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Author: pvbella

Fall and the simple pleasures

Image: PV Bella

The older I get, the more I look back. Sometimes the memory flood is overwhelming. A lot of those memories are food-related, from simple pleasures to fabulous home-cooked feasts. Fall brings more nostalgia than usual. Produce was more seasonal, so we looked forward to certain fruit and vegetable treats. 

Yesterday, we made a simple dish, sausage, and peppers, three ingredients, including great bread. There was a rich chocolate cake for dessert.

On this cool sunny Sunday morning, my first thought was that sausage and peppers I ate yesterday. Eating outdoors, watching the squirrels gambol, and hunt for winter food. Listening to the sounds of the city.

My dad made sausage every fall, so most of the meals with sausage were from the ones he made. Other times, he would buy sausage from people who knew how to make it the right way, old school, with just the right seasonings. Back then, there were no red, orange, or yellow peppers, just green.

I remember the summer barbecues. My dad grilling lemon garlic chicken or ribs. Sometimes there were hot dogs or burgers. My mother made potato salad. On a hot humid day or two later, that cold leftover potato salad was a meal in itself.

Sometimes, my dad and I would sit at the table with Italian cured meats, cheese, olives, homemade bread from a neighbor, and wine. We would sit and talk. Two men, one aging and one younger adult. He would talk about the past. I would talk about the present.

Food was always part of my life. I grew up in a food-loving family. My parents loved to cook, and that love showed in their craft. Even a simple pot of chicken soup was made with love.

I think about all the holiday dinners I prepared or helped prepare. A month before, I would scour the food magazines looking for recipes. There was the calvados pork roast, the leg of lamb wet rub marinated with pesto, the varnished turkey, geese one Christmas, plum duck, ginger ham, stuffed trout, and the various side dishes to go with them.

Fall is when I really think about food, past, and present. Fall through winter is the time for comfort foods. Foods that mend your heart and heal your soul. Foods that take you away from the junkyard world we live in. Meals to enjoy alone or in the company of others.

Our lives are complicated. We get too wrapped up in all the political and social rhetorical wars swirling around us. The pandemic is still stubbornly around. We forget the simple pleasures of life, good food, maybe wine, and the companionship of family or friends.

The pandemic brought out the best of us in relation to food. People were home with too much time on their hands. First, it was the bread bakers. Then sourdough took over. All of a sudden social media was flooded with home-cooked food. People discovered what that strange place in their homes, the kitchen, was for.

Fall is here. The days are getting shorter. The weather is cooling down. Soon, sunny days will be few and far between. I think about food, comfort food. As much as I love to eat out, I love to cook or eat home-cooked meals.

Now that many of you found uses for your kitchens scrap the delivery or carryout. Stay home and cook. Cooking and sharing food is one of the purest forms of love. Cook the simple, comforting foods, soups, stews, meatloaf, chili, or roast a chicken. There are plenty of places to get a few other necessities, like good bread or other food items.

Go into the kitchen, turn on your favorite music, and forget the outside world. Cook. Cook for yourself. Cook for family or friends. Keep it simple and comforting.

I ate in some of the finest restaurants in Chicago. I enjoyed the food. But nothing ever beats a simple, comforting home-cooked meal made with love and shared with others.

Fall is here

Image: PV Bella

It is official, Autumn arrived. The temperatures quickly dropped from ninety to fifty-five degrees like it saw a state trooper. Fall also brings some horrible seasonal specialties, like pumpkin spice. Drooling dipshits, wait in long lines for the first pumpkin spiced drinks. 

That chain coffee shop, Spewfucks, or something like that, introduced pumpkin spice drinks years ago. Their devoted fans can never get enough. If they could get the raw product, they would be using it like meth addicts. Pumpkin spice is everywhere, even in beer and liquors. There is only one place for pumpkin spice, in pumpkin pies.

As September moves into October, another horrible treat becomes popular., Candy Corn. This is one of the most disgusting candies ever made. Yet, people are raving fans of it. The cruelest ones give it out to children on Halloween. Chicken Feed was the original name of this horrid product. Chickens are smarter than humans. They would not eat this crap.

Halloween costumes should be in the stores by now. Social media will erupt with the Instagram and Pintrest crafters who make their own. We will be plagued by photos and videos of some of the ugliest costumes that trendoids think are the latest Halloween fashion challenge.

People will decorate their homes with pumpkins, corn stalks, and an assortment of witches, ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and other Halloween creatures. This will lead into Thanksgiving décor, with turkeys, pilgrims, more pumpkins and corn stalks. There will be inflatables on many front lawns. Some will start their Christmas decorations in October to get in the mood.

Stores will be ramping up for Christmas shopping. They start earlier every year. Soon, they will start after the Fourth of July. People are being encouraged to shop now due to supply chain shortages and ships idling at sea, with long waits to get into ports. Shop till you drop and make your home temporarily look like a hoarder lives there.

Fall is also the time to get in shape for the winter sport of snow shoveling. The leaves fall from the trees, necessitating the autumn exercise craze of raking and hauling. The sound of leaf blowers will be music to the ears of many, especially those who own those annoying devices.

We will be hauling out the warmer clothing, hoping it fits. There are long sleeves, sweaters, woolens, down, and other puffy coats, gloves, hats, and scarves. Most summer clothing will be packed away, except for a few items for those rare warm days. Winter coats will get washed or dry cleaned, as they were not before being stored. Boots will replace sandals, and we will no longer be tormented by ugly feet and toes.

Our eating habits will change. Comfort foods like roast chicken, meatloaf, stews, soups, pot pies, and other heartier meals will be the norm. We will stay home as the weather turns cold and more of us will cook. That is a positive thing.

The skies will get grayer, and so will our moods. Every sunny day will bring joy, no matter how cold it gets.

Fall is my favorite season. My only wish is for pumpkin spice and Candy Corn to disappear, along with the people who promote them and the people who imbibe them. Maybe there is another city we can deport them and their purveyors to.

Warm comfort in food

Roast Chicken and potatoes with za’atar/Image: PV bella

In times like these, eating is our only comfort. The COVID-19 pandemic is stubbornly hanging on. The regular flu season is upon us, with predictions it will be brutal. There is daily murder, mayhem, bloodshed, robberies, carjackings, and other felony crimes. City Hall is failing us. Chicago is lost.

There are national crises. COVID is out of control in freedumb loving areas, including southern Illinois. People are refusing to get vaccinated, and there are battles over vaccine mandates. Death cult “Christian” religions are issuing religious exemptions for those who “sincerely believe” vaccines are evil. Anyone can apply.

Both houses of Congress are irreparably broken. Nothing is getting done. The southern border is in crisis, and the government is paralyzed to do anything about it. There is no political will to resolve the immigration, asylum seekers, and refugee crises. The climate crisis is now being labeled the climate catastrophe.

Chicago faces a mounting homeless crisis, with almost 20,000 people living on the streets, some in makeshift encampments like refugees from third-world countries. Winter will soon be upon us, and they will suffer.

Many of us are still semi-confined to our homes or restricting our movements, fearing contracting COVID. We worry about our families and friends, adding more stress to our lives. All of us know people who were affected by COVID-19.

It appears nothing is going right, and little is being done to rectify things. Everything is a battle, and every battle is being lost. We are learning to accept failure as an option at all levels. We kept looking for normal or the new normal, and it appears failure is the new normal.

There is little good news and plenty of bad. There is nothing to celebrate. 

Food is all we have to comfort us, especially since the cooler to cold weather sets it. For some reason, food makes us happy in times of stress. Food is sensual, satisfying all six senses. We enjoy eating our favorite comfort foods.

I love soup, especially during the fall and winter months. I could literally live on soup and good bread alone. I started thinking about all the foods that bring me joy and comfort. There are stews of all kinds, chili, roast chicken with plain salt and pepper, or some za’atar added. Good cream of tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich melts the coldest hearts.

I like to patronize great soup restaurants for flavorful bowls of pho, Caldo de Pollo, or tortilla soup. There are the birrierias, serving goat stews and consommé. I like bigos, the Polish hunter’s stew, and goulash. Good French onion soup is another favorite. I am an offal guy and occasionally will eat a steaming bowl of Menudo. Posole is another great soup/stew. Chinese hot and sour soup with extra garlic, ginger, and chilis will cure just about any malaise.

There is a reason we call certain dishes are called comfort foods. They comfort us and satisfy our souls. They calm and relax us. They make us appreciate the simple things of life. They evoke food memories from our childhood.

When all else fails, and our world is going to Hell in a handbasket, comfort foods bring solace and make us forget how miserable this world is. We dig in, and for a short time, we are happy.

Life is too short to fret over all the failures in this nation and Chicago. Eating well is the best revenge. So, pull out those Insta Pots, slow cookers, or Dutch ovens. Make soup, stew, chili, or roast a chicken. A mice warm apple or other fruit pie with ice cream is a great dessert if you can bake.

Life sucks right now. You may as get what little joy you can.

In Chicago only the criminals get compassion

Image: PV Bella

Another mass shooting, five people were shot in Austin. Another toddler was shot Saturday. There were multiple shootings citywide over a twelve-hour period Friday. On Saturday, multiple people were shot over a four-hour period. There were robberies and stabbings too.

Ho-hum, just another typical bloody Chicago weekend. The Summer Olympics of Violence is leading into the Fall Gun Games. The silent apathy in this city is deafening. It is appalling. What does it take for people to get angry? What does it take for people to demand change?

The city is failing miserably. Yet, the citizens and friendly news media editorial boards are mute.  No matter where you live in Chicago, you are not safe. You have a higher chance of getting shot and killed, or being the victim of a violent crime than catching COVID.

Where did this mass apathy come from? Why do most people think something cannot happen to them? Why are we not demanding better? 

So-called criminal justice reform is failing. We are being lied to by elected officials, the activists they are in bed with, and the news media through their silence. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is lying, Kimm Foxx is lying, the Chief Judge is lying, Chicago Machine Boss, Toni Preckwinkle is lying, Superintendent of Police David Brown is lying, the friendly news media is aiding and abetting their lies.

The only truth is in the numbers, and the numbers keep rising. We will smash records this year in shootings and murders. According to HeyJackass!:  

  • September to date- 50 souls shot and killed. 54 total homicides.
  • Last week- 22 souls shot and killed. 24 total homicides.
  • Year to date- 575 souls shot and killed. 2800 shot and wounded. Total shot, 3375. Total homicides- 608.
  • A victim is shot almost every two minutes in Chicago.
  • A victim is murdered just over every ten minutes in Chicago.
  •  The cause of death by homicide is 94.9%.

Chicago should be nominated for entry into The Gun Violence Hall of Fame. The hall of fame is as imaginary as reform or the plans, strategies, and precision deployments from the leadership of this city and Cook County. We only see the boring itemized list of guns recovered or people arrested Tex Brown puts out during his press conferences.

Years ago, back when Chicago cared, there would be collective outrage over infants and children being shot or shot and killed. There would be a collective demand for justice.

Now, there is a callous apathy in this town without pity. Only the criminals get justice, and the justice is a slap on the wrist. It is not justice. They get mercy.

Maybe we should change the name. Instead of the Criminal Justice System. We should call it the Criminal Mercy System. We could replace the prosecutors and judges with nuns. The Sisters of Clemency, led by Sister Mary Hilarius*. We could turn the Cook County Jail into The Home for Wayward Felons. Why not? Since the criminals get more compassion than the victims. We all know that compassion reforms murderous criminals, don’t we?

*There is a Saint Hilarius, a former Pope.

Chicago is lost

Image: PV Bella

“These murders went out of the comprehension of a civilized city,” … “The butchering of seven men by open daylight raises this question for Chicago: Is it helpless?” (Chicago Tribune on the St. Valentines Massacre)

As summer turns to fall, none of the news is good. COVID-19 is still a threat. Getting shot, killed, beaten, robbed, or carjacked in Chicago is a worse threat. Now, experts are warning the upcoming flu season could be “brutal.”

We are lost. We do not know what to fear most, disease or being violently victimized as the Summer Olympics of Violence winds down. If the violence abates during the fall, Mayor Lightfoot and her Police Superintendent, David Brown, will claim victory. All their failed, and failing plans, strategies, deployments, and precision deployments worked. The mayor will award Brown the Gold Cookie. The losers will be winners.

Crime usually drops off in the fall and through winter. Of course, the friendly media will credit failure and convince the gullible naïfs in this city that Brown was a success. The citizens of Chicago are easily fooled and will believe whatever the media tells them.

Chicagoans complain about everything except the things that matter, like life and death on the streets. The bloodshed is hushed up. Brown tosses out dry, boring data. How many guns the police took off the street, how many people were arrested for gun possession, blah, blah.

Whatever is being done is not stopping the violence. It is not mitigating or curbing it. Prevention is almost impossible.

Seven people were killed during the St. Valentine’s massacre, a mass shooting heard around the world. Newspapers nationwide were in an uproar. Headlines screamed. Editorials were brutal. The citizenry was appalled. It led to the demise of Capone’s grip on Chicago.

There were over 50 mass shootings this year, most over the spring and summer. Not one peep from the friendly editorial boards. Not one word from community groups or supposed activists. No outrage from the citizens. It is all ho-hum. Lightfoot and the incompetent State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx keep getting the benefit of the doubt. 

Foxx is supposed to be the voice of victims in court. Foxx flipped the script. She is the voice of the criminals. The news media and editorial boards lap it up.

We are heading into another warm weekend. Already, “At least four people were killed and 10 others wounded in a string of shootings across Chicago overnight. A fifth victim was beaten to death.” (WGN9 9/17/2021) These shootings and the beating occurred from one end of the city to another, 78th Street to Irving Park Road, between 8:30 PM and 8:30 AM.

Why is the violence in this city not considered “out of the comprehension of a civilized city?” Are we no longer civilized? Where is the outrage over the daily butchering of men, women, and children, even infants, all hours of the day and night? 

“Is Chicago helpless?” The answer is yes. If COVID-19 does not kill you, a stray bullet might. Yet, the news media is focusing on COVID more than violence. The mayor and Tex Brown are getting a free pass. There is no anger among the citizens. No one is pointing fingers at the real culprits, the mayor, most of the mute alderpersons, the Police Superintendent, Kim Foxx, and the courts. We are being failed on all levels. We are accepting failure as an option.

The weekend is upon us. The weather will be nice. It will be perfect for the Summer Olympic of Violence games to go on. So, mask up, social distance, stay out of crowds, and stay off the streets. Stay alive.

Hats off to Chicago’s archcriminal

Image: PV Bella

This is the city, Chicago, Illinois. The story you are about to read is true. The name was not changed because we do not know it.

There is an archcriminal preying on the streets of Chicago. He lurks, sneaks, and skulks in darkness. Some say he is a myth. Others claim he is a legend. Like some historical or fictional archcriminals, he is a hero. He steals from thieves. His crimes are dearly costing them.  

Chicago Superintendent of Police, Tex Brown, is planning, strategizing, and creating precision deployments to stop this one-man crime wave. He formed a posse. They will ride out at sundown to hunt for this elusive mastermind and bring him in Texas-style, dead or alive.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot called for all hands on deck to catch this nefarious and mysterious criminal before he caused more losses to the thieves.

The mayor asked the FBI to get involved. They had to refuse. Too many resources were tied up investigating aldercreatures.

States Attorney Kim Foxx promises to throw the book at this archcriminal. Her office will swiftly approve felony charges and recommend no bail to keep the thief in jail until his trial is over. She will provide vigorous prosecution of this nefarious criminal. Reform be damned. How dare he, how dare he steal from other thieves?

This crime spree is way more severe than the murder and mayhem plaguing Chicago and the catch and release of violent criminals by prosecutors and the courts.

The only people who are not concerned are the citizens of Chicago. They are cheering this ghost. His crimes and the ability to get away with them in this era of surveillance are epic. Who does not love a thief who steals from thieves?

Who are the thieves this archcriminal is stealing from? They are not the Chicago Outfit. The few thieves they have left are a rag-tag bunch of aging stumbling bumblers. It is hard to commit crimes using a walker.

Our thief is not stealing from the bands of thieves who terrorize high-end stores in broad daylight, walking out thousands or tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise.

Why is there an all-hands-on-deck approach to stop and capture him? Our loveable thief is stealing from the City of Chicago, the modern-day Chicago Outfit.

According to CWB Chicago, the best crime reporting news site in Chicago, this archcriminal is stealing red light cameras. Those cameras steal more money than violent criminals with guns and bespoke dressed aldercreatures with laptops and cell phones.

So far, the thief struck the same intersection three times over the summer. The cameras were at the intersection of Lawrence and Cicero Avenues in the Sauganash area. They generate about $850.00 per day when operational.

The Chicago City Council, a band of brigands themselves, is in an uproar over the audacity of this bandit to step on their turf. If anyone were going to steal from the city, it should be them, not some renegade.

The thieves at City Hall are praying he does not go after the speed cameras. Since the city lowered speeding from over ten mph to over six mph, they stole over 1.1 million dollars from the citizens since the spring. The city would vote to implement the death penalty if the thief struck those cameras.

During this Summer Olympics of Violence and the city’s willing failure to curb it, we needed a hero. We found one, an unknown archcriminal. Hats off to you, whoever you are.

The name game

Image: the barrowboy/Creative Commons

Keeping up with the destigmatizing and appropriate vocabulary changes is like playing Scrabble, rearranging the tiles to create new terms.

Since man created societies, there has been the haves and the have nots. The haves have. The have nots do not have. Another word for the have nots is poor.

Elected officials love poor people. They and others love the poor so much, they keep them impoverished, generation after generation.

The other day, I heard a loving local politician refer to the poor as underserved. For the past several years, politicians and word weasels keep changing the vocabulary. They do not do this to erase a stigma on the poor or anyone else. They change words to feel better about themselves for doing nothing. 

We had the poor, poverty, impoverished, disadvantaged, distressed, now underserved.

Underserved is just what it means, the opposite of overserved. Politicians cannot overserve people, now, can they? We cannot have large numbers of overserved people stumbling or driving on the streets.

There was welfare. Now it is called benefits, assistance, and entitlements. Food assistance is called SNAP. SNAP is snappier than food assistance.

Take homelessness, a decades-long major problem in Chicago. Ever since the pandemic, homelessness has increased. There are encampments of all sizes throughout the city. What did our political word weasels do? They came up with the term unhoused to take the stigma off them for doing nothing. What next? Unapartmented? Uncondoed? 

How about the word problem? We no longer have problems. We have issues. No matter the problem, it is merely an issue. Issue sounds warmer and easier to swallow than that harsh word problem. When an issue becomes a problem, they call it a crisis. Crisis is scarier than problem and gives the impression that elected officials are doing something when they do nothing.

There used to be pollution. Along came global warming. Then it became climate change. Then, climate emergency. Now, we have a climate crisis. What next? Climate apocalypse? Climate Armageddon? Climate rapture? Climate end times?

There were peaceful protests, civil disobedience, and riots. When a peaceful protest turns into a riot, it is now called a peaceful protest with some disruptions. We cannot allow violent protest, so we ignore it.

Equality was replaced with equity because those wily elected officials realized we are only created equal on paper. We no longer treat people as equals. We must treat all people as equitable.

Superintendent of Police David Brown has great word weasels. Every week he has new plans, strategies, deployments, and precision deployments in his failure to curb violent crime in Chicago.

There used to be all kinds of hucksters, con artists, and hawkers selling products and snake oil on television and in magazines. Some were politicians. With the advent of social media, they are called influencers. Some are or become celebrities. They tout everything and anything, raking in bucks or claiming fame on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. There are online courses on how to become an influencer overnight.

For some unknown reason, we put xs on the ends of terms, like Latinx. How come there are no Italianx, Polishx, Irishx, Blackx, or other racex or nationalityx? Are we not an inclusive society?

We used to have sexes. Now, they are genders. The number of genders keeps growing. Soon, gender will replace sex as an activity. We will have gender between the sheets.

Politician is fading out of use. Politicians are called candidates or elected officials. They needed to change the word because politician became associated with corruption, lies, immorality, and other negative connotations. Politicianx sounds better and more inclusive.

We used to have ex-convicts. Then they were called ex-felons and former felons. They are now called formerly incarcerated since many continue being felons after their incarceration.

There were alcoholics and addicts. They are now substance abusers.

Prostitutes, strippers, and pornography performers are now sex workers. Sex worker is more appropriate because they work for a living.

We were a nation of principles. Now, we are a nation of values or morals, though we practice neither. By the way, we never practiced principles.

Religion is falling out of use. People of faith or the faithful are the new terms. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious buildings are called places of worship. One word became a mouthful.

The vocabulary changes come so fast it is hard to keep up. It intensifies my anti-social tendencies. I no longer know what proper terms to use, so I no longer talk to people in fear of making a major faux pas.

God is not against vaccines

For some strange reason, people are still refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Now that companies are requiring proof of vaccines for their employees and the government is mandating workplace vaccines, freedumb loving people are digging their heels in deeper.

The one way out is religious exemption or accommodation. Large numbers of unvaccinated people are getting that old-time religion. They are shopping for churches they do not attend to give them a written exemption. It is a good bet those preachers of Hell, fire, and brimstone are requesting donations in return for the exemption. 

A Google search shows that there are plenty of sites providing exemption forms. Some sites purport to offer biblical quotes against vaccination as proof the faithful liars are truthful. 

There were no vaccinations in biblical times. As knowledge evolved into science, then medicine, theology accepted the changes. If people are such firm believers, they will ignore all medical procedures, cures, and remedies.

The only remedy they and their preachers are refusing on religious grounds is the COVID-19 vaccine. Talk about heresy. We used to burn heretics at the stake.

So far, In Chicago, there are no preachers or churches publicly advocating against vaccinations or mandates. No one knows what they are doing or telling congregants behind closed doors.

This stubborn, stupid resistance to vaccination is not religious. It is political. Most of the Bible-thumping preachers are more political than religious. They mix their religion with politics. If it were up to them, they would be like the Taliban.

People are refusing to vaccinate because they claim it is their right. OK. They have a right to suffer horribly and die. With rights come responsibility. These anti-vaxxers are irresponsible.

“In rural Hudson, Iowa, Sam Jones has informed his small congregation at Faith Baptist Church that he is willing to provide them with a four-paragraph letter stating that “a Christian has no responsibility to obey any government outside of the scope that has been designated by God.” (Chicago Tribune)

Sam Jones never studied theology or the Bible. It is a good bet his good book is illustrated, and he uses crayons to color the pictures. By the way, what about all the he-in and she-in, he-in and he-in, she-in and she-in, and me-in and me-in those good old-timey religious folks and preachers practice when no one is looking? 

God never said anything about disobeying the government. Neither did Jesus. There is nothing in the New Testament about God’s law trumping civil law.

We are not living thousands of years ago when the first scriptures were laid down. No one can find one biblical reference to vaccines in the Bible because there were no vaccines in antiquity.  

There are very few religions in this country that prohibit vaccinations. The few that do are of the evangelical faith-healing sects. You can find more information here.

There is no scientific correlation between the long-term effects of the COVID-19 vaccine to the long-term effects of death. There is no religious correlation between the long-term effects of the COVID-19 vaccine and the eternal condemnation of one’s soul. No true believer will be condemned to Hell for getting vaccinated.

These people do not want to be vaccinated. They will do anything to avoid it, even lying in the name of God.

If you do not want to get vaccinated, you should not be allowed in the workplace. You probably will not be eligible for unemployment. You deserve to be impoverished for your ignorance.

You gotta be kidding me

Image: PV Bella

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s latest crime-fighting plan is in the realm of you cannot make this s**t up.

If the consistent failure to curb the violence plaguing Chicago citywide were not enough, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced another policy that will fail. She wants the City Council to pass an ordinance allowing the city to sue gangs and gang members.

The City Council fits the ordinance’s definition of a gang due to their history of criminality. Maybe she should start there.

This is a dumb bad joke. The mayor stopped criticizing Kim Foxx. My guess is she got slapped down hard by Machine Boss Toni Preckwinkle. Foxx has a better media presence than the mayor. Appearance is everything to the gullible voters in this city.

The proposal for the ordinance before the City Council was pushed back. A few aldermen expressed dismay. The rest are mute, as they have been during this long hot Summer Olympics of Violence.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown is failing and flailing, using Alphabet Soup to develop new names for his plans, strategies, deployments, precision deployments, and whatever this week brings.

Over the weekend, 48 people were shot, including 6 killed. There was another mass shooting (4 or more people), the 53rd mass shooting this year. What part of failure doesn’t Lightfoot or Brown understand? Gangs are not the only reason for this violence. Neither are drug dealers. Other social issues cause this citywide violence. Some are systemic. Others are behavioral.

The street cops and detectives are the only ones trying to stem the violence against a failing leader. The State’s Attorney refuses to do her job, prosecuting felons. The courts let felons out on low or no bail. They also allow felons to plead their cases down to misdemeanors.

The corrections system is anything but. It warehouses prisoners without reforming them. Ex-felons and felons commit many violent crimes while on parole or probation. Kim Foxx will not prosecute probation or parole violators.

The failure to prevent and curb violence in Chicago should be appalling. There is only one way left to fix this situation. The citizens must say enough is enough. The editorial boards of our news media must stop playing nice with City Hall and demand change or heads to roll. 

There should be a rising crescendo of anger, outrage, protest with the threat of ballot box retribution. That is the only thing that will bring about change. Elected officials, including judges, should be quaking in their boots, fearing they could lose their positions. They would have to work for a living. Work is an anathema to them, which is why they entered politics.

Where is the outrage

Image: PV Bella

“In an interview with the Tribune on Friday, Lightfoot said people throughout Chicago are afraid because of street violence but said her administration is making long-needed changes that will help curb crime over time.” (Chicago Tribune- 9/10/2021). 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot does not realize, Chicago ran out of time months ago. She is hoping the onset of cooler weather will drive the number of violent crimes down. Lightfoot can award Police Superintendent David Brown a Gold Cookie for winning the Summer Olympics of Violence. She can claim victory. She knows the people and friendly news media will buy it.

Memories are short in this city. The news media is too cozy with City Hall. They will praise the mayor and the superintendent for their “success.” The gullible citizens will lap it up. Peace at last! Let’s have a parade with a fall food and music festival in Grant Park.

There should have been screaming editorials demanding change and for Superintendent Brown to resign or be fired by midsummer. Alderman should have been shouting from the rooftops to fire Brown. Failure is an option is Chicago’s new motto.

Part of public safety is crime control and prevention. The criminals are out of control, and the daily numbers show there is little prevention. Brown keeps playing the name game with strategies, plans, deployments, and precision deployments. It is alphabet soup.

“Gangs, guns, and drugs” is the new old bold plan Brown trotted out last week. We heard that from the past nine former superintendents and their interim appointees, going back to the Daley administration. Tex Brown shoots from the lip, week after failing week. He can’t hit the broadside of a barn.

I am waiting for the week before Halloween when Superintendent David Brown can blame the violence on the ghosts of Al Capone and his gang. He will form a Community Paranormal Untouchable Ghostbusters Unit (PUGU) to go after them.

Year to date, over 3000 people have been shot and over 500 hundred killed by gunfire. The street violence is out of control, with carjackings, robberies, and other violent crimes or crimes with threats of violence. Infants, toddlers, children, teens, adults, and the elderly were victims of violence and murder. Over 30 police officers have been shot at or shot so far this year. One, Ella French, was murdered, and her partner catastrophically injured.

This failure is our fault too. We should demand better. There is no collective anger among the citizens. Since the pandemic loosened up, all Chicago wants to do is go out and party hearty. Ooh, a concert. Ooh, a street fest. More murders and violent crime? Meh. All we want are bread and circuses. We should be mass protesting at City Hall every day.

Sometimes, elected officials must make unpopular choices to solve thorny issues. It takes courage. There is no courage at City Hall, the State’s Attorney’s office, or the courts. There is no will to be unpopular.

Chicago became a spineless city. We surrendered to the barbarians.

Next month is the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. The city was devastated, burned to the ground. While the final embers were still smoldering, the civic leaders and boosters started rebuilding. We became the city of we will, and we can. We will rise from the ashes bigger, better, and stronger. We did.

The city is metaphorically burning to the ground. Violence spreads throughout the city like the wind-blown firestorm of 1871. There is no one to put out the fire.