Do we give a fig about royal wedding?

“If George comes to Chicago, I’ll crack him in the snoot” – William H. Thompson, former Mayor of Chicago

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I’m sure by now, many of you are sick and tired of hearing this line, spouted in the heat of the 1927 election cycle as Thompson ran an anti-British theme throughout his campaign for re-election that year.

Do 'we' really wanna 'read all about it?'

Because the “George” he refers to was then-King George V – as in the grandfather of current Queen Elizabeth II (who having been Queen since 1952 has the kind of lengthy term that American politicos can only fantasize about) and great-great-grandfather to Prince Henry (more commonly called Harry), who on Saturday will have the world’s eyes on him as he marries one-time Northwestern University student Meghan Markle.

THAT LINE FROM Thompson is being used by many people who try to come up with some sort of connection between the English royals and those of us native to the “Second City.”

It also gets used by those of us intending to show our disdain for anything happening in London on Saturday. Some of us feel the need to spew trash talk about how we fought a war against those people to break our ties to the English king.

George III, to be exact.

George V, with his 'snoot' intact

While others will want to get caught up in the pageantry of the spectacle and will think it sad that some people will be “haters” – although whenever I hear the word used like that, I’m reminded of the various delusional, and youthful, women who dated Hugh Hefner during his final years of life.

PERSONALLY, I CAN’T say I feel either way.

“Hate” would definitely be the wrong sentiment, because in order to hate something, you have to care about it. You have to have a legitimate sense of feeling that, in some ways, could border on “love.”

Yet I also have the same feelings of apathy whenever anything involving the English royal family comes up. It just all seems so trivial.

All bluster from 'Big Bill'

At least if we were talking about an American power-play wedding, such as a White House-staged event involving President Donald J. Trump’s younger daughter, Tiffany – we could complain about the gross misuse of tax dollars during the Trump years in D.C.

IF ANYTHING, IT bothers me to bring this up because we then have to recall the 1915-23 and again from 1927-31 mayoral reign of Thompson – the man whose tolerance of Al Capone is the reason why a hood was able to achieve such prominence in Chicago.

Remember that scene from Kevin Costner’s 1987 take on “The Untouchables” when Costner’s Eliot Ness is stopped from arresting Frank Nitti for bringing a pistol into a courthouse – because Nitti produced a note granting him permission to legally have the weapon?

A note signed by none other than “William Hale Thompson” himself. That scene wasn’t exactly fictional – although the follow-up scene where Ness throws Nitti off the roof of City Hall to his death inside an automobile (“He’s in the car” was Ness’ response when asked about Nitti’s whereabouts) was pure fantasy.

Do we really want to be recalling the sentiments of a man who makes the political people of our era seem so meek and mild? One who would make Rod Blagojevich seem like a choirboy by comparison and would probably upset the conservative ideologues because Thompson was a Republican – the last GOPer to date to hold the Chicago mayoral post.

NO WONDER WHY our local voters don’t think much of the one-time Party of Lincoln.

The queen w/ Chicago 'royalty'

But the other “local moments” in our history include the July 6, 1959 visit of Elizabeth, herself, to Chicago – spending 14 hours in our city and even having a meeting with Richard J. Daley himself.

Or that three-day visit Princess Diana made to Chicago in the summer of 1996 – with its profound moment being the formal ball at the Field Museum where some local “gent” managed to cut in and got himself a dance with Diana herself.

Although that, at least, left a memento, as the Drake Hotel suite where she stood is now known as the “Princess Diana Suite” (which TripAdvisor.com puts at $187 per night – if available).

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It’s that graduation time of year; should we call the cops more often?

High schools and colleges all over the place have had their commencement ceremonies; which leads to an annual problem.

School's commencement gained more attention than athletics

How to deal with those self-absorbed people who can’t control their behavior during a ceremony.

PARTICULARLY THE ONES who think the ceremony is all about their kid; without regard for anyone else around them or any of the students – for whom the ceremony is just as important for them as it is for you.

This issue popped into my head Thursday morning while watching the HLN cable channel, and Robin Meade (I need my daily dose of news from her to start my day) gave her accounting of the Senatoba High School ceremonies where four people wound up being kicked out because their screaming and cheering became disruptive.

So disruptive, in fact, that  somebody, perhaps with the school, filed a complaint with the local police.

Arrest warrants were issued!

THE FOUR PEOPLE, according to WREG-TV in Memphis, now face disturbing the peace charges. They will have to show up in court on Monday, and could wind up paying $500 fines each.

Robin, whom many of us will remember from her Chicago days with WMAQ-TV, seemed to imply she thought certain people were a little too uptight, what with feeling the need to call the police.

The people now facing charges seem to think say, telling their local television station that all they did was called out their kid’s name when she was called on stage to receive that diploma she he worked for so hard in recent years.

Now I realize for some people, particularly those who come from families where college attendance is a new experience, and even high school graduation is noteworthy, there is a need to make a big deal out of those few seconds of a graduation ceremony where the focus is on you.

I RECALL MY own college graduation having both my parents and my step-mother on hand, along with a brother and step-sister, my grandmother and a pair of step-grandparents. Along with several uncles and aunts.

There also was a step-great-grandmother who a week later rather vividly expressed to me her regrets that she couldn’t be part of the festivities on that day I became a college graduate and over-educated unemployed bum. For the record, I began working at a Chicago Heights-based newspaper eight days later.

So I get the idea that it’s a big deal, one of those rare moments that comes along in a family’s overall story! I have no problem with the idea of celebration, or ceremony or ritual. It’s not like commencement is a funeral.

Perhaps we'd be a better world if we all began the day with Robin Meade

But every single ceremony I ever participated in included a vocal announcement to the spectators to try to control their behavior. Why should someone else’s few seconds of the spotlight be drowned out because somebody else called just before them couldn’t pipe down.

USUALLY, PEOPLE MANAGE to comply.

In fact, I remember being mocked by my step-mother’s father for a few days following the ceremony because of how well my college graduating class and their families were behaved.

So I’m inclined to think that if this particular group of people got the cops called on them, maybe they did something out-of-the-box. Or else put up such resistance to being removed from the premises that a school official felt compelled to “drop the dime” on them.

Then again, I’m also willing to concede that perhaps there is a high school administrator who gets a little too uptight about trying to control every little detail of life; resulting in the call to police and creating an incident that has given Northwest Mississippi Community College (where the ceremony was actually held) more national attention than it ever expected – or desired – to receive.

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Can we exorcise the Exorcist? Gay marriage opposition borders on silly

I fully expect there will be protesters outside the UIC Forum on Wednesday when Gov. Pat Quinn uses the University of Illinois at Chicago arena to stage a huge-scale rally of people who watch him as he signs into law the measure that makes Illinois the 16^th U.S. state to allow gay couples to marry.

The site of the upcoming gay marriage celebration

 

But it seems the real level of disgust will be expressed at the churches that want to believe their opposition is really about compassion.

I CAN’T EVEN really get too worked up over the Catholic church’s actions, which amount to the bishop for Springfield, Ill., saying he’s going to have a special prayer service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the capital city to coincide with Quinn’s overly-elaborate bill-signing ceremony.

Formally, it is a “prayer of supplication and exorcism” for same-gender couples who try to marry in Illinois.

The latter word is what is stoking the fire. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki is going to have an “exorcism!!!” He’s trying to demonize the issue – literally.

We’re getting a lot of bad jokes being spewed (like the pea soup that passed for vomit) about the 1973 film featuring a teenaged Linda Blair as the Satan-infested Regan MacNeil.

The Springfield-based center of the opposition

 

IT IS GOING to allow all people to overhype the significance. Then again, having him say he’s going to pray for people would sound kind of blasé.

Because it shouldn’t be shocking at all that church officials are not going to just wither away in their opposition. The Catholic church has people who remain vehemently opposed to the concept of abortion being treated as a legitimate medical procedure – even though the Supreme Court of the United States resolved this issue the same year that Blair’s head rotated a complete 360 degrees on the silver screen (and continues to do so on DVD every day since).

The film we're hearing too much about!

Heck, it should be noted that one of the few black caucus members in the Illinois House of Representatives who voted “no” on the issue – state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago – made a point of saying she thought God would always object to such marriages, no matter what state government did on the issue.

There are those who cite the fact that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, paraphrased Pope Francis when he expressed his own belief that the law should not interfere with gay couples.

WHILE PAPROCKI, EARLIER this week, cited a written statement from 2010 by the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio when the issue was contemplated in Argentina.

In part, he wrote, “The life of so many children who will be discriminated beforehand due to the lack of human maturity that God willed them to have with a father and a mother is in jeopardy.”

QUINN: A hero, AND a villain?

Which, to me, comes across as wanting to side with the bully who wants to pick on people who aren’t exactly like themselves. It’s good that the Pope has experienced a change of heart, of sorts.

Now if only people like Paprocki could experience the same. And it’s not like Paprocki is isolated from the realities of Chicago. He is a native of our fine city, a one-time pastor at St. Michael Church in the South Chicago neighborhood and St. Constance parish on the Northwest Side, in addition to having held several administrative posts within the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese – before going to Springfield in 2010.

THEN AGAIN, I’M very aware there are more than a fair share of Chicagoans who aren’t enthused about what is happening on this issue. It may be a regional split in Illinois, but it’s not a perfect urban vs. rural split.

MADIGAN: Too powerful to threaten?

There are two points in the aftermath of the legislative approval for gay marriage that does approve me. When the General Assembly acted earlier this month, it was reported that Illinois was the 15^th state to do so.

Yet because Quinn did not immediately sign the measure into law, officials in Hawaii were able to slip by and pass a gay marriage law into effect. We, in Illinois, can now chant, “We’re Number 16!”

Then, there is the fact that some people have reacted by suggesting that Pat Quinn be ex-communicated from the Catholic Church for expressing constant support for the issue.

BEING KICKED OUT of the church is the worst thing that could happen to some people. Yet it amuses me to know that NO ONE has had the nerve to suggest publicly that Madigan, also a Catholic, be ex-communicated.

These people may say publicly that they place their faith in the lord, our God. Yet perhaps they comprehend all too clearly what Madigan could do to them politically if they dare attack him!

Keep that in mind as the allegedly-religious pray for OUR souls in protest of Illinois advancing with the times. We should pray for them that they develop a true sense of compassion.

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