The mayor and others have complained about the state fair’s plans to change the route of its annual Twilight Parade. In my view, they didn’t change it enough: a better route would have the parade conclude at its traditional destination at the north end of the Grandstand after beginning at the south end of the […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
The next big thing
Every parent knows how hard it is to have a serious conversation when there’s a two-year-old throwing a tantrum in the next room. Thank goodness enough grownups in the General Assembly ignored the governor’s whining on the second floor to solve (sort of) the state of Illinois’ immediate spending crisis. Now the legislature can focus […]
Posted inOpinion
Into the woods
In “Underground movements” I discussed some novels new solutions to the very old problem of how to dispose of human remains. The same question has been vexing New York Times commentator Richard Conniff. In a piece titled “This is how I want to be dead,” Conniff brings us up to date on woodland cemeteries or . which use […]
Posted inOpinion
On not doing wrong
A new set of guidelines issued by Springfield’s Bishop Thomas Paprocki bans people in same-sex marriages from receiving funeral rites in local Roman Catholic churches, receiving communion or serving in parish ministries. Paprocki has even decreed that such parents may not sponsor their own children for baptism. These strictures owe to the bishop’s conviction, echoing […]
Posted inOpinion
The world out-imagines Orwell
The English novelist Christopher Fowler ruminates to good effect in this blog post about George Orwell’s novel, 1984. Orwell could never have predicted Trump. The fall of real authority came with the willing participant of the people. Few authors would imagine that citizens would deliberately vote themselves out of better living standards and less freedom. […]
Posted inOpinion
Making do without
Some further thoughts that I couldn’t squeeze into this week’s column on higher education. It is amazing how many of the men and women now honored as great Illinoisans managed to become so without benefit of formal instruction. Lincoln apprenticed as a lawyer. Most lawyers did back then. Debate continues about how good a background […]
Posted inOpinion
Ben Sasse — who? — on higher ed
This week in my Dyspepsiana column I lament that, for all his talk about structural reforms in Illnoius’ system of public higher education, Bruce Rauner has no idea what needs to be to really change it for the better. Which is why I was intrigued by the recent conversation between Ben Sasse, the junior senator […]
Posted inOpinion
Real innovation
We can all agree that Illinois’ public higher education system is in a state of crisis – or rather crises. Bruce Rauner, living in his own private Illinois, believes that tax-supported colleges and universities cost too much, thanks to bloated bureaucracies, high pension payouts, union work rules and redundant course offerings. Then there is the […]
Posted inOpinion
Medicaid in emergency care?
Jordan Weissman of Slate sums up Republican senators’ proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid is America’s largest health insurance program by enrollment. It covers 62 million Americans—almost as many as Medicare and the entire individual market combined. It helps the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and—thanks to Obamacare’s expansion of it, which Republicans […]
Posted inOpinion
Race, class and representation
Come fall, it will be 30 years since the City of Springfield’s new aldermanized city council first convened. I voted for it, and I wrote about it. A new system of representation had been forced by a lawsuit alleging that voters’ choices were ineluctably driven by race. The occasion gave me a chance to take […]
Posted inOpinion
Seeing your name in print
A pleasant surprise today — a box full of copies of my new book, fresh from the printer. After some 40 years, the thrill of seeing one’s name in print has faded, but I confess that opening a box — I thought it was from Amazon — felt a bit like Christmas Eve when I […]
Posted inOpinion
More floppies in a shoebox
Having found itself unable to solve the state’s big problems, legislators the other day took up a small one – the agreement to spend $2.4 million over five years for space in a converted furniture store in which to store records of the Department of Human Services. I know nothing about that lease as a […]
