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The death of Tony Bennett brings to mind two wonderful memories of encounters I had with him in Chicago. The first was in July 1985 when as a young reporter, I covered a news event where Bennett was presented with a “Key to the City” by Mayor Harold Washington, who quipped that Bennett was his favorite performer to listen to while in the back seat of a car.
Six years later while I was at O’Hare International Airport waiting for a flight to Los Angeles, who should sit down two seats away from me but Bennett. I restrained myself from bothering him, but I was nonetheless given something of a private performance when he pulled out a sketch pad and for the next 30 to 45 minutes dashed off a series of perfect drawings of fellow travelers waiting for our flight.
— John Holden, Chicago
The rest pale in comparison
Losing someone like Tony Bennett only illustrates how today we live in a world of musical charlatans.
— Mike Calcina, Chicago
Michael Phillips stands out
I’ve been reading Michael Phillips’ reviews for years and have always considered them well-written. But I have not thought of Phillips, somehow, as a regular columnist. His article Saturday about Tony Bennett opened my eyes to his wonderful skill (“Decade after decade, he left his heart in every fan’s memories”). It was so well done.
The Tribune is lucky to have Phillips. Keep up the good work.
— William Sauer, Chicago
Village president’s myopia
For Oak Brook’s village president, Laurence E. Herman, to give crime-fighting lessons to Chicago is laughable (“Oak Brook’s strong stance against crime is the answer,” July 20). Oak Brook may be diverse ethnically, but it is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Chicago. It is insulated by Interstates 294 and 290 on the east, Hinsdale on the south, Elmhurst on the north and Route 83 on the west. It has no commuter train or rapid transit connection to Chicago. Its retail theft issues are confined to the limited boundaries of upscale Oak Brook Center shopping mall.
Chicago is the economic engine of our metropolis. Herman’s energy would be better directed to the societal problems he mentions only in passing. All the collar counties would do well to wrap their arms around the city, send their citizens back downtown and help resolve the scourge of crime.
— Joe Vosicky, Elmhurst
Jobs for asylum-seekers
Thanks to Laura Rodriguez Presa, Talia Soglin and Nell Salzman for the comprehensive coverage of the situation with asylum-seekers in Chicago in the July 16 Tribune as they struggle to find employment (“Asylum-seekers struggle with waiting game”).
This can be a win-win! We are fortunate to have women and men in our community who are willing to work to fill the positions open across multiple industries. Companies and employers want to hire and do right by their workers. Workers deserve to be paid for their labor.
Our country has always relied on immigrant labor to create wealth and to run our farms, factories and transportation systems. Today, there is great need in the hotel, restaurant and construction industries, among others.
Our sisters and brothers from other lands come with degrees and training in health care and other professions that in the United States need multilingual, multicultural workers. Let us continue to call on our federal, state and local governments to allow workers to get permits to work legally, to be remunerated properly and to fulfill their potential.
It’s a win-win. Let’s be winners together. Let’s do the right and just thing in our interdependent world.
— Sister Bernadine Karge, OP, immigration attorney, Chicago
Northwestern isn’t alone
The shock and outrage about Northwestern University’s hazing scandal leave us believing such things happen only there.
Wanna bet?
— Kenneth L. Zuber, Homewood
Athletic department fray
The entry of opportunistic lawyers into the Northwestern University athletic department fray prompts these observations. Hazing can be verbal or physical. Thus far, it is not NU employees but some student-athletes who are accused of physically hazing other student-athletes at NU. So why then are the attorneys pressing a lawsuit against NU? Instead, shouldn’t student-athletes who have been physically hazed or assaulted be suing other student-athletes who did the deed?
Chicago Tribune Opinion
Second, former head football coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired because he didn’t know something about something he should have known about. If this condition qualifies as a fireable offense, then might that not also be said of athletic director Derrick Gragg and university President Michael Schill? Shouldn’t they also have known about this matter? Shouldn’t they, too, have been cashiered?
And what of NU’s highly experienced board of trustees? Surely, Schill discussed his plan of action with the trustees — and got the go-ahead with the suspension and then the firing of Fitzgerald, leading to the financial and reputational disaster now overwhelming NU. Is this the type of sage leadership that should govern NU as it moves into the future?
Third, I asked a friend, when he was president of a fairly big-time university, why he supported a fairly big-time athletic department in his school. He replied that “a high-profile athletic program” provided an additional window through which people, who would not otherwise have known about his university, could become aware of it and, as a result, help the school in a variety of sometimes unexpected ways. Unfortunately, folks, who are looking through a similar but stained and dirty “window” at NU, are not likely to think very highly of the place. And that should prompt questions about NU’s commitment to athletics in the future.
Finally, I offer condolences to dedicated NU faculty and staff members whose good deeds are now being besmirched by NU’s athletic department mess and by the university’s top leadership failures.
— Charles F. Falk, Schaumburg
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