A man and a teenage boy were fatally shot May 19, 2021, in South Shore. | Sun-Times file photo
The teen fired shots into the store at two men who returned fire Wednesday night in the 1700 block of East 71st Street, police said.
A man died after he was caught in crossfire at a South Shore store where one of the shooters, a 16-year-old boy, was also killed Wednesday night, according to Chicago police.
The teen fired shots into the store, apparently targeting two people, about 8:55 p.m. in the 1700 block of East 71st Street, Chicago police said.
The two returned fire, striking the teen in the abdomen and neck, as well as a 49-year-old man who was inside the store, police said.
The boy and the man were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead, police said. Their names haven’t been released.
At least 15 gunshots were fired at the store, police said.
Two guns were recovered beneath a vehicle, as well as multiple extended magazine cartridges. The two gunmen in the store fled in a vehicle and were not in custody, police said.
As the old saying goes, “It isn’t paranoia if they’re really out to get you.” And they are.
When Liz Cheney, a staunch Conservative intractable in her right wing views, was booted from her leadership position in the House of Representatives, the Trumpublican Party made it clear it is fully committed to the rump of the Trump and the lie he continues to burble, that he won the presidency and the election was stolen from him.
President Biden took office four months ago, but a recently released CNN poll found that 70 percent of Republicans believe the false allegation that Biden did not legitimately defeat former President Trump; just 23 percent said Biden legitimately won. The well-regarded Ipsos poll reported that 55 percent of Republicans believe the outcome of the 2020 election was the result of illegal voting or election rigging, and 60 percent agree with the statement that “the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.” Furthermore, 63 percent don’t agree that Trump was even partly to blame for the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The disturbing conclusion: the Republican Party is now fully committed to a lie and a liar. They have left no room for anyone who does not offer obeisance to their leader, Donald Trump. It is the precursor of authoritarianism and creates a threat to democracy of a different order of magnitude; literally, the survival of the nation is at stake.
Do you think I am overstating the possibility of another civil war?
Trump’s lies are now the only truth for the Republican Party. And they are using his Big Lie to change the laws in dozens of states, pushing through voter suppression measures and bills that would allow Republican dominated local boards to refuse to certify election results.
The Republican electorate, believing that Democratic victories are illegitimate, ignores its own self-interest and demands that their representatives do everything possible to subvert the the Biden agenda. Safe in their gerrymandered districts, the Congressmen refuse to work with Democrats on any policy, and care little about the damage they do to our democracy in the process.
Paul Gosar, the Congressman from Arizona’s rural 4th congressional district, called the individuals who violently broke into the Capitol “peaceful patriots” and claimed that the Department of Justice is “harassing“ them. Gosar describedJoe Biden as an “illegitimate usurper,” claimed that “outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding U.S. citizens, especially Trump voters.”
More toxic babble spewed from the mouth of Andrew Clyde, Georgia’s 9th congressional district, who speechified to Congress, “If you didn’t know that TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit,”
Racism and classism is not the whole story behind right wing populism. Many socially conservative Christians, the bulk of the White middle-class, are feeling the brunt of the long process of deindustrialization, decline in manufacturing employment, erosion of wages by foreign competition and the fading influence of trade unionism. They blame their erosion of privilege on emerging constituencies seeking rights and benefits previously reserved for white men: presumptuous African-Americans, aggressive women’s rights activists and leftist proponents of ethnic diversity and individualism. Their feelings of being shouldered aside have morphed into becoming the shock troops of the Trumpian Party.
Be understanding, have empathy, my good side cries out!
We have much in common, don’t we? Just as we do, they watch the sitcoms and reality shows, hugging their kids as they put them on the school bus, sharing beers and yakking about sports, putting their recyclables out for pickup every Monday morning. They live on tree-lined streets similar to ours and on the surface, we live in harmony accepting each other for who we are.
On the surface is the key phrase because the resentment that boils under the skin is one of the most powerful forces in human life. When it is unleashed, it can undermine political regimes and long-lived personal relationships.
Remember Sarajevo, hosts of the 1984 Winter Olympics? Before the decade was over it drowned in a bloodbath civil war between Croats wanting to leave Yugoslavia and ethnic Serbs opting for a common state with Serbia.
Relive the headlines from the slaughter in Rwanda, where Hutus and Tutsi lived side by side for decades until 1990 when more than 800,000 Tutsis were murdered in a campaign of ethnic cleansing and 100,000 Hutus were killed by revenge killings.
Am I paranoid? Maybe. But we cannot dismiss the continuing dissemination of the big lie by Donald Trump and his supporters. We must rally together and repudiate it at every turn. An undermined election in 2022 and 2024 would collapse a pillar of democracy, and soon after, the institution itself.
In the course of a long business career I held many titles familiar to the corporate world. But as I quickly learned the lofty nameplates no longer apply when your career comes to a close and you move from the corner office to a corner of the den. The challenge was to stay vital and active rather than idling on the sidelines. I had to create a new foundation upon which to build life’s purpose and joy.
I stopped adding up my stock portfolio as a measure of my net worth and developed a healthy self esteem independent of applause from others.
I am the co-author of The In-Sourcing Handbook: Where and How to Find the Happiness You Deserve, a practical guide and instruction manual offering hands-on exercises to help guide readers to experience the transformative shift from simply tolerating life to celebrating life. I also am the author of 73, a popular collection of short stories about America’s growing senior population running the gamut of emotions as they struggle to resist becoming irrelevant in a youth-oriented society.
Jackie Ross had a smash with “Selfish One” in 1964—but that just happens to be the best-selling single from her decades of great songs.
Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of ChicagoMusic to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.…Read More
Fatour Seidi Ghali is surely not the first person to become enamored of an older sibling’s guitar. When she was about ten, her older brother, Ahmoudou Madassane (who currently plays rhythm guitar for Mdou Moctar), brought a guitar from Libya back to their home in Illighadad, Niger.…Read More
Though his wife is a nurse experienced in this kind of procedure, the recuperating physician refuses to follow her directions.
DEAR ABBY: My physician husband recently had a total hip replacement. (Orthopedics is not his specialty.) I’m a board-certified registered nurse with 40 years of experience who used to work inpatient orthopedics.
He refuses to follow the surgeon’s directions or mine, which are the same. He believes he knows more than all of us combined. However, when the home health nurse and physical therapist came, he accepted everything they told him. When I told him he doesn’t respect my professional opinion, he didn’t respond. Then I told him he’d insulted my integrity, and he blew up and accused me of being crazy.
History will soon repeat itself because he has to have his other hip done in a few months. I am to the point of letting the chips fall where they may and letting his outcomes (good or bad) be his sole responsibility. However, this is difficult to do as a wife and nurse. Plus, I will have to live with the fallout of any suboptimal outcomes. Your advice? — HIP SERVICE IN FLORIDA
DEAR HIP SERVICE: Whether caused by a painful recovery or the drugs he has been prescribed, your husband’s behavior is self-defeating. Because he ignores your and his surgeon’s advice, you have no choice but to let the chips fall where they may. You can suggest and warn until you’re hoarse, and your husband will continue to tune you out. The person who will have to live with the consequences is your noncompliant husband.
Allow me to offer a suggestion: Hire a nurse to tend to him after the second hip replacement and stay safely out of the line of fire. The peace of mind will be worth the money.
DEAR ABBY: I have a niece who is bipolar. She was put into rehab at the age of 20 and has been clean and sober for the last three years. We have always been close, but on a family visit, she asked my opinion about a job choice, and I was honest with her. Because it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, she is extremely distant now. I am no longer “Auntie.” She calls me by my first name only. Weekly calls have ceased.
I have championed my niece, supported her emotionally when she had problems and helped her out financially. Her mother says if you don’t agree with her (even though she solicits your opinion), you are then “against” her. What’s the best way to reach out to her? Due to extreme drug abuse for many years, she seems emotionally stuck at age 14. — AUNTIE NO MORE IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR AUNTIE: With the clear understanding that I am not a psychotherapist, may I point out that some individuals who suffer from mental illness find it necessary to place people into two categories: friends and enemies. Disagreeing with your niece has landed you in the latter. Her mother has explained this to you, so try not to take it personally.
I don’t think this troubled young woman will be receptive to a reconciliation until she has found another target. In the meantime, remain open, stay cordial and fill your life with activities that bring you joy rather than pain. I’m sure her mother will update you on your niece’s progress.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
For everything you need to know about wedding planning, order “How to Have a Lovely Wedding.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds), to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)
Thirteen people were shot, 3 fatally, May 19, 2021. | Archive Sun-Times
A 16-year-old boy and a bystander were fatally shot during an exchange of gunfire at a in the 1700 block of East 17th Street.
Three people were killed and 10 others wounded in shootings across Chicago Wednesday, including a 16-year-old boy and an innocent bystander who died in an exchange of gunfire at a South Shore store.
The teen fired shots into a store at two people about 8:55 p.m. in the 1700 block of East 71st Street, Chicago police said. The two returned fire, striking the teen in the abdomen and neck, as well as a 49-year-old man who was inside the store, police said.
The boy and the man were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead, police said
A man died in a drive-by shooting late Wednesday morning in Park Manor on the South Side, police said.
The 32-year-old was outside in the 7400 block of South King Drive when a gunman opened fire from a passing silver SUV, possibly a Dodge Journey, about 11:20 a.m., police said. The man was hit multiple times and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name hasn’t been released.
Other shootings:
— A man was critically wounded in a shooting in Washington Park on the South Side. He was in front of a home about 3:50 p.m. in the 5400 block of South Indiana Avenue when someone opened fire from a vehicle, police said. The 26-year-old was struck multiple times, and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said.
— A 28-year-old man was critically hurt in a shooting in Calumet Heights on the South Side. He was walking on the sidewalk about 10:35 p.m. in the 1900 block of East 95th Street when three male people got out of a gray car and began firing, police said. The man was struck in the lower back and was taken to Ignalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey by a bystander, police said. He was later transferred in critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center.
— A man was seriously hurt in a shooting early Wednesday in Woodlawn on the South Side. He was standing on the sidewalk about 1:35 a.m. in the 6600 block of South Evans Avenue when someone fired, police said. The 28-year-old was shot in the abdomen and chest and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where his condition was serious, police said.
At least seven others were wounded in shootings citywide Wednesday.
