In images from the home front, 1997 showed itself to be a time for tears of emotion, yearning and grief. There were faces(not equal)one famous, the other not(not equal)that silently spoke volumes, portraits stating that things had gotten out of control in Chicagos City Hall and in the S&P 500 pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. At the same time, music was in the air, from a strutting Stone in concert at Soldier Field to a music teacher who got her satisfaction from an orchestra of earnest 6th graders to a trumpeter gently playing the sweet sounds of success for a neighborhood child. Behind these images there were news stories: The Dow suffered a sharp one-day decline; an alderman resigned amid controversy; the chief justice of the states Supreme Court reluctantly gave up that high post. A boy, barely in his teens, was mercilessly beaten and faced arduous rehabilitation; a girl was murdered. And, not as news so much, but as reminders of something important were those images showing that, despite such dark events, hope and the resilient human spirit sang out.
