Author: pvbella

“There is a crime here that goes beyond

denunciation. There is a sorrow here that

weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure

here that topples all our successes. (John Steinbeck/The Grapes of Wrath)

Living in Chicago is difficult. Lately, everything sucks.

The weather ranges from lung-sucking summer heat and humidity to polar bone-chilling winter freezes with snow and ice thrown in for good measure. If the heat and humidity don’t incapacitate or kill you, shoveling snow or falling on the ice will. Some days the weather can change in a heartbeat. A pleasant warm sunny day turns into a miserable cold gray one when the temperature drops to freezing with wind chill factors.

The hawk is a predatory bird. Old school Chicagoans call the wind in Chicago the hawk. When the late fall and winter winds blow, they chill you to the bone, just like sensing the eerie presence of a predator.

The ice and snow melt when the weather warms for a day or two, creating small lakes on sidewalks. Then, they freeze over again, making things more treacherous. That beautiful snow? After a few days, the beauty fades, and it turns into filthy mounds sprinkled with yellow to give a sense of color.

The politics and politicians suck. If they are not proving their incompetence every day, they are being hauled off to the federal Gray Bar Hotel. There is another predatory bird in Chicago, the eagle, the Feds. The threat of their mere presence should chill people to the bone, like the hawk. However, our politicians have no feelings. They never feel the chill until the talons, cold steel handcuffs, are slapped on their wrists.

The whole city is now officially dangerous to live in. Not one of the 77 neighborhoods is safe. People take their lives and those of their children in their hands just by walking out their door. Public safety is an oxymoron in Chicago. Violent crime is legitimate, business as usual in this city.

The politicians are like the Care Bears™, banding together with the Care Bear Stare™, shooting love out of their tummies towards the criminals.

There is no love or concern for the victims, their families, or citizens who must live with grief, trauma, or fear. If there is criticism, the Care Bears™ morph into predatory growling mauling grizzly bears, ripping proverbial heads off with the paw claws. The politicians are cold, merciless, pitiless, and feral.

The people in this city suck the most. No decent civilized people would not only tolerate but accept the violence we do. We have a right to leave our homes without fear of being victimized by violent predators or being victims of collateral damage. Chicago is not a decent civilized city. The people are not human or humane.

Chicago sucks so bad it should be renamed Hooverville. People in this town are so naïve and gullible that they keep reelecting the same less-ons (Lower than morons) responsible for violent victimization. They believe the lies of the politicians and their PR weasels, the Chicago news media. Apathy is rife in this city of greenhorn ignorant fools.

The apathy, lack of concern for fellow citizens, cold, pitiless, merciless elected officials wallowing in the success of their failures, the naive gullibility of voters who keep reelecting these monsters “…is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation.”

Chicago is no longer the city of “Big Shoulders” or big hearts. It is a city as cold and hard as our skyline’s concrete, glass, and steel. The soul of Chicago is brittle. We are a people who do not care for one another. We are no longer our brother’s keeper. We keep to ourselves.

Be proud Chicago. You suck.

Chicago is a city of complainers, enforcers, contradictions, and wusses. Some of our illustrious aldermen do not like the litter of dibs preserving parking spaces people risked a death-dealing heart-a-stroke to dig out. They are sending out Streets and San to clear the “rubble.”

However, there is other rubble, litter, blight, and eyesores they refuse to remove. I am talking about those ugly white bicycles littering our neighborhoods. They are monuments to dead cyclists. They are up years after many were killed in traffic accidents. They are ugly monuments to nothing. Why not treat the white bikes as the same litter and blight as dibs? Either dibs stay or the bikes go too.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday when two groups of over-privileged wusses play a genteel championship football game- even though the ball is thrown and carried with hands and arms.

Wusses? Yeah, all football players are wusses, especially Super Bowl contenders. I come from an age when football players were rough and tumble tough. The defense mantra was “kill the quarterback.” The offensive and defensive linemen were awesome brutes. The teams played in the rain, the mud, the snow, and even sub-zero temperatures. They played through injuries.

Now, the sport is oh so genteel. It is being played by guys sipping tea from fine bone China who stick their pinkie fingers out discussing the fashion choices of the British royals. Quarterbacks are celebrities, not to be manhandled lest their pretty faces get bruised. They are nothing more than Ken dolls.

Super Bowls must be played in cities with warm climates, preferably in domed stadiums, so the players do not get their uniforms dirty or suffer from the elements. I long for the days of real football with guys named Butkus, Ditka, Karras, Nagurski, just to name a few. I loved watching the 1967 NFL Championship, called the Ice Bowl, played in Green Bay between the Packers and the Cowboys. The temperature was between 13-18 degrees below zero. The field was like a sheet of ice and rock hard.

So, I will not be watching the Ken dolls playing nice on the “gridiron.” I would rather watch the second coat of paint dry or spiders killing flies than watch a bunch of wusses pretending to be tough guy athletes. Hell, a senior citizen like me could play the game without fear of injury.

This brings us to Mayor Lightfoot versus the McCaskey Bears. The Bears lost the title of Monsters of the Midway shortly after winning the 1985 Super Bowl. They are the Louses of the Lakefront. The McCaskey’s who own, run, and rule the roost, are probably the most incompetent owners in the NFL. They are like noisy birds, cheap, cheap, cheap. They squeeze quarters so tight the eagle screams.

“We’re going to continue to do everything we can to keep the Bears in Chicago,” Lightfoot said on WSCR-AM 670. “We’re working on some plans to present to them that I think will make a very, very compelling financial case as to why it makes an abundance of sense for them to stay in Chicago.” (Chicago Tribune)

Good luck with that Lori.

The Bears want to relocate to Arlington Heights, a sleepy, leafy suburb. They tendered an offer to purchase the shuttered Arlington Park Racetrack property so the bears can play atop decades of horse manure, which is what the McCaskey’s are full of.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot does not care how many children are murdered in Chicago, how many people are carjacked, robbed, terrorized, or how thoroughly incompetent her police superintendent, Tex Brown, is.

Lightfoot finally found something to care deeply about. Do whatever it takes to keep the McCaskey Bears in Chicago. They are moving to that monument to horse manure in Arlington Heights. If she can’t keep the city safe, how is she going to keep the McCaskey’s here? It seems Lightfoot cannot do anything right.

As I wrote before, the Bears could have built a state-of-the-art domed stadium decades ago. There were plenty of huge tracts of vacant property, even along the riverfront. Most of those enormous tracts of land were gobbled up by developers to erect massive suburban-style insular apartment/condo communities. Oh, and they got generous TIF benefits for turning this city into a piss poor imitation of the burbs.

Hell, if the Bears had asked former Mayor Richard M. Daley, he would have bent over backward and tied himself in knots to accommodate the McCaskey’s with tiff money. There would be no scrootening or scrootenization. The McCaskey’s could have had whatever they wanted.

So, phuque the Bears, the McCaskey’s, and wussball. Let them go. Let the door slam them hard on the ass on their way out and knock them down the stairs. Let them build a lovely pink palace dollhouse for their overpaid untalented Ken dolls to play in. Adios, ciao, do widzenia, adieu, 再见, slán.

Mayor Lightfoot, forget the McCaskey Bears. Concentrate on your job. Our city is not safe, thanks to your frenemies, Chicago Machine Boss, Toni Preckwinkle, and her Minnie Me Minion, Kim Foxx. Your cowboy police superintendent is an abject failure. How many more people must be killed, wounded, or terrorized before you wake up and smell the horse manure?

In this new era, we went from political correctness to being woke- whatever that means. It is tough to express oneself without being criticized or getting in trouble in this day and age. Daily, expressions are being considered verboten.

I usually refer to elected officials as clowns. The other day, the news reported that a showman’s organization stated that referring to politicians as clowns is insulting to clowns.

Some time ago, I wrote that politics was nothing more than a great parlor game, a great magic act. I was not alone in that thinking. You guessed it. The magicians considered it an insult to be compared to politicians.

Occasionally, I would refer to someone I did not like as a dog during conversations. My late dog, Jack, reminded me that the reference was insulting to dogs. I stopped using the term in his presence to spare his feelings.

One of my favorite sayings is that person is dumber than a box of rocks. Yep, I was reminded that rocks are inanimate objects. The reference is insulting to geology.

The same holds true for referring to people as rats, horses’ asses, or pigeons as flying rats. It is insulting to rats, horses, and pigeons.

The current state of the City of Chicago is anarchy. It is anarchy when prosecutors and judges keep putting violent criminals back on the street. Is this insulting to anarchists?

This brings me to football. I refer to football players as wusses. Ever since the game changed to protect the celebrity- the quarterback- the game turned into a kinder, gentler sport. The celebrities would not survive playing against the likes of Dick Butkus or Alex Karas. By the way, football is not a team sport. The only player who matters is the quarterback. The rest are just lumps of brainless muscle doing his bidding or trying to stop him in the kindest, most gentle manner.

If you need further proof of the wussification of football, look no further than the Super Bowl. Several years ago, the league determined that the big game could only be played in warm weather areas or domed stadiums. The poor future champion wusses should not be exposed to snow, hard frozen ground, or cold and even sub-zero temperatures. Yeah, the Super Bowl sucks as much as the game of football.

I am sure that someone will proclaim that comparing football players to wusses is insulting to wusses.

Hockey players are true athletes and way more brutal than football players. It is a blood sport, as some blood will be shed during the games. The players suck it up. If they lose teeth, they swallow them to use as fuel for more energy, unlike the wussified football players. My apologies to wusses.

Baseball is a much better sport. If soccer is “the beautiful game,” baseball should be considered elegant. Baseball is consistent. Most of the rule changes over the centuries were to improve the sport. Some of the rules remained the same since the game’s inception.

I will tell you what I find insulting. The two evil political parties’ mascots. Unlike the ignoble politicians who spew their manure, the donkey and the elephant are noble beasts. The mascots should be changed out of respect for the noble beasts and to reflect reality. The copperhead snake and the rattlesnake would better represent the two parties. Like the parties, they are venomous. My apologies to copperheads and rattlesnakes.

One of the first things police officers learn is the court system is not always fair. Judges have great latitude and discretion. Lawyers know this too. You do not have to like a judge’s ruling. You must accept it. Lawyers have the option to file appeals. Getting angry or critical of judges’ rulings is non-productive.

Jason Van Dyke, the first police officer, convicted of murder in 50 years, was released from prison after serving half of his sentence. Activists and others are angry over what they consider a lenient sentence and his early release. Van Dyke is a convicted felon on supervised release (Parole). Due to his conviction and high-profile name, his life is ruined. Federal charges and possibly more prison time will do nothing except inflict more punishment versus rehabilitation. It will change nothing except to satisfy the lust for revenge versus justice. Some of those activist preachers and “Christian” activists should remember Romans 12:19- “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Chicago is a city of short, sometimes hot, tempers. Our former and current mayors are known for their public temper tantrums. So are others in this town. Blackhawks owner, Rocky Wirtz, demonstrated that the other day, throwing a fit at reporters who asked questions about the team to mitigate a scandal moving forward. Unlike our past and current mayors, Wirtz apologized. It was not enough for many in the news business or the fans. It is funny. They can tolerate loose-lipped tirades from mayors- who never apologize- but not handle a team owner’s anger, frustration, or whatever really set Wirtz off. His apology is not enough. He must be punished and pummeled in the news media and by the fans. Again, vengeance rears its ugly head.

Chicago is experiencing another arctic winter, with piles of snow and frigid temperatures. It makes one wonder why I live in a place so cold it makes my face hurt? Why do I have to risk the widow and orphan making heart-a-stroke to shovel snow? Why, at my age, do I have to walk slowly and carefully to keep from slipping, falling, and breaking something? Why do I still live here? Where would I move? I mean, in Florida, you risk death or catastrophic brain damage by having iguanas falling out of trees and landing on your head when the temps dip below suntan weather. In the South and Southwest, you must put up with freedumb loving ignoramuses who want to curtail rights and ideas in the name of “freedom.“

Living in Chicago is a constant challenge. The people who came here from someplace else drive me mad. The politics suck as bad as the weather. But I can live here knowing I am not the only vocal curmudgeon in this city. I may not change people’s behavior, but I can personally p**s them off. That is satisfying enough.

COVID does not appear to be going anywhere soon. We are tired of wearing masks, showing vax docs and IDs, social distancing, and other mandates. Yet, we grudgingly go about our lives looking like bandits and showing our papers. Self-survival is the first and highest law of nature. Real Chicagoans are survivors. I survived COVID. The COVID symptoms, while annoying, were not severe. The worst part was being homebound for about ten days until I tested negative. I would rather put up with inconvenience than suffer or die. I wear black masks and like looking like a bandit.

So, bundle up, people. Wear the bandit mask. Walk or drive carefully. Try to bring some inner happiness living in this city that sucks the joy out of us.

The thought that leads me to contemplate with dread the erasure of other voices, of unwritten novels, poems whispered or swallowed for fear of being overheard by the wrong people, outlawed languages flourishing underground, essayists’ questions challenging authority never being posed, unstaged plays, cancelled films — that thought is a nightmare. (Toni Morrison)

When I was in the sixth grade, there was time out each day for reading. We could read books from the school shelves or from home. I was reading Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, which was running in the movies at the time. Sister Mary Gaudio would walk the aisles making sure we were reading. She stopped by my desk, tsked loudly, told me I should not read that trash, then moved on. She did not take the book, which she could have. She did not pull me aside later to tell me why I should not read that “trash.” She did not send me to see the principal or call my parents.

Last month, a county school board in Tennessee banned “Maus” from the curriculum. Since then, sales of Maus have been going through the roof. It is a top seller on Amazon. Now, a school board in Wentzville, Missouri, voted to ban acclaimed author Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” We can expect sales of “The Bluest Eye” to soar.

This is nothing new. The left and right have been trying to ban books with “objectional” language and themes for years. The past few years, the right has been on a roll, not only banning books but enacting laws to keep specific “objectional” reading material and curricula out of schools. Ignorance appears to be more contagious than COVID. Ignorance is at pandemic levels.

The book and curriculum banners are ignorant about literature and history. They are clueless about young people. Young people have an innate curiosity. If the books or ideas are banned, they will find ways to obtain those books or search for ideas. Banning books or ideas only fuels their curiosity.

They choose to deny young people the chance to understand and develop empathy for others. Evidently, allowing young people to develop understanding and empathy runs counter to supposed values and morals. They want to raise their children to be as ignorant and insular as they are.

Here is a clue. If you ban something from young people, they will seek it out. If you banned brushing teeth, you would find young people in gangways, alleys, and rooftops furiously brushing their teeth. The same holds true for banned books or ideas. Curious young people will find them, even if they must hide them from adults.

We need our young people to widen their perspectives. You cannot do that in a vacuum. Our society is in constant change. Morals and values are changing. If we want our children to be good world citizens, they need to be exposed to ideas and language. They are not being converted, nor are their morals and values corrupted. Hell, the Bible is full of immorality and atrocities. Not one of those Bible-thumping book banners wants the Bible banned.

The internet opened the whole world of ideas. Young people can go on the internet and learn anything they want, even the ideas banned by so-called adults. There are no hiding ideas and concepts from young people. They can find out anything without the permission or knowledge of their narrow-minded school boards, state legislatures, or parents.

Language and history are uncomfortable. They are they supposed to be. We teach young people history without the horrors humans inflicted on the world. They learn that later in their educations, usually at university.

Young people are more sophisticated than their parents, just like every young generation was. If taught correctly, they can critically think and make their own decisions about right or wrong, moral or immoral. They can decide what is right for them. The question is will they choose to condemn others or understand and have empathy for them?

When people ban books, they are self-defeating. The same people who complain about censorship of certain ideas or cancel culture are the same ones trying to ban books. They are the bad guys not only to young people but to themselves. Knowledge is not good, evil, moral, or immoral. It is just information to produce informed citizens.

Certain kinds of trauma visited on peoples are so deep, so cruel, that unlike money, unlike vengeance, even unlike justice, or rights, or the goodwill of others, only writers can translate such trauma and turn sorrow into meaning, sharpening the moral imagination. (Toni Morrison)

We can send informed citizens with moral imagination in the world, or we can send ignorant citizens with no imagination, just like the book banners. The choice is ours. The future is theirs.