We all got to accompany the Bush funeral train, whether desired or not

I happened to be spending the afternoon Thursday watching a grandparent and taking in one of her favorite television programs (It’s “Jeopardy,” by the way), so I got to see just how peeved she became when the popular game show was interrupted for special programming.

George Bush (the elder) being removed from funeral train. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

As in the live broadcast by ABC network news of the funeral train taking the casket containing the remains of former President George Bush (the elder) to College Station, Texas.

WHERE THE PRESIDENTIAL libraries for both Presidents Bush are located, and where George H.W. will have his casket laid to rest. People who are political geeks and fanatics of the Bush presidencies will forevermore be able to pay their respects with a visit to the Texas A&M University.

Similar, I suppose, to all those Elvis fanatics who stop by his gravesite whenever they visit Graceland.

Now I point out the grandmother disdain for Thursday’s interruption, because I wonder how many others felt similar thoughts.

Bush family on hand for the burial.

Seeing the broadcasts earlier in the week of the formal funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., was one thing. There may well have been people intrigued by the site of onetime Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole standing from his wheelchair to salute the presidential casket, although I was amused by how President Donald Trump’s very presence made so many feel uncomfortable.

BUT SEEING CONTINUED live broadcasting of the Bush death-related events just seemed like overkill.

Personally, I thought the sight of the funeral train working its way through Texas was weak, and its’ arrival in College Station was way too much.

The flag-draped presidential casket on board the funeral train.

It’s a good thing the Bush family did the actual burial in private, or else I’ve got to wonder if we literally would have been given the chance to see the casket lowered into the ground and sextons dumping dirt atop it for the burial.

There are some things I just question the value of, and perhaps it is the reason I still rely on newspapers (and their affiliated websites) for much of the reporting I read.

I DO HAVE to admit to getting something of a chuckle when I saw the ABC coverage of the funeral train proceedings anchored by George Stephanopoulos – the one-time political operative who, when working for Bill Clinton back in 1992, was a big part of the team that undid the George Bush presidency.

Would he ever back then have envisioned himself in such a public role watching over the Bush funeral? I suppose it’s the ultimate evidence that life isn’t pre-ordained in any role, and any outcome is possible.

But wouldn’t we have been equally, and adequately, informed if Thursday’s activities had been summarized into a minute-long report that was merely included in the network evening newscasts?

Seriously, I don’t remember as much hoopla over the deaths of Ronald Reagan in 2004 or Richard Nixon a decade earlier as we’ve seen this week for George H.W. Bush.

I ALSO EXPECT that when the time comes for Jimmy Carter (he turned 94 back in October), his eventual funeral ritual in Plains, Ga., will also be something simpler and more laid back.

One memory of 2005 World Series was seeing the Bushes in front-row seats watching the ballgames the White Sox played in Houston

Although I suspect things could have been more drawn out. Considering that George Bush was the first former president whose funeral rituals included a train ride since Dwight Eisenhower in 1969, it also made me think of the first president to get such treatment.

As in Abraham Lincoln, whose death in 1865 resulted in a two-week trip to take the body back from Washington to Springfield, Ill. – where he remains interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery to this day.

Modern technology reduced the train trip to a single day. Just envision if it had been a weeks-long event with multiple stops along the way (as was done for Lincoln, who once served as an attorney for the Illinois Central railroad). We’d probably have all the people who didn’t vote for Bush for president back in 1988 and in 1992 rising up in great anger at the very sight.

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EXTRA: Did Joyce just have most-significant electoral accomplishment?

Jerry Joyce is the mayoral candidate whose most significant personal fact about himself is that he is from a family that has long been associated politically with the Daley family.

JOYCE: Number One (for a day)

Joyce’s father, Jeremiah, in fact was one of those behind-the-scenes guys who served as a significant adviser to Mayors Daley – both the elder and the younger.

THERE ISN’T MUCH else to say about him – other than the fact that he’s going to have his name atop the list of mayoral candidates on the ballot for the Feb. 26 election.

Joyce won the lottery, which gives him the ballot spot in the prime place. There are those who say some people are clueless enough they merely vote for the first name they see – and could get some 1 or 1 percent of the votes for that reason alone.

In a campaign where even after candidates get kicked off the ballot for insufficient support, there are still doing to be at least a dozen or so candidates in the running. Any advantage in gaining votes could mean something.

Except that it might turn out that Joyce is just too obscure politically to be able to take full advantage of this political perk.

LEARNING THIS WEEK of Joyce getting the top ballot spot actually reminded me of a past election cycle – as in the Democratic primary for governor in 1994.

That election cycle saw state Attorney General Roland Burris, Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch and Cook County Board President Richard Phelan challenge each other for governor – yet the top ballot spot went by lottery to Jim Gierach – a suburban Palos Park attorney who has spent much of his public life campaigning for less-draconian laws related to drugs.

I remember being a reporter-type person speaking with Gierach that day; knowing there was a good chance it would be the last time I’d give his campaign for governor any significant attention. Is that the same for Joyce for mayor this week?

GIERACH: Won 'No. 1' slot in '94

Then again, I also remember the Netsch campaign’s response, which gained the Second ballot spot from the lottery. They contended that voters would ignore the little-known “Gierach” name on top and look to the second slot.

IT’S LIKE THEY really won the ballot lottery. Or at least that’s the political “spin” they put on the issue.

Would that make one-time Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas the big winner; since he is the one who gained the second ballot slot out of the list of 21 candidates who currently are in the running for mayor?

Putting him ahead of Number three Willie Wilson and Number four Toni Preckwinkle? Or is this all a batch of political hooey intended to try to get us to think something significant is happening – when in reality we’re still just over two months away from Election Day.

And some four months from the likely run-off election April 2 that will actually decide who will be taking the oath of office as Chicago’s new mayor come the city’s Inauguration Day in May.

THERE IS ONE part of the Joyce campaign, however, that continues to intrigue me. For it seems that the alleged Daley family ally is actually the guy who filed the legal challenge to the mayoral nominating petitions of William Daley.

DALEY: Tense times with Joyce?

Could Joyce think that, if only, he could get a Daley name off the ballot, he might actually have a chance of achieving political victory? For many of the challenges that have been filed have been done with the “logic” of kicking off the candidate who most closely resembles one’s own (such as Preckwinkle allies being behind the effort to remove Susana Mendoza from the mayoral running).

“Mayor Joyce?” I don’t know how much of a ring it has to it. Would the type of Chicagoans who think the “Daley” name is synonymous with City Hall be willing to accept it? Will the Christmas holiday greetings between the two political families be particularly tense this season?

Or could all of this merely be evidence of how inane our political procedures are capable of being?

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Some people are strong proponents of expressing their right to be wrong

I have no problem with the concept of freedom of expression and the right of people to think or say whatever it is they believe – no matter how ridiculous or stupid it might well be.

Self-explanatory

But there are some individuals whom I suspect come up with views to express just for the purpose of – to put it bluntly – pissing people off! I can’t help but think those people give a bad name to the concept of free speech – which the rest of us are forced to defend no matter how trivial it becomes.

TAKE THE INSTANCE of a lawsuit now pending in U.S. District Court by a Chicago Bears season ticket holder. One of the perks for people who buy such a ticket plan is they get to spend time on the playing field during pre-game warmups.

This particular fan is upset because, as a Green Bay Packers fan, he wants to wear his green-and-gold jersey, along with all sorts of other items in Packers’ colors. Basically, he wants to make the presence of the Bears’ arch-rivals seen on the Bears’ own turf.

The Bears have denied this season ticket holder the ability to do that, and that is what has led to his legal action.

He thinks it’s his inalienable right to piddle all over the Bears’ party with his Packers’ jersey. He’s prepared to fight this out, and wants to make this an issue of great societal significance – a cause.

PERSONALLY, I THINK we ought to let the guy wear his replica jersey, and let him take all the abuse that Bears’ personnel invariably will dish out. Because, after all, free speech does not guarantee anyone the “last word” on an issue.

Either that, or require the goof to enter the stadium by walking through the Soldier Field parking lots while dressed in his Packers’ garb. Of course, he’d have to venture through the throngs of Bears fans who make a point of tailgating outside the stadium prior to the games.

It would be like a gridiron gauntlet. He’d have to take so much abuse, and I don’t doubt you’d probably get some drunken buffoon thinking he’s defending the honor of the orange and blue who would wind up kicking the snot out of this Packers’ fan.

Not 1st time Satanic Temple has expressed itself

Let’s see how much he’d desire to wear his Packers’ jersey at Soldier Field again!

THIS, OF COURSE, is far from the only incident of someone who feels compelled to piddle all over someone else’s party out of some belief they’re scoring ideological points for their “cause.”

Take the Illinois Statehouse, where the Christmas holidays has turned into a mass of public displays erected in the Capitol rotunda that were meant to pay tribute to the holidays of various religious faiths that are being celebrated in coming weeks (we’re currently in Day 4 of Hanukkah).

Now, it has evolved into a production of who can come up with the most ridiculous display. This year, it is one set up by the Satanic Temple chapter in Chicago, although its display (a sculpture of a woman’s hand tempting us with an apple) is far from the devil-worshipping images that I’m sure will come to minds of many.

The group says it is “a nontheistic organization that aims to encourage benevolence and empathy amongst all people.” Although I suspect its inclusion in the Capitol will peeve many more people than it will sway.

PERSONALLY, I’D BE inclined for dumping any holiday displays, even an overly decorated Christmas tree. The Capitol is supposed to be a place of business for our government – and not so much one of holiday partying.

Although the one that really manages to peeve my sensibilities is one that has been in place since 2008 – the “Festivus” pole. As in motivated by that old “Seinfeld” episode where we learn of the holiday celebrated by the Costanza family as an alternative to Christmas commercialism.

One TV gag continues to live on long after "Seinfield" cancellation

The actual point of the episode was to further show how much of a crank the character portrayed by actor Jerry Stiller was, but some people want to take it literally to create a holiday that worships a metal pole with no ornamentation or presents – and somehow devolves into a wrestling match meant to humiliate.

Maybe the appropriate response to all of this is to use the Festivus pole to club some sense into the heads of any of these people who think their actions are anything more than imposing their crackpot ways upon the rest of us.

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Last-minute partisan acts so common

Wis. GOP trying to keep Walker spirit alive

I’ve been hearing many people complain about the politicians in Wisconsin, where the voters dumped Republican Gov. Scott Walker and a GOP-leaning attorney general.

All of which has the still-Republican-leaning General Assembly inclined to use its authority to impose limits on the kind of powers those two positions will have in the future.

Ill. GOP would do the same, if possible

IT’S AS THOUGH the one-time Party of Lincoln has truly been taken over by this Age of Trump we now live in – they want to make sure the Democrats who now hold those two Wisconsin state government positions can’t do anything to undermine the kind of things that Republicans imposed on the Badger State in recent years.

Sleazy? Authoritarian? Un-Democratic, if now outright un-American? All very definitely true. But also not the least bit surprising.

If anything, I’d be surprised if Republican partisans weren’t trying some sort of measures meant to penalize the kinds of people who (in their minds) had the unmitigated gall to vote against them.

For it could be said that Wisconsin voters, by dumping Walker, engaged in the same kind of sentiment we here in Illinois did by voting Bruce Rauner out of office. In many ways, Walker was exactly the kind of governor that Rauner wanted to be here in Illinois.

BUT WHILE WALKER gained national attention for the conservative measures he was able to enact into Wisconsin law during his eight years in office, Rauner’s national attention was for the way in which he was thwarted by the Democratic Party leanings of the Illinois Legislature.

I suspect Democrats in Illinois will go out of their way to erase any traces of the Rauner years. Similar to how Republicans are using the fact that they still control the Legislature in Wisconsin to force the continued existence of their way of doing things.

Wisconsin's progressive spirit merely history?

To hell with the will of the voters! It’s as though modern-day Republican partisans want us all to think they are the natural order of things, and that it was only the opposition's delusions that took away their authority to impose their will upon us all.

Yes, I believe the Republican actions are ignorant, overbearing and border on corrupt. But I’ve seen enough political people to know they’re not surprising.

THEY ACTUALLY REMIND me of the final days of 1996 – which is when the Republican domination of Illinois government that resulted from the November 1994 elections came to an end.

For the 1996 elections saw the return of Michael Madigan as Illinois House speaker. Which caused the soon-to-be no-longer Republican majority to engage in one final act of overbearance on their part before Madigan regained a say in the legislative process.

Remember back a couple of decades when state officials were determined to oppose then-Mayor Richard Daley’s desires to turn Meigs Field into a public garden of sorts? Which caused the Legislature to vote for a state takeover of the city-owned airport.

Which was little more than a “screw you” to Democrats and to city government officials (who are, by and large, the same thing). Which is why I always got a kick out of the eventual outcome of the Meigs debacle – with city officials sending in the bulldozers to demolish the airport (and carve giant “x’” into the runways to make them unusable) in the middle of the night.

IT MAKES ME wonder if Wisconsin officials will come up with some equally-diabolical means of getting back at their Republican counterparts for trying to limit the powers of future governors.

Meigs Field gone, despite last-ditch GOP efforts to try to preserve it

Which I don’t doubt in the least that Republican legislators would be more than willing to fully restore when the day comes that cheese heads re-elect a Republican to fill the post of the state’s chief executive.

This is all petty and ridiculous, and certainly not in the spirit of a government looking out for the best interests of its citizens.

But it is the reality we have devolved into in this 21^st Century – that of governments that think they can only operate if everything is rigged in their own ideological favor!

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Of course J.B. will settle; he can then blame Rauner for the wrongdoing

After covering units of government for so many years, there’s one rule of operations that I’ve picked up on.

PRITZKER: Willing to settle, he won't lose

If you sue a government, you’re probably going to wind up getting some sort of settlement – although very few will wind up becoming wealthy for life as a result.

SERIOUSLY, THE RULE that most governments use is that the moment the cost of attorneys fees to defend oneself become too great, the attorneys are under orders to reach a settlement.

Of course, that’s why so many lawsuits against government wind up being resolved with clauses saying there is no admission of guilt or wrongdoing. The government entity will claim this means they really didn’t do anything wrong – even if they wound up having to cough up some cash!

This concept is what pops into my mind as I learn of Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker’s comments recently about how he wants to settle the lawsuits pending against Illinois government as a result of military veterans who were living at a Veterans Affairs facility in Quincy.

Those were the people who came into contact with Legionnaire’s Disease while living at the facility. Their families are the ones who are now suing, saying the state needs to compensate them for the deaths of their loved ones.

THESE INCIDENTS OCCURRED during the gubernatorial reign of Bruce Rauner – which has just over one more month to run. Pritzker says he fully intends to resolve these lawsuits – once he becomes governor come mid-January.

Of course Pritzker is going to want to resolve these lawsuits. He’ll be able to place full blame for any acts of wrongdoing on the previous gubernatorial administration.

And perhaps by cutting the state’s losses loose sooner rather than later, the state will be saved a bit of financial expense in the long run.

RAUNER: Will get the blame

Not that any of this will produce a definitive result as to what went wrong or who truly screwed up and caused the deaths of military veterans. But if partisan political points can be scored, who really cares about fact? Or the truth?

MAYBE IT’LL BE all about the payoff – with the families who have spent the past couple of years tangled up in court feeling grateful they’re getting some money. Not that money alone will truly make up for the loss of a loved one.

But it’s also about the partisan politics. Which means that a Rauner victory in last month’s general elections would have extended this process – at least long enough until Rauner himself would have concluded that a quest for a dismissal just wasn’t worth the expense in legal fees.

He would have paid them off, provided he got that concession of “no wrongdoing” on the part of the state.

Whereas Pritzker isn’t as concerned, because he can shift off blame to someone else. As for what money has to be paid out in settlements, I suppose Pritzker will be able to argue, “It’s not my money!” and will merely sign on the dotted line to approve the compensation for those who suffered a loss.

IT MAY ALSO be why Pritzker will be willing to go along with the General Assembly’s recent action to increase the amount of money people can win in such lawsuits (from $100,000 to $2 million apiece).

Illinois will wind up having to come up with significantly more in cash to settle the dozen lawsuits that are now pending against the state.

Pritzker would like to turn happenings of Quincy into 'yesterday's news'

But Pritzker will write it off as merely another expense we got dinged with as a result of the partisan gamesmanship of the Rauner administration. The new governor will be more than willing to pay out if he thinks it's his predecessor who will get dinged with the blame.

Which J.B. will regard as the ultimate prize, thereby making him the ultimate political victor with regards to the Quincy “issue.”

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Illinois gave us a low-key Bicentennial

Illinois officially turns 200 years old Monday, and there will be a celebration.

In fact, there have been activities taking place during the past year leading up to this day that are meant to make us fully aware of what a truly intriguing history our state has experienced during those two centuries of existence.

YET I WOULDN’T be the least bit shocked to learn that most of you weren’t the least bit aware of that – or of the activities that will take place at Navy Pier in the name of giving Illinois a proper birthday celebration Monday night.

For perhaps it is the result of the fact that Illinois isn’t exactly the most-unified of states. We’re certainly not Texas, with a strong self-awareness of who we are. Those of us from Illinois most often identify with the particular region of the state that we come from, rather than the notion of Illinois as a whole.

I suspect that has inhibited any true appreciation of Illinois’ existence through all those years. Too many of us probably wonder why any attention is being paid to the rest of Illinois, and not just our home region.

I’m sure I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else. I’m not only Chicago-born, I’m specifically of the South Side (the South Chicago neighborhood, to be exact). I’m just as likely to think of a West Side neighborhood as alien turf as much as something in Southern Illinois.

Bicentennial celebration location historic in its own right

WHILE SOMEONE FROM central Illinois, I’m sure, thinks all of us are alien to his/her experience of what our state is all about.

Personally, I’m inclined to think the significance of Illinois’ existence is the way it has managed to incorporate all these different experiences into a single way of life. Almost as though what makes Illinois unique is that we have figured out a way to incorporate a bit of everybody into our state existence.

From an urban Chicago experience to parts of the state that aren’t too different from Appalachia – and to parts of central Illinois that actually give us those corn fields that too many people think are the entirety of the rural Midwest.

A long-gone part of what made Chicago and Illinois so significant

Then, there’s always the land of Forgottonia – as in the rural western part of the state that got that label as almost a joke of just how isolated it is from the rest of us.

THIS IS THE experience that will be in display Monday night at Navy Pier – where the program will try to give us a taste of bipartisanship (if such a thing can actually exist in Illinois these days). Both Gov. Bruce Rauner and Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker are expected to be on hand for the festivities.

Unless someone decides to have a political hissy bit and not show up – which always is a possibility.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon (which got its beginnings as just a band on the local music scene in Champaign) and bluesman Buddy Guy all will be amongst the performers.

We’ll even get acknowledgement of the musical “Hamilton” including Chicago as being amongst the places where it is being performed, and a historic program narrated by Bill Kurtis – whose deep voice is to a certain generation the sound of a quintessential Chicago newsman (unless you’re of the type who was watching Fahey Flynn) instead.

AND SATURDAY NIGHT Live, of sorts, will be included, what with George Wendt and Robert Smigel giving us a riff off their old “Superfans” sketches. Too bad that Mike Ditka himself couldn’t be on hand, what with him still recovering from a recent heart attack.

As for edibles, it should be noted there will be a 1,000-pound birthday cake from Eli’s – the place that many of us think is the ultimate for cheesecake.

Which could lead to questions about why we can’t have deep-dish pizzas – which some like to think is the ultimate local food item. Yet I can already see the problem with its’ inclusion.

We’d get into a serious quarrel over whether or not thin crust is truly more representative of Illinois, and whether it should be cut into slices or squares – a debate that likely will linger on to Illinois’ tricentennial some 100 years from now.

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Six decades after deaths, my “aunt’s” lesson on life lingers in my memory

Thoughts of my “Aunt” Connie (actually, my mother’s aunt, if you want to be overly technical about it) are popping into my mind Saturday – what with all the mentions in the news of how it has been 60 years to the day that a fire killed 95 people at the Our Lady of Angels parish school in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Monument paying tribute to this day

I know just about every Chicagoan of that generation has some sort of personal story of what they did that day in 1958. My mother (who was 14 at the time) recalled being a Catholic school girl who joined other students in prayer for the souls of those – 92 of whom were students – who perished.

BUT MY OWN personal moment (since I didn’t exist until seven years later) came one summer in 1978. And it was due to my Aunt Connie, who managed to put a lesson about the fragility of life into the brains of my brother, Christopher, and myself.

That summer was the one in which my mother sent my brother and I for a week to stay with our uncle Spinx and aunt Connie at their home in suburban Lombard.

I actually recall that experience as relaxing, largely because my uncle and aunt had a swimming pool in the backyard, and most of the week was spent lounging around the pool at our convenience.

Youthful lives remembered this day

Of course, my aunt Connie was the type who believed that children should be put to work, and I recall spending some time in the hair salon she operated out of her basement – sweeping the floors of stray hair and sorting out various types of hair clips.

BUT THERE ALSO was the moment that week when our aunt Connie decided we should go out away from the house and experience something of life. The outing she came up with is one that my brother never forgot so long as he lived.

And it is one that I’m particularly recalling that day.

For our journey that summer was a trip to the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in suburban Hillside, which is where a monument to the children killed in the fire ultimately was erected – and where several of them wound up being buried.

Story of fatalities went national

It wasn’t so much that we were lectured. But the sight of so many young people who, it turns out, had a lifespan that wasn’t even as long as mine was that day (I was just shy of my 13^th birthday that summer), was a memory that still sticks in my mind.

I KNOW MY brother, who was only 8 at the time, was a bit creeped out by the experience. Although I recall him later remembering the experience as a lesson that took a few years to fully sink into his brain.

And it became one of the stories we could tell of our “quirky” aunt Connie. Although to be honest, that day was far from the most off-beat thing she ever did in her life.

The fragility of life is a lesson we all have to learn, and it is what makes us feel fortunate that we continue to live on – while trying to remember to enjoy every moment of life we have, because it’s not going to last forever.

That is a lesson I have had reinforced on occasions in life, particularly during my work as a reporter-type person throughout the years.

I’M NOW 53, and I know if I were to drop dead now, there would be some people who would take one look at that age and think I was somehow cheated of a proper life’s end. Although I have to confess to having known people in my life who aren’t with us any longer – and who didn’t even come close to getting as long a life-span as I’ve enjoyed.

My brother and I (in middle) with other relatives surrounding our Aunt Connie

Just as my brother and I got to see the memory of all those young people who perished 60 years ago who never even made it as far as their teenage years (they were all students between 5^th and 8^th grades at the times of their deaths).

So we’re getting the reports in recent days reminding us of the tragedy of Our Lady of the Angels and how the aging school building was not in compliance with the fire codes of that era (as an older structure, it was “grandfathered” in with lesser standards). We may even be reminded of the speculation that the fire was caused by a 10-year-old’s idea of a prank.

But for me, I’m going to be recalling my aunt, who has long been resting in peace along with those whose deaths of six decades ago are being publicly remembered this day.

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