Editor’s Note

The District 186 school board is about equally divided on whether to let some children into classrooms some of the time, while parents are equally divided over whether to send their kids to school. Jennifer Gill, the superintendent under pressure, presses for some classroom education, as long as it’s safe. Leaders try to move from […]

Our Summerguide edition this year, like every year, is all about things to do, but this year there is no extensive calendar of events, theater, concerts and sports. Instead readers are guided to keep summer simple, and joyful. In her article, “Salvaging summer,” p. 15, IT writer and mom Lana Shovlin says she reads in […]

It is wise of District 186, and other area school districts, to offer parents the option of sending their children back to real classrooms with in-person teachers. If a few families try it and it works, that will help convince others to try it later. Families lacking home child care options may be the first […]

This week brings realization that the pandemic will last longer and the recession will go deeper than most of us had hoped or imagined a month ago. It is like having both hands tied while working on anti-racism, engaging in a national election campaign and keeping businesses open and people employed. Illinois, unaccustomed to being […]

Last week’s cover story, “Reinventing police” by Bruce Rushton, included many ideas and hopes for the future, along with plenty of reasons for building something new and different where the old police department used to be. There is an opportunity now for reinventing almost everything. Even this summer, schools are being reinvented as the role […]

Rahm Emanuel has many of us wondering what big good could come out of all this disease, economic disruption and racial unrest. The former Chicago mayor and President Obama’s chief of staff may not have been the first to say it, but he says it often enough that many attribute the quote to him: “Never […]

In a world that’s virus-infected, politics-inflicted and racism-tender, many of us are on edge, looking for someone to blame. Tempers flare and fighting becomes common. At the same time we’re hearing the word “microaggression” more often. It’s not new, but comes up in the revived conversation on how to be an anti-racist. Microaggression is “any […]

Not sure what the scaffolding of the Statehouse statues is really about, but it looks like Abraham Lincoln is in prison. That’s where he was before fully committing to anti-racism and abolition – when he wanted to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, like fighting the war to preserve the union, or solve […]

When race boils up and over, it is a new opportunity for parents to teach children about that problem, and about the value of protest. See Brandon Turley’s photo of Tiara Standage and her four children on page 6. It is an opportunity for a new generation of civil rights leaders – like Nykeyla Henderson […]

When, before heading out to play golf, President Trump ordered governors to open churches, Rev. Alison Miller was moved to write: “Mr. President, congregations are not buildings. They are the people who gather – and, as a pastor I can attest we have never closed – not for one day. We have just moved to […]

Thank goodness for the internet, which makes everything possible in a pandemic, including Illinois Times. Web traffic keeps growing at illinoistimes.com, where breaking news is posted regularly. Still nothing beats the magic of print, so we remain dedicated to publishing this weekly newspaper on paper. Many of the bars, restaurants, shops, college buildings and offices […]

The new virus isn’t starting fires so much as it’s pouring gasoline on fires already burning. “We’re not happy with our nursing homes,” proclaimed President Trump the other day, as new statistics highlighted senior care facilities as hotspots for COVID-related sickness and death. The problem is apparent in Sangamon and Macon counties, where nearly all […]