The late Daniel Moynihan, who represented New York in the upper chamber of Congress in the days when the U.S. still had senators, once observed that while everyone is entitled to his opinion, he is not entitled to his own facts. Nothing – not the bow ties, not the Ivy League education, not the erudition […]
Illinois – James Krohe Jr
Posted inOpinion
Dim reflections
It is always a relief to turn off the TV set and pick up a good book, and never more than after a political campaign season such as that just finished in Illinois. Indeed, reading is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the state’s politics. How much better than the blare and the rant […]
Posted inOpinion
‘A little bit of a challenge’
Like people, streets suffer midlife crises. MacArthur Boulevard between South Grand and Wabash has been going through one for years. The former West Grand Avenue, one of Springfield’s four grand avenues before it was renamed in 1942 for the general some regard as a military hero, once was the cool place to shop, to cruise, […]
Posted inOpinion
Green is as green does
A while back I remarked that Mayor Tim Davlin has his work cut out for him if he wants to see Springfield ranked as the top environmental city in the U.S. (“Greener than thou,” Sept. 16) Installing LED traffic lights reduces a municipal energy budget the way that ordering a Diet Coke with your double […]
Posted inOpinion
Wicked Springfield
“This book is not about Abraham Lincoln and his virtues,” announces Erika Holst in her introduction to Wicked Springfield: Crime, Corruption & Scandal during the Lincoln Era. “It is about Lincoln’s hometown and its vices.” Rather than the by-now familiar cast of supporting players in Abraham Lincoln’s drama of self-improvement, Holst introduces us to the […]
Posted inOpinion
What good are public libraries?
A library used to be one of the first things to be established by any town that wished to call itself advanced. Of late, spending on the library is one of the first things a town cuts back. Many a mayor faces fiscal dilemmas such as those that once prompted Springfield’s Mr. Davlin to muse […]
Posted inOpinion
Getting teaching right
Knowing what doesn’t work in the classroom may help keep a mediocre school from becoming a worse one, but only knowing what does work in the classroom can turn a mediocre school into a good one. There are a hundred prescriptions for fixing the schools out there, and while most cost a great deal of […]
Posted inOpinion
Still alternative after all these years
I don’t often look at calendars – so often they remind me that there is an editor somewhere, impatiently drumming his fingers on his desk because the article draft I’d promised him is late. But look at a calendar one must do occasionally, and last week it reminded me that it has been 35 years […]
Posted inOpinion
Putting your name above the door
On Sept. 11 a grateful Springfield learned that Tony Kerasotes, head of that family’s movie house chain, had made a gift of $2 million to the YMCA building fund. It is a generous gift, graciously given as a “thank you” to the city that had helped his family’s rise. Every town of any size […]
Posted inOpinion
Greener than thou
The world continues to surprise me, and never more than the day in 2008 I read that Springfield had been named one of the top 50 greenest cities in America by Popular Science magazine. Surprise gave way to dumbfoundedness in August, when the National Resources Defense Council recognized Springfield as one of its 22 “Smarter […]
Posted inOpinion
Trusting to miracles
It’s back-to-school time again – the hopeful buzz of the first few weeks when the backward and the indifferent say to themselves, “This year I’m going to get it right,” followed by the chastening failures, and the gradual realization that there are some disciplines that are just too difficult to master. I am talking of […]
Posted inOpinion
Faithful to the period
When your daughter pauses from her texting to ask, “Mommy, what did Voltaire mean when he wrote that the perfect is the enemy of the good?” – she might – simply drive her down to Eighth and Jackson and let her see for herself. The National Park Service is preparing a new General Management Plan […]
