Blue Sky Ahead
An open letter
to my favorite
Chicagoist's,

Greetings from Salem, Oregon; one of Chicago's most distant suburbs. Spring has arrived and I feel that I should spend much more of my free time tending to nature than eyeballing social media and the like.

In 2008 I started the blog bullfrogspincycle.blogspot. com. 
It was a riff on the Chicago Tribune blog "the swamp", and a reaction to Mr. Zell's takeover thingy. Initially, and naively,  I thought that the cultural changes would be good for the company. Gasp. Sorry. I still like Lee Abrams, rock on, but so much of what happened with the purchase of Chandler shares and sale to Mr. Zell lacked reasonable corporate conduct. Is that only my opinion? 

Over time one blog site led to another as I use them to experiment with electronic platforms. They are private gardens in many ways. Eventually I decided to focus on weeklyICEcafe as my favorite site and have dedicated it to Chicago stuff. I hope you can appreciate that and my love for the city.

I do have an agenda. I want the entire board of the McCormick Foundation replaced and a charter implemented that will promote a true sense of community involvement be enacted in the direction and execution of all activities funded through the resources of the McCormick Foundation. 
Having the same leadership team that contributed, if not manifested, the very foundering of the Tribune Company continue to lead the McCormick Foundation is an absolute
travesty with total disregard to the ethical principles of the
gentleman who funded the foundation. I just have to say it.

The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum was closed and replaced with a "bread truck" that was not even an Navistar- International and even "it" is now parked. The administrative
offices were moved to a lofty-leased site, while the foundation-owned Wheaton property has 500 acres to house sustainable office projects. The foundation promotes journalism with a program, while foundation sites host dismally low social media participation. The board no longer actively promotes the distribution of printed annual reports and staggers it's IRS 990's to shield some administrative compensation factors from full view by the shear volume of reportage. The foundation assets were diminished in 2003-2004 by 800 million fluid "George Washington's".  Oops.

There should be some avenue for reckoning the current state of the McCormick Foundation board leadership with the crucial premise of what the legacy of the McCormick, Medill, Miller, and Patterson families have intended to foster. Our families are composed of a gentle and private people. Please do not disgrace our name(s) and the community causes that we  have worked so diligently to nourish. Time.

Blue sky ahead. The Chicago Tribune looks good again. 
Mr. Kern seems to doing a good job as editor. I understand that two people that came over to the Trib from the S.T. brought their vision to the fold as well. Thank you all and every one who stayed with the paper through the incredible
"stuff". I enjoy reading it, albeit electronically. Life is good.

Tim