A local journalist wrote to me this morning about my views on "free speech," "safe space" and such terms that have recently lost their previous historical banality and acquired some political meaning. Here I reproduce, in full, our conversation that will soon appear, in some form, in the local paper.

There is snow on the ground, it covers everything. And through the snow, crunch crunch crunch, goes a little boy in a bright red snow suit.

Sometimes he walks with his toes pointing out, sometimes he walks with his toes pointing in, making little footprints on the white, untouched snow. The little boy is Peter and he walks a lot on this Snowy Day— all the way from the book to your home and the homes of several thousand children in America and the rest of the world.

I wake up in the middle of the night to go check on my child.  She breathes, she makes little sleep-noises.  I leave the room.  Again, half-an hour later I go back to check if she is alright.  If she still breathes.  I go back again and again through the night because instead of sleeping I have been watching the news coming in from Gaza. This is the seventh day of bombing in Gaza, ten children are dead and 140 wounded.

The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike on Monday, September 10, 2012 to defend public education.  That sentence alone should be cause for celebration, since according to most reports strikes have been decreasing steadily for the last 30 years. But wait, the CTU won! And they won against the most powerful and toxic brew of political forces.

This is a blog about children and how we as parents, caregivers and general putter-uppers relate to them.  This is why we have to talk about the Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, for Rahm is all about the kids. Rahm has uttered the words “It’s for the kids” almost as many times as he has slashed budgets for social programs; and if you know Rahm that will be many times.