A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): 10 days to decide on firearms limits

The new law allowing people in Illinois to have permits letting them carry pistols on their person creates an option in which local governments can pass their own laws imposing tougher restrictions on firearms – but only if they act within the next 10 days.

Meaning, we might see a rush of local officials deciding to take up the issue.

ACTUALLY, “RUSH” MIGHT be the wrong word. A “drizzle,” perhaps?

There will be some. The City Council already has said it will take up the issue at a special meeting Wednesday, while several suburbs (Homewood, Highland Park and Elmwood Park, to name a few) are taking on the matter – even though some have considered it and decided to hold off on acting.

The one defining characteristic of this issue is that it is entirely a Chicago-area issue. If there is a municipality in the rural part of Illinois that is considering the issue, their officials are keeping quiet about it.

This actually was one of the issues that Gov. Pat Quinn tried to alter with his amendatory veto. He hated the idea of a 10-day limit on local governments being able to decide this for themselves.

BUT HIS REMOVAL of that time limit was one of the changes that legislators snubbed when they overrode his veto on Tuesday, and set the clock in motion.

Not that there’s going to be any rush of people legally carrying their pistols in public. Cook County Sheriff’s Police officials have said they expect it will take them until early in 2014 to set up the process by which “concealed carry” permits could be issued.

Which also is why I found it amusing that a woman from Whiting, Ind., was arrested last week at the Daley Center courthouse. She tried entering the building with a loaded 9 mm pistol in her purse – and thought her Indiana-issued permit covered it

At least we know now those metal detectors at the courthouse actually work! What else is notable about this glorious metropolis on the shores of Lake Michigan?

WHO GETS THE TOWER?:  Tribune Co. officials said Wednesday they are officially splitting into two divisions. Tribune Co. will now be a company that owns more television stations than any other entity in the United States, while Tribune Publishing Co. will operate newspapers.

Tribune Co. will continue to try to expand and be Chicago-based. While Tribune Publishing is the entity that Tribune Co. will try to sell off.

Nothing really new here. Although it got me to thinking about what happens when the sale takes place. Should we start calling the corporate headquarters on Michigan Avenue the “WGN Tower?”

Because the day will come when Chicago Tribune and WGN (both television and radio) will be separate entities. How long until we get tacky divorce-type jokes about who gets to keep the “house?”

RAMADAN NOW UNDERWAY FOR ALL:  We’re now in that month-long period of Ramadan – the holiest of all times of the year for Muslims. Some 400,000 Chicago-area residents are now in that period by which they fast from sunrise to sunset.

Although it seems there was some dispute as to when Ramadan began this year. Some persisted in beginning Tuesday, while many went along with the ruling of the Chicago Hilal Committee that said Ramadan this year actually began the following day.

Ramadan is set by a lunar calendar, and the Chicago committee was determined to have an actual physical observation of a new moon before declaring the holiday to begin. Although the Fiqh Council of North America said calculations are sufficient, and they calculated a new moon for Tuesday.

Although some Muslims told the Chicago Tribune they think the holiday should not devolve into mathematical calculations and ought to focus on spiritual and mental purification.

SETTING STANDARDS:  Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he’s not disqualifying state Rep. Deborah Mell, D-Chicago, for a vacancy in the City Council – just because the opening is for her father’s seat.

But if she gets that post, it will be interesting to see if Mell’s own views about replacing her in the Legislature are respected. Mell, who went to Iowa to marry her partner, says she’d like to see another lesbian chosen to replace her. She doesn’t want the General Assembly to be left without anyone who openly identifies with the gay community.

Will political officials really be willing to enforce that guideline in picking a new legislator?

Although it should be noted that if a new legislator has to be chosen, it is the committeemen (and not Emanuel) who makes the pick. And it would be Mell’s father, Richard, who would be the committeeman with the most say in the matter.

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Quinn can cause weekend controversies

Pat Quinn has always been the type of person who had a knack for offending the general populace. So from his perspective, the fact that his weekends recently have managed to offend people probably doesn’t seem at all unique.

QUINN: Upsetting everybody?



But Quinn is bound to irritate many people this weekend, as he says he’s going to use the time to figure out exactly what he’s going to do with the bill that would expand casino gambling (and other gambling opportunities) throughout Illinois.

THIS COMES AFTER his appearance last weekend at an end-of-Ramadan event held at the Toyota Park stadium in suburban Bridgeview that has some ideologues offended that Quinn would “dignify” Islam, and even has some nitwits convinced that he “inadvertently” was converted to that religious faith.

You can guess how absurd the rhetoric has become. I wonder if accidental conversion to another religious faith is anything like the idea of “legitimate rape” and the idea that a woman can’t truly be impregnated against her will?

But the offense caused by Quinn’s participation in that event may be minor compared to the offense that will be caused by Quinn this weekend when he decides what to do with proposed gambling expansion.

Because at least some of us are sensible enough to realize that the people getting worked up over Quinn and Islam aren’t rational.

THERE ARE A lot of otherwise-rational people who will be offended by whatever Quinn does with gambling.

For the truth is that Quinn probably is anxious to veto the bill in question. He has made it known for years that he thinks the plan to add five more casinos, and also allow slot machines and other gambling opportunities, goes too far.

Yet he knows if he does that, he will face the wrath of the General Assembly, and all the people who are anxious to have a casino closer to them than the 10 existing riverboat casinos (that really aren’t riverboats anymore, but that’s an issue for another day).

Which is why the speculation exists that he’s going to push for an amendatory veto – by which he gives his approval to the concept with some alterations.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY would get their chance to undo those changes when they reconvene in November. But House Speaker Michael Madigan has told reporter-types the answer is “No!” to the question, “Does the Legislature have enough votes to override a gubernatorial veto?”

Which means Quinn, when he acts on the bill (he has until Tuesday, the deadline for all the remaining bills approved this spring by the General Assembly), is going to have a lot of ticked off people.

For these are the people who are anxious to have more gambling opportunities. They argue it is about the economic struggles the state currently faces.

Yet there are many officials supporting this who have wanted it for many years – going back to the times when Illinois was doing well financially.

WHICH MEANS IT’S not really about bailing out Illinois’ fiscal status as much as they just want every municipality to have a casino – if the community wants it.

That ignores the fact that having so many casinos would cause them to drown each other out and be rather worthless financially. We may be at a position where we have about as much gambling opportunity as the state can handle without undermining itself.

Quinn’s opposition can be seen as a realistic understanding of that fact, rather than him being a malcontent who can’t get with the program – which is what many people are going to claim when he acts on the bill. Just as his appearance at a Ramadan event also shouldn’t be something perceived as controversial.

Which probably puts me in the minority of Illinois – someone who isn’t offended by the actions of Pat Quinn.

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Suburb schools avert cafeteria “holy war”

TINLEY PARK, Ill. – If a suburban school district is any evidence, the future of relations between various ethnicities has the potential to be fine. It is in the present where we have parents who are willing to traffic in rumor and innuendo to convince themselves “those Muslims” are getting all the perks in life.

That was the impression given at a special hearing held Thursday at Kirby School District in the southwest suburbs, where officials said they will give in to a request by Catholic students to have their own tables in the school cafeterias for those kids who think that mixing with others will tempt them into violating the guidelines over what is, and is not, appropriate to eat during the Lenten season.

BECAUSE THE KIDS who asked for the separation waited until Lent was half over this year, the new practice will take effect for the 2008-09 school year.

It is a response to the fact that a group of Muslim students early this school year thought ahead and asked to be allowed to sit separately from other students during the holiday of Ramadan, where Muslims are expected to fast during daylight hours. That means no eating, whatsoever, during the school day.

A pair of Catholic students at the schools in the district organized a petition drive seeking the separate accommodations in the cafeteria, got some of the Muslim students to support their effort, and they even spoke out on Thursday.

School officials in suburban Tinley Park wanted to avoid being the focus of anti-Islamic trash talk that gained national media attention (and this 2007 program at Harvard University) for the neighboring town of Palos Heights in 2000.

Ryan Vandeweil and Nick Tasoni, both of whom are 13, said they just want the right to have the option of sitting separately. They see it as an issue of their religious beliefs being treated equally with others.

SCHOOL DISTRICT PRESIDENT Thomas Martelli, in saying that their request will be granted in future years, called the two, “a credit to the school district.”

Now, if only we could do something about the parents of students in the middle school district.

Parents representing various Christian denominations, mostly Catholic, managed to show that ignorance can be spouted off, in the Name of the Lord.

Sitting through this board meeting, one got to hear stories of Muslim kids picking on Christians and calling them “crackers,” of being given various options to accommodate their Ramadan-related fast that would never be offered to other kids (allowing them extra library access or recess time instead of a lunch break during Ramadan) and even allowing Muslim girls to get out of swimming classes.

ALL OF THIS complaining came even after parents learned that the student request for the “equal time” lunch tables for Catholics observing Lent would be granted in the future.

Linda Murray, a teacher at Prairie View Middle School in the southwest suburb, noted that many of the complaints she hears from people about tensions between Muslims and Christians in the school are unfounded.

“I’m hearing things, they are rumors, nothing more,” she said, adding that from her observation, problems between students of the two religions are less severe in the local schools than some of the bullying that can take place between pre-teen girls.

“We’re trying to instill anti-bullying messages (to the students), then things like this come along,” Murray said.

SOME PEOPLE JUST aren’t content unless they are able to complain that their views on life are being picked on, even though all too often what is really happening is that they are not being allowed to force their viewpoint onto someone else.

This particular school crisis appears to be diverted, because school officials do not want to create a situation that turns the bedroom community’s school district into a focal point for all the national debate over the proper role of Islam in the U.S. society.

Martelli said school attorneys interpreted the law to say they should grant the requests provided that no additional expense is incurred by the school district (how expensive is it to reserve an already-existing table in the cafeteria?) and that the school routine is not disrupted.

The idea of students segregating themselves off by clique in the cafeteria is a concept that goes back generations. Why would it not make sense that Muslim students who might feel isolated would try to stick together for support.

WHAT IS REALLY at stake here is that the non-Muslims can’t look down on the “Muslim table” because it is the students themselves who chose to sit there. Like it or not, freedom of association is part of the American Way of life.

For those who think too much attention was paid to the issue, one needs to take into account the changing makeup of the southwestern portion of Cook County, where the number of people of Islamic religious faith or Arab ethnic background are on the rise.

It is no longer the least bit exotic to see a woman in the supermarket, with kids in tow, dressed in a Muslim headscarf as part of her religious belief to dress modestly and keep her hair covered when in public.

Small groceries catering to Arab needs are cropping up throughout the area, and when I was driving home Thursday night after attending the Kirby school district meeting, I wound up behind a van with the Illinois license plate “KORAN.”

THE LAST THING school district officials wanted was for their home turf to provide a repeat of the 2000 incident in Palos Heights (only about a 10-minute drive from Tinley Park) when the Al Salam Mosque Foundation tried to develop a new mosque within the suburb’s boundaries, only to be chased away by outspoken local residents who didn’t want groups of Muslims converging on their town every week.

That incident got national attention, particularly when former Mayor Dean Koldenhoven interfered with a village government proposal to pay off the mosque foundation to get them to abandon their desire to move to Palos Heights.

Village residents eventually prevailed by voting Koldenhoven out of office, although he has since been honored by various national groups interested in promoting tolerance and understanding amongst various religious factions.

It appears Kirby, where the number of students who are native Arabic speakers is so high that the district legally has to hire full-time teachers to accommodate them, averted a similar fate.

KATIE COURIC & Co., will not be converging on Tinley Park anytime soon.

But with tensions like those exhibited by the parents on Thursday (oddly enough, none of those who showed up for the school board meeting were Muslim), it is a very good bet that there will be another crisis in the near future involving Muslims and Christians.

This “holy war” of sorts will continue until that future generation (which seems to view this issue more rationally) becomes adult and the current generation fades away.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Are Catholic schoolchildren being discriminated against in the southwest suburb (http://www.southtownstar.com/news/935499,050708foodfight.article) of Tinley Park? Not really, although some would like to believe so.

Palos Heights, Ill., eventually won a legal fight over the way in which it conducted itself to discourage (http://www.pluralism.org/news/article.php?id=9648) a Muslim group from developing a mosque in their town, but that issue stoked up the tensions between religious factions in the Chicago suburbs.

It’s not just two instances in eight years – there have been various incidents perceived as hostile to (http://antiarabbigotry.blogspot.com/2004_06_01_archive.html) the interests of Arabs in the Chicago area.