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Mother’s Day remembrance: She encouraged me to seize opportunities that were not available to her

Memories of Mom . . .

It’s been almost 16 years since I said goodbye to my mother.

And there is not a day that goes by I don’t think of her.

I adored her. She was forever and unconditional. I was so lucky.

The woman my Maryland-bred father called his “wild prairie flower” died in Atlanta in 2006 — nearly 75 years after leaving the North Dakota prairie of her birth.

During that time Mom was in charge of packing up and moving our family more than a dozen times keeping up with my father’s climb up the U.S. Corps of Engineers ladder, pausing at an exotic rung in Saudi Arabia before winding up at the Pentagon.

Always pulling up stakes, Mom made it an adventure. New friends, new schools, new stories and a life beyond the locomotion of a one-horse-shay.

Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote a column about my mom on Mother’s Day.

So, in her honor, I repeat these excerpts.

“I don’t remember my mother being an avid newspaper reader.

“She married twice; began to golf in her 60s; made potato salad with Miracle Whip, and introduced me to mincemeat pie.

“Ostensibly named after her birth month, June — my partially farm-bred mother — had a pet duck, snuck her dog Nippy table scraps, read Zane Grey western novels by firelight, loved the song of the meadowlark . . . and regaled us with her recitation of the poem ‘Little Orphant Annie’

“She loved jokes, but didn’t tell them; played with dolls way too long; was called “Olive Oyl” because she weighed 90 pounds at 5 feet 8 inches when she was in eighth grade; and grew into a willowy beauty.

“Unlike my father, who was like the bold reds and oranges of late summer, my mom was the soft pastel colors of spring flowers. Dad was raised on the eastern shore of Maryland, loved adventure, memorized the poems of Omar Khayyam and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his prowess as a turret gunner on a B-17 in the Pacific during World War II.

“While Dad was bombing the Pacific islands of Truk and Emidji, Mom did her duty waiting for my father by working with the war effort in a naval yard in California — until she became pregnant with me.

“Then she did what all good mothers did back then. She gave up her clerical job and went home to have her baby.

“And when she finally left North Dakota for good to start a new life with my dad, she never looked back — and was glad to leave behind the incessant noise of what is known as the prairie’s zephyr, the incessant blast of wind blowing unfettered across treeless plains.

“But I can still hear my mother’s reassuring voice, her calm counsel encouraging me to do more than she was able to do. To be anything I wanted to be. To take advantage of opportunities not available to her back then. To take chances, but obey the rules.

“It may have been my larger-than-life father who gave me curiosity, but it was my precious mother who gave me courage.

“Mom kept an immaculate house, fixed three meals a day even though she hated to cook, and hugged and kissed us on our way out the door each day until our cheeks were raw.

“In other words, Mom wasn’t just always home. She was home.”

Every morning, while the coffee is brewing, it’s almost a certainty a photo of my mother and grandmother on a kitchen windowsill will ignite my day’s first smile.

It was taken on November 16, 1947, and this four-year-old is in the kitchen watching them light the candles on my incandescent cake.

Next month, on June 8, I plan to visit the Mandan Union Cemetery, where we buried my mother on a sun-dappled day in September 2006, and tell her how happy I am peonies grow nearby.

And I’m hoping no loud prairie wind interrupts this visit.

That would surely be the prairie’s way of thanking Mom for finally coming home.

The Ryan express . . .

Former Illinois governor George Ryan, 87, who issued a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois that later led to its demise, was honored at two book signing parties last week at Carnivale restaurant hosted by his longtime friend, former State Sen. Billy Marovitz.

The event honored the publication last August of Ryan’s first book: “Until I Could Be Sure,” which details Ryan’s lead-up to taking his hand off the “death machine” switch.

It was published in the midst of the pandemic through pre-order on Amazon.

The events, attended by White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, former Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan, Gibson’s owner Steve Lombardo, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall; Women’s Business Development Center legend Hedy Ratner and former Teamsters chief Bill Hogan; also included a little dessert served up by Ryan in the former of a vignette.

To wit: Ryan claims one day he was having a corned beef sandwich at Manny’s Cafeteria and Delicatessen when he got a call from his office that South African legend Nelson Mandela was calling and wanted to talk to him.

“Mandela had heard about George’s efforts regarding the death penalty and urged him to declare a moratorium,” said Marovitz.

Sneedlings . . .

Saturday birthdays: Enrique Iglesias, 46; Olivia Culpo, 29; and Kemba Walker, 31. . . . Sunday birthdays: Billy Joel, 72; Rosario Dawson, 42; and Sasha Farber, 37.

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St. Joseph principal Lynne Scheffler has been placed on administrative leave while officials “examine the circumstances” regarding Jeremy Hylka’s employment, the diocese said.

The Diocese of Joliet Friday announced that a former Catholic school teacher charged with child grooming did not meet requirements to be a full-time teacher while he was at the school.

Jeremy Hylka obtained a substitute teaching license in January but was not enrolled in a teacher preparation program, which was required to continue teaching in a full-time position at St. Joseph Catholic School in Lockport, the diocese said in a statement.

Now, St. Joseph principal Lynne Scheffler has been placed on administrative leave while officials “examine the circumstances” regarding Hylka’s employment, the diocese said.

Hylka was fired April 28 after he was hit with traveling to meet a child and grooming charges stemming from an investigation into a Snapchat video that “possibly depicted inappropriate contact of an adult with a minor,” Joliet police have said.

Detectives tracked down and interviewed the person who posted the video, police said. The person is a 19-year-old man who, in conjunction with a group called “Save Our Siblings,” posed as a 15-year-old when communicating with Hylka.

Hylka also taught at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church and the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus, both in Joliet, according to the diocese.

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Dinosaur Jr.’s second act is a feel-good gift that keeps on giving. These unwavering indie-rock lifers seem to have access to a bottomless well of arena-ready solos and riffs, brain-sticking melodies, and hurricane-force noise.…Read More

A man is accused of shooting a woman multiple times last year in Chatham on the South Side.

Deangelo Cooper, 33, is charged with attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm in the Sept. 21, 2020, incident which took place in the 600 block of East 81st Street, Chicago police said.

Cooper allegedly shot a 29-year-old woman five times, seriously injuring her, police said.

Cooper was arrested Thursday in suburban Homewood, police said.

He was scheduled to appear in court Friday.

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Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be partly sunny with a small chance of showers and a high near 58 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 38 degrees. This weekend will be mostly cloudy with a high near 55 degrees on Saturday and a high around 53 degrees on Sunday.

Top story

Marist Brothers Catholic order hid abuse by member who helped run Chicago school in the 1970s, suits say

After Brother Robert Ryan died in 2017, a relative posted an online tribute, calling him “the favorite uncle” who “lived a giving life” and “selflessly” served God.

Two lawsuits paint a different picture of Ryan, one that’s become public only after his death at 83. They accuse him of having molested children over a yearslong span in which he was a member of the Marist Brothers Catholic religious order.

One of the lawsuits says victims of the abuse included students attending Marist High School on the Far Southwest Side in the 1970s.

At Marist, Ryan’s “sexual abuse of minor boys worsened in both frequency and intensity . . . and he began to engage in more violent conduct, such as anal rape and sodomy,” according to the lawsuit.

Beyond describing what it says was the emotional and physical damage caused by Ryan, the suit accuses his order of covering up for him for years. It says the Marist Brothers were aware of allegations against Ryan and dealt with them by transferring him from coast to coast, in addition to placing him in Chicago, rather than removing him from ministry. The order also failed to report the sexual abuse allegations against Ryan to the police or to inform parents, according to the suit.

Most Catholic dioceses and many independently run Catholic religious orders now inform their church communities and the public about what they deem to be credible allegations of abuse of minors by their priests, deacons and brothers.

But the Marist Brothers, who have a hub in Chicago, do not. So, unlike, for instance, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the order does not post a public list of its members in Chicago and elsewhere who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Read Robert Herguth’s full story here.

More news you need

1. A young, pregnant Chicago woman who recently died of the coronavirus had expressed hesitation about taking the vaccine before coming down with the virus on April 8, her family says. Less than two weeks later, she was dead. Read Mark Brown’s story on Charmaine Bailey and how her death has affected those who cared about her.
2. A day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Illinois could be five weeks away from a full reopening, state health officials reported the highest daily COVID-19 caseload in a week. Here’s the latest on Illinois’ coronavirus metrics and the reopening process.
3. Some of Chicago’s most influential Black women kicked off Mother’s Day weekend with a vow to remove barriers made worse by the pandemic that are holding back the next generation of Black women and girls. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it, “the next phase of what I hope is the feminist revolution.”
4. Homeowners around the country are facing a confusing situation after accepting COVID-19 mortgage forbearance plans that are supposed to provide an interest-free pause in payments. Stephanie Zimmermann spoke to a Beach Park man whose loan provider demanded $12,000 in immediate payment even though he’d accepted a forbearance plan.
5. More than 50 building code violations have been issued to the owners of Parkway Gardens affordable housing complex in Woodlawn. Broken window panes, rodent issues and malfunctioning elevators are among the violations turned up by city inspectors.
6. The Chicago Police Department’s Neighborhood Policing Initiative program will soon expand to the Grand Crossing, Englewood and Gresham districts. The initiative encourages officers to engage with residents on a personal level, providing direct contact between the community and CPD.
7. Eugene “Eda” Wade, a local star in the Black Arts Movement who worked on Chicago’s landmark Wall of Respect mural, has died at age 81. Read our full obituary of the man Chicago poet Haki Madhubuti called a “master artist.”

A bright one

In Back of the Yards, a hamburger with eyes, ‘fox demon’ and waving bird paint a once-blank concrete canvas

The viaduct at West 49th and South Honore streets in Back of the Yards used to be just a white wall.

Now, thanks to the recent work of a group of street artists, the concrete canvas is filled with a colorful array that includes a three-eyed “fox demon” and a hamburger with arms and legs.

The artist behind the human-like hamburger goes by the name KOZMO and helped organize the group of artists who painted the wall in April.

Rylee Tan/Sun-Times

She lives a few blocks away and says it was the perfect spot for the group, which came together “spur of the moment, almost like serendipity,” and went to work.

Part of the work features graffiti-style designs by an artist who goes by MATR, with green and yellow letters combining to spell out the artist’s name.

Another part of the mural was done by an artist who goes by xhaust and showcases graffiti “wildstyle” art.

See more photos of the art in Rylee Tan’s story and check out our ongoing series on Chicago’s public murals and mosaics here.

From the press box

The Bears-Packers rivalry may have been dominated by Green Bay the last three decades, but Steve Greenberg has a message: It won’t be much longer (will it?) before the cheese dries up and crumbles.

The Sky won’t have talented forward Gabby Williams for the upcoming season after the team put her on the full-season suspension list yesterday. Williams will play for the French national team in this year’s FIBA Women’s EuroBasket, so the Sky fielded trade offers for her on draft night, but ultimately opted to retain her rights, Annie Costabile reports.

And some of the Cubs’ young pitchers, including left-hander Justin Steele and right-hander Keegan Thompson, have started earning the trust of manager David Ross, who’s often talked about having guys he can rely on in his bullpen.

Your daily question ?

What’s a personal passion project you’re working on right now?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What song do you most associate with your childhood? Tell us why. Here’s what some of you said…

“‘Emotion’ by Samantha Sang and the Bee Gees. It played at the first dance I ever went to in 8th grade and the first time I ever danced with a boy and apparently I sang it in his ear.” — Michelle Perez

“‘American Pie,’ it was one of the first real conversations between my father and I about music. I asked what a levee was … and so it began.” — Andrea Gorman

“‘Mercy Mercy Me’ by Marvin Gaye, It’s a song that shaped my worldview and social consciousness growing up in the 70s. The song is still very relevant today.” — Tony Williams

“My mother would turn on a radio musical program called ‘Candlelight and Silver’ as we ate dinner. It featured light classical music, and one selection, Albert Ketelbey’s ‘In a Persian Market,’ will instantly transport me back to that apartment.” — Philip Wizenick

“‘Jump’ by Van Halen, because my mom and I always watched the Cubs games on Channel 9 and that was the intro song.” — Heather Wilson

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

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It is no secret that Chicago police have lost the trust and confidence of many people living in high-crime neighborhoods. It’s one reason just one in two murders and about one in 20 non-fatal shootings leads to an arrest. People won’t cooperate with police if they don’t trust them.

In the weeks ahead, however, Chicago could take a step forward in rebuilding trust if the new police contract with the union representing most rank-and-file police officers mirrors the contract agreed to last summer by sergeants, lieutenants and captains.

Under the “supervisor’s” contract, citizens can file anonymous complaints and trigger investigations without disclosing their identity until the investigation is well underway. The existing Fraternal Order of Police contract, however, prohibits anonymous complaints.

The requirement that citizens sign affidavits on the front-end identifying themselves has been a major barrier to accountability because people are afraid of intimidation or retribution by police. This issue was cited in the 2017 report by the Department of Justice that led to the federal consent decree now driving reforms in the Chicago Police Department.

Yet another provision of the supervisor’s contract eliminates the practice of destroying police disciplinary records after five years. This same measure was negotiated by the FOP years ago and remains in place today, denying the public an officer’s complete disciplinary history.

Finally, the supervisor’s contract explicitly takes on the “code of silence” by affirmatively recognizing officers who report police misconduct. The so-called “Serpico” provision was named for the New York City police officer who exposed corruption in the New York City Police Department back in the 1970’s.

All of these provisions in the supervisor’s contract are a floor, not a ceiling, for the FOP contract. We should go much further to bring meaningful accountability and transparency to policing, professionalize our police department and rebuild public trust.

The Chicago Police Department appears to understand this. CPD recently unveiled a new dashboard showing trust levels by area. Not surprisingly, trust levels are considerably lower on the South and West Sides, where our organization, Chicago CRED, works to reduce gun violence.

Every one of our participants can share personal stories of being roughed up by police even before they were teens. Ask them to free associate images with the word “fear” and they often mention police officers. They’re terrified of police and will do anything to avoid them.

Most of our men have lost family members and friends to prison and gun violence. They themselves have spent years in the criminal justice system. Many have been shot.

We have only begun to address their collective trauma and there are thousands more we have yet to reach. There is a lot of painful history to confront, including confessions coerced through torture, convictions obtained with false evidence, and outright corruption in elite units, as well as the everyday indignities suffered by people of color at the hands of police.

Right now, gun violence in Chicago is approaching record highs. We’re up 20 to 30% over last year, when the city had roughly 780 homicides and more than 4,000 shootings.

With the summer months coming, we and our partners across the city are redoubling efforts to reach young men at risk. Thanks to the federal government, there is more funding available for support programs that can begin to address the trauma of gun violence afflicting tens of thousands of Chicagoans let alone the underlying conditions that breed violence — including joblessness, housing affordability and racism.

We’re heartened to see CPD recommitting to community policing in some higher-crime neighborhoods. We also take note of some Black police officers who are openly critical of the police union. We salute their courage and willingness to challenge police culture.

But changing a culture does not happen overnight and, for all our forward progress, there will always be setbacks. Two recent fatal police shootings following late-night foot chases have prompted calls for a much deeper reckoning on policing. It is long past time to “reimagine public safety” and ask whether many “crime” problems would be better solved by outreach and social service workers, instead of armed police.

Right now, no one is winning. The community is isolated and resigned to living with injustice. Police are viewed with suspicion. They increasingly face gunfire on the job and have pulled back from engaging with people. Officer wellness is suffering. Fewer people are pursuing careers in law enforcement.

With the new police contract, the men and women of the Chicago Police Department have a real opportunity to bring us all to a better place where trust and cooperation among people and police is the norm. It not only will make Chicago safer for people. It also will make Chicago safer for police.

Arne Duncan is the founder of Chicago CRED, a violence prevention organization.

Send letters to [email protected].

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CINCINNATI — Luis Robert’s torn hip flexor will take three to four months, if not longer, for a full recovery, but it’s an injury that shouldn’t affect him after it heals properly.

Robert will not have surgery, the team said Friday. Following consultations with a number of specialists, it was determined rest and rehabilitation would be the appropriate course of action for a full recovery. Robert, who suffered the injury Sunday, was expected to be away from baseball activities 12-16 weeks with or without surgery.

“Without knowing the exact particulars [of the tear], more often than not he’s going to get back to playing at or near the same level,” said Brian Schulz, a sports-medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon with the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute and a team physician for the Angels.

It was puzzling to some that Robert could tear a muscle running a straight line to first base with no contact. Several factors may have played into it, Schulz said.

“These athletes are so long and so fit,” Schulz said, “and he’s going from 0 to 100 almost immediately and the forces that are going through at the time, if his muscles aren’t warmed up or maybe he was just a little tight that day from the workload he had the previous day, who knows? Those forces are so great that sometimes the muscle can’t provide the support that it needs to.”

Sox assistant general manager and director of player development Chris Getz said there was no indication of “something that was nagging” Robert that would have led to the injury. The Sox are examining the injury from all angles, he said.

“With any injury, we do a deep dive and then analyze, was there something that perhaps caused this?” Getz said. “In Luis’ case, we are talking about one of the more explosive players in baseball and probably all of sports.”

Schulz said patience in Robert’s recovery process will be key. There is no way to speed up the healing process.

“It takes that long for these tissues to heal,” Schulz said. “Especially with a muscle injury, if you push too early you run the risk of going right back to where you started.”

An update on Robert’s progress will be provided in approximately eight weeks, the Sox said.

Achy Eaton

Adam Eaton got through a full first month without getting achy legs but he’s now dealing with a sore knee, which got him the afternoon off Wednesday. Manager Tony La Russa said Eaton also has a tight hamstring.

“I’m old, I’m old,” joked Eaton, 32. “But I’m OK, it’s all part of the grind.”

Eaton is second on the Sox with 16 runs scored and 18 RBI but is hitless in his last 19 at-bats, dropping his average from .268 to .211.

“Sometimes when I’m banged up I play better, so maybe turn it into a positive,” he said.

“It’s a good day for him to rest and then rest [Thursday, an off day],” La Russa said. “Need to keep him fresh because he’s very important.”

Leury Garcia started in right with Billy Hamilton in center.

Votto breaks thumb

The Reds’ Joey Votto broke his thumb when he was hit by a Dallas Keuchel changeup in the fourth inning. Votto was replaced at first base by Kyle Farmer in the sixth inning.

Votto, who has been hit 61 times in his career, is not expected to need surgery but could miss up to a month.

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The sample size is too small to say the manager is in over his head. But public perception doesn’t care about that.

“Bad optics’’ is business-speak for anything that negatively affects the public perception of a business or a person. We used to say, “Who told you those pants were a good idea?” Now we just say, “Bad optics, Mr. Smithers.’’

Whatever you want to call Tony La Russa’s foggy, meandering journey to admitting he didn’t know a new Major League Baseball rule, it wasn’t good for him or the White Sox.

It happened during a recent postgame Zoom press conference, and it was painful viewing – the thin, reedy voice, the faraway look, the overall befuddlement. At a minimum, the Sox have a perception problem with their manager, which means they have a problem with their manager. There’s no use trying to distinguish between the two.

Let’s not make this into a discussion of whether people on the other side of 75 are capable of doing jobs as big and taxing as La Russa’s. Let’s not because it’s unfair to paint with a broad brush, and let’s not because I don’t want to get hit over the head with a barrage of broad brushes. Let’s limit this to the 76-year-old La Russa’s ability to manage the Sox.

Is he capable of a job that has brought many younger men to their knees?

The sample size is too small to say he definitively can’t. Anybody can have several bad moments over a 30-game span. The issue for La Russa and the Sox is that there was always going to be very little room for error in the public-perception category. It’s why it hasn’t taken long for perception to start galloping toward reality: If it doesn’t look like the skipper knows what he’s doing, maybe it’s because he doesn’t. If he looks doddering, maybe it’s because he is.

Unfair? Fair or unfair don’t matter here. What matters is our new friend “optics.’’ There’s no rush to judgment. There’s only judgment.

In a 1-0 loss to the Reds on Wednesday, La Russa didn’t know he could have used someone other than closer Liam Hendriks as a 10^th-inning base runner. The new extra-inning rule states that the spot in the order that makes the last out of the previous inning becomes the designated runner at second base – unless the person in that spot had been the pitcher. It means that La Russa could have used Jose Abreu instead of Hendriks, who had been a base runner just once before in his 11-year career. After the game, a reporter had to inform the manager of that.

It’s incriminating that nobody on La Russa’s staff had filled him in. But the coaching staff isn’t standing in the spotlight. La Russa is. So there he was Wednesday, very much alone, looking like someone who calls for a ride at 3 a.m. but can’t describe where he is.

“I’ll re-read that situation,” he said to The Athletic’s James Fegan, who told the manager of the rule during the press conference. “I’m guessing you know the rules better. Now I know.”

Boy, oh, boy.

There have been several other occasions that the manager has goofed up. In a game in late April, he kept starter Lucas Giolito in for too long, and a 2-1 lead over the last-place Tigers turned into a 5-2 loss. Afterward, Giolito said he was tired. La Russa admitted he wasn’t aware of it. He did something similar with Matt Foster earlier in the month.

But Wednesday’s mistake was the most public and damaging.

La Russa needed to start the season with synapses blazing and a youthful energy belying his age. He hasn’t come close to that standard. I don’t know if he can climb out of the hole he has dug for himself. But if the temperature of the city is any indication, not only are few people willing to extend him a hand, many are grabbing for shovels.

All this over a few bad-look moments? Yes. Public perception matters in a multibillion-dollar industry. In this case, it matters more because it involves the third-oldest manager in baseball history. It matters when that manager hasn’t been in a dugout since 2011.

One thing we can say with certainty is that Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf cares about public perception about as much as he cares about 14^th century French poetry. But what if La Russa continues to struggle, dragging down a talented team with him? What’s larger, Reinsdorf’s desire for another World Series title or his loyalty to close friends? I’m not sure I want to find out the answer.

Plenty of people will disagree with my contention that it’s too early to judge La Russa. Plenty of Sox fans believe that a Hall of Fame manager shouldn’t be making the mistakes he already has made.

But we’ll know soon enough if his problems are passing or here to stay. Too much is at stake. The Sox are a talented team with aspirations of a big postseason push. A manager shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way of that. That’s not perception. That’s reality.

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