Chicagoans who have stepped up to help migrants

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What does Memorial Day mean to you? A day of parades and patriotism? The start of summer? The end of school? The opportunity to snag a great bargain?

Much like Christmas, sometimes it feels we have lost the true meaning of the “holiday.” For the families of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in battle, it’s a somber occasion. Naturally they remember their loved ones every day, but Memorial Day is the day when they feel consoled by the community.

This year will be additionally poignant because the new monument honoring local Gold Star families is to be dedicated in Naperville’s Veterans Park.

The one thing that forever links these families is their heartbreaking stories of bravery and loss. But as Army Pfc. Gunnar Hotchkin’s mother said, “As long as they are remembered, they are not truly gone.”

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Countless of ordinary Chicagoans have stepped up since August to help migrants, going beyond helping them with their basic needs such as shelter, food and clothes. They’re also making them feel welcome.

Here are a few of the accounts of those who endured clergy sexual abuse in Illinois, as told to investigators in the attorney general report.

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Chicago Public Schools has repeatedly violated state law over the use of physical restraints of students, “overwhelmingly failed” to train its staff properly and continued the practice despite multiple directives this school year from the Illinois State Board of Education to stop, the state agency alleged in a letter to CPS obtained by the Tribune.

“CPS’ complete disregard for the health and safety of its students and blatant violation of state law is unconscionable,” an ISBE official wrote to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

The Lt. Joseph T. McKeon Jr. Park consists of a few swings and such for kids and a bench for their parents. It might not catch a passerby’s eye except for a plaque at the corner of Wallace and 36th streets.

It notes that the playground is named for a neighborhood boy killed in Vietnam. Dedicated in 1967, it was even then a throwback to an era when patriotism and neighborhood loyalty intersected.

Although many Chicago Cubs players have owned homes in the Chicago area over the years, a review of the locations where players have owned shows a distinct trend: Throughout much of the 1960s through the ‘80s, most Cubs players were loath to own homes anywhere in the city, and instead favored the north, northwest and western suburbs as places to hang their ball caps.

However, since the 1980s, far more of the homeowning Cubs have bought places in the city than in the suburbs. Also striking: In the past few years, only a select few Cubs have bought Chicago-area homes of any kind.

From movies and tv to museums and art, a guide to all the events you shouldn’t miss this summer in Chicago.