In the Christian Book of Revelation we read that angels will sound seven trumpets to signal the apocalyptic events that will lead to a new kingdom of Heaven. I heard such a trumpet on my first night in my new apartment and it wasn’t announcing hail or blood or a mountain thrown into the sea. It […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Cracks in the earth
“Lutheran high school as hellmouth?” is a headline that I’d hoped to read when I heard that the ground at 3500 W. Washington beneath Springfield’s new Lutheran High School opened up beneath it in 2022. Disappointingly, no bloody hand had thrust up out of its grave to pull innocents down into the bowels of the […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
CAROLYN BARTHOLF OXTOBY June 1, 1931-Jan. 12, 2024
“When we took all the crap off it” – the crap being ill-considered “modernizations” that had turned a handsome 19th century commercial building into an ugly 20th century one – “we had a building that was simply stunning.” That was Carolyn Oxtoby, recalling the eureka moment when she became alive to the wisdom (and the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Black Man’s President
The Black Man’s President Abraham Lincoln’s legacy on race, reconsidered, stands up to critics BOOK REVIEW | James Krohe Jr. We used to put on pedestals countrymen deserving of honor for civic generosity or courage on behalf of good causes. Of late, we have taken down more statues than we have put up as the […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
PAUL FINDLEY June 23, 1921-Aug. 9, 2019
Longtime central Illinois congressman Paul Findley died in Jacksonville on Aug . 9, 2019. He was 98. As a young man, Paul Findley was a typical moderate Republican of the sort that mid-Illinois once produced like corn. A small-town boy born and bred in farm country, he was a Main Street Republican businessman who was […]
Posted inArts & Culture
WOODROW J. SHADID, SR.
WOODROW J. SHADID, SR. June 29, 1922-Oct. 4, 2018A bookseller who outdid expectations Shadid’s Book Mart, Springfield’s legendary downtown bookstore, outdid the expectations of most local observers by surviving for 14 years after the opening of the mall stores that should have put it out of business. I was not surprised therefore that Woody Shadid, […]
Posted inOpinion
We are the East germans
I am taking a break from regular column-writing, but I might from time to time alert readers to columns of the sort I might have written or wished I could write on topics of moment. I ran across two such columns today. The topic is immigration, the social wisdom thereof. It is a drum I […]
Posted inOpinion
A pause to reflect
This week’s column is the 1,000th to appear under my name in this paper, and I’ve decided it’s time to take a break from weekly opinion-mongering. After so many essays, even I am getting tired of hearing myself talk. Besides, I have been working on what I believe will be a very interesting book about […]
Posted inOpinion
Springfield, reimagined
The Springfield city council has before it a draft of a new comprehensive city plan, City of Springfield Comprehensive Plan, “Forging a New Legacy,” intended to guide development in the capital city until 2037 or until a growing Chatham annexes it, whichever comes first. Compiled by the clever Santa’s elves at the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional […]
Posted inOpinion
In the crosshairs
Oh dear – the North Koreans are threatening the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike. In November, Kim Jong-un ordered a test launch of the Hwasong-15 missile, which has the potential to reach any spot in the U.S. The missile for the moment is incapable of delivering any warhead more lethal than a couple […]
Posted inOpinion
No mere bump on a log
The Illinois Bicentennial looms. In the Illinois that exists, the Rauner administration looks forward to beer parties and pantomime shows. In the Illinois of my daydreams, historians scribble away at biographies of the state’s best (not necessarily most famous) citizens. People like Springfieldian Logan Hay, for example. By the end of his life in 1942, […]
Posted inOpinion
Mencken sees the future
For no particular reason, and for every reason in the world, I thought I’d share with you something H. L. Mencken wrote almost a century that could have been–should have been — written yesterday. As democracy is perfected, the office [of the Presidency] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We […]
