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1 week ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
This is the second part of Tom Holmes’ interview with Mike Mohr. Part I ran last week:Michael “Mike” Mohr describes himself as old-fashioned, old-school. Nowadays, old fashioned often means stuck in your ways, atavistic, oldfangled, quaint, antique, retro, behind the times, antiquated, outdated, obsolete, outmoded. But that’s not what Mike means by old-fashioned. At the risk of putting words in his mouth, I looked up the Boy Scout Oath and Law, and I think he would say “amen” to both.
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2 weeks ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
If I organized a No Kings Rally demonstration in Constitution Court, would you participate? Would you help me organize it? Here’s why I ask: The framers of the Constitution had just fought a war to gain independence from Great Britain, and the last thing they wanted was a king as the executive, so they built checks and balances into the Constitution.
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2 weeks ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
Michael “Mike” Mohr will have mixed feelings this Memorial Day as he always does on the last Monday of May. On the one hand, the Vietnam vet will feel proud: proud that he served his country, proud that he did his duty, proud that he served with the storied 101st Airborne Division. But also in his emotional mix will be nightmarish memories. “I try not to think about my time there,” he said, “but if I watch a war movie, especially Vietnam war movies, it triggers something.
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3 weeks ago | 
austinweeklynews.com | Tom Holmes
You might call the Chicago Jesuit Academy (CJA), located at 5058 W. Jackson Blvd. just east of Columbus Park, an educational oasis on Chicago’s West Side.
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1 month ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
This column first ran in May of 2024:Pastor Walter Mitty’s alarm went off on May 1 at 6:30 as usual. He sat up, turned off the alarm, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and realized he wasn’t immediately reaching for his bathrobe. It was nice to have the cold weather in the rearview mirror — at least for the next few monthsHe actually enjoyed how the seasons change, but he was now ready for spring to arrive in full force.
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1 month ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
The deportation of immigrants from the U.S. has been in the news recently, and immigrants who are undocumented are frightened. Sasin “Pun” Tuangiaruwinai immigrated to Forest Park eight years ago, but he’s not worried about being deported, even in what feels like an anti-immigrant atmosphere, because he has dotted every “i” and crossed every “t” to make his immigration legal. His is a story about migrating according to the State Department’s priorities and procedures.
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1 month ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
I get the impression that the now late Pope Francis would have felt comfortable living in a brick bungalow on Beloit Avenue here in Forest Park. I say that because his “sensibility” and what I observe as the moral sense and sensitivity of my neighbors here in town seem to have a lot of overlap. A wood coffin and meeting in a barnPope Francis, who died a week ago Monday, chose to be buried in a rather plain wood coffin.
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1 month ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
I became the pastor of the white stucco church on Dixon Street called St. Paul Lutheran Church in 1982. The congregation had been declining in membership as the demographics of Forest Park were changing and, as usually happens with new pastors, my arrival became the occasion for renewed hope. The hope was that this young, energetic pastor would turn things around and the membership list would grow. Well, the congregation did grow, not in size but in faith and maturity.
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1 month ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
Can suffering ever be a good thing? Can suffering ever be redemptive? I ask that because today is right in the middle of a holy week for both Jews and Christians, and the stories that are told both have to do with suffering. Jews are observing Passover. The Passover narrative begins with the people of Israel suffering as slaves in Egypt. Slavery produces suffering, which is never redemptive.
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2 months ago | 
forestparkreview.com | Tom Holmes
I try to look at both sides of an issue. On one side of the “Altenheim’s backyard”debate, I hear, “Don’t sell any of the 11 acres the village purchased in 2001. Keep it green. I cheered when Forest Park bought the 11 acres, in part to prevent it from being developed into townhouses like the ones across the street. My instinct is to retain as much nature in our urban environment as possible. I therefore have supported the commitment of this community to steward our urban forest.
