The straight dirt
Untitled Document The soil beneath our feet is a critical resource but subject to many threats. What are they, and what can be done? Even among the ecology-minded, soil falls well below the radar of important causes, but the relationship between soil quality and both environmental and human health is intricately entwined. From the food we…
Lighting a fire
Untitled Document When refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan leave the camps to collect firewood, the men are killed by Janjaweed militias — so they send the women, who are often raped. It’s conditions such as these that have ignited an international movement for change in Darfur, including an international divestment campaign. On Sunday,…
Getting them back on track
Untitled Document Sherry Williams no longer answers her cell phone, at least not when I ring her. If I want to arrange a play date between her adorable daughter and my adoring son, I have to type a text message to Sherry’s phone. The fact that she doesn’t respond to a jingle isn’t personal, she…
Growing grapes
Untitled Document Did you know that the grapevine is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world? Whether as a source of grapes or as an attractive addition to the landscape, grapevines are popular among home gardeners. Grapes can be grown successfully in Illinois — if a variety adapted to our growing conditions is…
His secret reasons
Untitled Document Politics beats a big drum in Springfield, and those disinclined to march to that drum often seek more harmonious cadences elsewhere. This was true for Mark Foutch. The Springfield native grew up on Whittier Avenue, went for his first airplane ride at age 4, made a name for himself as a musician before…
Supporting Chinese repression
Untitled Document aAmerica stands for freedom, right? President George W. Bush even claims that his military occupation of Iraq is about exporting freedom throughout the world. Yet, in China, U.S. high-tech corporations and investment bankers are enthusiastically exporting the very opposite of freedom: suppression. They are teaming up with the thuggish dictators in Beijing to…
Hellraisers
Untitled Document Bruce “U. Utah” Phillips — folk singer, historian, activist, and longtime member of the Industrial Workers of the World — will be the featured performer at a program to honor one of labor’s best known agitators and organizers: Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones. This Sunday, Oct. 14, the Springfield-based Mother…
People’s poetry
Untitled Document daughterpoem #3 elspeth seven displaying scratchesmade by her cat mudge remarksruefully even the mother that loves it goes through many hardships © Jacqueline Jackson 2007 Children at play give personalities to lifeless objects, and we don’t need to give up that pleasure as we grow older. Poets are good at discerning life…
When it matters
Untitled Document There’s nothing strikingly original about Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton. Legal thrillers of this sort have been a cinematic staple for quite some time, reaching their zenith when every John Grisham novel was guaranteed to be adapted to the big screen, and tales of corrupt characters facing a crisis of conscience are nearly as…
Collateral damage?
Untitled Document In a move that has probably fatally poisoned an already supertoxic Illinois Statehouse atmosphere, the wife of House Speaker Michael Madigan’s chief of staff, Tim Mapes, was fired from her state job. The firing came on the day after all four legislative leaders met with Gov. Rod Blagojevich for the first time in…
Bringing Moses home
Untitled Document Valentina was at Goma, a small town in Zaire just across the Ruzizi River from Rwanda. A trader, she had come downriver from her home in Bukavu to purchase items for resale. The open-air market was unusually crowded. Rwandan refugees, who were fleeing the bloodbath in their country, were everywhere. As Valentina made…
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. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PANTRY We here at the First Presbyterian Church Food Pantry want to thank Springfield for supporting food pantries…
Helping artists help themselves
Untitled Document During a recent lively conversation about government spending, a guy told me that we need better bridges before we need to pay somebody to sing. I, of course, agreed wholeheartedly with him — what good would it do if a bridge is out and no one can come hear free music? His obvious…
Bargain roasting
Untitled Document I recently hit the produce jackpot at my local farmers’ market. So what if I didn’t know what I’d do with an 18-pound box of tomatoes? I had just sleuthed a $10 bargain. It was like hanging out at the markdown rack at TJ Maxx, breathless over a two-piece bathing suit I’d never…
A squash by any other name
Untitled Document “Can we have pumpkin for dinner?” This has been a frequent request by my younger daughter, Ashley, since her return to Springfield after four years spent studying viticulture and oenology (grape-growing and winemaking) at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was oddly comforting to think of Ashley going half-a-world away to a…
Out of the shadows
Untitled Document More than 20 years before Muhammad Ali was famously stripped of his boxing titles and convicted of draft evasion, Bayard Rustin served 27 months in prison for refusing to fight during World War II. Unlike Ali, whose application for conscientious objector status was denied, Rustin, a Quaker, had the option of serving in…
Otherwise, good to go
Untitled Document Ward 6 Ald. Mark Mahoney is working this week to fine-tune his proposed trash ordinance and expects a final draft to be ready for discussion at the Oct. 22 meeting of the City Council’s Public Affairs and Safety Committee. The holdup, says Mahoney, is a battle not over attaching garbage charges to City…
