Two weeks ago, Chicago’s Cardinal Cupich gave the opening prayer at the Democratic National Convention. It was in one respect, quite fitting, since it was held in Chicago, but at the same time, it merits asking whether his decision was wholly appropriate, or, rather, whether the contents of the prayer was appropriate. And, no, I’m not upset that Cupich didn’t make any mention of Jesus. Instead, well — on the one hand, party conventions are a part of our democratic... Read more
“Housing shortage” is a term that conventionally pops up with reference to historical events such as a war or natural disaster destroying housing, or in the past, communist countries putting people on decade-long waitlists because housing was centrally planned, or in rare instances, a particular town or region suddenly becoming jobs-rich, such as parts of North Dakota recently due to the oil boom there. How can America have a housing shortage, in general, when none of these conditions apply? How... Read more
By now everyone has read about the controversial Olympic Opening Ceremony scene last week, so I’m not going to provide the full details here, but I nonetheless Have Thoughts About It. Yes, it was definitely a reference to the Last Supper, though it was a dynamic scene rather than a still image, so that it shifted from “Last Supper” to “Greek Gods” to “catwalk.” But participants in the scene perceived of what they were doing as exactly this, with the... Read more
So JD Vance’s criticism of childless women, or crazy cat ladies, went viral over the past week, with various pundits claiming this was disqualifying in the election for Vice President. His claim, quite simply, was that childless women were less able to think about the long-term future, than mothers whose perspective was influenced by their concern with their children. Will those childless women, and the child-ful women who support their literal or figurative sisters, rise up in support of Kamala... Read more
A term I just coined, of course. But the Catholic Church has, for millennia, in fact, believed that to pray is to do something good for others, not just a form of personal entertainment such as reading a novel, nor a means to an end like taking classes to get a promotion. That belief has been fundamental to the very idea of monastic life. Yes, monks “saved civilization” through the scriptoria, and in American history actual cloistered religious life was... Read more
Dad has passed. Mom has dementia. At this point it is severe enough that she says only a few words, but it’s been quite a while since she has been able to say particularly much and even longer still since she has been able to tell us much about the past. And this means there are questions about my childhood I will never know the answer to. Exhibit 1: my childhood bedspread. Yes, what you see here is a bedspread... Read more
More stellar reporting from the Tribune: in a photo spread about a multicultural event, students at Bartlett High School are pictured holding a Palestinian flag as well as two signs, one reading “in our hundreds, in our millions, we are all Palestinian,” and the other, “From the River to the Sea” as well as Arabic text which, according to the students’ change.org petition, translates to “Palestine is Arab.” Upon discovering this, school staff paused distribution of the yearbook in order... Read more
Yes, I still subscribe to the Chicago Tribune, though I switched to the digital only option a while back, and I read the paper digitally relatively infrequently, but one opinion piece caught my eye from a bit over a week ago: “Why isn’t the SAT being translated into other languages?” by Gina Caneva, a librarian at East Leyden High School, in Franklin Park, a suburb a few miles west of Chicago, whose previous work experience includes 8 years as a... Read more
Tim Carney has a new book out, Family Unfriendly, with, as usual for books these days, a subtitle that explains what the book is about: “How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be.” And, in an effort to think more about the book before it goes back to the library, I’m going to blog about it. Before I get into the content, a brief why-it-matters: having parents who are stressed and unhappy matters for a... Read more
So, as it happens, 15 years ago, a transgender activist declared March 31st to be “Transgender Day of Visibility,” with the date chosen to spread the various “days” of transgender/LGBTetc. acknowledgement/awareness/celebration (as proclaimed by activists) throughout the year. When Biden came into office, he/his staff elevated this to official recognition through a proclamation, which went relatively unnoticed by the “outside” world until the proclamation was issued on Good Friday and the day itself coincided with Easter, and a heck of... Read more
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