Please–not right after lunch! Chicago writer Bruce Rutledge, reviewing an anthology of alleged legal humor in Barrister (Spring): “The volume as a whole is not unlike a smorgasbord prepared by demented Swedes: pickled herring next to a plate of Oreo cookies, a large bowl of Clark bars by the borscht.”
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You should not be in charge, Barbara Engel tells counselors of adult rape victims: “If I had been treated like a ‘client’ with a personality deficit because I was attacked three times, I might not have the self-confidence to be speaking to you…The danger in treating women like ‘clients’ is that we divide ourselves from them; we become the powerful healers, they become the helpless victims with their recovery resting in our skilled hands. Since rape is about being dominated, having one’s power taken away and feeling out of control, any healing work must have at its base the space for the survivor to repossess herself and her decisions. She must be in the driver’s seat. She must be the one patiently picking up the pieces of her shattered life and figuring out how to function in a world that will never again be as safe” (Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s Coalition Commentary, Spring).
Somebody’s not paying attention. The state Department of Professional Regulation recently disciplined a Chicago shorthand reporter “after she practiced 22 years on a nonrenewed license.”
“While the Catholic Church’s position on abortion is clear, the behavior of its clergy is by no means uniform. Stridency appears to be a local option,” writes Charles Madigan in the Critic (Spring). “If one lives in New York, there is Cardinal John J. O’Connor, not a meek character at all, along with committed deputies who occasionally threaten eternal damnation. It is a different matter to live in Chicago, where Cardinal Joseph Bernardin often seems the very personification of reason, the kind of priest one would love to visit for reconciliation….He is also an astute politician [and is often quoted as saying that] a pro-life position must be consistent, from conception to the grave. One should not oppose abortion while applauding capital punishment.”
