I mentioned yesterday some of the closeness I have with Highland Park where at least seven people now were killed and over 30 hospitalized on Independence Day. My dad’s medical office of 35 years was about a mile away from where the shootings occurred. He was associated with and taught at the hospital where most of the victims were brought. Many other people took refuge 2-3 blocks away at Sunset Foods, perhaps the greatest grocery store I’ve been in, and my mother’s favorite place to shop, where they knew and loved her (“Oh, you’re Mrs. Elisberg’s son?!”) I’ve written often about working at the Ravinia Music Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony, which is based in Highland Park. Glencoe, where I grew up, bordered Highland Park at Lake-Cook Road, which divided Cook County and Lake County. Some nights when I worked at the Ravinia Festival, I lived close enough to just take a shortcut and walk through the Turnbull Woods to get there. My dad played golf in Highland Park twice a week for decades at the country club my folks belonged to. We ate in Highland Park – one of my favorite restaurants, Walker Bros. Original Pancake House – is about a block from the shooting site. Saw movies there. We had to drive through Highland Park to get to my favorite Italian restaurant anywhere, Del Rio, in Highwood, bordering Highland Park on the other side – where Luciano Pavarotti would go when in town. I have a Monet reproduction on my wall right now that my parents got for me from the Bank of Highland Park as a premium (when banks used to do that), in conjunction with the Art Institute of Chicago, for opening an account or making a big-enough deposit, because my mother knew I loved that particular painting, “Sandvicken, Norway” at the Art Institute. I have a great many friends who are from or still live in Highland Park. I know two people on the Highland Park city council (and long-time friends with one of them, he grew up down the block). One of my cousins lives close enough to where the “person of interest” was arrested that helicopters were flying over her house during the manhunt.
Fortunately, I’m not aware of knowing anyone who was killed or shot, though only a couple names have been released as I write this. I do have a good friend whose cousin was at the parade, and is safe. And know others who live in Highland Park who I assume were likely at the parade, and are fine. So, I’m profoundly happy and fortunate to not be personally affected by knowing anyone killed or injured -- as far as I know, so far. But though I didn't live there, just next door, Highland Park and Glencoe were always “rivals” and it was a very friendly, loving and close-knit rivalry, and I feel a deep closeness to it as an integral part of my life growing up. (Highland Park with 30,000 people having bragging rights as the bigger and far more substantial place, Glencoe at only 10,000 residents the better…) By the way, just to give some added perspective about Highland Park for people who don't know the town. You may have heard of the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre where Gary Sinese, John Malkovich, and Laurie Metcalf got their start in 1974 -- later joined by Joan Allen, John Mahoney (who played the father on Frasier) and Tracy Letts, among many others. When Steppenwolf incorporated, their first theater was in the basement of a church in Highland Park. (Sinise went to Highland Park High School.) Yesterday, Breitbart News criticized the attempts to ban assault weapons. And no, this wasn’t a case of bad timing, writing it before the massacre in Highland Park, Illinois, where at least seven people have died and over 30 hospitalized. It was written after the fact, when they actually knew the results of the latest mass gun tragedy. By the way, while this is just Breitbart News, and not official Republican Party policy, it is a leading voice of the far-right, who are the base of the GOP. Indeed, it’s the former home of Steve Bannon, for whom he was executive chairman. So, what Breitbart thinks and says using its outdoors voice give insight into what the Republican Party thinks. One of its oddest efforts in defending assault weapons was to point out that not only are assault weapons and magazines with more than ten rounds of ammunition banned in Highland Park, but the law was challenged and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2015. (How their law is written in a way such that it wasn’t thrown out by the court, I’m not sure.) Bizarrely, Breitbart seems to use this as a way to point out that even such a strict law didn’t stop the mass murders. But that, of course, mind-numbingly misses the point. Yes, Highland Park has a ban on assault weapons. So, there shouldn’t have been an assault weapon there. And if that had been the case, there would have been no massacre. But an assault weapon was purchased elsewhere, where it was legal – and brought in. And so, there was a mass killing of at least seven people with over 30 hospitalized. Otherwise, if assault weapons were illegal everywhere, it would have been impossible to purchase one legally, and there likely would have been no massacre. Breitbart also oddly – in fairness, “oddly” is a word that is appropriate for far too many arguments by Breitbart and anyone defending the legality of individuals buying an assault weapon – slammed Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker’s angry comments in Highland Park after the tragedy. As they wrote, “Pritzker concluded his statement with a call to end the “terror of rampant gun violence in our country” while stopping short of any gun control policy prescriptions.” I believe this may be the first time in recorded history when assault weapon advocates criticized someone for not offering “any gun control policy prescriptions.” Apparently, if the governor had said he wanted to ban the sale of all assault weapons to individuals (which I suspect he would love, and for all I know has said this elsewhere), they would be fine with that. Okay, no, they wouldn’t have been, so then the point here is that they didn’t actually care what Gov. Pritzker said about assault weapons, unless it had been in support of them. And as long as Breitbart is fine discussing the politics of gun reform now – which we all should be – I will say that especially after Uvalde, it’s become clear that that was a big enough breaking point (albeit a small one) with the public that Republicans realized they had to join Democrats finally and pass the first gun reform law in 40 years. Yet it was clear that the measure was pretty weak compared to what was needed, most especially because there would obviously be many more gun massacres. After all, the country is averaging 1-1/2 gun massacres a week. And then the far-right Justices on the Supreme Court stripped away gun reform protections. And only a couple weeks later, we now have Highland Park. And there will be more. And more. And I think, as politics nears the mid-terms, the Republican Party unrelenting support of assault weapons will move up as yet another campaign issue for Democrats against the GOP putting Americans at risk. There are two things, to their great credit, that I will say in defense of Breitbart’s loving-support of assault weapons after a massacre. The first is they didn’t offer “thoughts and prayers” (tm) to the victims and their families, pretending to care all that much. The second is that they didn’t cry out that “Now is not the time to talk about gun reform!” And instead, jumped right in with Gov. Pritzer and all other officials in Highland Park to talk about the politics of it all, just from the other side of being okay if there are more massacres. Of course, “thoughts and prayers” (tm) had any effect on gun massacres, there wouldn’t be any more of them, but unfortunately the United States averages 1-1/2 gun massacres a week. And of course, since there are 1-1/2 gun massacres a week, and if it wasn’t time to talk about gun reform until enough mourning time had passed since the last gun massacre, then there would never be a time to talk about gun reform. But then, of course, the time to talk about gun reform is before the next mass killing, not after. Yes, that’s just Breitbart News, but it’s the voice of the foundation of the Republican Party. The only other good thing yesterday is that Ted Cruz didn’t sicken most of the public by blaming the massacre on too many doors and call for fewer doors to protect people. And call for arming schoolteachers. The only thing that surprises me is that we haven’t heard assault weapon advocates crying out for communities having too many rooftops. The most proper comment about yesterday came from Alexander Sandoval who was attending the parade in quiet, low-key Highland Park. “This doesn’t happen here,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen anywhere.” It shouldn’t happen anywhere. And for all the understandable and deserved attention on Highland Park, there were over three dozen other shooting deaths around the country over the Fourth of July weekend. There were a dozen mass shootings -- with four or more people shot. The far-right shout here is usually along the foolish lines of, “See! Chicago has among the strictest gun laws in the country, and they still have all these gun deaths.” But such people totally miss the obvious point. First, Indiana is only about a 20-minute drive from Chicago. Wisconsin, just 90 minutes away. Both states have far-more lax gun laws than Chicago. And investigations show that many, if not most of the guns in Chicago shootings come from those two states – with lax gun laws. For that matter, you don’t even have to go out of state to figure out reality: gun laws around the rest of Illinois are not as strict as Chicago. Believe it or not, no, there isn’t some magic shield that blocks guns from DuPage County just west of Chicago from crossing the city border. And second, it shows that as strict as the Chicago gun laws may be, perhaps they’re not strict enough. Because it shouldn’t happen anywhere.
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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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