brethren priestess online

I have been so PROUD (sarcasm here) of my alma mater - the junior high school one - for all the national news coverage it’s been getting recently.  Why has it made the news?  For such uplifting progress in the eternal battle against hugging.

Yup.  Hugging.

Back in Oak Park, Illinois, Julian Middle School principal Victoria Sharts has banned “extreme hugging,” after long chains of kids hugging each other in the hallways started impeding the orderly procession of students getting to class during passing periods.  It’s not even about banning nonconsensual hugs, which of course are inappropriate.  It’s about limiting how much kids show affection for each other.  Sharts was quoted in Newsweek saying, “We know there are times that hugs are needed and welcomed, but every 40 minutes in the hallway, with large groups of students - then it’s not.”

Now, I am sure it was a big enough problem to warrant a response.  I don’t know all the details.  But don’t kids need more hugs as they group up, especially hugs from each other?

And couldn’t good ole Percy Julian be making news for something a little more inspiring?  Like, say, its talented, world-changing alumni?

Tom writes,

This morning we went to Grant Park (downtown Chicago) to see the Eyes Wide Open display.  A pair of boots for each American killed in Iraq.  Most had names, some had pictures, or something written.  Done by the American Friends Service Committee.

  Then we walked around the new Millenium Park secton, with the reflective Bean, and when we went back to the car, the number had already been incremented.

  This may be the only time I remember Memorial Day having any meaning for me at all.  This insanity really has to stop.

As a Chicago kid, this picture makes my heart swell with pride: thousands marching down Congress Boulevard, under the El tracks, coming out at Michigan Avenue, flags waving, fists cheering, signs proclaiming… Chicago has had some of the most diverse immigration rights marches in this campaign, due to the world-wide homelands of Chicagoans, and some of the largest marches in the country, period. Thanks, AP and Charles Rex Arbogast, for a stunning shot!