The call went out over the company radios: Man down.
Everyone looked stricken. I raced to the part of the campus where my colleague was on the floor, in cardiac arrest, turning blue.
I knelt down on the floor, sweating, and began to perform CPR. For three minutes, I pushed and breathed into my co-worker.
At the end of my turn, two nurses and another member of the response team at my work, S&C Electric Company, took over. Together we got him breathing on his own before the paramedics arrived and rushed him to the hospital. Now I see him at work every day.
You don’t know how you’ll react during an emergency, but my emergency response team training at S&C Electric Co. paid off.
Rogers Park-based S&C is employee-owned through an employee stock ownership plan — a federally regulated retirement plan that allows companies to share ownership with workers. Because we’re employee-owned, everyone takes pride in safety.
Companies with such a plan have up to 13% fewer workplace safety incidents than companies that don’t, and workplace injuries and illnesses decline significantly within two years of a company implementing an employee stock ownership plan. Researchers attribute the improved safety at the companies to reduced employee turnover and increased employee involvement in managerial decision-making. There’s alignment between what the employer and the employees want.
This Labor Day I’m sharing my story with the goal of increasing employee ownership for other American workers. My hope is that more workers can share the pride I have at work. There are just 301 employee stock ownership plan companies in Illinois. Employee owners across the country are uniting to change that through Expanding ESOPs, a coalition of nearly 100 organizations.
Employee ownership helps create a workplace where people are trained to look out for one another — something every worker deserves.
Marquis Spivey, lead electrical technologist, S&C Electric Co.
Showcasing West Side’s potential with Fifth City spirit
The Sun-Times’ Abby Miller’s recent story on Woodlawn Central is worth celebrating. A development centering Black culture, housing, businesses, jobs and community space represents the kind of investment our neighborhoods deserve.
It also raises the question: Where else in our city has this vision already been imagined, and what would it mean to invest there with the same ambition?
The West Side-based Fifth City movement began over 60 years ago as a collaboration between neighborhood residents and the Ecumenical Institute. Its premise was both simple and radical: Communities could shape their own futures through comprehensive, resident-driven development. Fifth City understood that “revitalization” alone could not address housing, economic opportunity, culture or community spirit. They had to move together, with residents of all ages participating in the work.
That history matters now.
This is not a call to pit the West Side against the South Side or to diminish the promise of Woodlawn Central. It is a call to recognize that Chicago already has a powerful blueprint for community-led transformation in Fifth City — one that deserves renewed attention, investment and imagination.
That work is not only historical. Artists, residents and cultural organizations are still invoking Fifth City today. This fall, the creative collaborative Honey Pot Performance will gather West Siders through “Pleasure Power Portal,” a month-long series rooted in memory, pleasure, Black cultural life and collective belonging at First Church of the Brethren and other West Side spaces. In 2027, Honey Pot Performance proposes to develop a new, original multidisciplinary performance, “Fifth City: Then and Now,” which examines the future of the West Side and imagines what equitable futures could look like when legacy residents are centered as the authors — not just witnesses — of neighborhood change.
Remembering Fifth City should be more than an act of preservation. It should be an invitation to funders, developers, civic leaders and neighbors to revisit what this community built and ask what it could become again with sustained investment.
Woodlawn Central shows what is possible when Black community life is treated as infrastructure worth building around. Fifth City deserves that same recognition, and the resources to carry its vision forward.
Honey Pot Performance Core Team: Kimeco Roberson, Meida McNeal, Aisha Jean-Baptiste, Jo de Presser, and Jennifer Ligaya
Bolster CPS, park district after-school activities
As a retired Chicago Public Schools educator, Chicago Park District employee and the district’s director of athletics and activities, I believe there would be less violence if the youth had access to recreational and social activities, including athletics and other activities kids are interested in. The research tells us if children participate in organized activities, they perform better academically, attend school more frequently and have fewer discipline referrals and higher graduation rates.
Everyone cannot make school sports teams, but if funding is added for social and recreational clubs and activities, all children can have an opportunity to participate in after-school activities at their schools with peers. The park district should also be offering free recreational athletic programs along with homework rooms, game rooms, animation club, woodshop, drama club and sewing and music classes. These programs should run from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. weekdays with instructors and time slots for each age group.
CPS and the park district are undervalued and underutilized. Free programming is a great weapon that not only combats violence but helps teach life skills that will produce well-rounded young people and eventually well-rounded adults.
I’ve heard Mayor Brandon Johnson talk about the Youth Commission that advises the city on key policies and initiatives. Experienced professional experts who can design effective fall, winter and spring programs should also be included in these discussions.
CPS and park district programs can be the change agent to address some civil disobedience and help to shape young people. I would love to serve.
Calvin Davis, Beverly
Cellphoning it in
Being rabidly tradition-bound, I never owned a cellphone until now. I admit, at 73, I now see cellphones’ portability, compactness, ease of use and game-changer versatility.
I bought in mainly for security on late-night walks. Such serenity didn’t exist generations ago; you just risked facing an emergency without a pay phone nearby. Good luck finding an operable one today. To tap the cellphone’s unprecedented assurance level, in contrast, you only need to be toting it.
I love texting too, messaging people I’d rather not talk to. It’s also nice to engage on Facebook and catch the music and live sports events on YouTube. I check the time, weather and consult Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster. And what an inspired leap for originators to mix in a camera!
Doubtless, camera manufacturers weren’t enthused, nor Walgreens, in losing film sales and developing business. But innovations can spur others and further progress, like my processing incoming checks by photographing and depositing them via phone and bank app.
Our world certainly remains anxiety-ridden. But it continues to offer consolations, including my companion in the breakproof case, which I’ve already dropped many times like everyone else, only starting at a much older age.
Tom Gregg, Niles
Deep dive
President Donald Trump thought small when he renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America.” He also thought small by renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
Trump needs to get on with renaming every body of water after his family and friends. I will be more than happy to help him there. Let’s rename Lake Erie to “Lake Vance.” “Lake Musk” would be an excellent choice for renaming Lake Superior. “Lake Rubio” would be a great name in lieu of Lake Michigan. Trump can rename Lake Huron to “Lake Mullin” to honor of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin
Let’s not forget the oceans. The “Melania Ocean” would be a wonderful choice for the Pacific Ocean. Renaming the Atlantic Ocean to the “Barron Ocean” is an obvious choice. The Indian Ocean can be renamed the “Frederick Ocean” in honor of Trump’s father.
I don’t know why Trump didn’t think “bigly.”
Shane Nodurft, Old Irving Park
Apple and Google’s gaffe
Shame on Google and Apple for changing the names of the Gulf of Mexico and now Lake Ontario on their maps for no other reason than to appease a petulant whiner of a president.
John Farrell, DeKalb
Republicans got what they voted for
Four hundred million dollars of our money going to pay for a gaudy ballroom. Hundreds of millions of our dollars to upgrade a plane that was given to Donald Trump as a foreign gift. Millions of our dollars to an inept contractor to resurface the reflecting pool, which ultimately failed. Paying 24% more for beef since Donald Trump took office. Paying at least 40% more at the pump to fill up your vehicle. The Republicans in Congress are evidently all OK with this. If you are OK with this, by all means vote Republican. But don’t come crying when it gets worse.
Thomas Bajorek, Burbank
Shaking my head
Keeping up with the unprecedented insanity of the Trump administration is exhausting. There’s geographic name changes — first the Gulf of America, and now Lake America. There were already inhumane immigration policies, and now there are electrified gloves to stun immigrants. What next? Donald Trump bobbleheads sold in vending machines in the Lincoln Memorial? I think one bobblehead in the White House is more than enough.
Sheryl Gallaher, Palos Park
Grousing guest
I saw that President Donald Trump is making plans to visit the Chicago area later this month. After years of bad-mouthing the city and using it as a punching bag to extol about violence, it will be nice to finally see him show his face here.
Hopefully he will spend a few minutes to meet with some Chicago area residents and not just fly in to hobnob with the golfers.
Steven Fortuna, Naperville
Social Security solution?
For as long as I can remember we were told Social Security will run out of money. Likewise, I could never understand why there was a salary cap on which Social Security taxes were calculated. Why not tax all wages? Why should the wealthiest among us receive a tax break?
My solution is to exempt the first $100,000 of salary from Social Security taxes and tax every dollar after that. Everyone gets a break, and it would greatly benefit the poorest among us. Now I don’t know the optimal amount to exempt, but I am sure someone can determine that, such that it benefits the poorest while making Social Security solvent for years to come.
Michael Sienkowski, Tinley Park
Kiss off
I was astonished to see the Sun-Times front page on Aug 31. I thought the National Tattler had arrived on my porch. How ridiculous and irresponsible to inflate the Lyons Township mini “scandal” with a front page kiss photo. I expect better from the Sun-Times.
Last Sunday morning, NASA launched the new Ruth Roman Space Telescope. It’s now on its million-mile voyage and will explore the universe for all mankind. That’s front page news! The Sun-Times could have put that photo on the front page.
Blaise J. Arena, Des Plaines