This fall has been especially beautiful here in Rockford. There is some truth, however, in the old adage that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so I am not certain whether a year’s worth of rain and sun and cold nights with a moderately late first frost have all come together to provide...
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Polka Can’t Die
Rockford’s annual On the Waterfront festival is just the sort of thing I should like—in theory, at least. Held every Labor Day weekend since 1985, On the Waterfront is the largest community event in Rockford and features both local and national musical acts. The entire downtown is closed to all but foot traffic for three...
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Rolling Home to Rockford
According to the official website of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour, if we had stuck to the prescribed route, our excursion would have taken us approximately 1,160 miles. Here on our 12th day out, however, we have just logged our 2,200th mile, and we are still 30 miles east of Rockford. My obsession with lighthouses...
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An Honest Mistake
Alan Keyes, like the proverbial white knight, has ridden across the country from his castle in Maryland to save the Republican Party of Illinois from itself—at least, that’s the way his supporters would like to portray Keyes’ run for junior U.S. senator from Illinois. More likely, this ridiculous whirlwind campaign—the result of the convergence of...
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Carpetbagging
Alan Keyes, like the proverbial white knight, has ridden across the country from his castle in Maryland to save the Republican Party of Illinois from itself—at least, that’s the way his supporters would like to portray Keyes’ run for junior U.S. senator from Illinois. More likely, this ridiculous whirlwind campaign—the result of the convergence of...
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One Moment in Time
“You mean,” said Marina, “you mean that we’re sitting here over Hell?” “Over a hell, conceivably. There are many hells, and the same place may be Hell or Purgatory, depending upon the situation. Most of them are private.” Those words echo in my thoughts as we approach the building. Turner School, built in 1898, is...
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The End of the Innocence
This town ain’t big This town ain’t small. It’s a little of both they say. And our ball club may be minor league But at least it’s Triple A. . . . We don’t worry ’bout the pennant much We just like to see the boys hit it deep There’s nothing like the view From...
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Russell Kirk and the Negation of Ideology
“The magnificent cause of being, / The imagination, the one reality / In this imagined world . . . ” —Wallace Stevens Though ten years have passed since his death on April 29, 1994, Russell Kirk has yet to be the subject of a definitive intellectual biography. In his own posthumously published autobiography, The Sword...
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Strictly Business
The other day, driving through North End Commons (a neighborhood a bit north of the Chronicles offices and to the west of our house), I noticed a florist, a friend of mine, out in front of another flower shop, chatting with the owner. The two businesses have coexisted now for over a year, though they...
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Trust(s) in the Media
Back when I was in college, a sociology professor assigned our class Michael Parenti’s Inventing Reality for reading and review. In this book, subtitled The Politics of News Media, Parenti, an unabashed Marxist, comes across as a pale imitation of media watchdog Ben Bagdikian. Anyone who owns a media outlet or holds a position of...
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A Wal-Mart in Every Town
Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton used to claim that he would never build a store in a town that didn’t want one. Whether true or not, it was at least the right thing to say. Since Walton’s death in 1992, however, Wal-Mart has largely dropped the pretense, forcing its way into Vermont (the last state to...
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Last Ride
Every city needs cemeteries, and not just for the obvious reason. Like public buildings and monuments, they are a visible—and spiritual—link to the city’s past, a reminder that others have traveled the path that we trod, and still others will follow in our footsteps. Placed prominently on the edge of residential or commercial areas or...
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This Is the Time to Remember
Every city is made up of innumerable stories, some overlapping, most not. And, thus, every city needs many storytellers to provide a full account of its life, because—humans being finite—no one is likely to be able to encompass all of those stories in his work. Few cities, however, are so lucky. The best most cities...
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One City, No Leaders
Regionalism has been the chief buzzword of the Rockford Register Star for several years now, and, for once, on a rather limited level, I actually agree with the local Gannett paper. There are certain problems facing Rockford that require coordination with surrounding communities and with county government, especially questions of land use. This section of...
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Do You Feel Safer Now?
Administrative subpoenas, an innovative method of bypassing Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure, first cropped up (at least publicly) in the draft of PATRIOT II that was exposed by the Center for Public Integrity in February 2003. Unlike a warrant, an administrative subpoena does not have to be approved by a judge. It...
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Fiddling While Rockford Burns
There’s a big brown cloud in the city, And the countryside’s a sin. The price of life is too high to give up, It’s gotta come down again. When worldwide war is over and done, And the dream of peace comes true. We’ll all be drinking that free Bubble Up, And eating that rainbow stew....
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Imposing Tariffs
The steel tariff may become a major issue in this year’s presidential campaign, placing Howard Dean in the odd position (for a Democratic candidate, at least) of attacking President Bush for caving in to a decision of an international body—in this case, the World Trade Organization. But then, over its 21-month life, this tariff has...
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Consumption Taxes, Property Rights
“For if property is secure, it may be the means to an end, whereas if it is insecure it will be the end itself.” —Paul Elmer More Property, Merriam Webster’s tells us, is “something owned or possessed” and specifically a piece of real estate; or “the exclusive right to possess, enjoy, and dispose of a...
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The Road to Hell
It’s been a rough three months for St. Mary’s Oratory here in Rockford. First, over Labor Day weekend, some Republican members of the Winnebago County Board, in collusion with certain Republican county officials, hatched a plan to try to include St. Mary’s in the land-acquisition area for a new, $130-million county jail. When the plan...
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Always Dead Downtowns. Always.
In late October, federal agents committed blasphemy against one third of the libertarian trinity of Microsoft, McDonald’s, and Wal-Mart. In a coordinated raid on Wal-Mart headquarters and 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, the feds arrest 245 illegal aliens, 235 of whom were working for a subcontractor who provided janitorial services for the chain. (The...
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Snatching VICTORY From the Jaws of Defeat
On February 7, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity revealed that it had obtained a draft of proposed legislation, officially entitled “The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003” but referred to unofficially, as it made the rounds of Capitol Hill, as “PATRIOT II.” CPI made a scanned copy of the act available on its...
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Calling Bill Donohue
When cities trumpet the glories of their downtowns, they normally talk about such things as the number and variety of restaurants and stores, easy access from other parts of the city, even the availability of parking places. Here, however, we believe in “a different kind of greatness,” and I can see the ads now: “Come...
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Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
Dispatches From the Muckdog Gazette by Bill Kauffman New York: Henry Holt and Company; 207 pp., $22.00 A decade ago, a friend of mine was working for a prestigious law firm in Washington, D.C., which had decided to institute a “paperless” office. The process would take a couple of years; in the interim, to smooth the...
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A Nightmare on Elm Street
I have raised up a chosen man from my people, with my holy oil I have anointed him so that my hand is always with him and my arm strengthens him. A year ago, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bishop Thomas G. Doran of the diocese of Rockford elevated...
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The Perfect Storm
The chain saw screams as it hits the wood, then slides through the first few branches as if they were butter. I toss them aside, and Jacob and Stephen each grab hold of one, dragging it, struggling, over to the gate and out onto the driveway. It has been two weeks since the storm, but...
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Christ and History
In theory, it seems like a good idea. The corpus of historian John Lukacs’s work is so rich and has grown so large that those who have just discovered it may be uncertain where to start. His magnum opus, Historical Consciousness, alone has gone through three editions, all of which are worth reading as separate...
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WWMD?
I want to speak to you today about war and empire. Killing, or at least the worst of it, is over in Iraq. Although blood will continue to spill—theirs and ours—be prepared for this. For we are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as...
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Giving the Devil His Due
Early in the morning factory whistle blows, Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes, Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light, It’s the working, the working, just the working life . . . One of the oddest ironies of our postindustrial age is that conservatives—true conservatives, not the various utopian...
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Stemming the Tide
On August 9, 2001, during a speech from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush put an end to several months of debate surrounding government funding of research on stem cells derived from human embryos. After discussing his administration’s research into the matter and declaring his own “deeply held beliefs” in science and...
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Where the Blacktop Ends
It’s springtime once again in Rockford, when a young man’s fancy turns to bailing out his basement. The old downtown and the residential neighborhoods built up through the 1940’s sit on clay soil, on top of rock. The effect, when the spring rains come and the dry clay cannot absorb the water quickly enough, is...
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War Is Hell on the Homefront, Too
Depending on whether you like them thin and greasy or thick and meaty, the two best purveyors of french fries in Rockford are Uncle Nick’s Gyros on East State Street and Altamore’s Ristorante on North Main. Neither the mythical Uncle Nick nor the very real Alberto Altamore, I’m happy to report, has fallen prey to...
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Small Is Beautiful
The City of Rockford is broke. That does not mean, of course, that it is insolvent or bankrupt; after all, it is rather hard for any government with the power to tax to end up in that position (though some occasionally do). Like so many other cities of its size today, however, Rockford has projected...
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This Is Your Hometown
About two years ago, I wrote a “Letter From Rockford” entitled “A Month in the Life of the Industrial Midwest” (April 2001), in which I used excerpts from news reports to illustrate the rather dramatic economic changes that were taking place in the Rockford area—plant closings, layoffs, declining wages. At the time, I had no...
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A Road to Nowhere
“That’s my toll booth,” Tom Ditzler says, laughing when his wife, Jan, mentions the portable toilet that the county has left stationed on an island in the road. “Every car has to drop a quarter in as they pass by.” This November day is bitter, in more ways than one. After almost three years of...
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We Are All Socialists Now
Rockford has long been a Republican city, which is not surprising considering that industry—at least through the 1980’s and, to a lesser extent, even now—has formed the basis of her economy. Today, however, Rockford is becoming increasingly Democratic. I do not necessarily mean that Democrats have begun to dominate city politics. Even though the mayorship...
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I’m Not a Number
I stepped through the metal detector and walked down the long hallway to the old entrance to the Winnebago County Court-house, a monument to less security-conscious days. In Room 502, I joined about 200 other citizens, waiting to do our civic duty. Signing in, I received my badge: no name, just a number—Juror 11593. I...
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The Cohn Zone
I suppose it was appropriate that I first heard the commercial just as we crossed into Winnebago County, returning from a whirlwind weekend trip to Michigan. At first, the words didn’t register; it was only when I heard the voice of Kris Cohnor rather, Kristine O’Rourke Cohn, since it is an election year, after all—in...
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The Bells of St. Mary’s
P. Introibo ad altare Dei. R. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. From the outside, St. Mary’s Oratory in Rockford resembles scores of other Catholic churches built in the Midwest in the late 19th century, with its red-brick exterior, steep roof, stained-glass windows, and a bell tower that reaches for the sky. When you first...
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One More Such Victory . . .
June 30, 2002, arrived with little fanfare, an odd ending to 13 years of judicial tyranny here in Rockford. Perhaps that’s because the Rockford school-desegregation lawsuit officially ended on a Sunday; more likely, it’s because most Rockfordians didn’t realize the significance of that day (just as they never quite understood what has happened over the...
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Ethnic Cleansing
Family traditions often get started by accident—especially, perhaps, those that center on food. On the second New Year’s Eve after we were married, my wife and I found ourselves trapped in our apartment in Vienna, Virginia, victims of a freak snow and ice storm that made the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., streets downright dangerous, especially...
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Cui Bono?
You cannot hope to bribe or twist / (thank God!) the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do / unbribed, there’s no occasion to. —Humbert Wolfe The June issue of Chronicles was literally on the press on May 7, when local radio talk-show host Chris Bowman announced that Bishop Thomas Doran of the...
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De Profundis
In recent months, as horrifying allegations of homosexual and pedophiliac activities among Catholic priests in the United States have multiplied, the response of the American Church has been, to say the least, disheartening. Remarks by Bernard Cardinal Law of Boston, Roger Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles, and Francis Cardinal George of Chicago have clouded the...
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“Think of the Children!”
“School cuts would hurt neediest kids,” the headline in the local Gannett paper proclaimed. With the spring primary just days away, the administration of Rockford School District 205 was urging the public to pass the third education referendum in a row. This one would allow the district to issue $23.5 million in bonds and use...
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Giuseppe Sure Knows How To Live
The train winds its way slowly through the Tuscan countryside, stopping at every small station between Siena and Florence. I don’t mind, because Tuscany in mid-March is like Rockford in mid-to late-May—an explosion of greenery, a profusion of brilliant yellow forsythia blossoms, a cavalcade of white and pink cherries in full bloom. We pass small...
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Through A Glass, Darkly
“We have an Islamic school in Rockford?” my friend said in surprise. His reaction was typical. Rockford, as the local Gannett paper never ceases to remind us, is stubbornly average—in population, ethnic composition, income level—with a few notable exceptions, particularly astronomic property taxes and abysmal public-school test scores. The idea that there is a sufficient...
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Robbing Paul to Pay Paul
After 12 years under federal rule, Rockfordians are looking forward to the end of the People Who Care school-desegregation lawsuit on June 30, 2002. If the district administration and the school board have their way, however, the fat lady may not actually begin singing for another ten years. One of the many elements that has...
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Ghosts of the Midwest
The decline of the Midwest as a cultural force was well under way by the time Russell Kirk was born in Plymouth, Michigan, in 1918. Yankee influence in the region had largely been replaced by a more vibrant German-American culture, and now the United States, in the midst of the War to End All Wars,...
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There Goes the Neighborhood
The first time I drove to Rockford, on a cold, gray, slushy November day six years ago, I entered the city the way most people do. Heading west on I-90, I got off at the East State Street exit, where I was greeted by a horrifying metal sign, in muted oranges, purples, and greens, welcoming...
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Consuming Ourselves
When my wife and I were searching for a house in 1996, we had a few basic requirements: We wanted an older home with a decent-sized yard for our children; we wanted to live in an actual neighborhood, not a new, vinyl-sided ranch development; we wanted to be relatively close to Chronicles’ office; and we...
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“Bless the Lord, All You Works of the Lord”
In one of the first episodes of the latest Star Trek series, Enterprise, the crew, a few weeks out from Earth on the ship’s maiden voyage, has become homesick. Suddenly, an inhabitable planet appears off of the port side. There are no signs of humanoid life, but the captain sends a small team down to...