19 MUSIC | Henry Miles 17 FOOD | Oyster stew 20 FILM | The Stand In FREE December 10-16, 2020 • Vol. 46, No. 21 December 10-16, 2020 | Illinois Times | 1 2 | www.illinoistimes.com | December 10-16, 2020 OPINION Pandemic lays bare disinformation damage Of mice and cats GUESTWORK | Lee H. Hamilton I have both When the history of this era is written, UPON FURTHER REVIEW | Bruce Rushton special attention should be reserved for the prominent U.S. politicians who dismissed or misrepresented the I suck at killing things. This is why I got a cat. COVID-19 pandemic for political After recently trapping a mouse in my purposes. kitchen and seeing its desperate eyes while The coronavirus has wreaked untold being dispatched, squeaking all the way, to suffering and damage to this country the trash bin outside, I thought it better to through the deaths it’s caused, the illness have its friends hunted down and eaten. And it’s produced, the strain it has placed on so I filled out an online application, offering the lives and well-being of health care to provide feline foster care for the local workers, and the incredible damage it’s animal shelter and figuring I’d keep the first done to the livelihoods and prospects of mouser. millions of Americans. It has been able My preference was old – I need a cat to do this because we had a major failure for eight years or so, not 18 – and black, of government. to match Champ The Wonder Pug, and I’d To be sure, at the state level many heard that such cats are tough to place. After governors have conducted themselves not hearing back for awhile, I visited the with forthright attention to the risks to shelter, where they were giving away cats. I their populations and have done their explained that I’d be happy to donate $200 best to translate scientific and medical to the shelter for the privilege of auditioning advice into policies designed to save mousers. We can’t do that, they said. lives while trying to undergird their My foster application had gone missing, so economies. But at the federal level – I filled out a new one. A few days later, I got with the notable exception of the effort an email: No cats available for foster homes. Nora isn't much on pugs or catching mice or coming out of the basement, but she has charm nonetheless. to fast-track research and production PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON Perhaps you’d be interested in adoption. I of a vaccine – we mostly failed to went back to the shelter a second time. They mobilize resources and take the measures couldn’t show me a cat just then, but I met a necessary to combat the virus, starting fine-looking tabby outside, which nuzzled my fight? “I guess you could bring the cat back,” talker, he reported, likes things quiet, may not early this year when the virus first leg and purred when I picked it up and paid she replied. get along with kids. I put my finger near her emerged on the West Coast. no mind to Champ, and vice versa, when I I made an appointment. mouth. She bit it, but not too hard. “See?” In particular, we failed to provide a took him out of the truck for a quick visit. There seemed no shortage of cats in cages the attendant said. She held my gaze without comprehensive, federally led nationwide This, they said, was a feral cat, which I should and rooms on two floors, but just two fit my seeming aloof or eager while I scratched her strategy providing clear guidance on have known by its clipped ear. Goes to show criteria of being older with no health issues. chin – ball’s in your court, I’ve done this mask-wearing, offering resources for how much I know about cats. One seemed too eager, the other too aloof. before. contact tracing and helping states While my adoption application was What about Nora, I asked, the one I saw on Wrap her up, I commanded. develop their approaches to quarantining pending, I pondered the best way to ensure the website? I was led to a room I’d passed by Nora has made herself at home in the for those exposed to the virus – the three getting a mouser. Since I couldn’t return the on my way in. There were just a handful of basement, mostly on a box four feet high legs vital for early containment. cat for not chasing mice, I hit on buying a cages here, fewer than in the other rooms, like and so safely separated both from rodents Instead, President Trump repudiated mouse from the pet store and bringing it this was ad seg or maybe the Group W bench. and my pug, who now can boast that he has and disregarded the advice of experts to the shelter. When the woman from the The label on Nora’s cage said that she’d been scared something. There is grit somewhere – I and health officials and offered a shelter called, saying that my application had here since September and pinpointed her age have never seen a cat go from purr to hiss so misleading narrative about the spread been approved, I asked whether I’d be able to at 14 years, two months. quickly, sometimes in the same breath, and of the virus abating in the spring. spend time alone with candidates in a quiet “How do you know that?” I asked. “We she sometimes hisses even as she’s enjoying a His misinformation was picked room to see if we might bond. No, she said, had her as a fresh kitten,” the attendant back scratch. They were right about her being up and amplified by news outlets we can’t do that. Can I bring my pug to make answered. “She’s been back six times.” Why? a talker: When meowed at, Nora meows back. and by politicians who alleged that sure that it will get along with the cat? No, The attendant thumbed through a sheaf of She seems in no hurry to come upstairs. She concern about the pandemic was just we can’t do that. What if the pug and the cat papers contained in a manila folder. She’s a also drools a lot. A week after her arrival, a hoax peddled by President Trump’s I trapped a mouse and dangled the carcass opponents and would disappear as within an inch of her nose. soon as the election was over. Or, even Editor’s note She’ll get the hang of it. worse, who misled Americans about Just because a cat is old doesn’t mean that hydroxychloroquine and other drugs. In Every December day’s mail and email arrives with more fundraising appeals from arts groups, it won’t hunt, especially after a day or two of other words, many Americans were fed church groups, public radio and TV, helping organizations and nonprofits of every kind. Here’s an no food, which I will try soon. Always, there bad information at a time when high- idea for dealing with all those requests: Give to as many as you can. Even a small donation provides are raisins. Best mousetrap bait ever. And quality information was necessary to encouragement, a welcome gift at the close of a tough year. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO drool never hurt anyone. stem the spread of the virus and limit the number of deaths. Cover illustration by Chris Britt Contact Bruce Rushton at The result has been devastating, and [email protected]. continued on page 7 December 10-16, 2020 | Illinois Times | 3 OPINION More Dems vow to vote against Madigan POLITICS | Rich Miller Illinois House Democratic Caucus Chair flip back,” Willis said about the 18 House “If you had been on the conversation I Kathleen Willis (D-Addison) told me Democrats who preceded her in vowing to had with him earlier this morning, you’d last week that her decision to oppose vote against Madigan. know that he did not to put me up to it,” Speaker Michael Madigan’s reelection was “When I made the decision to do a Willis said with a laugh. Willis wouldn’t a process that she’s been struggling with written statement, it was knowing that talk too many specifics, but said she called since the summer. Willis became the 19th there was no point of return, there was no Madigan as a courtesy. House Democrat to declare opposition to going back by doing a written statement. “He did not want me to release the Madigan, putting him six votes shy of the That forced my hand. And I think the other statement and I told him I had no choice. 60 he needs to win. members that did the same thing, if they I have made the decision to do it and I “Over the last couple of weeks, it’s been were to ever turn back, they could never run wanted to do it. He really felt strongly getting more and more troubling,” Willis for office … that would be a career-ending that I should not release a statement and I said. It boiled down to “an ethical decision, move.” said, ‘Well, the only way I won’t release the a moral decision,” she said. None of them took the decision lightly, statement is if you withdraw from running Her father had heart surgery the previous Willis said.