“Geologically, the strata bearing our civilization will be found with a Geiger counter,” reflects Chicago Green Party activist Bob Rudner in Green Politics (Summer). “In 24,065 years A.C. (After Chernobyl), when half of the Pu-239 [plutonium] decays, archaeologists (if there are any) will also see other markings of our industrial civilization.”
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That rock that just came through my window was a resentment rock, not a racist rock–so it’s OK, right? Russ Stewart on white resistance to scattered-site housing, in Illinois Politics (July/August): “There is a huge difference between white ‘racism’ and white ‘resentment.’ The infuriated reaction of white 36th Ward property owners on Chicago’s northwest side to the placement of a public housing unit in the vicinity of Addison and Forest Preserve Drive illustrates that difference: If a minority family can afford to buy a $350,000 three-flat in the area, and the white neighbors are outraged, that’s racism. If the federal government uses tax dollars to buy a $350,000 three-flat so that they can lease the units to CHA-eligible ‘poor’ families (incomes of less than $42,000) at a rent equal to 30 percent of their household income, with the CHA absorbing the $6,000 in annual property taxes, and the white neighbors are outraged, that’s resentment.”
“If you visit Chicago, bring lots of centavos,” Mary Dugger advises would-be tourists in her new book, The History of Lesbian Hair and Other Tales of Bent Life in a Straight World. “Because of huge amounts of pilferage among Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) employees, CTA personnel can no longer sell tokens. This is like the post office telling you that they don’t sell stamps….This makes me so angry that I regularly get back at the CTA by using centavos in the turnstiles. I once even stuffed a note into the slot that read, ‘Sorry about the inconvenience but I find that I steal from myself if I carry CTA tokens.’”
