Forum

“The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.” Adlai Stevenson

To my dismay The NWI Times Sunday Forum section carried two front page commentaries lobbing cheap shots at the city of Gary and its elected officials, namely Ronald Brewer, who is in legal trouble for forcibly taking teenager who stole his car to a police station, and Tai Atkins, who allegedly accosted a woman dating her ex-boyfriend.  I sent off this letter to Times Sunday Forum editor Marc Chase with little expectation that it will be published.

    I am troubled by the Times’s continuing disparagement of the city of Gary’s political leadership. In particular, I refer to gratuitous comments emanating from the January 12 Sunday Forum by editor Marc Chase and columnist Jerry Wilkerson. Once again, Chase has drawn wildly exaggerated conclusions from, in this case, the impulsive and misguided actions of two Council members, that exemplify, in his words, “a sickness of epic proportions, characterized by unwavering selfishness [that] long has plagued our Region’s political landscape.”  Such negative characterizations certainly do not apply to two of Chase’s favorite targets, former mayors Richard Hatcher and Karen Freeman-Wilson. During 15 of Hatcher’s 20 years in office, Republican U.S. Attorneys investigated his administration time and again.  Had they unearthed evidence of corruption, they certainly would have prosecuted him, just as they targeted black mayors in Detroit, Washington, DC, and Atlanta. Regarding Freeman-Wilson, as a Harvard Law School graduate, she had opportunities that would have made her a multi-millionaire by now but instead, like Hatcher, remained in Gary and worked for the betterment of the city.

    Also in the January 12 Forum appeared Jerry Wilkerson’s “Cursed by the memories,” which blamed Gary’s decline on “moral decay, political corruption, racism and crime” – which he implied happened, not during the 1950s, when he claims “Gary was great” but after he and other whites left.  He waxes nostalgic over shopping downtown as a “young lad” and enjoying Miller beaches. He neglected to add that black customers were unwelcome in many of the first-class restaurants he recalls so fondly and that as recently as 1960 blacks were beaten when they dared use the beaches in Miller. Though nearly half Gary’s population by 1960, African Americans were largely restricted to the overcrowded Central District.  The police tolerated, indeed profited, from houses of prostitution along Washington Street and syndicate-controlled gambling. Vendors dealing with city officials contributed generously to the Democratic machine’s “flower fund.”

    I, too, lament the destruction of Gary landmarks such as City Methodist Church and Memorial Auditorium as a result of the 1997 fire, but these had long fallen into disuse as Wilkerson and others moved south to Merrillville and other lily-white suburbs. What is needed in the face of Gary’s present travail is regional cooperation and positive solutions, not ugly stereotyping by outside detractors who, in my opinion, long ago ceased wishing the city well.

Jerry Wilkerson

Dr. Joseph Koscielniak sent me to Doug, a physical therapist specializing in sports medicine and rehabilitation, for home exercises to strengthen my rotator cuff and shoulder muscles.  The office was located at Lakeshore Bone and Joint Institute in Chesterton not far from our condo.  Doug turned out to be the same guy whom I had seen when once he worked in Dr. K’s office. For 90 minutes he put me through about 15 different exercises, including isometrics.  A former teacher, Doug had me read the instructions for each exercise out loud twice to make certain I understood them when I got home.  We’ll see.

A “Porgy and Bess” revival is taking place at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House.  Last time I heard renditions of “Summertime,” “My Man’s Gone Now,” and “It Ain’t Necessarity So” I was somewhat repelled by the condescending lyrics.  In fact, until recently, George Gershwin’s Thirties classic was out of fashion.  Black actor Sidney Poitier, for example, expressed regret at having starred in the 1959 film. Now critics regard “Porgy and Bess,” like “West Side Story,” as a period piece reflecting racist stereotypes of its day.  In “Back on Catfish Row,” New York Review contributor Geoffrey O’Brien wrote:

    On can only wonder if Gershwin [who died in 1937 at age 38] imagined all that performers have continued to create from his music; there can be no doubt that he intended not a work fixed unchangeably at a single point in time but a process of continuing change that would keep it vital.

 Key West Gay Pride parade

In “Gone to the Dogs” Dave Barry wrote about a Key West dog show.  Barry and fellow judges gave the top prize to Sam, “the old, totally motionless sleeping Chihuahua dressed as a butterfly to match his owner.”  Barry described the runner-up as “the ugliest dog in world history [that] might actually be some kind of experimental sheep.”  Commenting on the relaxed standards of Key West residents, many of whom were aging hippies, he noted that for them the term business attire would fall under the category of wearing some kind of clothes as opposed to showing up nude.  The annual Key West Gay Pride parade is quite immodest and spectacular; my brother and first wife Maureen participated several times.  When I told one of their gay friends, who managed a nail salon, that I was more liberal than my brother, he replied, “That remains to be seen.” 

                                       

 Nineteen years ago, Toni and I took Alissa to see the mockumentary “Best in Show” at the late, lamented Town Theater in Highland, where cake was served free at intermission.  Co-written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, who appear as Harlan Pepper and Gerry Fleck, it was very clever and earned a 94% thumbs up from Rotten Tomatoes. One memorable line from the film: “We started this magazine ‘American Bitch.”  It’s a focus on the issues of the lesbian pure bred dog owner.”

Toni and I enjoyed “Little Woman,” which was in the news because it received six Oscar nominations, including for best picture, best actress (Saoirse Ronan), and best supporting actress (Florence Pugh) but not best director (Greta Gerwig).  In fact, no women directors were nominated. I loved Laura Dern’s performance as the long-suffering mother and Merle Streep as the aunt.  Near the end we see how books were put together during the nineteenth century before computers and mass production.