Letters to the Editor
Untitled Document We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING As chairperson of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Shamrocks Against Dystrophy, I want to take a moment…
Mark your calendar
Untitled Document At one point in Daniel Pinchbeck’s fantastical personal exploration of apocalyptic myth and reality in 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, he elaborates on the Global Consciousness Project of Princeton University, mentioning that one of the researchers speculates that they are “witnessing the early phases of the self-organization of a global brain.” Pinchbeck believes…
Lifeline
Untitled Document Homeless United for Change this week announced that two downtown churches will provide temporary shelter whenever the weather turns nasty this month. First United Methodist Church, 501 E. Capitol Ave., and First United Pentecostal Church, 600 W. Monroe St., have agreed to open their doors to the homeless during thunderstorms or when the…
Food for hope
Untitled Document Experiencing Loneth Soares’ cheerful personality and hearing her infectious laugh, you’d never guess that her childhood was filled with terror, trial, and hardship — but it was. Loneth was born in Cambodia, and the Vietnam War began spilling over into Cambodia during her earliest years. When that war finally ended, however, the horrors…
Rush%uFFFDs chaos
Untitled Document “Operation Chaos,” Rush Limbaugh’s campaign urging Republicans to vote for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in Democratic primaries, has been very effective. It doubled Republican turnout in Ohio and Texas, boosting Clinton and prolonging the Democratic race. But in Ohio it was also almost certainly illegal. Ohio law requires that citizens genuinely support a…
Bound for glory
Untitled Document The inevitable has happened. As anyone who listens to WUIS (91.9 FM) knows, reporter Kavitha Cardoza always had too much talent to be broadcasting from a radio station next to a cornfield — and, sure enough, she has just landed a job with National Public Radio’s Washington, D.C., affiliate, WAMU-FM. She will sign…
Chemical reaction
Untitled Document Unborn babies face a greater threat from pollution than once thought, says a new study by the Environmental Working Group, a leading nonprofit public-health-advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. The study found 287 different carcinogens, consumer-product ingredients, and other chemicals in the umbilical-cord blood of 10 anonymous American babies born between August and…
Devil’s in the details
Untitled Document The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. When he visits the Big Apple this week, he will be discussing the assassination of another black leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who…
The right to say thank you
Untitled Document I hardly slept a wink the night before I met my mother. I was in a motel, just off Interstate 35, on the outskirts of the city where she lived with her family. Our clandestine meeting required more scheming than an international narcotics deal, and I was so nervous that I tried on…
The dimming star of Starbucks
Untitled Document About a year ago, a stinging message was delivered to the corporate honchos of Starbucks, the megachain of costly coffees. The writer decried the “commoditization of the Starbucks experience,” bemoaning the fact that the stores “no longer have the soul of the past and [instead] reflect a chain of stores versus the warm…
Score some quality ’grass
Untitled Document It is my great pleasure to announce the inaugural show of the Bedrock 66 Live! music series, sponsored in part by WUIS (91.9 FM), the public radio station at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Because of generous corporate donations to help defray the costs of entertainment and extra effort from WUIS staff…
A failure to execute
Untitled Document You have to give George Clooney credit. As an actor and director, he seems eager to take on anything. Whether it’s a black-and-white docudrama about one of America’s most shameful eras (Good Night, and Good Luck) or a quirky pseudobiography (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) or edgy Hollywood fare (Michael Clayton), the performer’s…
People’s poetry
Untitled Document kinquote poem #10my first cousin age ninetyon an impulse phonedhis grammar school chumbob dagley they both attendedj b murphy public schoolin chicago from the directoryhe knew bob lived in houstonhe said bob this is paulbob said now what do you want © Jacqueline Jackson 2008 This week we recognize newspaper employees by including…
Demonizing Obama
Untitled Document We’re in the middle of the most Bible-toting, Scripture-quoting presidential campaign in recent memory. So where are the Christians — the evangelical, deeply conservative Christians, that is, who so famously propelled George W. Bush into office? The nation’s finally talking about Jesus, and they’re missing it? Not exactly. Some are still home sulking: They…
Instead of leather
Untitled Document Are there any good alternatives to leather? Leather is everywhere — from shoes and belts to purses, wallets, jackets, furniture, and car seats. Most probably assume that the leather that finds its way into our wardrobes and living spaces is a byproduct of the meat industry. But even though cows are certainly the…
A conductor?
Untitled Document “Eleven run away slaves, belonging to citizens of St. Louis, and for which a reward of $300 each, was offered, were captured in this county yesterday, by individuals of this city,” proclaimed Springfield’s Jan. 17, 1850 Illinois State Register. That was the first of several articles over the next week about this so-called…
Black and “right”
Untitled Document Political conservatism and the African-American experience could be lumped into the same category as oil and water, toothpaste and orange juice, and jumbo-sized tubs of buttery popcorn and diet cola — things that either do not mix or just don’t seem to belong together. But Dr. Eric Wallace doesn’t see it that way.…
Cap City
Untitled Document THAT NOXIOUS ODOR . . . . . . that pervaded Springfield last week was, for once, not eau de Archer Daniels Midland plant wafting westward from Decatur but rather the brief presence of Chicago Sun-Times professional sourpuss Neil Steinberg. Prompted by the need to take some sort of spring-break sojourn with…
