Joseph, our brother, master of strategic boredom. The late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin’s “stature, and his important role in Church developments, make it seem entirely appropriate that his Selected Works should be issued in a handsome set of two thick volumes–over 1,300 pages of sermons, official statements, and public lectures,” writes Garry Wills in the New York Review of Books (April 26). “But all these words, coming from a man who caused so much excitement, are disappointingly dull. It is a quality he deliberately cultivated….Even when he was taking a stand that was courageous, he managed to make it sound as if he were in hiding or only half-awake. As he told my friend who worked with him, ‘I feel as if Rome hears everything I say.’”
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A ways to go. Percentage of Chicagoans who feel their own neighborhood is “not very safe,” according to Northern Illinois University’s “Illinois Policy Survey,” conducted last fall: 25. Percentage of suburban and downstate residents who feel that way about their neighborhood:
If there are multiple seats up for election, you cannot draw boundaries block-by-block to preserve an incumbent or stifle a potential opponent. If Proportional Representation is used for the election, the mapmaker cannot suppress the weaker party to keep competition low, either. Both parties and even possibly third parties will be given a chance at winning one of those 6 or 7 seats….Democracy is about voting, not mapmaking.”
