-
Editorial: O'Hare's invisible man. How does someone live at the airport undetected for nearly 3 months?
Questions abound in the bizarre tale surrounding Aditya Singh, the man found living at O’Hare International Airport for nearly three months. The biggest is the most obvious: How could security personnel at O’Hare, one of the world’s busiest airports, fail to notice someone living in a secured area, turning it into his own Airbnb? The Jan. 16 arrest of Singh, 36, evokes comparisons to “The Terminal,” the 2004 movie in which Tom Hanks plays an international traveler with an invalid passport who lives at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport for nine months. Singh’s case is quite diffe...
Chicago Tribune
-
Martin Schram: Rebirth of a Nation
“Rebirth of a Nation,” a slow-moving epic now playing on a news screen near you, is a movie-like reality tale of a shattered nation hopelessly warring with itself — and hopefully healing itself. It has just reached a stunning, perhaps climactic, twist. It is the sort of real-life reversal that know-it-all reviewers probably would have panned as corny — way too Hollywood. But they didn’t pan it. Because it was precisely the sort of feel-good switcheroo our nation’s despairing moviegoers have desperately longed to see. The key to this shattered nation’s hoped-for rebirth turns out to be the some...
Tribune News Service
-
Commentary: What does unity mean? Joe Biden is demanding something that's as elusive as it is unnecessary
The theme of Joe Biden’s inaugural address was that we must bring America together as a prerequisite to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, revive the economy, confront climate change, move toward racial justice and accomplish so many other big things. “This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge,” said Biden. “And unity is the path forward.” Unity is indeed a calming notion, especially after a rapid mob of thousands stormed the Capitol, and as millions more subscribe to the notion that the election was stolen, that the news media is made up of enemies of the people and that we’re effectivel...
New York Daily News
-
Jay Ambrose: Biden's splendid inauguration
It was a thing of beauty: a light blue, shining sky, a magnificent hymn, a powerful benediction, poetry, patriotic music and a speech in which President Joseph Biden called first and foremost for national unity, mentioning along the way such things as love, liberty, honor and truth. Can he help provide this unity? We don’t know yet, but his inauguration was a signal of hope and it’s impossible to imagine a more vivid contrast to the revolting riot 14 days earlier. Both were at the Capitol, the governmental center of this country, bringing to mind a line from the great writer of verse William B...
Tribune News Service
-
Editorial: Trump's wild ride puts Disney's Hall of Presidents in a predicament
Walt Disney wanted his theme parks to be the happiest places on earth. So it’s a problem when attractions turn people into protesters. It happened 23 years ago with Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Today, Mr. Trump’s wild ride has created another dilemma for the Magic Kingdom. The Hall of Presidents has been a staple attraction since the park opened in 1971, featuring animatronic figures of every U.S. president. Now the Trump-fueled insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has renewed calls for Disney to banish the 45th president. Should he stay or should he go? Neither. It’s time for Disney to put this attracti...
Orlando Sentinel
-
Editorial: Why all Americans should be rooting for Joe Biden's success
When he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden knew if he won the election, he would be facing enormous challenges: curbing a deadly pandemic, reviving a struggling economy, alleviating the hardship of jobless workers, combating racial injustice and restoring the world’s trust in American leadership. “History,” he said, “has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced.” But in the months since Election Day, the moment has gotten more difficult than he could have imagined. He takes over just two weeks after a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol th...
Chicago Tribune
-
Martin Schram: When the Oval Office was between its masters
It happens only on the rarest of occasions. But there have been moments when the Oval Office is truly between its masters. And I have been there, standing alone in the Oval Office doorway, on two occasions – precisely at noon, on two of those few quadrennial Inauguration Days when the United States has been peacefully transferring the power of the presidency from one political party to another. It was an assignment I gave myself, back on January 20th of 1977 and 1981. Because, back in that more innocent era, I wanted to witness just whatever there was that could be seen or felt when the Oval O...
Tribune News Service
-
Editorial: Nation needs Trump impeachment trial before healing can start
Donald Trump is now the United States’ first president to be impeached twice. And his latest trial in the Senate will not start until after he leaves office. For that reason, some have said that the nation should move on. We disagree. This trial must — and will — be held. For the sake of our democracy, the country needs a fair inquiry, accountability and appropriate consequences to ensure we never again see an insurrection in the Capitol or an attempt to undermine our electoral system. As deep as the desire may be for national healing, that recovery requires that we fully understand and confro...
The Mercury News
-
Commentary: How Biden can rebuild trust in our elections
Sifting through the figurative rubble from the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol, I recovered a valuable nugget — more on that in a moment — that was overshadowed by the tone-deaf charade President Donald Trump’s congressional toadies perpetrated after the riot. Sen. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and their craven posse of Republican sycophants proselytized the same conspiracy theories that had emboldened violent marauders to shake the foundations of the building and our democracy. But with no Senate trial expected before Wednesday's inauguration, it’s not clea...
Chicago Tribune
-
John M. Crisp: Unity and healing are not essential to democracy
The party of law and order had a confounding take on the attempted coup at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The party’s leader, Donald J. Trump, called the agents of this unlawfulness and disorder “very special” people and “patriots.” In fact, he loves them. Republican rank and file registered disapproval of the insurrection, but showed little interest in holding to account the man on whose account the riot occurred. Without Trump there simply would have been no insurrection. Nobody put this better than the third-highest-ranking House Republican, Liz Cheney, who, breaking ranks, said: “The President of ...
Tribune News Service
- More