affiliations?

Throughout the years, Father Pfleger has touted causes as profound as trying to reduce (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D61139F932A15752C1A965958260&scp=9&sq=michael+pfleger&st=nyt) the amount of violence in African-american neighborhoods to as small as (http://a.saintsabina.org/) trying to get the youth basketball league team his church sponsors to play in a church-run league of predominantly white teams.

The Catholic church defends its actions in the excommunication of wayward souls (http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=28033) who happen to be in electoral politics.