Other momentous news deserves, gets big play

So much momentous news.

For a year, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich won't shut up about his day in court. Then suddenly he says he doesn't need it. A strike halts major construction projects throughout the suburbs and Chicago, then settles. BP finally gets its gushing oil well capped in the Gulf of Mexico.

No one can doubt that such events deserve major play in print and online. But there is much more of moment going on in the suburbs that fails sometimes to get the kind of attention that disasters and high-profile trials attract.

We wrote about one such last week. Staff writer Anna Madrzyk told about "The Meatballs," a diverse collection of young and old who gather regularly throughout the summer in a Lombard side lot they call Pasta Park to roast hot dogs, share some summer beverages and smack around a plastic Wiffle ball.

Keith Giagnorio said he and some buddies brainstormed the stadium over "a few cocktails" in the garage, then built it, complete with bleachers and scoreboard, in the large empty yard next to his house. Now, the Giagnorio family and groups of neighbors and friends spend hot summer Sundays pitching, hitting, laughing, cheering and just enjoying each other.

Madrzyk's story struck me because it captured so effectively the spirit of suburban life, neighborliness, inclusion and openness to an impromptu and simple good time. It's the type of activity so common throughout the suburbs that one might well suggest it's not unusual enough or significant enough to qualify as "news." But I thought just the opposite - that because, in its own way, it reflects who we are so well, "The Meatballs" story struck at the very heart of what it means to live in and appreciate suburban life.

Other stories may be equally simple, but even more inspiring. Staff writer Kristina Hauptmann, for instance, told last Saturday how Cole Emory, a Mundelein High School graduate with autism, landed a gig as a tuxedo model for Men's Wearhouse thanks to his own good looks and resourcefulness and his mom's initiative. A favorite quote from that story? "You can do something out of the blue, and it can skyrocket out of nowhere, so don't be afraid to take risks and try new things." It came from a 17-year-old, Cole's younger brother. Why, I often wonder, are we so condescending and critical of the young?

Then on Tuesday, columnist Burt Constable described participants at the National Junior Disability Championship at Lake Forest High School. They included a Schaumburg teenager - yes, another 17-year-old - who cannot walk but can hurl a shot put for amazing distances. And she, Kelsey Haase, looks on in awe as a fellow athlete with stunted arms and legs competes in a swimming contest.

Constable described various athletes who spoke with slight embarrassment about being "inspirations," and preferred instead to describe how hard they work in training and tell how much time they'd shaved or distance they'd added in their event.

Such stories - and the pictures and videos that complement them - have a way of eliciting a muffled "wow" from us. They don't often stir the online commenters nor attract the occasional reader with a sensational headline. But they are, as they ought to be, as important a part of the suburban conversation as the rants - or silence - of an ex-governor, the ups and downs of the local professional ball team, a local village controversy or a national disaster.

So much news. But also so much more.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald.