Bloody, yet birthy during holiday weekend – Chicago now over 500 dead

Crystal Myers of the Back of the Yards neighborhood gave birth Monday to a son, and if he survives he’s going to have one heck of a birth story to share with people.

Because the Labor Day holiday weekend was one that saw 13 people killed and dozens more wounded – including his parents. It also was the tally that boosted Chicago to having in excess of 500 homicides for the 2016 calendar year thus far.

CONSIDER THERE ARE nearly four more full months to go this year. Who’s to say how high the death toll will get for Chicago – although I can only hope we won’t experience the days of the late 1980s when the city used to get close to 1,000 murders per year and where in some neighborhoods gunfire and death were just a common fact of daily life.

Myers’ son is going to be able to point to write-ups in both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times of the circumstances under which he was born a few weeks early on Monday.

His parents, Myers and Albert Moore, were sitting on a porch in the South Side neighborhood where the stockyards once existed when someone snuck up the gangway, fired nine shots, then fled.

Doctors at Stroger Hospital managed to save the baby, while both Myers and Moore were recovering from their own gunshot wounds and it was uncertain Tuesday how they would turn out.

THE SUN-TIMES REPORTED a lack of a motive for the shooting, although police speculated to the newspaper the incident may somehow be tied in to a shooting that took place the day before.

Here’s hoping for the kid’s sake, at least, that both survive along with the boy. Who gets to begin his life as the human face of just how absurd urban violence has become.

And how divided we are as a society in determining what the real problem is and what needs to be done about it.

For the record, 13 people were killed across the city, with 65 people suffering gunshot wounds. Most of the violence came on the holiday itself – some 31 of the 65 were shot from Monday 6 a.m. to Tuesday 3 a.m., according to the Tribune.

THE USUAL TRIVIAL analysis says that urban violence picks up during the summer months – the intense heat that we in Chicago think of as routine for August somehow gets us all riled up and crazy and our tempers go flying off the handle!

Could this line of logic mean that cooler weather will bring cooler temperaments and that the rate of shootings ending in death will decline in coming months? Who’s to say? The fact is that people tend to want to view the statistics concerning urban violence in ways that back up their own personal hang-ups.

There are those who will want to put the focus on trying to keep firearms out of the hands of people who can’t keep control of themselves, while others will want to view it as the fault of certain types of people living down to their nature.

Which usually will result in those individuals wanting to scream and screech their bigotries aloud and claim their own need to keep a weapon on hand.

WHILE OTHERS WILL want to “tsk, tsk” the situation away and pay attention to their own isolated neighborhood where they’d like to pretend such things never happen because the local residents are “just too civilized” to do such things.

I’m of the belief that such acts can take place anywhere at any time – a holdover from my own police reporting days of three decades ago where I encountered so many nonsensical acts that I came to realize there is no making sense of any of it.

With that thought in mind, I’m willing to wish Crystal Myers’ son into this world and I’d like to tell him the circumstances behind his birth are the screwiest he’ll ever encounter in life – it’s all uphill from here!

I only wish I could make him such a promise, and have it come true.

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Labor Day is what we make of it

What should we make of Labor Day? The event that will provoke various celebrations of assorted types that probably say more about our own views than anything about the holiday itself.

RAUNER: Picking a lower-key scene for Labor Day

For the record, Monday is the day in which we will pay tribute to the workers of our society – those people whose labor helps make us the finest place on Planet Earth in which one can live.

OF COURSE, THERE also are those who find the very idea of honoring organized labor to be something subversive. That attitude comes out in the types of celebrations that will be held in various communities.

Take west suburban Naperville, where the parade to be held Monday morning is officially billed as the “Last Fling,” as though the day’s purpose is to have one last celebration before summer comes to an end.

The day is officially being sponsored in that community by a Kia auto dealership and is honoring the local park district as its grand marshal, although among its participants will be Gov. Bruce Rauner – not exactly the kind of politico with any interest in building up a favorable impression among organized labor interests.

The atmosphere in Naperville is likely to be different than what will take place in Calumet City – which usually has an end-of-summer parade that gives a bit of tribute to organized labor.

IT’S NOT THE kind of place that Rauner would choose to be in – likely because he knows the locals would boo and heckle him mercilessly if he were to show his face.

Can Sanguinetti come out on top ...

Which is probably why Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti will be the official state participant in that parade – I suspect her presence will be undetected because most of the locals won’t have a clue who she is or what she looks like!

The fact that Southpaw, the fuzzy green mascot of the Chicago White Sox, is also to appear in the Calumet City parade will probably be seen as a bigger deal.

Of course, some people couldn’t wait until Monday to celebrate Labor Day.

... or will Southpaw top her in Calumet City?

TAKE THE PARADE held Saturday along Ewing Avenue in the 10^th Ward – where Alderman Susan Sadlowski Garza managed to coordinate the first Labor Day parade held in the far southeast corner of Chicago in the past two decades.

The East Side neighborhood and surrounding communities still have organized labor leanings, even though the number of local residents employed in steel mills or factories isn’t anywhere near as many as it used to be.

It’s more a neighborhood of people who used to be able to live off their brawn, and in many cases complain that they can’t still do so.

Then again, let’s not forget that the last municipal elections saw Garza, a Chicago Teachers Union member, win her election against former Alderman John Pope because of her union ties – which also saw local residents vote strongly in favor of dumping Rahm Emanuel as mayor.

IT’S DEFINITELY THE kind of place that would want to celebrate the concept of organized labor. Which is why they felt compelled to get the jump on celebrating the holiday.

Pullman, the home of Labor Day?

That, and the fact that there is an event scheduled in the nearby 9^th Ward, the Pullman neighborhood to be exact, that will take place on Monday. I’m sure that having competing Labor Day celebrations in neighboring wards (literally on opposite sides of Lake Calumet) would have seemed like a bit much.

Where in Pullman, the people like to remember that the remains of the one-time railcar factory was also the scene of a strike that some like to think of as the origins of celebrating Labor Day as an official holiday to begin with.

Unless you think it’s just another excuse to pull out the barbecue grill one more time before the weather goes bad and cook up some burgers; or steaks if you feel like splurging. Or turkey dogs if you’re some sort of health freak!

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Contemplating on Labor Day whether “labor” will influence this election

Perhaps it’s appropriate this election season that Monday is the unofficial start of the campaign season leading up to the Nov. 4 Election Day.

 

Of course, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner has been at it for more than a year, trying to get the attention of the electorate so that he could build up such intense momentum for his campaign that it wouldn’t matter much what happens in coming weeks.

 

BUT THE THEORY behind paying special attention to Labor Day in election years is that most people have more important things to do than stress over who they will cast a vote for come November.

 

It is only now that some people will give much thought to the process and whether they really buy into the rhetoric Rauner has spewed for the past year that Gov. Pat Quinn is to blame for the state’s ills, and he must go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Those of us who remember back all those months ago to the primary season remember the Rauner campaign rhetoric that went out of its way to demonize organized labor – particularly those unions that represent the interests of state government workers.

 

Rauner used such talk to build up enough support that he overcame three GOP primary opponents; all of whom had far more experience being a part of state government than he did.

 

SINCE THE PRIMARY, Rauner has put a cork in it when it comes to the anti-labor rhetoric. In fact, he seems to get upset whenever anyone reminds potential voters of what he said back then.

 

Except that organized labor still has it in their head that Rauner is the guy they want to crush. But can those unions use their organizing skills to get enough people to turn out to vote come Election Day?

 

Officially, the labor unions have forgiven Quinn for his support of the measures meant to reform the way the state funds its pension programs – the ones whose expenses have gotten to the point where they’re driving the state broke.

 

The unions perceived it as though state workers were being blamed for the state’s financial ills, and they don’t feel future state workers should have to be penalized for the state’s past ineptitude.

 

THOSE OF US who have observed closely have seen how ill-liked Quinn had become by labor interests. Will that displeasure suddenly just melt away just because the labor leadership has now decided they detest Rauner more than they ever did the Mighty Quinn?

 

There are a lot of political interests out there that theoretically should back Quinn – enough that if they actually turn out to vote that Quinn should win against Rauner. This is still a state that leans to the Democratic Party and will still have a Democrat-dominated government even if Rauner wins.

 

The Rauner camp is trying to appeal to the rest of Illinois (the one-third of the populace that lives outside the Chicago metropolitan area) that he will look out for their interests, and is taking advantage of the long-simmering sentiment that the Democratic establishment that has controlled state government since 2002 ignores them for more urban concerns.

 

His people are fired up. As for Quinn’s people? There are times I wonder if I have ever seen a more apathetic group of potential voters.

 

QUINN LOSES IF the unions are unable to convince their voters that they don’t have something better to do with their time come Nov. 4 than stand in lines at polling places to cast ballots. If they don’t buy into the Quinn rhetoric that Rauner, “would cut billions from education, lower the minimum wage and send property taxes through the roof.”

 

Although admittedly, the unions seem more united behind Quinn than they do with regards to the next election cycle – the Feb. 24 municipal elections for mayor where unions representing educators are firmly behind the movement to vote for Anybody But Rahm.

 

But those unions representing construction workers seem more than content with the amount of work they’re getting under Emanuel

 

So whose interests are going to prevail on Election Day – the people who gathered Sunday in places like the Candlelight Inn in Sterling and the Mt. Carroll Café and General Store? Or those workers who will turn out to rally Monday at the Pullman neighborhood’s Wal-mart store seeking an increase in the minimum wage?

 

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There are only 57 more days to for us to “ponder” until we reach Election Day

We’re at a special day for that particular subspecies of geeky types known as political observers.

It’s Labor Day, and while some of us have an interest in celebrating a holiday meant to pay tribute to the workers of our society (and some of us are ideologically inclined to think that we ought to be celebrating management instead), what gets us intrigued is that this is the time of year when the public at large will actually start thinking about the election cycle that some of us have been overanalyzing ever since Feb. 3.

WE’RE NO LONGER alone in having an interest in trying to figure out what the candidates stand for, or what their chances are of actually putting together the type of campaign that can actually win.

Now, instead of us being a tad eccentric (if not downright loopy) for caring about the Nov. 2 elections, it will be those few people who persist in trying to ignore the upcoming elections who will be of questionable mental capacity.

We’re literally at the point where we have 57 more days to “shop” for candidates before we make our Election Day purchase (or fewer days, if you’re so enthused about the prospect of voting that you seek out an early polling place to cast your ballot in advance.

It is with this knowledge that the typical person isn’t taking any of this election minutia as seriously as I am (and the ones who are probably need a dose of psychological therapy) that I read the results of those polls the Chicago Tribune commissioned for what are the two top races in this season’s election cycle – U.S. Senate from Illinois, and Illinois governor.

FOR GOVERNOR, REPUBLICAN William Brady has a lead that becomes insignificant when one considers the factor of statistical ties and margins of error. Meanwhile, for U.S. Senate, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk have a literal tie.

Nobody is running away with this, which if anything shows the level of discontent among the Illinois electorate with the current incarnation of the Democratic Party. This is a state whose political and electoral layout is rigged in favor of the Democrats.

Chicago metro so overwhelms the rest of the state that would always prefer the GOP that by all rights, Democratic candidates (regardless of who they are) ought to be doing some serious butt-kicking – particularly since the GOP gubernatorial hopeful came into this having no name recognition beyond McLean County, and the Senate hopeful has the ideologues who dominate the Republicans these days upset that he’s not conservative enough, and many other people concerned that he’s some sort of prevaricator (particularly when it comes to talking about his military record).

In a purely traditional sense, they’re both flawed candidates. Yet they are holding their own in this election cycle where the people who always had an ideological hangup (and for some, it’s racial as well) to Barack Obama are thinking in terms of THIS year being THE year they use Election Day to take things back.

I’M NOT ABOUT to predict what will happen come Nov. 2, other than to say it literally will center around Chicago. If voter turnout is significant in the city and the surrounding inner suburbs (meaning Cook County as a whole), then we’re going to get a significant voter turnout of people who will favor the Democratic Party.

If the urban voter bloc takes the attitude that this election cycle isn’t all that important (a reality among certain types of voters who think only Chicago municipal elections for mayor and aldermen matter), then there will be a sense of the rest of Illinois swelling up to put in place a vocal opposition to the city for the next two years.

Which means that if people in Chicago insist on complaining about partisan political actions taken against our interests by Congress and in Springfield during the next couple of years, it will simply be our own faults if we don’t turn out and vote in significant-enough numbers this year.

I’m not predicting, because I’m not writing anybody off.

I LOOK AT those poll results published during the holiday weekend by the Chicago Tribune, and I see an emphasis on the wrong numbers. I’m not as interested in what percentage of the vote each candidate has now, as much as what percentage of the voters haven’t made up their mind yet.

According to those two polls, it is 19 percent for the gubernatorial campaign, and 22 percent in the U.S. Senate race. Considering that none of these major candidates has a sizable lead, it means this is very much a pair of open political races – and now we have a whole new mass of potential voters who will start paying attention.

It also struck me as interesting that Republican Brady, whom the ideologue pundits would have us think has gained a huge advantage by aggressively campaigning during the summer months, still has a ways to go to get his name recognition up.

That poll has him at 40 percent of surveyed people having “no” opinion of him, and 13 percent claiming to have never heard of him. That is more than half (compared to a combined 32 percent figure for Gov. Pat Quinn – whom only 2 percent of those surveyed claimed to have never heard of.

WHICH MEANS THERE is a mass of people that Quinn can reach out to in order to gain more votes – unless Quinn really thinks he can get away with employing a “rose garden” strategy and assume people are looking to him because he’s the governor.

That would be a mistake. And a part of me can’t help but think that the Pat Quinn of old (the political gadfly who slashed the size of the Illinois House of Representatives by one-third and was regarded as a pest by just about everybody) would be the first to agree with me.

So in the same way I think that Chicago voters will only have themselves to blame if a Republican ideological slate of candidates takes control of Illinois government and tries to use that influence to dump on urban interests (just like they did in 1995), I have to say that if Pat Quinn loses, he has no one to blame but himself.

That is as close as I will come to making a Nov. 2 prediction at this point in time.

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Too speedy a trial for Blagojevich?

Prosecutors who are trying to get a conviction against now-impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich have indicated they may be done presenting their case sometime this week – a fact that has many people shocked.

This was, after all, the trial that was supposed to run from early June until some time into October – maybe even late into October. Now, it’s looking like the case that could be done by Labor Day.

EVEN BLAGOJEVICH HIMSELF seems to be concerned. His attorneys filed a motion Tuesday, asking U.S. District Judge James Zagel to impose about a week-long delay in the trial once the prosecution completes its portion. The judge ultimately granted the motion, when prosecutors completed presenting their case Tuesday afternoon.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the attorneys themselves said they did not expect to be presenting their defense of Milorod until some time late in August. Instead, we’re now in mid-July. In short, they’re not ready.

The political people they plan to drag into court to harass and humiliate (then try to claim their behavior as evidence that Blagojevich didn’t do anything illegal) may not be available if they are rushed into action beginning the end of this week.

It was because of that factor that Zagel continued the Blagojevich trial until Monday. Not that those few days of delay will matter much. This is a trial that will end long before it was originally anticipated to.

YET BLAGOJEVICH CAN’T be the only person concerned about this faster schedule. Like I noted earlier, this was supposed to be the case that ran through the summer and fall. It was supposed to bury us with so much detail that we couldn’t help but think that Blagojevich was guilty of something.

Instead, we have some legal observers who seriously speculate that all the prosecution has proven is that Blagojevich himself is little more than a cretin. Some argue that the actual behavior of Blagojevich isn’t criminal.

Others, however, argue that it is – and that ultimately is something for the jurors to decide.

The people who might be most concerned, however, are the Republican partisans. They were the ones who were supposed to gain the most from all the mass of detail coming from the Dirksen Building courthouse. They were the ones hoping/wishing/praying for a “guilty” verdict just a couple of days from Election Day.

THE REALITY OF political campaigns is that while they start the day after the February primary elections, most people don’t pay much attention. If they listen at all to the campaign rhetoric taking place now, many dismiss it as the release of hot air by a batch of political gas-bags.

Labor Day is the time of the year when people whose ideological beliefs aren’t so intense that they have an automatic reaction that causes them to vote the way they do, actually start to pay attention and try to process the rhetoric and facts coming forth – and try to make a decision about who to cast a ballot for come Nov. 2.

Republican partisans were counting on the fact that the months of September and October would be filled with news reports giving us the latest “dirty dish from the Dirksen” about what kind of scummy person Rod Blagojevich supposedly is.

They were also hoping that, because the case would have been in the defense stage by then, Blagojevich would make good on his pre-trial promises to drag many of his Democratic allies into court and make them look guilty by association, or just downright ridiculous, with their behavior on the stand.

REPUBLICANS WOULD HAVE given us the argument that it is guilt for Illinois’ political establishment, and that it warrants a change.

I fully expect they will still make that argument. But if this trial really does go into a defense mode this week, Blagojevich could be finished with presenting his case by early August. That would mean jurors spending a portion of that summer month locked away in a jury room, before reaching their decision.

I could easily envision those jurors using the Labor Day holiday weekend (or, if you live in Naperville, the Last Fling) to celebrate the end of their public service that entailed having to learn way more about Rod Blagojevich than they ever would have wanted to know.

Did the prosecutors do the Democratic Party establishment in this state an inadvertent favor by being so efficient timewise in presenting their case?

BECAUSE IF THIS trial really is over by the time the serious hard-core campaigning takes place, it won’t be fresh material popping up in the news reports, free of charge to the Republican candidates, that they can just sit back and react to.

Not that I expect people to have forgotten about Blagojevich and his criminal trial completely by autumn. But it will take on a sense in many peoples’ minds of being ancient history, something that we need to move on from.

Would that make Republican candidates look cheap and tacky for appearing to be anxious to dredge in the muck of something that is over and done with?

It might just cost Republican candidates a few votes come November. And with this election cycle being as off-beat as it has become, those few votes could wind up saving the political hide of at least a few Democratic officials.

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