SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF IN A BIG CITY

Both old uncles and young coaches usually advise, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Makes great good sense. And yet something about human nature motivates us otherwise. We often end up sweating both the small dumb stuff, and call it news.

Consider the evidence in just one city, my Chicago:

So far this year, six police officers have been gunned down in the streets; along with hundreds of gang murders in the neighborhoods. The thin blue line between us and that jungle always trying to over-grow civility is at risk. But instead we read and talk mostly about the small, dumb stuff. The minority of cops on the take here....Oprah's final television season here...the mayor's last press conference gaffe here...some arcane residency rules about new mayoral candidates here....Black Friday sales receipts here..downtown Christmas shows here...what the chic holiday party-goers will be wearing here...what uniforms the Bears will be wearing...even, would you believe, what the Police Superintendent wore at the city's funeral memorials.

OK, everyone needs a break from the big stuff. [ What would the tabloids do with all that ink and paper! ] And yet, how long do we whistle through graveyards pretending that chirpy little distractions like these will keep the city ghosts from rising?

Cities, like nations, are always at risk. The bad guys are always figuring new ways of exploiting the good guys. Be it with bullets or ballots. So preserving civility and civilization against the encroaching jungle requires more of us than simply scanning the sports or style pages. Yeah, I know, that demands our attention. But if we're not paying attention, we can be sure the jungle is...