Are there newspaper-reading moments when you’d like to see respect for good-old-fashioned mood?
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel said Friday hes looking for a partner in reform, and he is heartened if Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) is prepared to forge that alliance.
No, Fran Spielman, or whoever to whom you call in your stories, he’s looking for a partner and would be heartened if etc. etc. There is more to life than the indicative, is there not?
And I’m saying this even if you, and to some extent I, have a mayor who also is stranger to mood changes:
Im looking for a partner in reform. If hes ready to do that, Im heartened because we must reform. This is the era of reform, Emanuel said.
Your Honor, attention please: if he’s ready (a big if, very big if), you would be heartened etc. etc. It’s in doubt, Your Honor. In a lot of doubt, in fact. Can you respect that (publicly)?
Continuing:
I want to turn the page and usher in that era, and Im pleased that the alderman is gonna be part of that [you don’t know
that, but say it anyhow] because City Council, the mayor, people I appoint must participate [now you’re talking: this is indicative with a dose
of imperative] in the reform and changes necessary to put the city, its economy, its school system and its public safety on a different course.
And if they do not, then what, Your Honor? Wait. Do not tell us. We want to see this thing work out in its own time. There’s this optative mood in Latin, for hoping and wishing. We could try that.
Ald. Burke might cooperate:
Given the crises that Chicago is confronting right now, we dont have the luxury of engaging in those kinds of divisive matters. Weve got to all pull together. We owe it to the people of Chicago” [he says].
Uh-oh. Those kinds of matters, eh? How many kinds would that be, Alderman, and which ones have priority? Listen, there’s one kind of matter that you are talking about, and it’s white-knuckles economic-catastrophe, let’s-not-fall-in-the-lake matter.
Yes, I like that optative for now. It’s the best I can manage.
Blithe Spirit 