Whatever Suits Your Fancy

(From the Janesville Messenger, 4-19-09)


America has gone casual.

Maybe you’ve noticed it over the past decade. Where you used to see business people like bankers and sales representatives dressed to the nines in suits every day, now you’re just as likely to see them in polo shirts bearing the company logo.

In some cases – like my wife’s place of employment, the United Way of North Rock County, which just updated their dress code - blue jeans are even considered acceptable. I don’t know what it says about our society when we go from doing business dressed like Donald Trump to doing business dressed like a bowling team.

A good example of the transition is the group of Goodwill Ambassadors at Forward Janesville. In the 1980’s, the official Ambassador uniform was a maroon blazer and silver slacks. Yes, you read that right, and it looked just as bad as it sounds. It is some kind of federal law that Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors must dress in colors not found in nature.

In the 1990’s, the Ambassadors dropped their drawers – that is, decided to not mandate official slacks - and donned green suit jackets, making them all look like they had won the Masters golf tournament. But now, even that last nod of formality, the green jacket, is being shoved to the back of the closet in favor of green polo shirts.

For me personally, I have been going through this same reverse metamorphosis. Once upon a time, I used to wear a suit and tie every day. Being in sales, it was my professional attire. This started when I bought my first “real” suit after college in 1984, and continued unabated into the 21st Century. (Side note: I call it a “real” suit because I refuse to count the powder-blue leisure suit that pre-dated it. The 1970’s never happened.)

Then, like one of those Darwinian evolution charts, except at a much more rapid pace, the suit disappeared in favor of a shirt and tie with slacks, and then the tie went away, too. And then eventually, on days when I did not expect to see customers, I even wore jeans and work boots to my office. And frankly, I was fine with that. I liked being freed from the suit culture after all those years.

Ironically, it was Forward Janesville that reeled me back in from my relaxed state of garmentry. Since their annual dinner is a somewhat formal affair, I always like to wear a suit. Knowing I would not have time to change clothes between work and the event, I wore my formal attire to my office.

The reaction I received was amazing. It seemed like every one of my co-workers inquired about where I was going that day, what important customer I was seeing, or even whether I secretly had a job interview.
Third degree aside, it felt good being back in a suit again. I felt important. I felt virile. I decided that I was going to go back to wearing suits every day. And why not? They say clothes make the man, and I need all the help I can get.

If I thought I got questioned the first day, the second day was even more fun. I deliberately played coy, simply explaining that I was trying to “class up the joint.” This went on for several days, co-workers casting a suspicious eye at me when I walked in with the latest suit and tie combination.

Eventually, one of my co-workers started to follow suit. As he and I stood conversing the first day he was similarly attired, another co-worker walked in, gave us a puzzled look and asked, “Did I miss the memo?”

Now, after several weeks, co-workers are still trying to figure out exactly what I am up to with my parade of formal apparel. They don’t buy my explanation that I just feel like wearing suits, especially when I answer with a devilish look in my eye that seemingly confirms whatever they suspect.

There is something to be said for life’s simple pleasures.

Waiting For Justice

(From the Janesville Messenger, 4-5-09)


“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial....”
- The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Unfortunately, the Sixth Amendment does not extend the right to a speedy trial to a crime victim’s family.
Nine months ago, I wrote in this space about my wife’s cousin, a 24-year-old Chicago artist who went by the name of SOLVE. On June 14, SOLVE was senselessly stabbed to death by someone with whom he had exchanged words at a party.
A suspect in the murder, 24-year-old Kirk Tobolski, was apprehended and charged with first-degree homicide the following day.
According to police reports, four witnesses identified Tobolski as the killer, and Tobolski himself made a statement to police that he had “slashed” SOLVE with a knife. Despite this, Tobolski has been free on bail since October 28. Incredibly, since February, Tobolski – who still faces the first-degree murder charges – has been allowed to leave Illinois unwatched to visit his pregnant girlfriend in Michigan. The only requirement is that he must appear back in court for his next hearing.
How would you feel, knowing that your child’s alleged murderer is allowed to roam freely, greatly increasing the chance that he will try to flee? SOLVE’s father says he feels like he’s “been imprisoned in a theater of the absurd, though without any comic relief.”
How did this happen? How did Cook County, Illinois – that bastion of justice and fair government – give someone indicted on two counts of murder such unlimited freedom?
Money, that’s how.
To the surprise of SOLVE’s family, on October 28, somebody came up with the $50,000 cash necessary to spring Tobolski from his jail cell. SOLVE’s father believes that Tobolski’s family sold their home in order to raise the cash.
Wherever the money came from, there is apparently a lot more available. Tobolski is now being represented by defense attorney Richard Beuke, a big shot who has been involved in several high-profile cases in Cook County. Currently, Beuke is also defending Jon Burge, a retired police commander facing federal charges related to police brutality and alleged torture of suspects. The Burge case is big news in Chicago; his court appearances routinely draw scores of demonstrators.
SOLVE’s father, who is an attorney himself, believes that Beuke, as long as he's being paid, will undoubtedly drag the case out as long as he can. He says that “if there is a trial, which is likely, it is unlikely it will start before late 2010, more than two years after [the murder].”
Although Tobolski is allowed to go to Michigan, his release on bail did contain other stipulations, including no contact with SOLVE’s family, with the witnesses or the witnesses’ friends and relatives. At the first status hearing after receiving permission to leave Chicago, Tobolski did appear, buying himself another four weeks of relative freedom. The next status hearing is scheduled for April.
“The way things go in the Cook County Criminal Court in proceedings involving serious crimes,” says SOLVE’s father, “the judge will for up to 3 years invariably grant a request for more time if either side makes such a request at a status hearing. Swift justice in serious crimes is not a hallmark of Cook County's criminal justice system.”
So SOLVE’s family waits, disgusted at what they see as a gross miscarriage of justice and common sense. Until SOLVE’s killer is behind bars, there can be no closure for this terrible, senseless tragedy.