![]() ![]() For almost thirty years, it's been impossible for me to drive past the entrance sign and not think of that terrible day. And the parochial school in my neighborhood is also named Our Lady of Angels. ![]() The school was just allowed to ignore them.Īs soon as I saw the image of those nuns, I knew what the topic of today's column would be. ![]() Chicago already had fire codes at the time of the fire. The first fact we learn is that it was "a tragedy that revolutionized fire codes around the world." Pretty to think so. My bone of contention is the complete gloss the fire itself is given. The Catholic church does much good that should be recounted. That's interesting, and I have no complaint, as far as that goes. To be fair, "Then & Now" isn't really intended to recapitulate the events of the fire, but to update what the order of nuns are doing now. I point this out as prelude, having read a piece in today's Tribune to mark the 62nd anniversary of the Our Lady of the Angels school fire, an inferno that killed 92 students and three nuns. It became a kind of ennobling story, an entertainment, which it shouldn't be. Then gradually the horror faded, crowded out by the relief, which almost took over. We've began remembering the enormity of the thing, with the isolated instances of resistance serving as tiny moments of relief. Over the span of my lifetime, it seems like it's only gotten worse. ![]()
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