Opinions

Thursday was a hoot. Downtown at the Trunk-or-Treat, there were more young kids dressed up in some wonderfully cute costumes. There were store-bought that had people saying the cutest, most innocent things. Make-up and wigs, fake this and that, bright clothing, some lit-up and others were blinking. And those were just the dogs on leashes.

I remember the day Madeline said to me, “I like watching the squirrels scurrying around in my backyard, looking for acorns or stopping to eat one. I wonder what they’re thinking…” the former teacher said with her perfect diction and uplifting voice, as if she were telling the story to a gaggle of fourth graders gathered around her feet.

A homicide in Chicago is not an unusual occurrence. A weekend without a homicide in Chicago would be considered wonderfully rare. But, on this particular weekend, when the victim of the shooting was the cousin of a National Basketball Association star, the flurry of rage extended in concentric circles as the media stretched, molded and compacted the story for all to read, hear and see.