Friday night’s Loop shootings — moments after what should have been a joyous Christmas tree-lighting — were more than another headline. They were another heartbreak, another reminder that the city I have loved my entire life continues to slip further into a crisis of safety, leadership and direction. They call it a “teen takeover.” Whatever the label, it is clear that crime has overtaken Chicago and pretending otherwise insults the people who live with the consequences every day.
I still remember walking into Marshall Field’s as a young boy, my grandmother proudly keeping watch over her floor during the Christmas season. Chicago at Christmas felt magical — alive, bustling, proud. Later, after graduating from college and taking my first job at Standard Oil, I lived in Lincoln Park. I volunteered in the community, worked to protect election integrity and built a life here. I met the Chicago girl who became my wife of 42 years.
Though I have lived in Virginia for the last 33 years, I return to Chicago a few times every year. And every time, I feel it: My heart is still vested in this city, which is why every act of violence, every senseless tragedy feels like a blow. Friday night was enough. Enough fear. Enough excuses. Enough drift.
Chicago has become a place where leadership talks about “community unity” while failing to deliver the basics of public order. A place where business development is discussed in lofty terms while companies quietly slip out the back door. A place where the pattern feels disturbingly familiar to those who watched Detroit decline in the 1970s and ’80s. A city can reach a tipping point — and once crossed, it can take a generation or more to recover, if it recovers at all.
Corporate departures are accelerating. Job losses are mounting. Property taxes have surged toward nearly 17% increases in some areas (and an astonishing 80% to100% spike in the poorest wards). And looming over it all is a pension crisis so severe it borders on financial insolvency. A city cannot survive when people stop feeling safe, businesses stop investing and taxpayers feel squeezed with no return.
Chicago used to be a city that did hard things well — building, inventing, growing, leading. Today it feels like a city waiting for someone else to take responsibility.
Where does it stop? It stops when leaders abandon slogans and start insisting on order, accountability and standards. It stops when communities, police, businesses and public officials pull in the same direction. And it stops when we admit that wishing for better days is not the same as working for them.
I have loved this city all my life. I want to see it thrive again. But right now, Chicago is running out of time.
David W. Walker, Williamsburg, Virginia
City’s safe spaces shrinking
So as Mayor Brandon Johnson says, the answer to this spiraling out of control crime crisis in the city is that we need more safe spaces. Shouldn’t a Christmas tree-lighting be considered a safe space?
Jim Mullins, Streeterville
Caregivers deserve more support
November is National Family Caregivers Month, a time to honor the 63 million Americans and 2.2 million Illinois residents providing ongoing, complex care every day. Caregivers are the indispensable backbone of our communities, yet too often, they face overwhelming stress, financial strain and isolation.
Here in Illinois, 62% of family caregivers balance work and caregiving, often with little support. Nationally, 1 in 4 provide 40 or more hours of care weekly. Nearly half of these caregivers report negative financial impacts, with strain especially high for caregivers in communities of color and rural areas.
What does that mean for us? It’s time for us to support the caregivers who keep our community thriving — the people who care for our friends and family. The Illinois Family Caregiver Coalition — created and powered by the state’s 13 Area Agencies on Aging is committed to providing a voice to advocate for our state’s family caregivers.
Thank you to state Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines, who successfully championed Senate Resolution 214 recognizing Family Caregiver Month and honoring caregivers. As a caregiver, she knows firsthand the joys and challenges of caregiving.
In next year’s legislative session, we urge the governor and the Illinois General Assembly to craft a budget demonstrating strong family caregiver support.
It’s time to ensure caregivers have resources, workplace protections and policy support they deserve. We need to recognize caregivers and push for support that makes caregiving sustainable, equitable and dignified.
Amy Brennan, executive director, Illinois Family Caregiver Coalition
An ode to Da Bears
If you can’t relate
It’s tough to explain
That feeling when the team you love
Wins a big game.
A true fan knows
What a bad season’s like
And if you’re from Chicago
You only know that kind of life.
But every once in a while
The prophecy is rewritten
By a new coaching staff
With, for once, a cohesive vision
Things start to click
Plays move with fluid motion
Fans lose their minds
Celebrating and causing a commotion.
After years of defending a losing team
We’re leading the pack and picking up steam
Better than getting an “A” on that test
Or getting promoted
Or any personal success.
Any true fan will tell you
The best feeling, hands down
Is when your team
Holds the crown.
Joelle White, St. Charles
Turkey pardon easy to swallow
Thanksgiving brings out the only presidential pardon on which every American can agree.
Paul L. Newman, Merion Station, Pennsylvania