We Have a Problem! Burr Oak Cemetery and Someone Else's Troubles

Father Dan Mallette blesses the desecrated grounds at Burr Oak.


So I asked the undertaker what it took to make him laugh/when all he ever saw is people cryin'

first he hands me a bunch of flowers that he received on my behalf/he said, "Steve business just gets better all the time
Steve Goodman -Somebody Else's Troubles



Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas is an architect and a philosopher.

He designs. Max Weismann thinks. He thinks because he reads and he reads what is great. Max wrote to me in response to the horrific desecration of the dead Americans at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL

"We are under Siege!Aside from the plethora of current inequities and iniquities being perpetrated on the citizens of this nation, we have now reached the nadir--Congress now passes massive bills of profound and long lasting consequences, without even reading them.

That said, we are ultimately at fault--whenever something is wrong in our communities, cities, states or country, it's because we let it get that way."

We are responsible. Max Weismann is using the 1st Person Plural in its archaic form. Thanks to Progressive PC obfuscation of the common language ( O, Let's Ban Midget!)The first person plural however now means You. Thanks to Victimhood and Identity Politics. Many thanks. Like the name of that old Hippie/Yuppie bar Fred Holstein's - Somebody Else's Trouble , people like to talk of the revolution that someone else fights and spreading the wealth that someone else pays for.

I grew up in a blue collar world where free lunch ends when Mom stops making it. If someone at the bar buys me a beer, I am duty bound to buy the next one. It all evens out, unless you happen to be the type of louse who stands around caging drinks and smile with your short arms and deeper pockets when the round comes to you. I don't do those things, because I have had my ass kicked repeatedly and with great gusto by my elders and betters. You don't get away with that too much around Western Avenue, though I have seen it done. I called such a person a louse, an insect who feeds on others; but, who's to say? One man's louse is another man's cause celebre.

The bane of my outlook in all things over the last four decades has been a dominance of earnest people who speak in hushed measured tones and affect a look of pained recognition but intolerant disgust with all other people. Joan Walsh a Progressive writer and editor of Salon and all too frequent guest on MSNBC ( the Tool Shed) comes to mind. Joan Walsh and folks like her have a mantra - 'Who's to Say?'

e.g. Michael Jackson was not only the greatest entertainer of all time, the 21st Century Dionysus who danced in a Golden Age; a John the Baptist who announced Barack Obama. Who's to say?

Me. I don't do group think and neither do most Americans. I voted for Barack Obama when he ran against Bobby Rush in my Congressional District - Obama lost. I like Barack Obama.

I worked for John McCain. John McCain lost, because he seemed to want to lose, after September 19th 2008 - the day the American Economy tanked. My Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Aunts and my hundreds of cousins voted for Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is my President. I still feel that he was no where near ready to be President and that he will be the Jimmy Carter of the New Millennium - too bad. Nice guy.

I belong to the We - 99% of the Hickey/Winters/Brennan/Donahue/Cleary family voted to make Barack Obama Our President. Pronouns matter. Possessive Pronouns really matter. My guy lost, We won. That is America! Thanks be to God!

Who's to say? Me. I read and seem to understand history. I read and seem to understand poetry,drama, fiction and essays. I taught literature with some success for decades. I occasionally even get paid to write something, because I have something to say. Somethings I managed to learn on my own -from great books.
The rest I learned by getting the odd slap when needed, or from the silent treatment for being a jerk.

I work for and with black teenagers at Leo High School in Gresham neighborhood - in fact a black kid was shot over at 1400 W. 78th Place early this morning by a clown in dred-locks firing from the sun-roof of the car in which he was riding. Some mother has a kid at Advocate Hospital in Oak Lawn with his guts shot out and tubes in every orifice - my kids are asleep. This kid could be a Leo Man, I hope and pray not. The Kids at Leo High School are all black, but the guys helping pay their tuition are nearly all white guys.

Race relations issues are talked about by Joan Walsh-like head-shakers on WTTW who never drop a dime to help kids at Leo. Race Relations happen every day and race relations are pretty damn good. Leo High School is a safe place for Black Kids - they study, meet old white guys, play sports and succeed. Their folks pay heavy tuition bills and old white guys buck up plenty to ease their pain.

Gresham District Chicago Cops protect the kids once they are out of the school and help to see that they get home, without some clown throwing shots at them.


Sheriff Tom Dart unearthed the horrific desecration of My Neighbors at Burr Oak Cemetery. We have a problem. We are under siege, as Max Weismann wrote to me with heartbreakingly succinct clarity.

A Joan Walsh can write for Salon and shake her jowls with disgust at all of us, while making a case for Abortion about white on black systemic racism on MSNBC. Great.

The bones of a child are as precious to me as the bones of Emmett Till, Ezzard Charles, Dinah Washington and the hundreds of people who struggled and laughed and provided for their children and were back-hoe-ed by three morons at the bidding of some others.

We have a problem. Sheriff Tom Dart and all of us are now doing something about what was done. We need to start taking care of Someone Else's Troubles by calling out the dopes who continue to say 'Who's to Say?' We Do.

We need to Read what is Great and not just what is rammed down our throats, by Group Thinkers. We can read Dead White Men and still honor the thoughts of living women of color - honor bright; it can happen.

We need to say that killing Children is not a Woman's Reproductive Health Issue; murder is not the result of systemic racism, but an individual act selfish contempt for everyone else; suffering is not Some Else's Trouble; help is not always the result of more taxes.

Who's to say? Me. I don't need to be right; I just need to live like I might be correct.


Go to The Center for the Study of Great Ideas and get some Great Ideas from people who had them.

The CENTER has two primary missions:

One, to help awaken citizens from their moral and intellectual slumbers and to help them understand why philosophy is everybody's business: the possibility of finding sound and practical answers to questions about the good life and good society. And philosophy's ability to answer the most basic normative questions, WHAT OUGHT WE SEEK IN LIFE? And HOW OUGHT WE SEEK IT?

Two, to promulgate the insights and ideals embedded in Dr. Adler's lifelong intellectual work in the fields of Philosophy, Liberal Education, Ethics and Politics. To continue functioning as THE resource for, access to, and the on-going interpretation of his work.