A Howard Watson Intrigue

This isn’t just any beach in Chicago I’m trying to save. In my opinion it’s the greatest beach in Chicago I’m trying to save. Chicago is known throughout the country for its beautiful front yard – we call it Lake Michigan . With its miles and miles of flowing tresses bordering one entire side of Chicago , many beaches are described as home to thousands of people from Memorial Day to Labor Day every year. I need your help.   The City of Chicago is strapped, economically speaking, and unless we “adopt” 57 th Street Beach and clean it up no one will be able to enjoy the wonderfulness that this beach offers in a myriad of ways: clean sands, numerous trees and bushes, beautiful landscaping and stonework, bike/walking paths, water fountains and BBQ grills. Oh, and let's not forget the field house on Promontory Point where weddings and receptions have taken place forever.   But some of you take this beach (and other beaches) for granted. Who cleans up the beach when City bud...

            “Nothin from nothin leaves nothin. You gotta have somethin, if you wanna be with me.”                                                                                     Billy Preston (The Fifth Beatle)                                                      ...

“Others are on their way,” she said. “They will come armed with revenge. My little brother’s death will not go unnoticed...not by you or the venomous terrorizers who keep fighting over rocks they call precious. Precious to whom? Not my people. They will come, just like me. This is in no way over. The diamond owners and intermediaries must end their hold over our children and my country. Five deaths for my brother - that is still not enough. Do what you want with me...it does not matter.   My brother will not come back from the grave.” The above is an excerpt from my third book called The Lie . It is the third installment in the “Howard Watson Intrigue” series. It is also a quick and compelling view of the diamond wars from the victims’ perspective. Unless you have been living under a rock lately you have heard people mention the video that has gone viral on Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Party, a Ugandan guerilla group seemingly bent on ridding its country of its...

Haymarket Center is a comprehensive alcohol and substance abuse treatment center located in the West Loop . Each year since 1986 Haymarket has held a summer festival thanking the staff and volunteers for the tremendous work they do. Haymarket supplies FREE food, rides, animals, arcades, photographers, etc. to all who come to the Festival (mostly staff, their family members and donors). Alderman Walter Burnett’s office has consistently assisted in blocking off several streets for this fun event. For the past two years the State and Federal government has cut our substance abuse budget by 68%, leaving us with no choice but to help with the costs of the Festival. Last year we held a stair climbing event where the participant had to climb 676 stairs as many times as he/she could in our three buildings. We had 16 staff members, one District firefighter, two kids and several volunteers as climbers. We raised $1,684.00 in sponsorship donations. This year we hope to triple our climbers and ...

I remember when I felt the lump in my breast. It felt huge. I would like to say I was calm, but I can’t.   I…freaked…out.   At the time I had two little kids (three, counting my husband) and I was only 35 years old. I had just been to my doctor’s office and was told everything was fine.   My mammogram exam showed nothing significant. However, the very-next-week the lump found its way to the surface of my breast. I don’t recall what was worst - the lump or waiting days for the appointment with the surgeon who would later tell me it was “benign”. I had always been athletic, so a lump in my breast made me question what I was eating, drinking and stressing out on. It jolted me into looking at what I was eating, not how much I was eating. About 39,510 women die from cancer in the U.S. every year, with breast cancer being the most common after lung cancer. The chance of dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 36, even though breast cancer has been going down. (Research say...

It is that time of the year. Ok, let me stop for a moment before I convulse with joy. I feel especially blessed to not only have a job, but a job that lets me enjoy it and the people I work with. I come home to an apartment that makes me feel safe and secure. I am thrilled that I have been able to spend quality time with my daughter and other loving relatives this year. I thank God that I am able to feel this way almost every day. Unfortunately there are people who will never feel this way; people who will never know that feeling of joy that comes from eating three meals a day, a nurturing family or even job satisfaction. These people are called the homeless. I remember in my younger days seeing homeless men on the street and bristling at hearing folks call them bums, hobos, and other mean spirited terms.  I remember when I was a kid my grandmother (bless her heart) pointed at a man sitting on the curb and saying to me "don...

Since last speaking with you I mustered up an army of 48 people to help clean up 55 th and 57 th Street beaches in Chicago for Adopt A Beach Day.   Although we all felt we were doing something wonderful, we found ourselves clearing away trash that should not have been on the beaches. Crap like condoms, baby diapers, tampons, and other stuff were thrown in bushes and trees and found under rocks from people too lazy to walk steps to throw in a trash bin. And the birds were in full battle array! Sometimes you had to almost use sticks to shoo them away. They did not go peacefully. Just so you know, it is now a crime in Illinois to feed birds (any birds) on any beach in the State. As a matter of fact, the fine is $500. The reason the fine is so steep is because of the number of swim bans for the past several summers on our beaches. (Swim bans are when the beaches are closed due to too much bacteria (usually e-coli) in the water.) The reason there is so much bacteria in the ...