Leaving Cambodia
Nov. 13, 2012
Most of the Cambodians in Chicago came here as refugees in the years following 1975, when the brutal Khmer Rouge regime seized control of Cambodia. In that country, there began a four-year reign of terror in which millions of Cambodians were killed.
Peter Jennings once told me about that place, “So much suffering. Such a tortured history…”
He also said, ``The Khmer Rouge are the most genocidal people on the face of the earth. These people are maniacs.”
And so the people came here. With limited education, most Cambodian refugees sought jobs in factories, crafts and blue-collar service jobs. English as a second language and other educational programs helped Cambodians adjust to American life—but poverty remained a major problem, with 49 percent of Cambodians here living beneath the poverty line at the end of the 1990s.
There are only 5,000-some Cambodians in Chicago now and yet they—all of us—have a most amazing museum. Opened in 2004 and located at 2831 W.
Spielberg's 'Lincoln' honors and humanizes our greatest president
Nov. 13, 2012
There have been over 16,000 books written about every aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s private and professional life. In 2009 alone, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, 249 Lincoln biographies were published. The total number of Lincoln biographies, 5,796, is nearly double the number of biographies written about George Washington, 2,972. And, according to Lincoln aficionado Andrew Ferguson, there have been more banks, bridges, schools, streets, roads and highways named after Lincoln than any other single president. As one political commentator put it, we love Lincoln because “he saved the dream, and he lived the American dream.”
Personally, Lincoln has long been one of my cultural heroes. He was a man of the people and a man of the soil, who rose from pioneer poverty to the presidency. And, he did this all with the power of his mind. Lincoln was a man who fell in love with the importance of words and the impact of ideas. For him, the life of the mind was the key to human progress and prosperity. His rise to power was based not on a large campaign war chest or the unwavering endorsement of his political party.
Studs
Nov. 8, 2012
It is 2002. Studs Terkel's hearing is shot. I am sitting with him in Stefani's 437, a restaurant at Hubbard and Rush streets, a place more familiar to Studs as Riccardo's; and for the last four hours we have been talking at such increasingly loud volume that a departing diner feels compelled to say, as he passes our booth, "What are you guys, deaf?" to which Studs replies, "What did that guy say? . . .Well, anyway, right after the war, World War II, Ric Riccardo opened this place for three straight days, noon to midnight. Everything was free--chicken, steak, booze--and everybody was here. I sat over there, where the booths used to be, near the window. . . . What a wonderful time that was. And then your dad, your dad and I were here one night and we were sitting with. . . "
"Now, your dad was . . . He's in the book, the book The Good War, and he's got one of the best lines. Now this building was owned by Wrigley and I'll . . . I'll tell you about that later. Ric Riccardo, a very romantic figure.
The re-making of an artist
Nov. 8, 2012
Tony Sarabia:
So now that President Barack Obama has been reelected to a second term, how will his final four years in the White House unfold? What will his ‘second act’ look like?
And what sort of reinvention will defeated Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh undertake?
It's over! It's finally over!
Nov. 7, 2012
It’s over! It’s finally over! Thank God almighty, it’s over! No more newspaper, TV or radio ads! No more blitz of unending robocalls! No more sometimes-urbane-but-more-often-than-not-unbearably-pompous-post-debate-analysis by professional pundits! The votes are in, the count is official. The Electoral College has been given its marching orders. We no longer have two candidates, we now have a duly elected winner.
According to a number of sources, more money has been spent on this presidential campaign than ever before: Tally up the professional staff, organizing volunteers, neighborhood canvassing, major fund raisers, local bake sales, the kissing of random babies, the shaking of untold hands, the photos taken or the rubber chicken dinners eaten — the time and money spent on all sides has been staggering.
Then there are the candidates: Mitt Romney has almost exclusively devoted the last three years to running for the presidency; and, although President Obama’s day job prohibited him from being a full time candidate, the power of the bully pulpit kept his candidacy in the public eye.
But now it’s over.
'Duck' is a winner!
Nov. 6, 2012
The Lifeline Theater in Rogers Park is currently presenting its production of Duck for President, a musical based on the best-selling book by Doreen Cronin, illustrations by Betsy Lewin. Rick Kogan sent eight-year-old theater critic Fiona Kogan to the play (slacker!), which runs through November 25.
Here is her review:
The play was about a duck who lived on a farm. He and some other animals decided that they needed a farm election because the farmer was working them too hard.
Ideas are hard to kill
Nov. 6, 2012
Martin Luther King, Jr.; Malcolm X; John F. Kennedy; Robert Kennedy; Gandhi; Abraham Lincoln. . . the list goes on. All of these individuals have been victims of an assassin’s bullet.
Now add 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai to that list. Even though Malala’s head wound did not kill her, she is fighting to hang on to life. Even if she survives, she may never fully regain her health or cognitive abilities.
Yousufzai was shot by a Taliban gunman because she wanted to go to school. And, because she wanted all the young girls to be able to go to school. “I have a right to an education,” she told CNN. “I have a right to play or to talk…to go to the market. I have a right to speak up.” So too, she said, “do all women in Pakistan.” She advocated for these rights in a series of blog posts that received both local and international attention.
The Taliban believes that women have few and limited rights and no need for education. Over the years the Taliban has destroyed 200 girl schools in Pakistan.