Rayneesha Dotson was among two people killed in a shooting early Sunday at a makeshift nightclub in Park Manor that wounded 13 others. | GoFundMe
“She wasn’t out here harming anyone. And for her to be out enjoying herself to get gunned down like that I think is just outrageous,” said the aunt of Rayneesha Dotson, who was killed in the early Sunday shooting at a makeshift nightclub on the South Side.
After relocating to Texas as the pandemic wore on, Rayneesha Dotson decided to return home to the South Side for a visit.
With her trip winding down this past weekend, Dotson’s aunt said she decided to spend her last days in Chicago “enjoying her friends” as she prepared to head back to the Houston area Tuesday.
Dotson, 30, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Lionel Darling, 39, was also killed.
“For her to go out like that, it just makes you sick to your stomach. She needs justice, and her voice needs to be heard,” Dotson’s aunt, Beverly Grinnage, said in an interview. “She’s not here, but I see her face and her name. And that’s all I see on TV.
“Nobody’s saying this was a loving, caring sister [and] auntie. She was a wonderful granddaughter to her grandparents before they passed on. So she is someone besides that face that everyone sees that got killed.”
After watching videos of the chaotic scene that transpired after the shooting, Grinnage said it was a “shame” the response to the mass shooting wasn’t swifter. After all, she noted, there’s both police and fire stations nearby.
“I don’t know maybe she would have survived. Maybe she wouldn’t have survived due to her gunshot wounds,” said Grinnage. “But we would never know because she didn’t get the help.”
Grinnage said her niece moved to Texas three or four months ago, hoping to “do better.”
Dotson’s aunt remembered her as a compassionate soul who made her own music and aspired to become a successful rapper. Above all though, Grinnage said Dotson “always loved to be around her family.”
“Regardless if we had arguments, she still wanted us to be a family,” Grinnage said. “She made sure she was at every function, every family gathering — just there with a big smile. If you see Rayneesha, you’ll see this big old smile. And she’s hugging you and telling you how much she loves you.”
Grinnage likened Dotson’s death to “losing a kid,” noting that she helped raise her along with her own children. She has now set up a GoFundMe campaign to help finance her niece’s funeral services, one of two such pages that have appeared on the crowdfunding site in recent days.
Days after the mass shooting claimed Dotson’s life, Grinnage said she still has no indication of what really happened at the after-hours spot set up inside a nondescript garage known for housing illegal businesses. On Tuesday, a police spokesman said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
“She wasn’t out here harming anyone. And for her to be out enjoying herself to get gunned down like that I think is just outrageous,” said Grinnage. “And I think she has a voice, and we are her voice.”
Demi Lovato performs the national anthem before the NFL Super Bowl 54 football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020. | David J. Phillip, AP
The four-part documentary on her life premiered at the virtual South by Southwest festival Tuesday night. Her wholesome image, coupled with her Christian upbringing, made it so that Lovato felt she had to stay silent when she was raped as a teen.
Demi Lovato isn’t holding back.
The pop singer has bravely spoken about her struggles with depression, self-harm, sobriety and an eating disorder in MTV’s 2012 documentary “Stay Strong” and YouTube’s 2017 doc “Simply Complicated.” But neither film can prepare viewers for the vulnerability and candor on display in her harrowing new YouTube docuseries ”Dancing with the Devil,” which details the leadup and aftermath of her near-fatal 2018 overdose.
The four-part documentary premiered at the virtual South by Southwest festival Tuesday night. The first two episodes will stream for free on YouTube March 23, and new episodes will be released weekly on each of the next two Tuesdays. And on April 2, Lovato will release her first new album since 2017, “Dancing with the Devil … The Art of Starting Over,” which she described as a “non-official soundtrack to the documentary” in a Clubhouse livestream with fans Monday night.
Here are some of the biggest revelations from the heartbreaking yet cautiously hopeful new film:
Demi Lovato reveals she lost ‘virginity in a rape’
Throughout “Dancing with the Devil,” Lovato, 28, tries to reconcile childhood trauma brought on by her late addict father who was abusive to her mother, as well as the pressures of young fame.
Lovato had her breakthrough in Disney Channel movie “Camp Rock” with the Jonas Brothers, which premiered in June 2008 when she was just 15. Around that time, Lovato and fellow Disney stars Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers all famously wore purity rings, symbolizing they wouldn’t have sex until marriage.
Her wholesome image, coupled with her Christian upbringing, made it so that Lovato felt she had to stay silent when she was raped as a teen.
“I lost my virginity in a rape,” Lovato says in the doc. “We were hooking up but I said, ‘Hey, this is not going any farther, I’m a virgin and I don’t want to lose it this way.’ And that didn’t matter to them, they did it anyways. And I internalized it and I told myself it was my fault because I still went in the room with him, I still hooked up with him.
“I was a part of that Disney crowd that publicly said they were waiting till marriage,” she continues. “I didn’t have the romantic first time with anybody, that was not it for me and that sucked. And then I had to see this person all the time, and so I stopped eating and coped in other ways: cutting, throwing up, whatever. And my bulimia got so bad that I started throwing up blood for the first time.”
Lovato says she never went public with her experience, partly because of how Rihanna was blamed after Chris Brown assaulted her in 2009. She says she tried telling someone about what happened to her, but her rapist was never held accountable.
“Women are typically more oppressed than men, especially at 15 years old and especially as a little child-star role model,” Lovato says. “My Me Too story is me telling somebody that someone did this to me, and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in.”
‘Discarded and abandoned’: Lovato was sexually assaulted on morning of overdose
Lovato was forced to relive her sexual trauma in summer 2018, when she was sexually assaulted the morning of her overdose. The singer had relapsed a few months earlier, after celebrating six years of sobriety in March 2018. Feeling “miserable” and overwhelmed, she attended a party where she tried meth for the first time, which she mixed with cocaine, molly, oxycontin, marijuana and alcohol.
“I’m surprised I didn’t OD that night,” Lovato says.
Two weeks later, she was introduced to heroin and crack cocaine, which she started using recreationally but quickly became physically dependent on. She also began drinking heavily on tour, while attempting to hide her hard drug use from her friends and team.
On the night of her overdose, July 23, 2018, Lovato went to several bars with her friends and the party continued at her Los Angeles home. Once everyone left, around 5:30 a.m., she drunkenly called one of her dealers, who gave her oxycodone that she now believes was laced with fentanyl.
“I didn’t just overdose – I also was taken advantage of,” Lovato says. “I’ve had my fair share of sexual trauma throughout childhood, teenage years. And when they found me, I was naked, I was blue. I was literally left for dead after he took advantage of me.
“When I woke up in the hospital, they asked if I had had consensual sex,” she continues. “There was one flash that I had of him on top of me. I saw that flash and I said, ‘Yes.’ It wasn’t until a month after my overdose when I realized, ‘Hey, you weren’t in any state of mind to make a consensual decision.’ That kind of trauma doesn’t go away overnight.
“I was literally discarded and abandoned.”
She was ‘legally blind’ in hospital, later relapsed again
On the morning of July 24, Lovato’s now-former assistant Jordan Jackson and security guard Max Lea found her unconscious in bed and called 911. After being rushed to the hospital, she suffered three strokes and a heart attack, as well as pneumonia and multiple organ failure.
“I was legally blind when I woke up,” says Lovato, who suffered brain damage from the strokes and has since regained eyesight.
“I can’t drive anymore and I have blind spots in my vision,” she says. “So sometimes when I go to pour a glass of water, I totally miss the cup because I can’t see it anymore.”
Following her near-death experience in 2018, Lovato relapsed after she attended a weeklong intensive trauma retreat. The day she returned home, she called her abuser from the night she overdosed.
“I wish I could say the last night that I ever touched heroin was the night of my overdose, but it wasn’t,” Lovato says. By seeing her abuser again, “I wanted to rewrite his choice of violating me. I wanted it now to be my choice, and he also had something that I wanted, which were drugs. I ended up getting high. I thought, ‘How did I pick up the same drugs that put me in the hospital?’ I was mortified with my decisions.
“It didn’t fix anything, it just made me feel worse,” she adds. “But that, for some reason, was my way of taking the power back.”
She now smokes weed, drinks in moderation
The documentary’s fourth chapter ends with Lovato breaking off her engagement to actor Max Ehrich last September after six months of dating.
“I rushed into something that I thought I was supposed to do,” Lovato says, telling her friends that “the hardest part of the breakup was mourning the person I thought he was.”
But the relationship’s end offered some clarity for the singer about her sexuality.
“I actually think I’m too queer to marry a man in my life right now,” says Lovato, who came out to her parents in 2017. Her new album is about “me embracing my queer self. Going for it fearlessly is where I’m at today, and what I want my music to represent, too.”
As for her mental and physical health, Lovato now receives Vivitrol injections to help curb cravings for alcohol and opioids. She also recently learned that she was misdiagnosed as bipolar when she was 18.
“I was acting out when I was 18 for many reasons, but I know now from multiple different doctors that it was not because I was bipolar,” Lovato says. “I had to grow up.”
She now chooses to smoke weed and drinks in moderation, which admittedly worries some members of her new team (including Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun).
“I have full faith you’re not going to open up TMZ and see another overdose headline,” Lovato says. “But I also say this with humility that this is a very powerful disease. I’m not going to pretend like I’m invincible. I have to work every day to make sure that I’m in a good place so I don’t go to those things. Time and trust is the only thing that will work for people, and over time you’ll see that I’m good.”
City planners are advancing a proposed $30 million arena devoted to esports and virtual reality on the Near South Side.
The zoning proposal from a Lincolnshire-based developer promises an immersive experience for up to 1,040 people, including game participants and spectators. Called Surge, it would be built at 2500-2548 S. Wabash Ave., just across I-55 from McCormick Place.
Such a crowd generator would need an improvement in the pandemic before it can operate. But city approval of the zoning would allow the developer, Scott Greenberg, president of ECD, to start construction.
“At this time when we need to return to some type of normalcy, this is an exciting project and something to look forward to,” said Bonnie Sanchez-Carlson, president of the Near South Planning Board.
This building in the 2500 block of South Wabash Avenue would be incorporated into a $30 million esports arena on the Near South Side. It would be combined with a new structure built on the now-vacant land to the south.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
The facility would cover more than 108,000 square feet and would include restaurant and bar service, free-roaming space for virtual reality gamers and the ability to broadcast events. Greenberg has told community groups he can build it without city subsidies.
He also has promised partnerships with local schools and universities to help them educate students in esports technology and design.
The project has been placed on the agenda of Thursday’s Chicago Plan Commission meeting, indicating the city’s planning department recommends it. Approval by the commission, which reviews larger zoning proposals, would send the matter to the City Council.
Greenberg could not be reached for comment. He has produced several commercial and residential projects around town, but is perhaps best known for building the Wit Hotel at 201 N. State St., with the angled lights on its front facade that suggest a lightning bolt. The hotel was the work of Chicago architect Jackie Koo, whose firm is listed as designer of the esports arena.
City planning documents indicate some flashier elements of the esports building, such as signs, have been toned down after meetings with community groups. The project would reuse an existing two-story building, formerly Kozy’s Cyclery, while constructing space next door on property that had been used to store semi-trailers. The developer also plans parking for 90 cars and retail space down the block, at 2601 S. Wabash Ave.
Sanchez-Carlson, whose community group backs the proposal, said Greenberg’s term has worked hard on traffic and parking. She hopes the attention will encourage other development and help the nearby Motor Row historic district. “Right now, it’s just very quiet over there. That area needs a jump start,” she said.
Ald. Pat Dowell, whose 3rd Ward includes the project, said the arena appears financially viable and will involve minority-owned contractors and funding sources. She said the developer has pledged to offer programs that benefit Drake Elementary School, Phillips Academy High School and the National Teachers Academy, all nearby.
Greenberg has formed a company, Smash Interactive, to handle the venture. He has asserted that esports are becoming mainstream, with an audience soon to exceed that of most athletic events, except the National Football League.
The plan commission also is scheduled to review three other proposals Thursday:
o A 27-story residential building containing 375 units, from developer Michael Moceri and architect Thomas Roszak.
o A 12-story, 96-unit building for affordable housing at 1939 W. Lake St., by affiliates of Northbrook-based Brinshore Development. It’s part of Westhaven Park on the site of the old Henry Horner Homes.
o A nine-story office and retail building at 1229 W. Randolph St., by New York-based Thor Equities.
Berkowitz w/GOP GOV Candidate & former State Senator Paul Schimpf, part 2, in Chicago and the N & NW Chicago suburbs, Cable tonight; in Aurora, tmw night & in Rockford, Thur night; And the Web, Always
Tonight’s Public Affairs’ show in Chicago features Paul Schimpf, who became one month ago, the first announced candidate in the GOP 2022 Republican Primary for Governor. The program airs at 9:03 pm on Cable Ch 21 (CAN TV).
You can also watch here the show featuring GOP GOV candidate and Lt. Col. Paul Schimpf (Ret.) in Part 2 of his interview by show host Berkowitz.
You can also watch Part 1 of Berkowitz’s interview of Schimpf 24/7 by clicking here.
Watch this evening’s “Public Affairs,” in 25 Chicago Metro N and NW suburbs with show host Berkowitz interviewing GOP GOV candidate and former Senator Paul Schimpf (Part 2) 8:30 pm on:
—Comcast Cable Ch. 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette and on
—Comcast Cable Ch. 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.
The program featuring Schimpf also airs in Aurora tomorrow, this Saturday and next Monday at 6 pm on ACTV-10, also known as Cable Ch 10 and Aurora Community Television.
The program featuring GOP GOV candidate Schimpf also airs in Rockford this Thursday night, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch 17.
Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) , who graduated from the Naval Academy and spent 20 years in the U. S. Marine Corps, retired in 2013 as a Lt. Col. and soon thereafter was the 2014 Republican nominee for Attorney General, taking on Lisa Madigan, a 12 year incumbent, and getting outspent and beat handily.
But, Schimpf recovered quickly, beating former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, the daughter of the late and storied U. S. Senator Paul Simon (also a former guest of Public Affairs), although Schimpf was again outspent big time, for a downstate Senate seat in 2016.
You can also watch here the show featuring GOP GOV candidate and Lt. Col. Schimpf (Ret.) a twenty year U. S. Marine Corps Vet, discuss his experience as an advisor to Iraqi prosecutors and also as a Marine who helped “Collect the witnesses” when in 2005 Saddam Hussein was tried for war crimes and other crimes against his people.
Schimpf also discusses how his military background in solving complex problems by balancing competing interests prepared him for being Governor of Illinois.
Substantively, Schimpf focuses on how he would prosecute politically, not legally, Gov. Pritzker during a campaign for Governor for his failure to protect the most vulnerable to Covid– the elderly, those often with pre-existing conditions in nursing, long-term care and retirement homes and Vets at long term care facilities, as at LaSalle.
Schimpf also indicts the Governor for overdoing (Too many, too much and too long) lock-downs. Schimpf argues that philosophy of the Governor was supported neither by the science, nor the data, as early as April, 2020. Moreover, Schimpf argues that mis-judgement by Gov. Pritzker hurt the health and economic well-being of the people of IL tremendously.
Schimpf, who is Pro-Life, talks of trying to change the culture in IL to make abortions unthinkable, even if they remain legal.
GOP GOV Candidate Schimpf is also critical of the Governor for the extremely long delays incurred by IL citizens when they seek to obtain FOID cards, necessary for them to possess guns lawfully.
Dec 20, 2020; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Andy Dalton (14) reacts after a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
The ChicagoBears may have found their new starting quarterback on Tuesday as the team has agreed to a deal with former Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals starting quarterback Andy Dalton. Adam Schefter of ESPN was the first to report to the agreement.
With Jameis Winston re-signing with the New Orleans Saints and Ryan Fitzpatrick signing with the Washington Football Team on Monday, free-agent options at the quarterback position were quickly drying up for the Bears.
That would be the reason why the Bears moved quickly on Tuesday to sign Dalton. Dalton was uninspiring during the 2020 season with the Dallas Cowboys in place of the injured Dak Prescott. In 9 starts with the Cowboys last season, Dalton tossed for 14 touchdowns against 9 interceptions with a mediocre passer rating of 87.3.
As the roster is currently constructed, Dalton is likely penciled in so he can compete with Nick Foles as the team’s starting quarterback to begin the 2021 NFL Season. Under that scenario, the Bears will likely select a quarterback within the first two rounds of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The signing of Dalton was a tone-deaf move by Bears’ general manager Ryan Pace. The Bears’ front office has spent the first two months of the off-season throwing their quarterback position under the bus.
Whether it was Ted Phillips admitting that the Bears had not gotten the quarterback position right or head coach Matt Nagy insinuating that all the Bears needed was to fix the quarterback position, the Bears admitted to the league that they were desperate to find a quarterback this off-season.
Former Cowboys’ QB Andy Dalton is signing a one-year, $10 million deal, with the chance to earn another $3 million in incentives, with the Chicago Bears, per sources.
The Bears entered the start of the NFL Free Agency period with high hopes of trading for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson or Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. Instead, the Bears gifted their fans with Dalton as their new quarterback.
In regards to what the Dalton signing means for the Bears’ pursuit of Watson or Wilson, it likely moves each of those trades into the highly unlikely category. While Dalton’s cap hit does not prevent the Bears from making further moves at the quarterback position this off-season, especially in the 2021 NFL Draft, it seems unlikely that the team would sign Dalton with Nick Foles on the roster still and then acquire Watson or Wilson.
The Chicago Bears made a move at the quarterback position on Tuesday with the signing of Dalton but it appears that this just the latest quarterback blunder by general manager Ryan Pace.
Southern Illinois survived 17-16 when preseason all-conference Northern Iowa kicker Matthew Cook hooked a 30-yard field goal attempt. (photo courtesy of SIU Athletics)
It’s funny how the fate of a game can so easily be decided by the kick of an oblong ball. Well, funny may not be the right word depending upon your perspective.
Take the case of this past Saturday, for example. Three of the four games involving Illinois FCS teams were in many ways decided by such kicks.
Here’s our Prairie State Pigskin rundown.
North Dakota State 21, Illinois State 13
The Redbirds appeared to have risen off the turf after the fifth-ranked Bison built a 14-0 lead.
Sparked by its defense, ISU rallied to within a point with a fourth-quarter touchdown.
That tie never came about as NDSU’s Spencer Waege broke through and blocked Aidan Bresnahan’s extra point attempt, crashing the Redbird celebration.
Meanwhile, back in the first quarter, North Dakota State’s Jake Reinholz broke away on an 85-yard return off the foot of ISU punter JT Bohlken. It was the third-longest punt return in NDSU history.
“We spend a lot of time of special teams, probably more than most teams do. It’s a critical piece to what we do,” NDSU head coach Matt Entz said postgame.
Southern Illinois 17, Northern Iowa 16
Following a dramatic comeback with its third-string quarterback, SIU appeared on the verge of a heart-breaking loss to No. 4-ranked Northern Iowa.
The Salukis, likewise ranked in the Top 10, clung to a precarious 17-16 lead as preseason All-Missouri Valley Football Conference kicker Matthew Cook of UNI lined up for a potential game-winning field goal.
In 2019 Cook had made 19-of-24 field goal attempts en route to being named first team all-conference. Moreover, Cook had gone 4-for-4 against FBS Iowa State, including a 50-yarder.
Against SIU Saturday, Cook had already been successful from 26, 34 and 41 yards.
Then, came his final kick.
As the official Northern Iowa website described it, Cook “uncharacteristically missed”. His kick sailed wide left, sending the Salukis into hysterical pandemonium.
Tennessee State 21, Eastern Illinois 20
In Nashville, the outcome of the game literally swung on the kicks of two different legs (nearly three, if you read on).
With both teams seeking their first wins of the spring, EIU jumped to a 17-3 halftime lead. However, the Panthers stalled in the second half as the Tigers rallied.
Tennessee State took the third quarter kickoff and quickly drove down to score at touchdown at the 12:35 mark. Kicker Antonio Zita, the Ohio Valley Conference leader in field goal percentage in 2019, missed the extra point.
Thus, when TSU scored another touchdown in the third quarter, the Tigers were forced to attempt a two-point conversion to tie the game. That attempt failed and Eastern Illinois held a 17-15 lead.
Zita rode a tidal wave of emotions in Sunday’s contest. His 51-yard field goal gave TSU its first points back in the waning moments of the first quarter.
Yet, in addition to his missed extra point, Zita failed on a 38-yard field goal attempt in the second quarter.
What followed seems like something out of a bad Hollywood script. With 4:10 remaining in the game, Zita lined up for a 62-yard field goal attempt. EIU dropped receiver Matt Judd back into the end zone awaiting a possible return should the kick fall short of its mark.
Judd, a transfer from the University of Illinois and a devout Chicago White Sox fan, watched Zita’s kick sail over his head and through the uprights as if it were a home run ball thudding in the bleachers.
Zita’s boot tied the OVC record and pushed the Tigers into an 18-17 lead.
Tennessee State’s Antonio Zita
Then, things got even crazier. EIU strung together a final drive that stalled at the TSU 14-yard line. The Panthers trotted out true freshman Will Orth for a potential lead-changing field goal.
However, the Panthers weren’t fast enough getting the snap off and took a five-yard delay of game penalty. EIU head coach Adam Cushing then sent in “long-distance” kicker Stone Galloway for the re-positioned attempt.
Galloway hammered the 37-yarder through, putting EIU back on top 20-18 with just 41 seconds left.
The Panther joy was short-lived. Starting on its own 33 and with just 34 seconds remaining, Tennessee State completed a 48-yard bomb into EIU territory. After a short run, the Tiger let the clock wind down to three seconds, called timeout and sent Zita into the game.
He promptly nailed the game-winning 35-yarder as time expired.
But the story doesn’t end there. Last May Zita announced on Twitter that he had put his name into the transfer portal. After all, he had made 20 of 24 field goals in 2019, which stands as the TSU single-season record and fifth all-time in the OVC.
Apparently, there were no takers for the 5-foot-9 junior. We’re guessing that should Zita decide to seek greener grass again this off-season, he may well find more suitors.
After all, Eastern Illinois probably wouldn’t mind seeing him go.
Blog co-authors Barry Bottino and Dan Verdun bring years of experience covering collegiate athletics. Barry has covered college athletes for more than two decades in his “On Campus” column, which is published weekly by Shaw Media. Dan has written four books about the state’s football programs–“NIU Huskies Football” (released in 2013), “EIU Panthers Football (2014), “ISU Redbirds” (2016) and “SIU Salukis Football” (2017).
Joe Scheidler (Left) and Tom Brejcha at the Supreme Court (Thomas More Society)
How the Supreme Court slayed the cancel culture years ago
Years and years before “cancel culture” entered the popular vocabulary, the abortion industry and its allies tried to silence peaceful protests by pro-life demonstrators.
In one of the most egregious challenges to the First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly, the National Organization for Women and (initially) the Southern Poverty Law Center filed suit to stop pro-life protests outside of abortion clinics.
Making the legal challenge extraordinarily outrageous, the pro-choice plaintiffs tried to use the federal racketeering (RICO), anti-trust and extortion laws to, in effect, bankrupt and thus silence the protestors. Sit-ins, the classic tool of civil rights activists were defined in the suit–for the first time as extortion. As if they were the Chicago Mob.
It was a scheme that shocked even liberals who generally sided with the pro-choice philosophy. Liberals such as the late Sen. Ted Kennedy were among those who clearly insisted during the congressional RICO debate that the law was never intended to silence dissent. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and PETA were so horrified by the anti-democratic implications of the lawsuit that they sided with the pro-lifers.
Astonishingly, the Supreme Court had to rule an unprecedented three times, unanimously the last time, to drive home the point that free speech rights in the case were paramount.
This is one of the most important and courageous stories in the long American history of fighting to protect free speech and assembly. It is especially relevant today during the frightening and broad-based campaign by the left to shut down views with which it doesn’t agree.
Among the heroes of the story is Joe Scheidler, a Chicago- based pro-life pioneer who died in January at the age of 93, and his attorney, Their story is retold in a new documentary, Fighting for Life: The Story of NOW v. Scheidler. The story debuts March 22, at 6:30 p.m. (Eastern) on EWTN.
The documentary is sponsored by The Thomas More Society, which Brejcha went on to create to fight for the religious, free speech and other rights of Americans. It’s a David versus Goliath operation, taking on well-funded and large special interests such as the abortion industry.
Learn more about the documentary and the Thomas More Society here.
There’s nothing new about racism. It’s been going on since the beginning of time. What is relatively new is saying these things out loud and not caring about any repercussions. It didn’t start with the former guy who resided in the White House, he just made it more acceptable, at least to his supporters. If he could say these outrageous things, why not them? That leads to the following words from just the last week:
“I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned. Were they tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”~ Ron Johnson-U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
“America was founded & grew strong on a bedrock of Judeo-Christian values. Not radical Muslim values.“~Josh Mandel-candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio
“They’re kneeling? I hope Norman gets their ass kicked. They’re going to kneel like that? Hell, no. F***ing N*****s. I hope they lose.”~ Matt Rowan-announcer at an Oklahoma girls high school basketball game
“The Democrats want to cancel traditional America by bringing in new voters who have no clue about American history.”~ Laura Ingraham-Fox News
Remember this, when someone says something racist out loud, always believe them. They’re showing you who they really are. Not bad for only seven days! Can’t wait to see what the next week brings!
My so called friends think it’s time to edit this section. After four years, they may be right, but don’t tell them that. I’ll deny it until they die!
I can’t believe I’ve been writing this blog for four years.
It started as a health/wellness thing and over the years has morphed to include so many things that I don’t know how to describe it anymore.
I really thought this was going to be the final year of the blog but then Donald Trump came along. It looks like we’re good for four more years..God help us all!
Oh yeah…the biographical stuff. I’m not 60 anymore. The rest you can read about in the blog.
I’m excited for a new series that will feature some of my favorite local artists. Let’s begin with Czr Prz, whom I have followed on Instagram for years. I’m attracted to his artwork for many reasons including his use of bold colors and interesting subjects. I admire the way he uses scale and depth to make his murals stand out, even from a distance.
Czr’s talent extends beyond street art with sculptures, illustrations, custom designs, and more. He helps keep things innovative as co-owner of Ava Grey Designs. As you explore his vibrant website, you will see why I’m an avid follower.
Czr is a visionary whose work can be found in various locations including Europe. I look forward to finding his murals outside of Chicago when it’s safe to travel. Here’s a local teaser to get started and you can find more street art on his Instagram account.
Cello – 1539 W. 18th St.Tribute to Frankie Knuckles – 815 W. Hubbard“el Friar” – 16th & Peoria in PilsenColorful Crows – Recess Bar, 875 W. Kinzie
My greatest passion is street art. I’m constantly pounding the pavement in search of murals with eyes wide open, so follow me on my colorful journey. View all my findings on Instagram @eyespystreetart.
Another passion is beer. I consider myself a beer snob with a preference given to stouts and porters. I’m always willing to try new styles because beer is life. Prost!
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22375456/Esports.jpg)
Leave a comment