The first stage of my passage to Elderhood took place in my mid-sixties, give or take. I looked in the mirror and recognized the disconnect between the image I presented to the world and the soul behind the reflection, and I asked myself, How did I get here and how do I want to live the rest of my life? It was a time to deal with the regrets of the past and to recalibrate the way I measured success, failure, and most importantly, time.

In my seventies I transitioned to the second stage, the question being, Why am I still here? Quite simply, I had to have a purpose for getting out of bed in the morning! I made the behavioral change from self-service to being of-service, using my life’s experiences to try and make a positive difference in communities more familiar with scorn than respect.

Now, in my eighties, the third stage is upon me and the question I’m asking is, Why was I here? Did I make a difference during my time on earth and how will I be remembered when I’m gone? What is left for me to do to justify my time here on earth?

I can spend a part of each day to revel and marvel at the blessing of life itself; to give gratitude for my many privileges and blessings; to enjoy the intimacy of family and the warmth of good friends; to have fun doing the NY Times Sunday crossword; to have an opinion and write my screeds for the ChicagoNow blog every Thursday.

I can whittle down the list of projects I’m motivated and committed to undertake: complete my memoir, edit a new anthology of short stories and finish a stage play I’ve been working on.

The problem is, the necessary raw energy is in short supply; my eighty-seven year old energy tank is running out of steam.

So it’s essential I prioritize. And put personal pleasures aside.

Events of the past days have made it clear, if my contribution to the betterment of the world I entered is to have any impact whatsoever, I must accelerate my efforts to end the systemic racism that will drive this country to civil war if not forcefully addressed.

I cannot brandish a Billy Club and battle the far-right Boogaloo Boys who incite the chaos. But there is power in airing an unwavering voice wherever I can be heard: Black Lives Matter.

I can acknowledge the sin of slavery as the cause of the injustice… and demand that the nation atones for the sin of our forefathers.

I can join in the demand for police reform.

I can insist on the restructure of the failed programs that put band aids on the symptoms and millions of dollars in the hands of inept bureaucrats.

I can vote.

I can lead workshops that inspire men and women to rid themselves of the victim mentality that caps their abilities and perpetuates the myth of their inaptitude.

I can believe in the power of love.

What I will not countenance is a headstone with an uninspired inscription! (Here lies Howard Englander, 1932 – 20??, “Ho Hum”). That will not be my epitaph.

We’ve all heard about the mascot name controversy by now. And after much contemplation and self-deliberation I’ve decided to weigh in on the subject.

Being a life long sports fan and traditionalist, and also being among the hundreds of thousands of Americans that count Native American as part of our ancestry ( for me it’s Cherokee ), I believe I have a modicum of validity ( emphasis on modicum ) to lend a somewhat pragmatic voice to this discussion.

Let me begin by saying I actually have done research on this and am prepared to give an informed opinion and not just the usual rhetoric that comes with such a divided topic.

First of all I am compelled to tell you that there is ample evidence that the word “redskin” did not begin as a pejorative term in our vernacular. It was in fact used in more than one speech by prominent Native Americans to describe their own people.

Having said that, I am also committed to tell you that the term definitely morphed into a disparaging and completely derogatory synonym for the word Indian. Much as the N word did to the African Americans. Both words began as innocent descriptions and then were stolen by white men with abusive intent.

Now,  I know I’m going to hear from those people who will say well why not bring up the mascots Indians, Braves, Fighting Illini, Blackhawks, etc. etc. etc. And I’ll very simply tell you the difference.

Native Americans do not now, nor have they ever, deemed any of those terms as derogations to their people. They are, in fact, terms of endearment. Anyone who clumps them together is giving a stupid and pretentious argument.

The word “redskins”, however, has been thought of as a disparagement to the entire Indian populace for a very long time. Once again, just as the N word has to Black people everywhere.

I am also of the belief that each race tried to capture these words and lesson their harshness by using them to self- promote or lift up their respective peoples. A decision I personally disagree with wholeheartedly. I would much rather try to rid our society of the words rather than have them justified in any form.

So, we could get into a long and drawn out discussion about the similarities and differences between the plights of the Native Americans and the African Americans but that won’t do anything positive for the current conversation.

I think what’s important to realize is what the common knowledge of the meaning for the word “redskin” is as it relates to this scenario. And that is where it gets tricky. You see, when George Preston Marshall, then owner of the Washington football franchise decided to keep the name Redskins when he brought the team over from Boston, he did so because his starting quarterback was a Native American.

His intention, as we all should know, was not to degrade the people, but to highlight the individual. That does not continue to have a bearing on whether the terminology is right or wrong however.

What is of the utmost importance is whether or not this particular terminology should be deemed acceptable by football fans everywhere. Or anywhere.

Whew! I guess I’ve confused all of us enough by now. Let me just say it this way. If you would not have the word said AT you, I don’t think it’s right to have it said to describe you. No matter the intent.

Of course I welcome all dissenting opinions. Feel free to let me know how wrong I am in the comments box. I promise I always read them to try and develop my own clarity on the subject matter.

I really hate to use the word aftermath, however, when used to discuss Chicago’s future, it’s the aftermath of what? Two months of a stay at home order, a curfew, a social distancing order, a quarantine, a shelter in place order, or maybe for thousands and thousands of Chicagoans it’s going back to work FINALLY! OR is it the aftermath of massive looting, burning, and rioting that seemed to touch all areas of a totally unprepared city and beyond. In what seemed like an innocent demonstration or protest of the killing of a black man in Minnesota while in police custody, suddenly turned into a violent riot that nobody seemed prepared for including the police and city officials. The scenes of overturned police vehicles, the looting of stores, the fights with the police, and the property damage seemed to shock most people. Below are the violent figures for just May last month. Unprecedented violence spanning over a decade. This is what’s facing the aftermath. But we will get to that later.

In my mind, I was thinking there are an awful lot of people who are finally witnessing what cops go through, sometimes on a daily basis. There of course are good and bad in all RACES, GENDERS, and RELIGIONS. What the Chicago suburbs and Downtown including my former neighbors in the South Loop were seeing, was eye-opening to lots of decent people who never see evil or bad behavior on a consistent basis.  Looting burning and violent tactics. These people were not protesting, they were committing vile criminal acts when they sensed an opportunity. A grieving community was set upon by hundreds of THUGS who could care less about grief and protest. After seeing that, anyone who thinks differently is insane. The Coronavirus threat and all the disruption from normal life plus the rioting has shielded, for lack of a better word, a massive surge in violence that continues in the city’s neighborhoods. As you can see below the usual bullshit that’s the police need reforming rings a tad hollow.

While the media and most folks are fixated on the virus disruptions and the rioting, hardly anyone is talking about, or noticing that in just a five-day span from 29 May – June 2, 128 people have been shot and 33 have been murdered. For cops, it’s what we see day after day and year after year. It has become the plea of many folks including the news media that we focus on the GOOD, in other words, the peaceful protesters from the violent hate groups causing the mayhem. Well okay! but then why aren’t cops afforded that same decency. You don’t want to lump the violent protesters together then don’t lump all cops together. We are sick of it. Nobody hates bad cops more than good cops.

The great Tribune columnist John Kass has reminded everyone in a recent column of the policy of  “GIVING SAFE SPACE  TO VIOLENCE” that just might explain what happened to the Chicago area. We have to remember that elected officials are not exempt from being complete idiots, they are in abundance and all around us, especially in Cook County and Illinois. However one in particular is in the NITT-WITT hall of fame. The “GIVE SAFE SPACE TO VIOLENCE” was immortalized by none other than Stephenie Rawlings Blake, a former Mayor of Baltimore, who allowed 2015 protesters over the death of Freddy Grey to warp out of control.

These were her exact words”ITS A VERY DELICATE BALANCING ACT” SHE BABBLED”( AS BALTIMORE BURNED AFTER IT WAS TOTALLY LOOTED) “WE ALSO GAVE THOSE WHO WISHED TO DESTROY SPACE TO DO THAT AS WELL AND WE WORKED VERY HARD TO KEEP THAT BALANCE AND PUT OURSELVES IN THE BEST POSITION TO DE-ESCALATE.” IT NEVER DE-ESCALATED. Those words were the MODERN DAY GETTYSBURG ADDRESS OF A LUNATIC OUT OF AN INSANE ASYLUM. Imagine why she did not choose to run again?

It’s no secret that the police response to the rioting was pathetic at best. There is no way of knowing if any orders were given to the police to not wear riot gear which the Department had purchased in 2012 for over a million dollars, to be ready for the NATO demonstrations. Not one police officer was injured during those very stressful street confrontations. Last week over 100 to 150 Chicago cops were injured, some hospitalized with broken bones. The rioters looted and damaged at will, they burned and damaged dozens of police cars. Whoever was in charge failed to locate the police vehicles in a staging area with security and bus the cops to their posts. The second watch was sent home while authorities knew or had to know they were dangerously outnumbered. I’m not second-guessing, I’m first guessing.

I worked scores and scores of demonstrations and so did many of my colleagues and we all agree something or someone seriously dropped the ball. Soon it spread to almost every neighborhood in the City and beyond, and the proof of that is several Alderman have accused the Mayor of abandoning their Wards of police protection. Now back to the aftermath word. What’s happening now in the city is practically going unnoticed or it’s the OSTRICH THEORY, a theory so many politicians espouse too. If you keep your head in the sand there is nothing to see. While all this was happening in the City, Governor Pritzker about 2 months ago decided that it was much too dangerous to keep over a four thousand convicted felons behind bars, including 61 convicted of murder, lest the poor dears catch the VIRUS. So now what’s facing an already beleaguered community is those released felons are now back among the neighborhoods they terrorized before going to prison.

Hence the reason for the massive explosion of killings and shootings. The thugs from prison now want their old positions back in the gangs, and of course, the bangers that took over those positions are not walking away quietly. The money in drug trafficking and illegal activity is much too lucrative to give up. At some point, both the media and the City officials will notice full bore and we will have more blah- blah- blah, there will be more gas let loose than PEOPLES GAS HAS IN STORAGE, most likely about police reform. It seems to be a favorite topic of clueless politicians. My attitude is not cynicism, it’s based on sound information and observation from folks with hundreds of years of experience. You cannot talk sense with those who are willing to use violence as their means.

Last month the Mayor and the Hapless Police Superintendent reduced the Chicago police Departments  Narcotics units by some estimates of over 98%. The reason was overtime in my opinion. The gangs will virtually have little or no oversite into their lucrative drug dealings, killings, and shootings will continue at a fever pace. To maximize those profits are what’s at the center of the mayhem. It just seems to me that for some reason those lives do not seem to matter. If they did, my question is, where is all the OUTRAGE? It’s CRICKETS. Listen carefully you can hear them.

With most sports around the world on pause, revisit iconic sports moments from the past to help fill that void.

Michael Jordan’s daughter Jasmine was six years old or younger during all of the Bulls’ championships during the 1990s. That left her having to Google her father and his greatness.

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Where peacefully we the people protest

The ground is firm and free and blessed;

For so the blood of heroes dead

Has paved the way for us ahead.

“Structural racism” has become the touchstone of the Left. If you subscribe to its reality, if you knee and foreswear your “white privilege” and beg forgiveness before a woke cop as if he/she/they were a priest confessor, you will be admitted to the tabernacle of true believers, the pure of heart and the orthodoxy of the saved.

But what is this sanctified “structural racism” that has descended on America as if it were a plague brought forth by an avenging God. Will we have to smear lamb’s blood on the threshold to spare our first born?

There are many definitions, perhaps so many that this biblical-like imperative  has lost meaning. The confessant knows, of course that he/she/they are bad, bad, people who unknowingly hide racism in their hearts and who, by their very presence, are guilty, guilty, guilty.

To me, “structural racism” sounds like something that was hatched in a sociology class, lead by a ’60s-style professor yearning to inhale the smoke of burning draft cards.

And so it is. Searching out a definition free of social science gobbledygook, I came across this effort by something called “Chronic Disparity: Strong and Pervasive Evidence of Racial Inequalities POVERTY OUTCOMES Structural Racism” by Keith Lawrence, Aspen Institute on Community Change and Terry Keleher, Applied Research Center at UC Berkeley For the Race and Public Policy Conference, 2004.” Well, almost free of gobbledygook. Here it is, at some length:

Structural Racism

Definition: Structural Racism in the U.S. is the normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics – historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal – that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. It is a system of hierarchy and inequity, primarily characterized by white supremacy – the preferential treatment, privilege and power for white people at the expense of Black, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Arab and other racially oppressed people.

Scope: Structural Racism encompasses the entire system of white supremacy, diffused and infused in all aspects of society, including our history, culture, politics, economics and our entire social fabric. Structural Racism is the most profound and pervasive form of racism – all other forms of racism (e.g. institutional, interpersonal, internalized, etc.) emerge from structural racism.

Indicators/Manifestations: The key indicators of structural racism are inequalities in power, access, opportunities, treatment, and policy impacts and outcomes, whether they are intentional or not. Structural racism is more difficult to locate in a particular institution because it involves the reinforcing effects of multiple institutions and cultural norms, past and present, continually producing new, and re-producing old forms of racism.