Awful news from Highland Park, where there was a mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade. Current unconfirmed reports are six tragically dead, at least 24 in the hospital. I know there are a lot of people from Highland Park who read these pages, and it bordered Glencoe where I grew up. My dad's office was in Highland Park for 35 years, and he was associated with the hospital there. (He may have been the chief of medicine for a couple years, but I was young at the time I don't recall.) Readers of these pages know my many stories about the Ravinia Music Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony, where I worked for a couple of summers -- that's in Highland Park. It's a quiet, upscale, but low-key community.
Highland Park has a significant Jewish community (it's where our synagogue was), though so far there's no indication that this had anything to do with the shooting. The best reports about the shooting right now are from the Chicago Sun-Times, because of their top reporters, Lynn Sweet, was there at the time. I assume she lives in Highland Park. "Thoughts & prayers" won't help. Gun reform will. Gee, thanks, Supreme Court! To be clear, this shooting probably has nothing specifically to do with the recent Court ruling. But it most certainly has a great deal to do with the huge problem with mass shootings throughout the country and the devastating gun problem in general across the country, and their ruling stripped away at gun reform overall. Gun advocates will start pointing out that Chicago has among the most-strict gun laws in the country. (Not only "will," but have, because someone graciously noted that to one of my social media posts...) What they all ignore is how very close Chicago is to Indiana and Wisconsin, both easy driving distance, and both without the same strict gun laws as Chicago. And guns are known to be brought in to Chicago from there. The best comment in one of Sweet's article was someone saying, "This shouldn't happen here. But it shouldn't happen anywhere." Note to Ted Cruz: fewer doors wouldn't have helped. Maybe fewer rooftops.
1 Comment
Nikon1
7/4/2022 12:37:00 pm
As you said, I’m sure the GOP & NRA will continue to do nothing but offer “Thoughts & Prayers” for the victims & survivors.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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