Schaumburg: In the miscellaneous column

I love short work weeks ... until Friday rolls around.

Then every task you’ve put off needs to get done.

This past week was one of those weeks for me. And one of those things I put off was writing my Editor’s View column. So, I apologize ahead of time and warn you that you might want to stop reading this column right about now.

Column writing is difficult. Those who do it full-time will always have my respect. I struggle writing a column every other week. Sure, I have other duties and columnists only have to worry about column writing, but to write a column five days a week is a remarkable feat.

Even the best columnists don’t hit a home run with every column. But they consistently hit doubles and triples.

My column today probably can be described as a foul out to the catcher. Because I procrastinated, I couldn’t settle on a topic.

I could have written about township government again, but what a waste of time that would have been.

I could have written about people using township government as a way to get meaningless advisory referendums on the November ballot instead of taking the time to get binding referendum questions on the ballot.

I could have written about how some people need to lighten up regarding how I use my column space. Not every 500-plus-word column I write needs to be serious. We are allowed to have some fun here.

I could have written about how racism reared its ugly head on Twitter this week after the Washington Capitals’ Joel Ward scored the series-winning goal against the Boston Bruins. Ward, who is black, grew up in Scarborough, Ontario. His parents migrated from Barbados.

After his overtime goal, Twitter blew up with hundreds of racist comments about Ward. I don’t know what’s more scary – that racism still exists at such an extreme level or that people aren’t afraid to let the world know on Twitter how racist they are.

I could have written about how ridiculous it is to get all worked up about Bears draft picks before they’ve even played a down in the NFL.

Oh, wait, that’s two sports items. I’d better get more serious.

I could have written about how amazing it was that Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, for the most part, presented some substantial ideas for pension reform.

The worst part of his proposal, however, was the cigarette tax increase. To count on revenue that depends on people’s habits is dangerous.

In theory, if cigarettes became more expensive, more people would quit smoking. And if more people quit smoking, then fewer packs of cigarettes would be sold.

I could have written about how the Daily Chronicle learned Friday that it has placed 38 times in this year’s Illinois Press Association editorial contest. We will learn in June how many of those are first-place finishes and whether we will be named the best small daily newspaper in Illinois for the third consecutive year.

Or I could have written about how I wish people would read the entire story on our website before commenting on the story.

• Jason Schaumburg is editor of the Daily Chronicle. Email him at jschaumburg@shawmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter (@DC_ Editor) and interact with him at the From the Editor’s Desk Facebook page. It took him a day, but he has moved on from the Blackhawks’ first-round exit in the Stanley Cup playoffs.