Chicago Daily Observer

“Mom, Dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins sobbed in private, but made it through the Thanksgiving weekend without letting vivacious, popular, smart-as-a-whip, 6-year-old Zach know about the incurable, neurodegenerative disease he has, or the cruel expectation that it will cripple him before it kills him.”

So began a November 2001 article by Daily Herald columnist Burt Constable. The article went on to say:

“All Zach knows is that he isn’t as good at playing goalie as some kids on his soccer team, and that his shaky handwriting was the only blemish (C- in penmanship) on an otherwise perfect report card.

He suspects nothing.

His parents know far too much. They got the word on Nov. 15 that their only child has Friedreich’s ataxia, a very rare neurological disease known to weaken muscles, slur speech, bend spines, force kids into wheelchairs and deliver an early death, generally in the form of ... Read More...

As a life-long Democrat, I could never understand the anger that the Clintons evoked from my father – a conservative Republican whose face choked red throughout the 1990s at the mere mention of Bill Clinton in polite conversation. Although not as vocal about Hillary, he didn’t like her either.

I kept my relationship with my father alive throughout the 1990s by not mentioning the name Bill Clinton at family gatherings – even when I was angry at what I thought was an unjust impeachment effort which my local Congressman Henry Hyde helped lead.

My father’s constant refrain throughout the 1990s was that he saw a pattern of deceitful, unethical behavior by President Clinton. Nonsense, I thought.

At the time, I believed Clinton was almost Reagan-like in his ability to deftly deflect public criticism and undermine his opponents at the same time.

However, as I have witnessed the Clinton husband-wife-tag-team in ... Read More...

Fourteen-year-old Patrick was the man of the evening.

Patrick adjusted his tie, and strode confidently through an overflowing crowd at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, and climbed the stage.

As Patrick addressed the audience during a Q & A session last week, his Irish-red hair gleamed under the spotlight, while his image was shown on two large television screens.

The occasion was a fund-raising benefit for LYDIA Home Association, a Christian-based organization named after an early convert to Christianity. LYDIA provides services such as residential treatment for children and adolescents with behavioral problems, foster care, pre-school, and child abuse prevention programs.

In prepared remarks that were adapted for the Q&A session, Patrick tells his life story with sad memories of physical abuse at a very young age.

“Our neighbors called the cops and they came to my house and took me away from my mom. ... Read More...

Ann Sugano traveled the Midwest going from job to job. It was a tough life for anyone, but it was even tougher for her—a Japanese American in the years just after World War II. She never knew what to expect.

“Where you from?” the man in a tollbooth said.

“Chicago.”

“No, I mean, what are you?”

Puzzled at first, Mrs. Sugano finally figured it out. She said she was Japanese.

“Take another road,” he said.

With a job to get to, she backed out and drove away, forced to take a less direct route to her destination.

It happened a few more times before Mrs. Sugano decided to change tactics. “I’m Chinese,” she said, flashing a big smile and waving as the gate opened up.

Tough work as a chick sexer.

That’s how Frank Sugano began the Sun-Times obituary describing the life of his aunt
Anna Yoshie Sugano who ... Read More...

As a kid growing up, I recall the periodic food drives to which our family regularly contributed making a small difference in people’s lives.

Later, as a young man I had opportunities to travel widely throughout the Middle East, Asia, and South America where I saw first hand many desperately poor people. It was convenient for me to return from those trips concluding that some problems are just too big to be solved and grateful that I lived in country of prosperity.

I’ve always been bothered by the Matthew Gospel passage in which Jesus says “The poor you will always have with you.” I understand the comment was made by Christ admonishing his apostles that he would not be with them much longer, and not to justify poverty. Nevertheless, I have used the passage to justify my own complacency.

That’s why this week my ears perked up when I heard ... Read More...

As the weather forecast last week kept getting hotter and more humid every day, my fears for Sunday’s Chicago Marathon grew and grew. At age 53, I was hoping I could finish in 4:15. It would be my sixth marathon, and I was feeling nearly as good as I did when I ran my first one in 1990.

I had trained hard over the summer and averaged about 9:40 in a 22-mile training run on a record cold morning three weeks earlier. I was hoping for cold conditions because I knew I would do well in the cold and I suffer miserably in the heat.

As we approached the starting line Sunday morning, Mary Jo, a friend from the Elmhurst Running Club asked me why I was so quiet. “I am thinking about the second half of the race,” I responded. By that time I knew the sun baking on ... Read More...

My 16-year-old son came to me looking for an answer to his Xbox 360 crisis. In recent weeks, Jonathan had described in detail as each one of his friend’s Xbox 360s succumbed to Microsoft’s manufacturing defects which caused them all to fail.

In case you just landed from Mars or as old as the ancient editorial board chairman of this newspaper who was a college classmate of my father 57 years ago) Xbox 360 is a game console that looks like an over-sized VCR. It plays interactive video games and allows players to compete and talk to each other via headphones over the Internet. Many of the video games that the Xbox plays are war battle games where players either shoot each other or shoot space aliens. Microsoft originally came out with its Xbox to compete in the video game market several years ago against Sony, Nintendo and others. ... Read More...

Saying goodbye to my oldest daughter was harder than I expected.

Like many families in the Chicago area – last week we loaded up our car and headed off to college. For us, it was a trip to Baltimore where our daughter is an incoming freshman at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

As we arrived in Baltimore, my daughter was animated as she talked about the possibilities to learn and grow as an artist. After we toured the area, my daughter asked me to bless her choice of schools. My wife – who also was educated as an artist—shared my daughter’s enthusiasm.

Instead of a blessing, my first words were I feared for her safety living at an urban campus – an oasis surrounded by poverty and homeless street people. In the past, my daughter had nicknamed me Debbie Downer – the Saturday Night Live character who sees the ... Read More...