“Chicago lags far behind many other major cities in the reduction of violent crime,” states the Chicago Crime Commission’s “Action Alert” (Spring). “New York, for example, has reduced the number of murders since 1990 by 73%–Chicago by only 18%. Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego and other cities have also seen a remarkable drop in homicides, from 50% to 70% during the same time period.” Chicago’s homicide rate is now around 30 per 100,000 population; in Los Angeles the rate is 17, in New York 10.
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“Religion is understood by this act, and indeed by most Americans, to be individual, chosen, private, believed, and separate from other institutions and identities,” writes Winnifred Fallers Sullivan of the International Religious Freedom Act, which would allow the U.S. to put economic sanctions on countries that don’t respect religious freedom (Commonweal, quoted in Martin Marty’s newsletter “Context,” June 1). “For most of the world, religion is communal, given, public, enacted, and intertwined with other institutions and identities. This new act is clearly not intended to promote freedom of religion. It is intended to promote freedom of a certain kind of religion, religion as it has been shaped by American law and history, religion that has been set apart and contained by the secular state.”
The rich as well as the poor must have their landlords notified…From a recent letter asking Governor Ryan to veto House Bill 2103, written and distributed by the Coalition to Protect Public Housing: “HB 2103 requires the Illinois Department of Corrections and law enforcement agencies to notify public housing authorities when a parolee records an intended next address owned, managed, or leased by the housing authority. Such notifications will ostracize those individuals who have made prior mistakes and have also paid their debt, creating different standards for poor folks. Felons convicted for stealing millions are not forced to find other housing options. The families of those felons are not prevented from helping their loved ones, however, the families of public housing face eviction if they support their spouses, sons or loved ones.”
