Opinion

OUR VIEW

Things we like

Splash pads at the pool:

Forest Park’s park district keeps investing in the park. And we’re supporters.

Last week in one of those always lame groundbreaking ceremonies — OK, the kids from the day camp were cool — the parks started work on three new splash pads at the periphery of the Aquatic Center. We had seen them as sort of stand-alone additions to the fun but district officials pointed to the $1.9 million project as essentially a first step in the gradual remaking of the entire pool complex.

Forest Park was a municipal pioneer when it first added water slides and other more engaging attractions to the plain old pool a generation back. But such features wear out, get old or stale and need to be refreshed. The new “Candyland”-themed splash pads are a reflection of that effort.

Can’t wait till next summer when the kids get to have new fun at the pool.

New mission for the rec board:

It has been gratifying watching in recent years as a rejuvenated Forest Park Recreation Board brought some life to the long-ignored pocket parks around town. Somewhere in its efforts, the rec board played a hand in finally shaking the small parks loose from an indifferent village hall and placing them into the more activist hands of the park district.

Down side? It sort of left the rec board without a cause. So what does any determined group of volunteers do? It is finding a new way to offer help in town. Initial plans, and subject to what we assume will be welcome approval from the village council, are to become a volunteer hub for the entire village and to also be involved directly in some local events.

Maybe some of those events could be held in a pocket park.

Kribi Coffee grows:

Forest Park’s distinctive coffee destination has long talked about plans to grow beyond Madison and Circle. Today we report Jacques Shalo and his family business will open a second location in one of Oak Park’s lesser-known historic buildings. It is the Boulevard Arcade building on South Boulevard near Marion Street. Now occupied by the Cross Fit shared working space, Kribi will have multiple audiences, including the shared-space office dwellers, neighbors in Oak Park’s new skyline buildings, and commuters (when there are more commuters again) heading to the Green Line or Metra.

Cool to see a Forest Park icon spreading its wings.

Welcome, Rev. Timothy Hein:

Forest Park Baptist Church has gone two years without a permanent pastor. That ended this month with the arrival of the very interesting Rev. Hein. Drawn to the Harlem Avenue church partly for the diversity of its congregation, Hein and his family felt a kinship with the aspirations of this longtime Forest Park church.

We offer our welcome as well.

OPINION

Coming together, forgiving, and picking up the litter

We all have a narrative of our lives that reflects how we interpret the way the world works. Our collective narrative, as individuals and as a community, has exposed our vulnerabilities in the past 18 months.

After getting vaccinated, the slow return of going to restaurants, being with friends and family and being back in the fold of our community has been happening gradually. The fatigue of the resurgence, plus the normalcy of returning to school and the return of annual events hit me this weekend especially.

The return of Ribfest was a real triumph. This is an especially unique event, filled with smokers, heart and soul, artisan grillers, and our neighbors was a mark of resilience. Long has the picnic grove waited to be filled with happiness and harmony and this past Saturday did not disappoint.

With mixed emotions I was able to reflect, celebrate and mourn with the 9/11 community on the 700 block of Bonnie Brae in neighboring River Forest, whose now famous LemonAid stand has magnified into a powerful annual afternoon of raising funds (nearly $500,000) and awareness for local charities, all directed by children and teens. For 20 years this block has impacted the local organizations that are making lemonade out of lemons every day, and it is truly a powerful event.

Then I was among the living who were able to bicycle through Forest Home Cemetery with our thoughtful and thought-provoking guide, Amy Binns-Calvey. Densely packed with storylines from the past and present, the tour included remembering and admiring artists in radio, painters, and Tiffany headstones. Reflections on pandemics past (small pox, diphtheria) and present (gun violence). Organizations like United Ancient Order of Druids and the Odd Fellows and the Pioneer Aid and Support Association were discussed. Difficult events that have influenced our present like

the Eastland Disaster, Iroquois Theater fire, St. Valentine’s Day massacre, Fort Sheridan, Haymarket Affair, and the mounds of indigenous people who once lived here were all part of the narrative that afternoon. Baseball-playing evangelist Billy Sunday and the man credited as a father of African-American education, founder of Arkansas Pine Bluff Joseph Carter Corbin, were remembered. With the enduring cemetery symbolism found JILL through the tour, reminders of the preciousness of life and our connection to the WAGNER spirit world abound. This Wednesday night, starts Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and although I am not Jewish, it comes at a moment in my life that fits my narrative. Forgiveness is a powerful force, and one that does not just flip on like a switch. Repentance and restoration take time and courage. Accepting change and blemishes in narratives is part of forgiveness. One cannot force forgiveness. Reality is a social construction, resting on awareness, trust and relationships. Jewish law says that one should ask for forgiveness three times. It does not mean you will be granted such forgiveness. It takes courage to ask for forgiveness and courage to grant it and accept that people do change. Somehow it fits right Graves of children were common before penicillin. into my narrative, that ree-year-old Wilhelmine Hellwig, who died I saw Julietta Christina in 1884, is a somber reminder during the Forest Aguilera Rodriguez this Park Historical Society bike tour of Forest Home weekend. She is a gentle, Cemetery. steady force advocating for litter cleaning locally. She shared that this Saturday is World Litter Cleanup Day. She asks that I pick up (at least) five pieces of litter and, optionally, to record it on the litterati app, as she has a local mini-challenge she is running #sufp2021. I am going to do that, and if you have an extra moment, for the sake of our collective narrative, take a moment to pick up a few pieces of litter and maybe this small change will make our collective narrative a little cleaner.

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