Area leads the way in private-public pragmatism

The left-wingers of the 1940s through the 1960s believed government should solve society's ills. The right-wingers of the 1980s through the middle of the 2000s believed private industry should take care of everything.

            In the 1990s, however, more pragmatic and less ideological people began to understand that if the work of one of those entities were good, the two of them working in tandem would be even better. Chicago has led the way in that pragmatic approach, which continues today and is perhaps one of the main reasons many people say the city has never been in better shape.

            This month, there are no fewer than four good examples of private-public cooperation benefiting the community.

            The Jane Addams Hull House Association Center for Civil Society has been honored by being selected as the nation’s first agency to implement a series of recommendations to improve African-American mortality rates and education and to relieve conditions that increase the possibility of African-Americans being incarcerated. The center will manage the plan for the City of Chicago.

            The Noble Network of Charter Schools will open a new school in West Town and another in West Humboldt Park, working with both the Chicago Public Schools and Holy Innocents Parish.

            The Resurrection Project will use $3.4 million provided by the State of Illinois to open a dormitory for college students; the project also will benefit from a public relations boost by Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley.

            The Extreme Makeover television show, when rehabbing a house in Chicago, worked with the City to make the project a stellar example of building using environmentally sound principles.

            This nation’s founders felt local initiatives would be the laboratory for the federal government, and in Chicago, their vision is working out perfectly. Other cities, states, and the federal government can learn from the pragmatic, public-private approach that operates well in Chicago.

            We congratulate all the above-mentioned entities, whether public or private, and sincerely hope their approach will be adopted nationwide. Were that to occur, the strident, partisan, ideological tone of national debate would melt away in favor of the more pragmatic, can-do, cooperative approach that made America great in decades past.

            That's a gift for the 21st century we all would welcome.