Brick Headed: This week’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate features a woe-is-us piece on the Brickton Art Center, another one of those private not-for-profit corporations that seems to perpetually live on the taxpayer dole because it just can’t (or won’t) figure out – or sign onto – the concept of “capitalism.” (“Hard times hit Brickton Art Center,” May 7)

According to the H-A story, BAC is in financial trouble because “donors are contributing less, grants have dried up, class attendance is down by about 25 percent, and funding once received from the state has significantly decreased.”  By our count, 3 of those 4 funding sources are handouts rather than real live earnings. And that’s assuming that “class attendance” actually covers its costs.

The people who run BAC are fine folks, and BAC is a nifty kind of place.  But if you’re going to run a “business,” run a BUSINESS.  One that doesn’t rely more on taxpayer welfare than it does on turning out desirable products or services which real live customers are willing to purchase at a price that at least covers the costs of doing…wait for it…BUSINESS!

Otherwise, you’re just running a hobby.  Which is all well and good, so long as the already-strapped taxpayers don’t end up holding the bag as involuntary investors.

Bud No Dud: We’ve taken issue in the past with local commentator Bud Jones when he beefed about spending $130,000 to televise City Council meetings (“Air Bud,” The Watchdog’s Kibbles and Bits – Box 7) – although we now know it can be done for next to nothing by a regular citizen sitting in the front row of the gallery filming with a tiny hand-held camera and then downloading it on YouTube.  

But we’re 100% solid with Bud’s objection to the H-A’s posting a separate story – instead of merely a “Police Blotter” item – on the DUI arrest of Ald. Robert Ryan’s son. (“Objection to story on DUI arrest,” May 7)

We disagree with Ryan on most public issues, but what the H-A did to his son is dirty pool.  Young Mr. Ryan is not a public official, nor is he a “public figure” merely because his father is.  And at age 23, he is legally an adult, not a minor – so his mis-step cannot even reasonably be viewed as some form of failure of parental supervision.

Ryan should be treated the way any other ordinary citizen is treated, not subjected to the glare of a harsh spotlight he has not sought and from which he has not benefitted.