If the Packers beat the Bears Sunday, I’ll be rooting for them in the Super Bowl.
This sentiment horrifies and disgusts many Bears fans, I realize. But it’s based on two factors:
Respect: To be a proper rival, an opposing team must have a history of accomplishment and a talent level to make beating them satisfying. The Packers are a worthy foe. Any victory on their record, particularly a Super Bowl title, will add savor to beating them when next we do so.
Pride: Regional pride, black-and-blue division pride, National Conference pride. The Packers are more like the Bears than any other team in the NFL, which is why it’s so urgent that we beat them head-to-head, but so satisfying (to me, anyway) when they beat other teams. Their success attaches to ours and vice versa.
How do I reconcile this with my inability, as a Cub fan, to ever under any circumstances root for the White Sox?
Because the White Sox and Cubs aren’t rivals in the traditional sense. They aren’t chasing the same teams in the standings or, even in the interleague era, meeting in critical games down the stretch. They don’t have to go through each other to have a successful season. The teams have no shared history to speak of and hence no grudging respect for one another. Their success simply diminishes ours (or will, if we ever have any success).
Shocking early returns: After several hundred votes, my click survey at chicagotribune.com/zorn says 52 percent of Bear fans and 64 percent of Packer fans agree with me.
Quinn dithers on the death penalty
Capital punishment has been a front-burner issue in Illinois for more than a decade, and Gov. Pat Quinn has held a state constitutional office for a little more than eight of those years.
The issue has been studied to a fare-thee-well by commissions and journalists and debated extensively in Springfield. Every argument on every side has been heard dozens of times and the General Assembly passed landmark repeal legislation Jan. 11.
Yet Quinn is still “thinking about the issue,” according to his press office, “talking to people, getting input.”
Really? Getting input? Where has this supposed leader been that he doesn’t have an excellent grasp on the death penalty issue by now? What sort of dreadful staffing issues must be plaguing his administration that he’s not completely up to speed?
Deliberation is admirable, but not when it looks like ignorance or cowardice.
Last week, I gave you four good reasons why I think Quinn will sign the repeal. And I can easily imagine a list of reasons that hopeful proponents of the death penalty would offer why he won’t sign it.
But this week, I can’t give you any good reasons why he’s failing to act.
The Tribune poll released Friday showed Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel with about a 2-to-1 lead over his nearest rival, Carol Moseley Braun.
But the ratio that jumps out at me is 50-1. That’s the campaign-cash-on-hand lead that Emanuel ($8.3 million) holds over Braun ($164,000), according to last week’s Illinois State Board of Elections filings.
Emanuel also has more than four times the amount to spend in the last four weeks of the campaign than Gery Chico, who ran third in our poll. Miguel del Valle finally released his mayoral campaign finance report. His total cash raised was $59,440.
This ain’t right. Huge imbalances of money short-circuit the democratic process — is there any doubt now why Emanuel has declined to participate in nearly all of the candidate forums? He can easily afford to control his own message and limit his exposure to his opponents, who are looking ever more desperate as they try to gang up on him.
I’m not saying this is a reason to vote against Emanuel. But it is a reason to find out what the other candidates have to say. They all have websites and they all have ideas they’d like you to hear before you make up your mind.
Ya gotta …
This week’s recommendation is “Born This Way,” an online “photo/essay project for gay viewers (male and female) to submit pictures from their childhood (roughly ages 2 to 12), with snapshots that capture them, innocently, showing the beginnings of their innate … selves.”
It’s a thought-provoking (and clean) site that shows very young kids striking poses or wearing clothing that in retrospect hinted at their sexual orientation as adults.
But while I’m a strong believer that some kids are born gay and I approve of the site’s message that homosexuality is not an idle choice, I’d also advise parents that lots of boys who wear princess costumes and girls who dress as cowboys end up as raging heterosexuals.
In fact, if I were more ambitious I’d start a companion site, “It Was Just a Phase,” featuring similar old photos submitted by straight adults.
Visit Change of Subject online, chicagotribune.com/zorn, for this and other recommendations and to leave your own.
