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May, 2013
The “I-Word” is becoming an endangered species. This is one creature we don’t want to save.For years, immigrant advocates have been lobbying news organizations to cease using the term, “illegal immigrant.”“Illegal” took a welcome blow last month when the Associated Press announced it was dropping the term from its iconic stylebook. “The AP Stylebook,” a guide for grammar, punctuation and usage,...
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March, 2013
It could have been Drew. That thought has been my personal preoccupation lately. I think often about my younger brother, who could have been a casualty of multiple wars—in Afghanistan, Iraq, and right at our back door—on the South Side of Chicago.Drew could be just another number, one of the 506 people killed in Chicago last year.On Dec. 31, Sgt. First Class Andrew N. Washington Jr. officially...
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January, 2013
“In 1972, veteran civil rights activist John McDermott imagined a monthly publication that would investigate and analyze racial issues. McDermott and co-editor Lillian Calhoun met to plot the first issue, Calhoun recalled years later. “To save money, we decided on a newsletter, printed in good, clean Helvetica,” she said. “We chose extra-thin paper for inexpensive postage. Folded to letter size,...
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November, 2012
I would have preferred a direct flight. But on my vacation several weeks ago, the cheapest flight to Barcelona, Spain, required a two-day layover in Helsinki. I had never been, never wanted to go and likely never would have gone to Finland. I hate the cold. But I’m glad I did.In a world of Nordic blue-eyed blondes is a criminal justice system that the Finnish boast as having one of the three...
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September, 2012
It’s been a brutal summer. I’m not just talking about the record-breaking heat that fell on us a few days at a time but had us complaining like we had been living in a humidifier all summer.We were reminded of the brutal summer every time we picked up a paper and the headline read: “Another youth …”You know how the story went. More youth have been dying in Chicago because of violence than in any...
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July, 2012
For people not math averse, here’s a little question for you: If I own a two-flat and I have no tenants, what do I collect in rent?Your immediate answer would be “zero,” right? I would say that, too. But apparently that’s not the case when it comes to public tax dollars being funneled through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Chicago Housing Authority.Properties on prime...
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May, 2012
Florida’s Trayvon Martin case taught us a lot of things. But among the lessons learned is that police accountability is not only a Windy City issue.In Chicago, I would argue that the lack of accountability with rogue officers has left residents of high-crime neighborhoods distrustful of the police accountability system, which allows abusive officers to keep their jobs with little discipline....
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March, 2012
Nobody likes to get stiffed—especially when it comes to their paycheck.Wage theft is so prevalent in our society these days as companies look for ways to produce goods and services at a fraction of what it cost five and 10 years ago. It’s not always blatant, often subtle and pernicious—unpaid overtime, unpaid vacation, less money in the paycheck.But the victim is clear: the worker.There are many...
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January, 2012
It’s a new year with new resolutions. And I’ve got some for local and federal housing authorities.In 2012, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development should resolve to be courageous and slow the money that flows to landlords running an arsenal of dilapidated housing stock for Chicago’s low-income residents.HUD should stop lining the pockets of irresponsible landlords and instead force...
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