The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a rule that prohibits the outright ban of transgender students in the sports of their gender identity. The rule “provides flexibility for schools to achieve important educational objectives through their athletic program. …(and will) allow schools flexibility to develop team eligibility criteria…(although) these …
Ten years ago, I volunteered to create a small garden in one of our neighborhood’s public parks. In hindsight, I made one bad assumption and one strategic mistake. Both seem like cautionary tales when I think about our current politics and governance. The garden was to be carved out of …
“One of the biggest mistakes it to judge policies and programs by their intentions instead of their results.” –Milton Friedman A perfect case study is the Illinois law that legalized recreational cannabis on January 1, 2020. The 610-page law spells out details about regulation, taxation, authority and governance, public health …
On the day before my twentieth birthday, in 1980, I walked through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. My childhood friend and I were on a month long trip through Europe. On the day we arrived in West Berlin from Copenhagen, the sun shone on us for the first time in …
The fable begins with a child walking softly through a jungle, lost in thought. Unexpectedly he comes upon a snake looped luxuriously over a lower branch. The child stops and gasps. The snake smiles charmingly and greets the child. “Hello! Don’t be afraid. I am only a snake.” The child …
A dozen towns are strung like worry beads along the Lake Michigan shoreline from Milwaukee to Chicago. Worry has been particularly palpable in three of those towns—Kenosha, Waukegan, and Evanston—this year. Violence erupted in Kenosha in August after police shot Jacob Blake during an arrest. Peaceful marchers in Waukegan have …
Freddie Gray, a 25-year old black man, died in April of 2015. His spine was severed while in police custody in Baltimore. Not long after, I read a column written by Chicago Tribune columnist, Clarence Page, in which he used the words Systemic Discrimination. I believe it was my first …
After giving it four months, I finally unsubscribed to the daily emails from a particular news website. In early March I was hungry for news and commentary. There was a lot going on. The Cubs, with new manager David Ross, were off to a lackluster start in spring training. The …
We had endured weeks of stay-at-home restrictions. Our elected officials consulted medical experts while appraising their political fortunes, before imposing numerous regulations and stipulations on our daily lives. We were admonished to isolate ourselves to the greatest extent possible, for our own health, but also for the good of everyone …
It’s been almost one year since the state of Illinois passed the Reproductive Health Act on June 12, 2019. Supportive legislators applauded, and the governor grinned as he signed the bill that implicitly allows abortion up until birth*, and explicitly declares that a fetus has no rights. In the zero-sum …
