I’ve never understood the concept of a children’s museum. Children are everywhere as it is. Why would anyone pay good money to see them collected, even if it’s in a fancy new underground museum in Grant Park?
According to Mayor Daley, and therefore according to the many aldermen who voted his way, it was always about the children. According to Daley’s opponents, it was about a lakefront that should remain forever open, free, and clear—not to mention the sacred tradition of aldermanic prerogative. Most of us are no surer what’s really best for the children than we are what’s best for Grant Park. But we’re always ready to choose sides.
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Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke posted a witty chart on the Reader‘s Clout City blog prior to the City Council vote on June 11, predicting how each alderman would vote and why. For instance, they expected Toni Foulkes of the 15th Ward to vote against the plan. Why? “Actually tries to keep progressive campaign promises.” JoAnn Thompson in the 16th would vote yes. Why? “Little interest in keeping progressive campaign promises.” There was Daley’s side of the debate and there was the progressive side, all the more progressive for being so badly outnumbered.
The law of unintended consequences tells us the future is not ours to know. This law rules public affairs, and not with a light hand. Tomorrow being clear to nobody, we drape each passing issue in symbolism and happily argue today’s symbols instead of tomorrow’s inscrutable outcomes. This approach is a godsend to journalists, allowing us to weigh in with fervor on just about anything as soon as it’s clear who the players are.
Ben Joravsky reported in a piece for the Reader last September on how varsity soccer players at Lincoln Park High practiced in Oz Park, where they had to put up with “potholes and divots,” not to mention a manhole cover, while a state-of-the-art field they wouldn’t be able to use was in the works a few blocks away. But says Greta Lear, “This particular area has the lowest percentage of school-age children of any area in the city…. It’s just the most absurd thing to take [open space] away from all of these people enjoying it when a soccer field is more important for 11 people.”
It’s a teaching moment for new media. R. Kelly got off last week, and a young writer in Chattanooga with the nom de blog “Jebbica” posted an account at Gravy and Biscuits (subtitled “Hollywood Brought to You by the South”) that began, “R&B singer R. Kelly has been exonerated of all 14 counts of child pornography.” The headline, “R. Kelly Exonerated in Child Pornography Case,” was quickly reproduced on bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit and celebrity news aggregators like Lipstick.com.
“If they had presented it, who knows what we would have done,” said one juror.
