Real terror occurred two decades (and a day) ago in Oklahoma City

Perhaps it was the sight of the former World Trade Towers collapsing into rubble after being hit square-on by two aircraft that elevated the 14-year-old attack to its level of prominence over what happened at the one-time Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

But I still have to say that what happened two decades ago in Oklahoma City strikes me as being so much worse than what occurred in New York – perhaps because the perpetrator is someone who on the surface appeared to be the “ideal” American.


IT WAS TWENTY years ago Sunday that a truck loaded with explosive substances was detonated; taking down the federal government building in Oklahoma City and killing some 168 people.

By pure dumb luck, the man believed to be the ringleader of the plot to strike at the U.S. government was arrested that very day – and law enforcement authorities were able to connect the dots quickly enough before Timothy McVeigh was able to post bond for the offense of driving a vehicle without a valid license plate and possession of a loaded firearm.

That resulted in the criminal proceedings that ultimately wound up with McVeigh’s execution at the federal prison near Terre Haute, Ind., and accomplice Terry McNichols remaining in prison to this day.

I can recall the paranoia in the early moments following word of the explosion spreading. Way too many people were convinced that this had to be some sort of Arab thing. Some foreign plot to strike at the heart of our nation.

IT WAS A plot to undermine our society. But it came from within, and from an individual who on the surface would have had many of the credentials that would have caused the conservative ideologues of our society to think he was an upstanding citizen.

McVeigh wasn’t a genius. After finishing high school, he went the military route.

He was a combat veteran – having been among the U.S. troops sent to Kuwait to support the efforts to drive Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein out of that country. He failed in his efforts to become a part of Army Special Forces, but he did receive a Bronze Star, a National Defense Service Medal, a Southwest Asia Service Medal, an Army Service Ribbon and the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal before being honorably discharged near the end of 1991.

I can think of a lot of people with those same credentials who would be regarded as promising young men and women, and whom some would be willing to claim deserve some sort of privilege in our society.

I’M SURE EVEN McVeigh felt the same say about himself, probably thinking he and people like him were the only “true” Americans. But as we now know, he had his own contempt for the ideals upon which our society was based.

Even his military record included a reprimand for having purchased a “White Power” t-shirt that he considered a response to black soldiers who chose to wear “Black Power” shirts around the army base.

Perhaps that was a clue that should have received more attention. For McVeigh went on to become one of the people who became grossly offended when an FBI siege at a cult compound resulted in an explosion and fire that killed all the occupants inside.

I recall that incident near Waco, Texas as being one where religious radicals chose death at their own hand rather than surrender to FBI agents who were concerned about the level of firepower those people were packing. Twisted logic on their part!

HECK, EVEN ACTOR Chuck Norris (never known as liberal) had some agreement – I recently stumbled across the “Walker, Texas Ranger” episode in reruns where his character had to take down a David Koresh-like character who believed himself to be Messiah-like.

Instead, McVeigh plotted an attack on the U.S. government that occurred two years to the day after Waco – and some 220 years to the day after the start of the American Revolution.

It took a serious amount of delusion to think of oneself as a revolutionary for driving a Ryder rental truck loaded with explosives, then triggering them off as a truck-sized bomb.

Even though McVeigh himself is gone, what can be scary is the idea that his ideals were not solitary – there are others amongst us delusional enough to think him a martyr. Making him more terrifying than any Middle Eastern buffoon who thinks Allah would reward their own violent actions.

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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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Blackhawks/Predators a hockey match-up to see who’s more juvenile?

To me, the first round of playoffs for the National Hockey League is coming across as who can behave in a more juvenile manner.

Our Chicago Blackhawks (favored at 8-1 odds to win the Stanley Cup championship later this summer) begin their athletic quest by playing the Nashville Predators (whom I still think sound like some sort of pro wrestling team).

THE BLACKHAWKS PULLED off a 4-3 victory Wednesday, and Game Two is Friday night in Nashville before they return for a pair of matches next week at the United Center.

Yet the activity has gained attention because of the way in which Nashville team officials seem determined to create a “home ice” advantage for the Predators (whose odds of winning the whole thing are 12-1).

This was the team that altered the way it made tickets available for the matches in Nashville so as to make sure out-of-town fans got as few chances as possible to buy tickets. People initially could only buy them at local Kroger’s stores, then were allowed to buy them on-line, if they lived in their local television station’s viewing area.

There also was the “sing-a-long” meant during the National Anthem prior to the match, which was meant to discourage the Blackhawks fans’ alleged tradition of making noise during the anthem so as to show their spirit – which Nashville fans are claiming is a sign of disrespect.

I’M SURE NASHVILLE fans want to believe that the whole rest of the country is about to demonize the Blackhawks and their fan base. I’ll be the first to admit that the Blackhawks fan behavior during the anthem is a trivial gesture that borders on dumb.

A part of me can’t really bring myself to defend Blackhawks fan behavior by claiming we’re showing our team spirit by drowning out the anthem. It does make us look like a bunch of boors.

But on the other hand, I can’t help but think that Nashville is showing why it is nothing more than “minor league” in professional baseball. The fact that it’s getting all worked up over trying to control the crowd really does extend the bush league mentality to hockey.

Now I’m not much of a hockey fan – to be honest, I have seen more games in person by the long-defunct Chicago Cougars than I have the Blackhawks.

SO I’M SURE there will be a few crackpots out there who will insist I have no right to an opinion about this flare-up. Then again, this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I’m more than willing to express my thoughts rather than think acting like a drunken idiot during the anthem is a cause célèbre.

Which is why I can’t help but take up the cause of the Hawks fans, whom I would only hope would show some level of class when they travel to Nashville – and then again when the playoffs resume next week on the West Side (where I can’t help but think the bulk of Nashvillians would be too scared to travel to).

Personally, I always find part of the crowd atmosphere that makes a sporting event worth attending is to have a mixture of people rooting for each team. Those teams that try to control the crowds to silence the opposition usually wind up being deadly dull to watch.

Is this Nashville’s way of showing that it really doesn’t deserve to have any franchises in the major sports leagues? Let them root for the Volunteers in SEC sports, and Sounds minor league baseball during the summer.

IT COMES ACROSS as being as juvenile as when the U.S. national team for soccer insists on playing the Tri-colors of Mexico in small cities with tiny Latino populations. Which is why it was a plus to see the U.S./Mexico match this week played before a full-capacity crowd at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas – which the U.S. wound up winning 2-0 despite the presence of so many fans rooting for Equipo Mexico.

Of course, the ultimate way to silence this minor league way of thinking about sports fan behavior is to settle the matter on the ice.

Let the Blackhawks go on to win this first round of playoffs and advance toward the Stanley Cup, while the Predators go back home in defeat.

And those Predators fans can reminisce about their behavior once again during the first week of May – that’s when the Iowa Cubs travel to Nashville for a four-game series and the Cubs’ top-level minor league affiliate can issue another drubbing to the Music City on behalf of Chicago.

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Is there enough “Tio love” for Hardiman to avoid embarrassing himself in ’16 campaign?

The lesson that most people got from the primary election cycle of 2014 was that then-Gov. Pat Quinn had some serious problems in getting voter support outside of Chicago and the inner suburbs.

He won the Democratic primary for the right to try to get re-elected, and he won it handily.

QUINN TOOK SOME 71.9 percent of the votes cast in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. But he managed to lose the vote in 30 of Illinois’ 102 counties.

Particularly in places south of Interstate 70 where the locals get their television news out of Paducah, Ky., and Cape Girardeau, Mo., and where Memphis is regarded as the nearest “big” city.

It would seem that Southern Illinois wanted nothing to do with Quinn. Not in the primary, and certainly not in the general election when Quinn ultimately lost to current Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Now why is remembering this fact at all notable on this day following Tax Day – when some of us might be plotting how to spend our income tax refunds while others (including myself) are decrying how strapped for cash we are now that we have squared away what we owe to Uncle Sam?

IT’S THAT IT seems not everybody got the proper lesson. Especially not Tio Hardiman, who was the one person willing to put his name on the Democratic Party ballot and try to challenge Quinn in the primary!

It seems that Hardiman, a suburban Hillside resident and former director of the CeaseFire group that tries to reduce urban violence, thinks people in some 30 counties wanted him, and that he has something significant in the way of support for a political career.

The Capitol Fax newsletter reported how Hardiman considered challenging Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., in next year’s election. Of course, that campaign will have several significant Democrats challenging the incumbent senator from Illinois.

It will have many well-funded operations, and will be something distinctly nasty to have to endure.

SO PERHAPS IT is a good thing that Hardiman was talked out of running for that office. Particularly since his campaign finances for that race likely would be about as pathetic as the few hundred bucks that at times was his campaign fund for governor in 2014.

But Hardiman seems determined to do his Sally Field “You really like me” impersonation on the political scene.

For it seems that the man who has never held political office wants to run for Congress – specifically for the seat held for more than two decades by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

Does Hardiman think he gained some sort of experience with his non-campaign against Quinn that saw him take 28.1 percent of the vote statewide because there were that many Democrats determined not to vote for Quinn?

I REALLY WONDER how appalled many of those Southern Illinois voters who cast ballots for Hardiman because it was an anti-Quinn vote, only to learn that many of his own ideas about firearms and urban violence were counter to their own.

At least if he’s merely running in the Illinois First Congressional (South Side and surrounding suburbs), he’s more likely to be running for support of voters who bear a resemblance to himself.

Then again, Quinn whomped Hardiman’s butt in Cook County. Even Rauner and Kirk Dillard, both Republicans, got more votes in Chicago and the inner suburbs than did Hardiman in the 2014 primary elections that they all ran in.

Would it take another resounding defeat to Bobby Rush to teach Tio that he’s probably not candidate material? Or is he destined to become the urban version of “Spanky the Clown” with perennial political bids for higher office?

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How speedy can justice be? Not quick enough in Drew Peterson case!

By and large, the ongoing legal saga of former suburban Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson is something I have tried to ignore.

It has the titillating factor that can be amusing for a story or two. But as it drones on and on throughout the years, it gets monotonous. How many times can we write stories meant to imply that Peterson is a less-than-model example of a human being?

IF YOU WANT me to be honest, a part of me would like to think that Peterson is telling the truth with regards to Wife Number Four – Stacy. Who has been missing for so many years and has always been presumed by law enforcement officials to be a murder victim whose body has yet to turn up.

Peterson has always claimed his wife ran off, possibly with a bunch of his money, and that she’s having a good laugh at his expense in some isolated part of the world.

I’d like it if that were true because it would be something that would serve Peterson right for what appears to be his overly-boorish behavior. Besides, do we really prefer the idea of someone being dead (if not forgotten) all these years?

Peterson, of course, is the guy who ultimately got convicted of criminal charges for the death of Wife Number Three; whose demise initially was thought to be accidental.

BUT ALL THE scrutiny tied to the investigation of the disappearance of Stacey Peterson caused the death of Kathleen Savio to be reinvestigated – and a coroner to change his mind about “accidental.”

Which is why Peterson is now in the maximum-security prison located in the Southern Illinois community of Chester for such a lengthy term that he’s not likely to get out of prison alive.

Which also is why the additional charges being filed against him are more about being punitive than anything else. Prosecutors in Southern Illinois, with help from the Illinois attorney general’s office, say that Peterson tried to arrange to have Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow killed as retribution for his first trial.

Officials say they have tape recordings of conversations Peterson had with other people – whose identity they are going out of their way to hide.

AND THAT IS why Peterson was in court again on Tuesday – for a case management conference before a judge in Randolph County, Ill., according to the Associated Press. Which means attorneys for all sides will try to hash out the specifics and see how ready they are to actually go to trial.

That may be the only positive thing about this new case – Peterson has said he wants to go by the letter of the law with regards to rules concerning his right to a speedy trial.

Perhaps he thinks he can catch prosecutors in some sort of legal glitch and they will have to dismiss the case altogether.

Although news reports from Randolph County show prosecutors who are confident enough to say they will be ready to go to trial by mid-July, and the judge on Tuesday scheduled July 6 as the date that jury selection can begin.

CONSIDERING HOW MANY criminal cases can easily stretch into years (it took nearly three for Peterson’s first criminal trial to begin), that would truly be miraculous.

It would also be a positive for society at-large. Because the sooner this case is resolved (and prosecutors possibly get a judge to add up to 60 years in prison to Peterson’s existing 38-year sentence), the less trivia our airwaves will be polluted with.

And the quicker it will be that we can quit making tacky jokes about how the part of “Drew Peterson” would be played in a sequel to “Untouchable” (a Lifetime movie) by the Rob Lowe who still gets cable TV.

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150 years since Lincoln became immortal; what would he be today?

Anybody who hangs around political people gets used to certain catchphrases and concepts being tossed out when one wants to score political points.

One such idea I have often heard expressed is the notion that, if he were alive now, Abraham Lincoln certainly would not be a Republican. I can’t keep track of the number of Democrats who have suggested that a modern-day Lincoln would have converted to their political party.

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN skeptical of the suggestion. Not so much because I think Republican partisans of the modern-day are somehow correct in their way of thinking about the biggest-name politico Illinois has ever produced.

It’s just that I think Lincoln himself might have become so repulsed by some of the actions committed GOP of the 21^st Century that if he had left, it would be to create yet another political party.

Perhaps someone like H. Ross Perot, goofy ears and all, is the modern-day equivalent of Lincoln. Not that I’m implying the Texas billionaire who actually gained a significant number of votes when he tried running for president in 1992 has much in common with Lincoln.

But perhaps I just think Lincoln would be ornery and independent enough to find all of the current political structure somewhat repugnant!

LET’S NOT FORGET that during his lifetime, Lincoln was affiliated primarily with the Whig Party. When the potential for slavery to spread into the territories we now think of as the Plains states split the Whigs into factions, Lincoln wound up eventually going with the one that opposed slavery.

Which wound up becoming the Republican Party, and Lincoln became their first presidential candidate who managed to win the election.

I do believe that the extent to which the old Southern agenda of “state’s rights” being used to justify repulsive racial policies and other means of imposing on the civil rights of certain people who don’t fit their image of who belongs in this country would have bothered Lincoln.

But I wonder if Lincoln would see the modern-day Democratic Party as being a bit dysfunctional in its own right – so many factions that have trouble uniting that the Republicans in their ideological rigidity are still capable of winning elections.

OF COURSE, THE reason we pay so much attention to Lincoln’s memory is because of the events of 150 years ago Tuesday. Just days after the first military surrender that essentially ended the Civil War (even though fighting continued in spurts for two more months), Lincoln was shot. Under circumstances that ensure his critics in life were permanently disgraced.

Lincoln died early the next morning, laid out in a bed so small that he had to be put on it on an angle. And yes, generations of Chicago schoolchildren have gone on field trips to the Chicago Historical Society museum to see that bed (along with the charred crackers that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871).

In fact, a part of me would be inclined to go to the museum Tuesday to see the bed, except that it is on loan for the year to the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. That’s a bit much of a drive for me to make on a whim.

So perhaps we should spend part of the day pondering Lincoln’s memory, which gets distorted in so many ways by people eager to simplify his story – particularly those too eager to engage in Confederate historic revisionism.

LINCOLN MAY NOT have been the pure abolitionist who was willing to do away with slavery of black people for the common good. Although his critics of the day were certainly willing to see him that way to benefit their own hostile thoughts.

Just last week, the Washington Post published a commentary suggesting that, “Today’s GOP is the party of Jefferson Davis, not of Lincoln.”

That might be a bit simplistic a thought, but there is a certain amount of truth to it – in that I wonder if modern-day Republicans find a bit of shame in the fact that their political party historically was known as the “Party of Lincoln.”

Wishing instead they could regard Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon of the “Southern Strategy” and Ronald Reagan (who throughout the years chased off those Republicans who were motivated by Lincoln’s ideals) as their true founders.

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A mere 33-vote lead and declining; could Rahm ally retain aldermanic seat?

The aldermanic run-off election for the 10^th Ward (far Southeast Chicago) is getting closer and closer as people try to figure out whether Alderman John Pope actually lost his bid for re-election to a fifth term in office.


Pope, who has been an alderman since 1999 and either is credited, or trashed, for being a solid supporter (100 percent, Pope critics claim) of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, got the largest number of votes back in February, but not enough for a majority.


WHICH IS WHY he had to endure a run-off election against Susan Garza, a counselor at Jane Addams Elementary School in the East Side neighborhood and an official with the Chicago Teachers Union.

It would seem that most of the people who backed one of the other five aldermanic candidates in February united last week in their opposition to giving Pope a chance (if he makes it through another full four-year term) to be a 20-year alderman.

Because when all the votes in the 36 precincts of the 10^th Ward were counted following Election Day, Garza had an 89-vote lead. She went so far as to declare herself the winner.

Although Pope was more low-key, realizing that this election in a part of Chicago often ignored by the rest of the city (although which I pay attention to because it’s my birthplace, the South Chicago neighborhood to be exact) could still swing in his favor.

IT WAS, AFTER all, just an 89-vote lead – so close that both candidates could accurately say they got 50 percent of the vote (Garza rounds down, while Pope rounds up).

There also were the dreaded absentee ballots, dreaded at least by those who want simple election outcomes that are known by about 9 p.m. on Election Night. Most definitely not those where we have to wait until the April 28 deadline for the Chicago Elections Board to complete its canvass.

For what it’s worth, by the end of the first day of counting absentee ballots, Garza was down to a 44-vote lead.

The elections board’s website indicates that by the resumption of counting on Monday, Garza has a 33-vote lead over Pope – 5,797 votes for Garza to 5,764 votes for Pope.

COULD WE WIND up with coming days chipping into that lead more and more to the point where Pope winds up the victor because of those people who wanted to cast ballots, but for whatever reason couldn’t make it to either an early voting center or a polling place last week?

After all, it takes only a one-vote margin to win an election. Who’s to say how funky the counting could get?

It is what motivated Garza’s supporters on Saturday to hold what they called an “End Corruption!” rally outside of Pope’s aldermanic office on 106^th Street. Accusations were tossed out by Garza backers about how Pope backers harassed and threatened people, while also mailing in absentee ballots that had been time-stamped prior to the April 7 election date.

Even though the rules say that the key to a valid absentee ballot is that the postmark on the mailing be prior to Election Day. So ballots could still, theoretically, be showing up and wind up being counted. A stamp on the ballot wouldn’t mean anything!

UNLESS YOU BELIEVE the incumbent alderman is engaged in a conspiracy with the U.S. Postal Department, this one may be a bit of a stretch. Although the whole concept of votes still coming in and being counted relies so much on the public trust that it is no wonder some people are willing to believe the worst.

It is why Chicago Sun-Times reports are intriguing about how the identity of those who cast absentee ballots from the 10^th Ward were inadvertently revealed. Making it possible theoretically that someone is trying to keep track as to which people voted the “wrong” way and need to be punished.

So for that ward most of us only notice on those occasions we’re looking down on it while driving through the Chicago Skyway, we don’t know the final count yet.

We’re going to have to wait and see whether it is Pope or Garza who winds up filing the request for a formal recount of Election Day results.

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