Editorial

Visions of Homelessness, Visions of Home

Connections for the Homeless has launched a campaign to raise awareness of homelessness in Evanston and northeastern Cook County.

Called "A Vision of Home," the initiative drew upon the talents of local artists, who created pieces about homelessness. Two of the 16 artists whose creativity gives power and immediacy to this project are the RoundTable's Peggy Tarr and Julie Cowan. The others are Jim Coney, Dana DeAno, Barbara Greenspan, Joan Hakimi, Bernice Klosterman, Gerry Macsai, Jill Norton, Jeff Strong, Joe Taylor, Barbara Trupp, Liz Tuckwell, Kris Van Stockam, Katrina Wardrip and Jerri Zbiral.

The exhibits' locations are the 909 Davis St. building, Beth Emet the Free Synagogue, the Civic Center, the police department, the Main Library, First Bank & Trust, Lake Street Church, the Music Institute of Chicago, National City Bank, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, the political offices at 820 Davis St., Rubloff Residential Properties, Spex Optical and a few locations in Glenview and Kenilworth.

Several elected officials who live in Evanston served on the steering committee. In addition, the County Board has proclaimed November as Homelessness Awareness Month.

In a society where the homeless are often overlooked, we find the collaboration among the arts community, the business community, the political community and Connections to be both moving and invigorating.

Hunger and homelessness in the land of plenty are not new; they are unconscionable blights on our society.
We know the root causes are poverty and illness. Lack of a living wage, lack of savings, mental illness, substance abuse and any catastrophic illness suffered without health insurance push many at-risk persons and families into homelessness.

Homelessness is a tragedy that evokes varied responses. Homelessness afar or caused by a natural disaster - such as a hurricane - provokes empathy and immediate donations. But homelessness within a community is frightening to contemplate.

Connections for the Homeless recounts many hopeful stories of helping clients transition from the chaos of homelessness to shelter to permanent housing and the workforce.

They also tell stories of persistent mental illness and other factors which prevent people from accepting their outreach. But they do not give up.

Cold weather emphasizes that there are those without heat, who cannot warm themselves inside and out in front of a fire or with a steaming cup of tea in their own place.

We salute Connections for bringing the issue of homelessness before the community for more than 20 years.

We also acknowledge the work of other agencies working on the home front with people on the periphery of society who experience the routine grind of poverty: CarePoint, CEDA/Neighbors at Work, Family Focus, Housing Options, Metropolitan Family Services, the Salvation Army, Y.O.U., the YWCA's shelter for battered women and their children, the soup kitchens, the hospitality centers and other agencies in Evanston that work every day to see that people in this community are sought out, tended to and helped to better lives.

Immigrants All

It is often said that Thanksgiving is the holiday with no baggage - no gifts, no pre-holiday parties and no obligations except perhaps to avoid in-fighting in the extended family.

In some ways the holiday is a commemoration of supreme naiveté: The pilgrims who sought religious freedom in a new land had no compunction about settling down within someone else's civilization. After surviving a hard New England winter for which they were ill-prepared, they held a feast for and with those who had helped them through, perhaps thanking their God more abundantly than they did the Native Americans who rescued them.

While this story is the stuff that jokes are made of, it is also the stuff that reminds us that most of us are immigrants.

Those of us who are blessed with citizenship in this great country must find a reasonable and compassionate way of sharing it with those who are willing to shoulder the responsibility of citizenship, to make this country even greater.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

By Charles Wilkinson

Perhaps the most important holiday of the year is Thanksgiving, and for many the most appreciated. There is a simplicity about the day itself and a consciousness that has enriched our families, both individually and nationally, since long before Abraham Lincoln, on Oct. 3, 1863, in the midst of the worst days of our Civil War, proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to be observed "the last Thursday of November next." It has continued annually ever since.

Over 200 years earlier the Pilgrims' harvest festivals harbingered the tradition which has become an expression of our nation's gratitude for our land, its peoples and its values. Today, Thanksgiving remains all of that. On a practical level, however, it has become more than a day; it has become an extra-long weekend.

Family, food and football define the day itself. Unlike Christmas, Thanksgiving Day is mercifully free of the pressures of gift-giving, which cannot be said for the weekend that follows. Overstuffed turkeys have nothing on the day's newspapers. But the impending commercialism of the weekend ahead is not enough to dilute the warm feeling of families gathering and sharing and being grateful.

There is no other day of the year quite like it. Not only do families look inward, embracing one another with memories and laughter and love, they also look outward - toward those less fortunate who have neither home nor family. Shelters and soup kitchens, churches and religious groups and volunteers do for the rest of us what we, for whatever reasons, do not do ourselves. Countless families give of themselves, making extra room at the dinner table for disconnected friends, students, those living alone, the elderly.

Thanksgiving is a "feel good" day for most of us. Despite the ravages of the war in Iraq and the tremors of terror in all of us, we have much to feel good about and to be thankful for. Whatever the God of our understanding, we need to seize the moment of the day itself to be grateful for even our smallest blessings and to ask that in the days ahead we will be able to live into all that we are meant to become and to be for others what God is for us. Not a bad thought for the moment of silence and prayer around our tables.

Turkey

By Peggy Tarr

As some may know, there are several definitions for the word "turkey."

The word with the first letter capitalized refers to the country, Turkey.

A turkey can mean a bad investment. It also can be a poor and unsuccessful theatrical production. In bowling a turkey is three strikes in succession. In slang, a turkey is a person who is a loser, a dud, a nitwit. Talking turkey means speaking frankly. Cold turkey is the act of quitting abruptly. Last, but not least, turkey is the name of a sizeable poultry bird (=domesticated fowl collectively), Meleagris gallopavo. Being described as having a turkey neck is not a compliment since this refers to the fleshy lobe that hangs down from the throat or chin of certain birds, such as the turkey. In the United States the turkey has become associated with the Thanksgiving Day feast. "Turkey Day!"

Turkeys are indigenous to (originating in) the New World (western hemisphere).

Captain John Smith (Jamestown colony) is said to frequently mention turkeys in his writings as food and also as gifts from Native Americans to the colonists. The domesticated turkey has been bred to produce a much larger breast (=white meat).

I won't share the consequences of this as far as the continuation of the breed.

I received an e-mail in which there is a picture of a turkey in a household, hiding from a human who is trying to summon it to its demise.

In the spirit of Mother Goose:

The turkeys were perky,

but the humans were lurky

with appetites so quirky

that turkey futures were murky.

What else can I say except I'll be eating turkey, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Letters

Thanks for African-Centered Curriculum
Editor:

Open Letter to African-American Student Achievement Committee Members and District 65 Teachers and staff:

On behalf of the parents, families and children of the ACC programs, thank you for all the years of labor and struggle so that our children can begin the process of gaining life-long self-knowledge and confidence.

When my daughter and I are mentally exhausted after reading between one and three books every night, I can look her right in the eyes and say, "Your teachers care about you and want you to be the best and that is why we have so much homework."

When we get a phone call for bringing her in at 8:31 a.m., I am thinking, "Why are they riding us so hard? Oh yeah, our child goes to Oakton, not Lincoln, where no one even bothered to call if we forgot to report her late or absent."

We are having a great experience. I/We feel like I/we belong and am/or welcomed. We just had our second (maybe third) ACC event coordinated by the teachers and Shawn Johnson. The kids and parents had a good time but what I noticed the most was that I have never seen a principal and assistant principal work so hard during the week and on the weekend.

I, along with a few other parents, attended the Nov. 6 Program/Policy Committee meeting and plan to attend and to speak at the Nov. 20 School Board meeting.

-- Jackie Muhammad

Care Is Needed in Transitioning Health Care to Hospitals
Editor:

I commend our aldermen for realizing that we have two tax-exempt hospitals within our borders who need to better coordinate and pull their weight in conjunction with City, county and state health departments.

The City's health department is one area in which both Evanston Hospital and St. Francis Hospital can assist in lightening the burden on Evanston taxpayers and can likely better serve those in need of health-care services.

As a physician at Evanston Hospital, I have noted an increased effort on the part of that institution to better serve this community, an effort which has been neglected for too long as other priorities were pursued. For the first time, I have actually seen brochures at Fleetwood Jourdain advertising hospital-subsidized care at Evanston's Hospital Clinic for those on limited incomes, where before this service was a closely guarded secret.

It appears that mounting pressure on these institutions in the form of the narrowly defeated referendum regarding St. Francis' tax-exempt status and other developments on the state and federal levels have awakened these health-care conglomerates to their central purpose (no, it is not to generate ever more profits and pay ever larger bonuses to hospital administrators).

I fully agree with Alderman Melissa Wynne that we must have some method to ensure that this transfer of responsibility for this vulnerable population is monitored to ensurethat the hospitals follow through on their community obligations.

One method would be to have what remains of the City health department become a referring source for residents to find necessary care and to serve as a patient advocate to ensure that proper care is obtained.

Indirectly related to this issue is the fact that representation on the hospital boards seems much under-represented by Evanston residents. Thisis odd given that ENH maintains its main campus in Evanston. As I have stated in previous letters, I believe our community interests would be better served by a board that derives a larger proportion of its members from its host community. That would ensure that Evanston residents would have board members to whom they can take their concerns and who will act in the interests of both of these health care organizations as well as the Evanston community.
-- Keith Sarpolis, M.D.

Referendum Might Have Been on How City Spends Money
Editor:

I recently read Alderman Moran's letter in regard to the Housing Referendum on Nov. 7. I have no idea how this vote will turn out since I'm writing this before Nov. 7, but I do have some comments.

I don't think any of us oppose the rich cultural and economic diversity that makes Evanston special - for many of us that is why we moved here. However we do oppose giving Evanston more money.

If this referendum doesn't pass it's not because the people of Evanston oppose affordable housing, but we oppose the way the City of Evanston chooses to spend our money and the types of decisions that it makes in how this money is spent.

From my understanding we currently pay $5 for every $1,000 on the sale price of our homes. The referendum would take this to $6 per $1,000 of the sale price. Although Ald. Moran is pulling at our heartstrings in talking about his neighbors, the City Council has not given us any plan to show how this additional amount will be used.

It seems to me that with the increase in property values the fund is increasing at the $5 level. Our house is valued at $250,000 more than what we paid for it - therefore as all property increases, so will this fund. The question all of us have is "Where is the money going?" Evanston keeps asking for more and more and we keep getting less and less.

It's time to make our City leaders more responsible for how this money is being used by saying "no....no more." Work with what we have and let us know clearly how this money is being spent.
-- Stacey Ross

Test Scores Set Achievement Bar Too Low
Editor:

Much praise has been directed at D65 for its success with the 2005-2006 Illinois achievement tests. In the words of Supt. Murphy, the "results are very encouraging and reflect the hard work of our students and teachers." No one questions that hard work. But the question that has not been adequately raised is whether these test scores measure anything other than a teacher's ability to teach to specific information on a test, and a student's ability to learn by rote. What about critical and creative thinking? When did we decide to set the bar so low?

If these tests are the benchmark for success, then I am fearful about the direction of Evanston's schools. It seems we have set the bar at meeting the minimum standards. While more students are now meeting those standards, we must question whether those students truly have learnt anything or whether they are simply regurgitating information. Are we teaching students how to learn or simply how to answer? Before we laud the achievement of improved scores, we need to discuss the validity of scores at all and the price that comes with them.

Furthermore, we must ask ourselves what our schools offer the children for whom meeting a baseline standard is a given. If our schools are focused on ensuring that the lower-performing students are meeting basic standards, what are they doing for the other students? Are they being challenged at an appropriate level? Do not penalize a student for what she knows or does not know upon entering the classroom. Educating all students, regardless of performance level, is a priority. Yet it is a priority that seems to get lost in the discussion.

What will happen to our community if our low benchmark for achievement drives a drain of the District's higher-performing students? I hear more and more parents talking about leaving the District, yet I am unable to distinguish the truth from the talk to determine if the situation has gotten progressively worse over the years. And it appears as if the D65 Board and administration do not know either. Why haven't they assessed trends about who is leaving our District and for what reasons?

It pains me, but the more I hear about test scores, the more I want to consider other options for my kids. That is a telling comment coming from a dedicated Evanstonian, born and educated here, a former teacher who believes that public education is the key to effective democracy.

"Go ahead," you say. "Plant a Baker sign in your front yard." Or worse, call me a traitor and tell me to move further north. It's my problem, not yours - right? Wrong. It is our collective problem. It is the problem of parents and students alike, empty-nester homeowners and young singletons, Northwestern University and Evanston government. Our community is on the verge of a crisis if the standards we set for ourselves are measured simply by a standardized test.
-- Laura Jacobs

Cut ETHS Admin Raises Not Student Programs
Editor:

As many readers know, ETHS is currently facing a significant budget deficit and has been facing budgetary deficits over the past few years. Although TIF money from the downtown redevelopment project will become available in the next couple of years that will ameliorate this problem, the N.U. Daily just detailed in an article how budget deficits will return shortly thereafter at ETHS.

What some of you don't know is that the current budget has been balanced on the backs of students. Student programming in and out of school has been reduced and in some cases eliminated. The high school whose theater production of "The Mikado" was once on television (in the 60s, long before local cable TV) has cut the theater department so dramatically that there are no current plans for a spring production. Information gathered from Freedom of Information requests has shown that class size in AP classes has increased significantly in the past two years.

This year there are 8 AP class sections with 28 or more students, and there are significantly fewer AP class sections overall than in many previous years. These are just two examples of the many, many programs that have been cut. Unfortunately for students, the Board has not considered cutting personnel costs as a path toward maintaining student programs.

Teachers' salaries cannot be adjusted until their contract comes up again, but administrative salaries are not tied to a negotiated group contract and therefore are an available avenue for the Board as they look for reductions.

Not only has the Board not frozen or reduced administrative salaries during these times of student program reductions, they have continued to award raises, sometimes in the double digits. Additionally, with administrator salaries, the Board has continued to mirror the artificial end-of-career pay hikes of 20 percent and 10 percent that they practice with teacher salaries. This practice is illegal in most states and will become illegal in Illinois in 2008, as it puts our state's pension fund at great risk.

A parent questioned the Board in writing, over a year ago, about the large administrative raises in light of student programming cuts. This parent was told that this practice resulted from a "long- standing agreement." Now, one and a half years later, parents and students are looking at more deficits and participation fees as the answer to create a balanced budget, without any curtailment of administrative raises.

In the Skokie Review of Sept. 28, there is an article about Skokie District 69, which froze administrator raises last year, gave a 1.9-percent hike the previous year and granted a 6-percent raise last summer that has resulted in a protest by a parents' group that believed the 6-percent raise was outrageous. The same article said that Niles Township districts gave a 4.5-percent raise to administrators last year and a 4-percent raise this year. Over the last four years, less than one third of the raises that our District 202 School Board has given administrators have been 6 percent or less.

How is it that a very wealthy District 202 is faced with significant financial deficits and curtailing student programming while we have the third- or fourth-highest per-pupil expenditure of 894 school districts in Illinois? This was the question that was asked of a staff and Board member at a recent PTSA meeting. At $17,354 per pupil, we spend $1,951 more than New Trier and $1,905 more than Niles. The average state per-pupil expenditure is $8,606. Our taxpayers give our school more per student than any of our North Shore neighbors except for Deerfield/Highland Park.

In the discussion at this recent PTSA meeting, the school explained that this practice of giving administrators the artificial end-of-career raises was over, and emphasized that what's done is done. It is going to be against the law and all of this will be history, therefore concerned citizens should essentially "get over it and move on," and yet toward the end of the evening, it was explained that there are "just a few more" administrators who will receive these huge end-of- career raises before the law kicks in. I hope that Evanston parents and taxpayers will refuse to "get over it" and demand that these administrator salary raises end now, today, and not a minute later.

A Board member in attendance listened attentively and answered honestly. When asked why the Board kept granting administrator raises as it cut programs, the Board member stated that she hadn't really realized that these were not group contracts and that the board was following the lead of the administration.

The District 202 Board members need to be held accountable for their practice of putting the needs of administrators above the needs of students. It is their responsibility to seek alternatives to cutting student programs wherever possible. When faced with the choice, the Board has consistently put students second. A school district is not a jobs and retirement vehicle, its express purpose is the education and betterment of the city's youth, and we, the taxpayers, give a lion's share to that end.

All Evanston residents need to pressure Board members into realigning the deployment of our tax dollars so that student needs are restored to their proper place in the list of school priorities, first and foremost.

--Nancy Bruski

No Special Taxing District Downtown, Please
Editor:

The intent of this letter is to alert all Evanstonians, and especially downtown Evanston condominium owners, of a movement by EvMark, a private marketing group, to have our City Council enact a special taxing district running approximately from Emerson Street to Lake Street and from parts of Hinman Avenue west to Oak Avenue.

Residents of a number of townhouse and condominium buildings would be subject to this special tax for the first time, and these are the very properties paying the highest taxes per square foot in this City.

Some of the buildings in this proposed district are 1415 and 1421 Sherman Ave., 1720 Maple Ave., 1889 Maple Ave., 1640 Maple Ave. (whose president is a member of EvMark), 522 Church St., 1572 Maple Ave., 800 Elgin St., 1580 Sherman Ave., 807 Davis St., the Sienna, Carroll Place at 1881 Oak Ave. and more.

(Full disclosure: I own condos in the subject area and am a real estate agent whose clients will be horrified to be hit with additional taxes).

EvMark is a wonderful organization that publishes a brochure about local restaurants and other activities, but our community has many wonderful organizations, and I don't think Rotary or Kiwanis would consider asking the taxpayers to fund their good work. They would sell peanuts, write grant applications or ask for membership fees - and this is exactly what EvMark should do, instead of asking downtown homeowners to increase their taxes to allow this group of downtown building owners to increase its staff to full time.

If you don't live in downtown Evanston in the affected area, I hope you will call your alderman anyway, because if EvMark gets away with this, next thing you know, they will be expanding the special taxing district to Central Street and the Dempster/Main Street stretch of condominiums. Today: downtown; tomorrow: the entire City of Evanston.

-- Lynne Heidt

Wants to Save the North Branch Library
Open Letter to Alderman Edmund Moran, librarian Neal Ney and City Manager Julia Carroll:

I am writing to express my concern about the contemplated closure of the North Branch of the library. There are several reasons why I think that would be both an error and a loss to our community.

First, the branch libraries are great community resources. North branch offers childhood reading and enrichment programs as well as a place where locals can gather to quietly read the paper, do some research or look for a book. When I describe why I like Northwest Evanston, I invariably say there ‘s a branch of the library in the neighborhood.

Second, while I continue to be an admirer of the Main Branch and its great architecture and collection, North Branch is more than a convenience near my home, it ‘s a warmer and friendly place where of its librarians know my wife and me. I feel they are more able to take the time to chat and discuss the latest books I or they have read. In one instance, a librarian (Martha) did some special research to help me find relevant fiction for a trip to the Southwest.

Further, I ‘m sure the branch is a great contributor to the Central Street economy, driving foot traffic as it does. While I don ‘t have the data, I would expect many library patrons shop at one or more of the many interesting (and pricey) stores on the block when visiting the library. I expect closure would be an economic loss for the city, as main branch patrons could simply park in the garage, do their business and then drive away.

Finally, in today ‘s television and sports driven culture, I simply think that closing a facility who ‘s sole purpose is to encourage reading makes a statement that I am ashamed of and is not in keeping with how I view our community.

Thank you for your attention to this. I hope I can count on your support and look forward to hearing from each of you.
-- Benjamin Rooks

Virtues of the South Branch Library
Editor:

Some points to consider about the South Branch of the library:

· South Branch contributes to "Sustainability Evanston" by being a positive influence on the neighborhood and an anchor spot for the community;
· South Branch continues to attract new users as the neighborhood grows;
· South Branch is involved in neighborhood outreach, with shelves at the Main Street Metra Station and the Brothers K Café at Main Street and Hinman Avenue;
· South Branch has become a meeting point for neighbors;
· The children's room at South Branch is positioned so that children and parents are able to browse books (a big plus for busy moms);
· The staff is friendly and helpful, without exception;
· Neighborhood schools use South Branch to educate their first and second grades in how to use a library because it is within walking distance;
· South Branch has WiFi service for patrons with laptops but no Internet service;
· South Branch has patron-donated computers for those patrons who need but do not have Internet service;
· South Branch provides a community service resource for youth services when needed in the community;
· South Branch has ESL classes;
· South Branch hosts reading groups for preschoolers through adults;
· South Branch makes family films available for those who otherwise might not be able to afford video rentals;
· South Branch has a wide selection of magazines and newspapers available for daily reading, and many seniors who cannot afford a daily paper are able to take advantage of this service;
· South Branch is a feeder into the Main Library.

It would be very upsetting to many people in the South Branch Library's footprint to lose the branch's wonderful array of services. Aldermen, please consider not only the above points, but also the large amount of property tax money raised in this area before acting on any issues that would negatively affect the South Branch Library

--Kathryn Sullivan

Some Old Lovers Are Rock Painters, Too
Editor:

I enjoyed the article about the artist who made a collage of the rocks holding back the lake at the Northwestern landfill. But I wanted to correct the impression that the people who have painted these rocks since the 60s were always "young people" as the article says.

Not long ago Ellen, a woman who swims with me every day at the YMCA, told me a story that gives a new slant to these message rocks. She and her husband Ed often walk along there, and one day, shortly before their wedding anniversary, he guided her to a rock he had inscribed for her. It said, "I love you, Ellen, ‘just the way you are,'" (quoting Billy Joel).

The amazing thing was that she had had exactly the same plan - and had already selected the rock and bought the paint - but he had beaten her to it. She kept her cool and then, two days later, led him to her rock, inscribed, "And the sun will never set on our love."

Now these people are not young any more, but they are in love. They have three grown children and a granddaughter, and are at an age where they are selling their big house to move into a place without so many stairs.

-- Ursula Rose

Love the Crossword
Editor:

As a long-timeEvanston residentandan avid puzzler, I have to share my delight in finding the addition of a crossword puzzle in the past 2 issues ofthe RoundTable. Natalie Wainwright has done a superb job of creating a puzzle that is challenging, educational, and fun! I hope that her crosswords will appear regularly from this time forward.

My only question is: where is the solution? I believe that having the solution on another page of the paper, or in the following addition is necessary for those of us who want to check their work.
-- S.G.Litoff

Ed. note: The crossword solution may be found in the Art & Life.