Category: Opinion/Editorial

Today marks an anniversary we deplore. On March 19, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq. Five years later, the war goes on, anchoring both countries to a fate that daily appears less and less promising. Five years: longer than our involvement in the Civil War, in either World War or in the Korean Conflict. Half […]

In later life, birthdays are mostly for forgetting, except maybe significantly numbered ones. When one is on the short end of time, who needs a reminder? But when one is at the other end, believing they are immortal, birthdays are more a harbinger of what lies ahead rather than an echo of all that is […]

City Council – the nine aldermen and the mayor – wrangle and agonize about city services and the effect of property taxes on the residents of Evanston. It is troubling, though, to see how, year after year, the struggle comes down to nickel-and-diming over services that for the most part cost less than $100,000 in […]

It’s almost National Women’s History Month. I revisited a book of nursery rhymes and was again struck by some of the notions about women and girls. “Here’s Sulky Sue, What shall we do? Turn her face To the wall Until she comes to.” * * * * * “Little Polly Flinders Sat among the cinders, […]

Our Founding Fathers were wise in many ways, but none of their foundation stones has proven more inspired and essential to our democracy than their dictum regarding the separation of Church and State. A brief history: Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Danbury Baptists, a then-minority religion fearing the dominance of the Congregationalists in their […]

It’s Black History Month and the week before Valentine’s Day. Marietta and John had been together for almost 50 years, 50 years come Valentine’s Day. They had five children but had never married. Common-law marriages had been acceptable, and John and Marietta felt that no piece of paper from the government – a government that […]

“When did illegal aliens become ‘undocumented immigrants’?” a friend asked, tossing the latest issue of the RoundTable at me. “Your paper,” he taunted, seems to condone the phrase.” I had read Joe Linstroth’s front-page story and was not surprised that Evanston was “doing its thing” by taking a community stand on a hot and complex […]

Kudos to Hamos If you’re reading this on your way to work, call Julie Hamos when you get off the train, bus or el and thank her. As chair of the mass transit committee in the State House of Representatives, she was responsible in large part for the transportation bill that was approved last week. […]

January 15th was the birthday of the late Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) – Baptist minister, civil rights leader, Nobel Peace Prize recipient. In Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, he said he dreamed that one day people would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content […]