Awesome Sauce for Chicagoans

The Midwest chapter of The Awesome Foundation has elected to give $1000 to a nonprofit called Little Free Library. As this WBEZ article explains, Chicago’s Awesome Foundation is a group of ten individuals who seek to better the city by collectively donate money to a single chosen organization.

Right now, they are supporting Little Free Library, a choice I fully endorse. The Wisconsin-based LFL funds an effort to create clusters of micro libraries all over the world. These “libraries” are actually rather small shelves (they look like custom dollhouses or bird cages). But they each contain an unlimited amount of information, for whenever a patron takes a book, they must leave one. That’s it. No registering for a library card, and no payment of any kind. What the libraries may lack in depth they make up for in convenience. Better yet, they have the potential to bring communities together to support literacy, no small thing in areas that lack functioning public libraries.

So far, Chicago locations include:

Langley Ave. Church of God

6159 South Langley Ave.

Lincoln Memorial Congregational United Church of Christ

6454 South Champlain Ave.

The Young Women’s Leadership Charter School

2641 South Calumet Ave.

Angelic Organics Urban Learning Center

6400 South Kimbark Ave.

Ian’s Pizza

3463 North Clark St.

About the Casey Anthony Media Orgy

I first heard the name Casey Anthony approximately a week and a half ago, and, really, it wasn’t until yesterday that I grasped the details of the story.

Even before I glanced at the first sensationalist headline it had become yet another yada-yada infanticide case for me. Infanticide cases should not, of course, be categorized as yada-yada. But they are relatively common. In fact, I’m wondering if the appalled masses realize just how common it is for a baby to end up dead, either due to negligence or intentional homicide.

So why are my neighbors in Chicago just as obsessed with this case, a Florida case, as they were with Drew Peterson, or the Riley Fox murder? They may even be more obsessed. Not that geography should determine interest, but come on. We’re Chicago. Cute, photogenic kids get popped by stray bullets on a semi-regular basis. Plenty of them are neglected, too. Where is the outrage?

But, for one reason or another, Caylee is the dead baby we, as a nation, are most incensed about. That’s fine, I guess. It’s better than outright indifference.

I will say this, though: the Anthony trial is a ratings bonanza because it is easy on our collective conscience. It’s puff. There was only one definite bad guy: Casey. Two, if we count the alleged crimes of the father. No one outside the immediate family can be deemed responsible. It’s not society’s fault. It’s simple and straight-forward. Or at least, pretty simplified by the media.

It concerns me that we’ve fixated on a morality tale that means so little. I mean, other than the inherent tragedy/freakishness of murder. We’ve reduced it to nothing. Surely, Christian advocacy groups will take the narrative as a signifier of the breakdown of the American family. But Casey’s acquittal tells us virtually nothing about ourselves. It hasn’t been an opportunity for us to question broad social policies. Nancy Grace’s adamant contempt for Casey Anthony has not, thus far, been turned against the abysmal child welfare system.

So, in the end, who cares? When the news stations hit another slump, they’ll ferret out another spectacle for the public to feast upon. Nothing too filling, just some marshmallow puff or some sweet whipped cream that will dissolve in seconds. God forbid we consume a hardier meal.