How’s everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
In the year 2007, the city of Evanston, Illinois was facing a crisis.
A rat crisis.
Complaints from residents reached peak levels. One Evanston official blamed substandard city-owned garbage cans, telling a local newspaper that the old waste buckets “had holes in them” and the rats were squirting through, hiding and nesting. The official proposed an enlightened solution: a reallocation of tax dollars towards new garbage carts!
The initiative would eventually cost over a million dollars but according to those in charge, the brand-spankin’ new trash carts would keep the rats out. The scheme would be a perfect example of local government at work––throw money towards a solution without addressing the underlying cause.
A private businessman named George Manning saw right through the city’s plan.
Manning owned a pest elimination company. He disagreed with Evanston’s assessment of the problem, saying the issues with rats ran much deeper than garbage cans.
“Rats are a symptom of a deteriorating infrastructure,” Manning told an area newspaper at the time. “If you just treat the symptoms, you never reach the cause; you must treat the cause. As voters, we must do all we can do to shed light on this issue and bring it to the attention of policy makers.”
In 2023, not much has changed in Evanston. The rats are still roaming the streets, and those in charge remain oblivious to the root causes.
The city announced earlier this month it had shelled out a little over half a million dollars in cash benefit reparations. The reparations are part of a four-year directive to provide payments to descendants of slaves. According to an article in the Evanston Round Table, the city initially approved reparations in the form of benefits to go towards housing or mortgage assistance. But in March, the City Council reversed that order, and approved direct cash payments for all descendants. Said the article: “at the time of the announcement the city did not have a way to monitor whether the cash would be put toward housing or home improvements.”
I suppose the taxpayers in Evanston will just have to trust the cash payments are being used by the “ancestors” towards their intended goal.
And this past week, football players and staffers at Evanston’s Northwestern University wore customized t-shirts at practice.
The t-shirts read “Cats Against the World” with the number “51” below the lettering. That number was worn by former head football coach Pat Fitzgerald while a player at Northwestern in the 1990’s.
The t-shirt was more than just an article of clothing to wear at a pre-season practice. It was a sign of solidarity from a team struggling to find its footing through a hazing scandal that led to the firing of Fitzgerald last month.
The interim head coach, David Braun, said this when asked about the t-shirts: “My intentionality is going to be solely based on supporting these young men, supporting this staff. Certainly isn't my business to censor into anyone's free speech."
That’s a guy who gets it. He said exactly the right thing. But Braun is new in town and hasn’t been infected by Evanston’s poisonous city and collegiate environment.
Derrick Gragg, Northwestern’s pathetically incapable athletic director, felt the need to issue a statement about the t-shirts, referring to them as “inappropriate, offensive and tone deaf.” Those comments make it clear Gragg has no interest in supporting current athletes. He’s more interested in protecting the university’s code, by whatever definition the university’s attorneys dictate.
In the coming months and years, the university will be paying out its own reparations in the form of large checks to “victims” of “micro-aggressions.” It’s a result of horrendous leadership and a campus climate that promotes victim culture over one of strength and solidarity.
After a period of time, Evanston did get handle on its large rodent problem. But the rats are still out, roaming the city streets, day and night.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
1. What We Know About Trump’s Debate Decision.
We are less than two weeks out from the first GOP Presidential Debate. It just so happens to be in Milwaukee, an Democratic urban stronghold city. It’s safe to assume Donald Trump desperately wants to debate his challengers but is listening to advisors telling him not to. From Politico, “he’s unlikely to attend the debate, but he hasn’t said 100 percent definitively.” I think it would be creepy hilarious if Trump attended as an audience member, not a debater, and just sat in the crowd wearing a puffy pirate shirt, a.k.a the classic “Seinfeld” episode from back in the day.
2. Confessions Of Cancelled Priests.
Covid Hysteria forever changed our beliefs in public institutions. What about the church? There’s a deep divide amongst Catholics, many of whom now are convinced of a “deep church” after leaders closed chapels and affirmed propagandized vaccine efficacy. This is a good story via The Free Press from a recent Chicagoland conference hosted by the Coalition For Cancelled Priests. One such Wisconsin priest said at the conference how “you cannot be Catholic and a Democrat,” called climate change a “hoax,” and refers to Pope Francis as “a viper.” Them are fighting words and these activists are in the throws of what they believe to be The Big One.
3. The World’s Largest Landowners.
Who––or what entity––owns the most land worldwide? Unsurprisingly, King Charles II and the British royal family tops this cool visualization article with a collection of property that amounts to one-sixth of the world's surface. That includes 90 percent of land in Canada. Yes, 90 percent of Canada. The rest of the Top 25 include: The Catholic Church, multiple Australian sheep and cattle ranchers, a Chinese mega-farm, and Russian forestry company. No North American representation on this list and as the real estate agents like to always say when hocking a property for sale, “they ain’t making any more land.”
4. The Serial Killer And Texas Mom Who Stopped Him.
Just when we’ve thought the mining of true crime stories has reached peak insanity, another one drops on the internet. This one is lengthy but deserving of that second cup of morning brew (have I ever steered you wrong?) The premise: over 40 years ago, a Texas woman is abducted in a shopping mall parking lot. The captor has a long rap sheet including several murders. The woman somehow escapes and later, befriends the man while in prison. Up until this piece from Vanity Fair, the woman, now in her 70’s, had never told her story to the press. My guess is she may now be reconsidering turning down all those film and television offers over the many decades since her abduction.
5. The Ultimate Food To Eat While Driving.
The author of this piece takes a very sensible and systematic approach to choosing the right food for cases of road munchies: “The ultimate driving food should be shaped and scaled like a standard beverage can. Car cupholders have been designed with these cans in mind and they have a place to sit in almost every car. The cylinder should be made of something edible; the housing of this food is an integral component of the meal itself. That’s why I’ve chosen bagel dough as the material for the ultimate driving food.” I say fuck that. Keep it simple: snag a CostCo bag of Funyuns, pour a Big Gulp, crank up the Lithium––or HairNation––channel on XM radio and enjoy a day on the open road.
6. Terrorist Caught At The Southern Border.
Hilarious short video via The Babylon Bee. No one does satire like the Bee and this one hits the perfect temperament and punch lines. Enjoy a good laugh.
Thanks for reading everybody and have a great rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.