Second Thoughts

 Paula Marantz Cohen of Drexel University hold argues in the online magazine The Smart Set why long-dead writer/critic/commentator H.L. Mencken remains as relevant as ever. She recalls HLM on the influence of the press. Substitute “media” for “newspaper.” . In America it is the newspaper that is [its reader’s] boss. From it he gets support […]

 In “The burdens of office” I recalled my inglorious tenure as president of Springfield High School’s Interact (a combination of  “international” and “action”) Club in the 1960s. Two or three things might be said. In the rush to make deadline, I left out something important. I wrote how membership in the club was supposed to […]

In “Wasted,” I lamented the fact that the Illinois public has so little basis on which to judge the merit in that perennial complaint that our tax money is being wasted by grasping public employees, bumbling bureaucrats, and corrupt pols. I suspect that the very first letter to the very first editor of the very […]

 For those on the evangelical right who are dismayed that there is not enough God in the Donald Trump campaign, I offer this on the GOP convention from the always interesting Tyler Cowen: They are not saying what they are saying, in fact they are saying “the world is going to hell, and many of […]

We learned on July 18 that the directors of the Prairie Capital Convention Center approved the sale of naming rights to the building to the Bank of Springfield for $150,000 per year for 10 years. The “facility” during that period will be known as — drum roll, please — the Bank of Springfield Center.  The public […]

 A follow-up to a follow-up: I recently noted (see “Ask the kids“) that School District 186 has begun the process of devising a formal process for renaming district facilities.  Is it a process that school boards lacked in the past, or gumption? In “A school by any other name” I complained about how it’s been done […]

I read today that the policy committee of School District 186 is considering adopting a formal process for the naming of district facilities after citizens deemed worth of the honor. You might well wish to forget it, but I addressed that issue in a 2011 column titled, “A school by any other name” in which I came […]

Faithful reader Brent Hahn responded to my maunderings about natural beauty and politics, “The blossomy haw, remembered,” with this reminder that the sensible person who lives in a place bereft of scenery simply makes some up. I grew up in Springfield. and moved away, but lately I’ve been back a lot.  And I’ve decided my […]

 Our sister paper, Chicago’s Reader, has just published its annual Best of Chicago issue. In it are excellent pieces that echo topics recently taken up in this space. “The Thompson Center is Chicago’s endangered, postmodern Pantheon” by Deanna Isaacs outdoes my lament of April 9 for the old State of Illinois Building, which our current […]

 A useful reminder from Charles Wheeler, writing at Illinois Issues.  “Speaker Madigan’s Democrats have controlled our General Assembly for more than 30 years. Speaker Madigan’s Democrats have controlled spending in our state government for more than 30 years,” Rauner said. “The Democrats have spent our state into the toilet for 30 years.” Apparently history wasn’t […]

 Bits and pieces about trees pile up on my desk like autumn leaves in the yard. Last week I mentioned Barrington, Illinois, as a Tree City USA. It is not alone. In addition to the U.S. flag that it flies at its city hall, the west-suburban town of Hinsdale proudly flies not an Illinois flag […]

 My recent column calling for the re-treeing Springfield – “Something there is that doesn’t love a tree,” which of course should have been titled “Someone there is who doesn’t love a tree” – didn’t say quite everything that might have been said on that topic. A seldom unremarked-upon aspect of the history of Illinois is […]