All Posts Tagged With: "local"

My town of Palatine, all 68,000 of us as of the last census, home to (as far as I know) Illinois’ only dual funeral home/mini golf course, is rarely in the news. It’s the standard idyllic, upper-middle class suburb, and most people are easy-going enough. Granted, along with Barrington, it’s one of the only townships in Cook County that votes consistently Republican (it went by a margin of 10% for Bush in ‘04), but as much as people gripe about “the machine,” Cook County administration, and the Daley family, we’ve never been the confrontational sort.

Desperate times, however, call for desperate measures. The latest hike in the Cook County sales tax will bring the rate to 10% in Palatine, as opposed to 7% in communities just across Lake Cook Road, in Lake County. The long-suffering Palatine Chamber of Commerce sprang into action, and started protesting publicly to anyone who would listen. Now, Palatine, along with several other townships at the border, hopes to secede from Cook County and form Lincoln County. Failing that, the rebels split into two camps: those willing to join Lake County, and those opposed to Lake County’s higher property tax rate.

So far neither option looks likely. A majority of Palatine residents may, in fact, be persuaded, but they’ll have a tough time persuading the rest of the County. So, for now, the Jaycees gripe on.

Rich Miller over at the great Capitol Fax has asked his question of the day in response to some local communities pushing to ban people from wearing baggy pants, “Question: Do you think the government – any government – should have the right to tell people how to wear their pants in public?”

Here’s my answer, what’s yours?

It is true, as some commentators have already noted, that the style looks ridiculous and callow.

But, as Mr. Miller has aptly stated, that is not the question. The question is whether the offense of having to “see someone’s behind” outweighs society’s interest in allowing individuals to express themselves through clothing.

What kind of an expression is this? People, especially young people, express themselves through clothing as an instant notice to strangers as to what class or social dynamic that person belongs to. Politicians wear suits to gain instant respect and credibility and to signal to people that they are a serious or important member of society. Young people in Danville wear baggy pants, perhaps, to express their dissatisfaction with the social norms of their parents and to signal to strangers of comparable age that they are not a “prep” or a “jock” or a “nerd,” but instead that they belong to whatever class of people wear baggy pants. So clothing serves at least two functions (1) signaling to other members of society what class or niche you belong to and (2) as a social critique of people who do not dress that way.

We can draw a fair analogy between this situation and freedom of speech cases that have reached the Supreme Court. Since Holmes’ great dissent in Abrams v. U.S., opinion after opinion has emphatically stated that our country’s interest in freedom of expression greatly outweighs any comparatively trivial offense that members of society might feel. This is not to say that anyone has a fundamental right to wear baggy pants, but wearing certain clothing is certainly a form of expression and many forms of expression are protected by the 1^st Amendment. A good analogy in case law comes from a famous case, Cohen v. California, in which “Paul Robert Cohen, 19, was arrested for wearing a jacket with the words ‘Fuck the Draft’ inside the Los Angeles Courthouse.” The Court held that Cohen’s interest in free expression greatly outweighed the vague and general state interest in preventing him from disturbing the peace.

I am also concerned that this kind of a law will have a disparate racial impact, because from my experiences African-Americans tend to favor the baggy pants style more than whites. I suspect this would be less of an issue in Danville, but a significant issue in Louisiana.

To be more eloquent and succinct: this is absurd.

My new column’s up this week: “An Open Invitation to Save a Life in Darfur.” Probably only of interest to those living in the U-C area.

…is up: Critiquing the Critics.

is up: Chuck Hagel: The Hero Who Wasn’t. Enjoy.

More importantly, the Daily Illini ran this editorial today telling students to stay home instead of attending a forum titled “Racism, Power, and Privilege at UIUC” organized by a group called STOP (Students Transforming Oppression and Privilege) which was formed in response to the “Tacos and Tequila” ZBT-TriDelt exchange which I wrote about here. The website has received, at this typing, 15 comments on the editorial, almost all of which are negative, and I join their ranks here. The Daily Illini ran not a single story announcing that the forum existed despite press releases being sent to it and now runs an editorial criticizing the event because “[a]side from mass e-mails sent out by the Chancellor, the only source of information openly available to students and faculty has been a poster.” The editorial goes on to assume, without foundation, that the event is likely to “degenerate into a shouting match that will produce no progress and leave the campus community as divided as ever.” Shame on the Daily Illini for this sad and cynical editorial.