Archive for August, 2009
August 30th, 2009
Last Monday, just after two cops shot and killed Mark Anthony Barmore, the newsroom was warned: You’d better get over to the daycare center. There’s been a shooting. It’s bad.
We thought: Gunman kills little kids. Later that afternoon as we learned more, as we heard the names of the cops involved, as we pieced together the differences between the eyewitness accounts and the police accounts, we thought: This has the potential to rip this city apart.
Over the next three days, newsroom leaders reached out to sources, community leaders and acquaintances, asking one question and offering one piece of advice: We are deeply concerned about the potential for black-white confrontation on over this shooting. What are you doing to get out ahead of it? If you are not already planning to, then you must and fast.
And then we made these decisions internally. Our roles will be two-fold: (1) We will aggressively cover the news of the day, in fact and in context; and, (2) we will connect those who have power with those who do not by giving voice to those who have neither power or voice.
On Sunday, we made a third decision: We cannot become part of the news. That means neither our news journalists nor our Editorial Board journalists will stand “side-by-side” at the various press conferences or photo opportunities.
In part, I wish we could. In other instances, we have, especially among Editorial Board members. Being “in the know” gives us insights that add context and accuracy to our reporting and to our editorials.
Not this time. For us to appear at a press conference with one “side” or another would undermine our credibility and would add fuel to the factions that already believe we have taken sides. We believe we can do our best work by staying one step removed from becoming part of the news.
August 27th, 2009
We are scared people. We are scared because the world we expected ended the third week of September 2008 and we have no idea what is taking its place.
We are scared people. Asked how we’re doing and we grimace and say “well, as good as can be expected since I lost my job.” Or we shrug and sad-smile “well, I’m employed but who knows what the next e-mail will bring.”
We are scared people. When we are scared we fight. We look for conspiracies. We point fingers and blame others. We pull back to a corner and pull the corner in with us.
We are in danger of letting our fear turn us into polarized, paralyzed people. If the Rock River Valley is to find its footing in today’s frightening world and position itself to move forward after the Great Recession, we cannot continue the divisive arguing that has marred the past weeks.
We must find another way of talking. We cannot use the traditional, fall-back models. They are not working.
There are five local news stories, unrelated, except for a common undercurrent. Black versus white has become a steady part of the conversation in these five: the closing of the Lewis Lemon branch library; the investigation of a ranking firefighter; the shooting of a black man by two white police officers; the first-time jitters at Legacy charter school; and, the announced shuttering of Rock Valley College’s football program.
Add in divisive health care reform and there are six news stories. We are scared people. We don’t understand. We have no control. We see no resolution, no vision for a better way.
I have wrestled all week with the black-and-white anger spilling into our community. Ensuring accuracy of fact and of context is difficult when there is anger, fear and powerlessness.
To two who shared thoughts with me I am particularly grateful. This is what one asked: Is this really about black-and-white? Or is it about green, as in money and power?
An important question that I had not considered so clearly. Race is our fall-back argument; it’s what we know how to say and use. We don’t know how to argue about money and power — especially when we have none and when we are afraid that what we might have will disappear.
The second message was one of hope. We must craft a new model, he said, for talking. We are in the middle of the final transitions from old to new and we are frightened. Our leaders must show us the wonderful ways we could be, the ways we must become. We must hear from them their daily messages of hope and transformation. We must step up to share them and to shape them.
That will be hard, because we feel the unraveling; we feel the loss of power, control, money. We will be tempted to fight; to flee. Yet, I know it can find these new ways because those were the messages repeated again and again by men and women of all ages and all colors as I listened to them this week.
I can end the week in a very different place than I began. Have faith; do not despair.
August 25th, 2009
Over three decades of writing newspaper columns, I’ve learned three lessons: (1) keep it local and if it’s not local make it personal; (2) be respectful and go full out, straight on, or in slang language, “tell it like it is”; and, (3) never attempt humor or satire; no one gets it.
And, there’s lesson number four, learned over a decade of posting online: What passes for “respectful but straight on” online does not work in print. And, I have casually resorted to oh-too-clever, antagonistic, short-hand asides in some blog posts that flat out did not translate well to print.
Posting online is fast, quick and often off-the-cuff. That’s not what we expect from newspaper columnists. We expect them to be thought-provoking, not simply provoking. I forgot that and it got me in trouble with police and firefighters. It got me in trouble with the tax collectors. It got me in trouble with the PETA people.
I never intended to insult cops and firefighters when I said we need two-tier pension reforms in Illinois. But, the way I phrased it did. I never intended to insult property tax assessors, but the way I phrased my annoyance at my assessment increase did.
The anger, frustration and disconnect that underlies our community conversations today — from health care reform to library closings — will push us into hard-line camps from which nothing good can come. When I fall into the trap of using “fighting words” just for effect, I contribute to the hyperbole and hyperventilating that I so abhor.
Hence, my apology. Now the promise: I will remember that the words we choose to come from the News Tower have the power to do great good and the power to do great harm. We will chose well. I promise.
August 20th, 2009
Those of us who work downtown rarely curse the traffic. Might have to wait a couple turns of a stoplight occasionally or rely of the kindness of strangers to let you cross an intersection, but traffic jams during the work week are not normal.
We swear during the June high school graduations. We swear during On the Waterfront. But, most week days, downtown traffic is fine, even with the construction going on.
So we get really testy when traffic jams do happen. As they did this morning. There’s a leadership conference at the MetroCentre today and for 90 minutes or so traffic in downtown was all but gridlocked.
I’m all for developing downtown and making it and its venues happenin’ places, but if that happens, the city’s going to have to figure out WAY better ways of managing traffic. No signs, no alternatives, not much visible sign of anyone directing traffic. Just cars pushing and proding, inch by inch, and tempers clearly frayed. Not good. Not good for those who work downtown. And, definitely not good for those who visit.
August 19th, 2009
It’s been two dozen years since I did the first day, first grade at school thing with my son, and a dozen since I had to do parent-teacher nights. I’m one of those “no kids in school” people now. We’re the ones who pay the taxes, buy the chocolate fundraiser things and generally skip over the school board stories in the newspaper.
But, the goings on this week with the new charter school in the Rockford district got my attention. On day one Legacy officials told parents of kindergartners they couldn’t come into the school and had to leave their kids at the door. Excuse me? I have a hard time even wrapping my head around that concept.
On day two, Legacy officials blew off LaVonne Sheffield, the new school superintendent. Now, while charter schools are technically separate from the public schools, it’s just not wise to refuse to play nice with the superintendent of the district that pays your bills. (Charters get their funding from the district which gets it from us.)
If you’re one of those folks, who like me, wondered this morning what’s up with this Legacy thing, click here. The Register Star has an extensive package on Legacy’s history in Rockford.
August 18th, 2009
This year’s buzzword is “transparency.” Transparency in government. In bailout funds. In salaries and bonuses for corrupt CEOs. I use the word a lot. I like to see things and be in the know as said things are happening. I am OK with watching and participating in the messy process that takes an idea from concept to execution.
So, as the Register Star Editorial Board writes today, I am delighted Gov. Pat Quinn signed stricter rules forcing open government in Illinois. After almost two decades of arguing with, filing lawsuits against and papering local elected officials with FOIAs, applaud any improvement to Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act.
Illinois has one of the worst, if not the worst, “sunshine” climates in the country. You’ll hear that refrain from editorial boards around the state. The Freedom of Information Act specifically says that public bodies must meet in public and it adds that nothing in the law requires a public body to close its meetings. Shutting out the public is strictly the choice of an elected public body.
In Illinois the choice is closed. From governors and legislators to mayors, police and fire chiefs, superintendents and executive directors of those infamous public-private partnerships, Illinois chooses to do its business behind closed doors. Transparency is not high on their agendas.
The new tools may help — some. What’s really needed is the political will of our elected and appointed officials to open the doors, to stop hiding behind spokesmen(women), to release information quickly and willingly without silly demands for FOIAs, to cease playing cat-and-mouse. It’s the public’s business, not theirs.
August 14th, 2009
For almost a year this has been my stock answer when asked about the economy: When employees are relatively confident they’re not going to lose their jobs, the economy will turn around.
It is, for me, just that simple. If one is pretty sure the paycheck will continue (even if it’s smaller than before), one is more likely to buy a car, a pair of shoes, maybe that first house rather than rent. No job; no cash to spend. Fear of no job? Then, into the savings account goes any cash that might have been taken to the mall for new bed linens.
I am cynically amused at the “experts” who are just discovering this.
Most people are employed. Even in the job-hungry Rock River Valley, 85 percent go to work every day. The catch is we’re uneasy that the job’s going to be gone tomorrow. So instead of spending money, the still-employed-but-worried-about-it save the cash.
The good, ol’ American consumer will spend cash and the economy will get better: When headlines are about fewer job losses, not layoffs. When the pay freeze thaws. When 401k contributions return. When home conversations are about the raise received (tiny though it is) rather than the pay cut absorbed. When water-cooler chatter is about a position replaced, not cut.
We might all have been better off had Congress et al funneled all those billions into guaranteeing the payrolls of American companies. (No, I do not actually believe that, but it is tempting….)
August 13th, 2009
You low-down, greedy, disingenuous dirty dogs. How dare you suggest that it’s an OK thing to raise the assessment on my house and then raise the multiplier? How dare you even try to justify sticking your hands deeper into homeowners’ pockets when most are praying they can hold their breaths long enough to survive drowning in the Great Recession.
The headline in Thursday’s Register Star said it all: Prepare to pay more taxes.
That’s because the township assessors (anonymous folks, they are) have stuck it to homeowners — and no elected officials appear to have lifted a hand to stop it.
Not only will a lot of folks see the assessed value of their homes increase, but the “multiplier,” which traditionally is 1.0, is now 1.31 in Rockford Township. (It’s higher or lower, depending on where you live.) Those two things together mean homeowners are going to get stuck paying the bills for politicians and government functionaries too wimpy to make the tough decisions.
They’re going to all point fingers at each other. They are all going to blame the “three year rolling average” on home values. They are all being disingenuous. They wanted to make darn sure the property tax revenues declined as little as possible so that they’d be able to avoid making tough decisions.
They could have flatlined equalized assessed valuations. They could have kept the multiplier at 1.0. They did not because they wanted to sustain the revenue stream. These same political wimps will get to set tax rates next. And, if they do not reduce the rates a lot (and you know they won’t), get prepared for a triple whammy: increased values, increased multipliers and increased rates.
My home’s assessed value increased from $80,000 last year to $82,000 this year. My Rockford Township multiplier went from 1.0 to 1.32. I am not a happy taxpayer.
That’s puts the fair market value (supposedly what I could sell my home for) at about $248,000. I had the house appraised in 2001; it appraised for $175,000. If it’s value since then increased three percent every year at three percent (about average for old homes in Rockford), the fair market value would be about $228,000 — and I’m pretty sure that’s a stretch in today’s market.
No matter how it’s calculated, the local government wants more money from me — and you from homes we know we cannot sell at the inflated assesssed values.
If local elected officials think the property tax protests of the 1990s’ desegregation lawsuit were a nightmare, just wait until this latest money grab sinks in.
August 12th, 2009
I’m just asking: Do you have a “DNR” on file with your doctor, lawyer, spouse, nursing home, kids, safety deposit box? I do. Ditto with a “living will” and medical power of attorney.
Did them together after important conversations with my doctors, my spouse and son, my sister (a registered nurse), and, yes, after prayers. I update it periodically to ensure the right folks have the most recent information. I want to be absolutely sure that if I am not able to make health care decisions myself that those who WILL make them respect my wishes — and that includes the “do not resuscitate” and “no heroic measures” language that allows my family and my doctors to “pull the plug” when it’s time.
Anyone who has ever been swept up in the family nightmare of deciding — without those legal documents — whether to keep a loved one on a ventilator would give their collective left arms not to ever have to endure that dysfunction again.
And, yet, here we are in the debacle discussion of health care reform hearing so-called smart people say providing for and paying for those discussions and decisions NOW, not when I’m on the darned ventilator, is wrong?
I do not get it.
August 12th, 2009
What do immigration, Social Security and health care reform have in common with the almost-forgotten Equal Rights Amendment? They’re all critical issues this country must wrestle with and resolve smartly, and they are all critical issues co-opted by the loud, hostile, abusive creature known as Anonymous.
The Equal Rights Amendment died on one dumb Anonymous claim: We will have unisex bathrooms everywhere.
Anonymous plays to our fears. Anonymous tells us Grandma is headed for the gutter right before she’s put down like a kitty. Anonymous swears he knows all the inside facts. Anonymous derails constructive, compassionate, smart discussion that could actually make our health care system a global model.
I’m sick of Anonymous. I’m weary of the rabble-rousing, self-serving, disingenuous politicians, pontificators, insurance industry, conspiracy theorists — the whole lot of them — who have co-opted the health care discussion.
And, I made this commitment as editor of the Rockford Register Star: We will use HealthyRockford.com to explain the mess, to separate fact from fiction, to offer credibile sources. You have two choices: listen to the rabble or research the facts. If you want the facts, if you want to make educated decisions and not just repeat the spewings of Anonymous, bookmark our special report.
I have decent-but-not-great health insurance coverage, awful dental insurance and good-enough vision. And, it’s costing an arm and a leg. I get whatever my company or my husband’s company offers; very limited or no choices. I have to pick docs the insurance company approves. And, my family physician must coordinate all care or it doesn’t get paid. What’s the difference between all that and most of the reform proposals on the table?
Previous Posts
