This weekend: Ex-superintendent's new job; Bob Easter leaves UI chancellor's office; booze and its rocky history in Champaign County
This weekend in The News-Gazette: Arthur Culver tapped to lead East St. Louis' troubled school district; Bob Easter says UI stronger now than it was two years ago; Tom Kacich offers the unvarnished truth about Prohibition in Champaign County.
In Saturday's news pages, you'll learn more about the new job Arthur Culver, the former Champaign schools superintendent, has taken.
On Sunday's front page, longtime University of Illinois administrator Bob Easter reflects on his pivotal two years as the Urbana campus' interim chancellor.
And in Sunday's Living section, News-Gazette editor/reporter/historian Tom Kacich writes about the local temperance movement, as PBS premieres its three-part series on Prohibition on Sunday night.
I assume you are referring to the television program on Channel 12. It is hardly a slur against Irish Catholics (of which I am one) to suggest that they like to enjoy a drink or two. I believe that is the story of Prohibition; that all kinds of people and ethnic groups enjoyed beer or other drinks and didn't want to be told by the government that they couldn't.
The people of Ivesdale -- an overwhelmingly Irish Catholic community -- were willing to make an honest statement at the ballot box in 1908 that they weren't opposed to alcohol, and that folks were welcome to drink there.
Well, it certainly adds context, and eliminates the smear factor, to learn you're a mick too. It's just the singling out that rubs the wrong way. I'm sure you've heard the joke about someone walking into a bar and, seeing 11 drunk Englishmen and 1 drunk Irishman, says, look at that Irish drunk, right? I'm sure you meant it in a lighthearted way, but you can't be sure everyone gets the joke, can you? I've heard some people in this area make some seriously bigoted comments and I was just concerned that your comment could lend undue credence to some peoples' worst stereotypes.
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