John Kass

John Kass

John Kass has covered a variety of topics since arriving at the Chicago Tribune in 1983.

The son of a Greek immigrant grocer, Kass was born June 23, 1956, on Chicago’s South Side and grew up there and in Oak Lawn. He held a number of jobs — merchant marine sailor, ditch digger, waiter — before becoming a film student at Columbia College in Chicago. There, he worked at the student newspaper and caught the attention of Daryle Feldmeir, chairman of the journalism department and former editor of the Chicago Daily News.

Feldmeir and journalism professor Les Brownlee helped him obtain an internship at the Daily Calumet in 1980, where Kass worked as a reporter until he left for the Tribune.

In 2004, Kass was awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi national award for general column writing, the Scripps Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Award for commentary, the Press Club of Atlantic City’s National Headliner Award for local interest column writing on a variety of subjects, and the Chicago Headline Club’s Lisagor Award for best daily newspaper columnist.

In 1992, Kass won the Chicago Tribune’s Beck Award for writing.

Kass lives in the western suburbs with his wife and twin sons. His column appears on Page A2 of the Chicago Tribune every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Recent Work

May 12, 2021
by John Kass
Employers Beg for Workers: ‘It’s the economy, stupid’

Have you ever wondered what happens to flat-earthers? Not all spend their days eating pudding with plastic spoons and rewatching... Read More

Have you ever wondered what happens to flat-earthers? Not all spend their days eating pudding with plastic spoons and rewatching old sitcoms — or as fabulists hanging at the end of the bar, boasting of their heroic exploits until closing time. Some become president of the... Read More

March 31, 2021
by John Kass
Asian American Judge Challenges Racism Inherent in ‘Equity’

Have you read, heard or seen that important news story about an Asian American federal judge — born in Taiwan... Read More

Have you read, heard or seen that important news story about an Asian American federal judge — born in Taiwan and subject to discrimination growing up — who confronted and denounced those who discriminate by race? No? With all that’s been in the news lately about... Read More

February 3, 2021
by John Kass
Erasing Classic Literature for Kids

When I was a boy about 11, I committed a crime that changed my life. I stole a book. I... Read More

When I was a boy about 11, I committed a crime that changed my life. I stole a book. I was a book thief. I found it in another kid’s desk and began reading, hiding it behind some boring textbook, and couldn’t give it up. And... Read More

January 12, 2021
by John Kass
When Politics Become too Personal: What We Didn’t Talk About at Sunday Dinner

In the pre-COVID-19 days, there were those large, intergenerational Sunday dinners when nothing was off the table for discussion in... Read More

In the pre-COVID-19 days, there were those large, intergenerational Sunday dinners when nothing was off the table for discussion in America. Even now, if we were sitting down together, we’d talk of President Donald Trump lying to his supporters about overturning the election, before he incited... Read More

December 30, 2020
by John Kass
I Miss Going to the Movies

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need,” said Marcus Tullius Cicero. Old Marcus could... Read More

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need,” said Marcus Tullius Cicero. Old Marcus could have been talking about coping with these pandemic lockdowns, but he wasn’t. Happily, I have a home library, but no garden. And I can’t possibly go... Read More

December 22, 2020
by John Kass
Yes, Mom, I’m Here.

My mother is 90 years old, one of the elderly isolated in nursing homes, unable to hug and kiss her... Read More

My mother is 90 years old, one of the elderly isolated in nursing homes, unable to hug and kiss her children, alone because of the pandemic. And this will be our first Christmas apart. She lived with us for 25 years. But after her stroke, she’d... Read More

December 9, 2020
by John Kass
William Barr, Vilified by All Sides, Did His Job

Attorney General William Barr, vilified witlessly and unreasonably for years by the left — and most recently by conservatives —... Read More

Attorney General William Barr, vilified witlessly and unreasonably for years by the left — and most recently by conservatives — has just performed two critically important services to the republic: After the election, Barr refused to put his name or the Department of Justice behind any... Read More

November 18, 2020
by John Kass
Abolish Electoral College? Sure, and Why Not Let ‘Majority Rule’ on the Bill of Rights?

When we were kids on the playground and there was an angry dispute, someone would always shout “majority rules.” And... Read More

When we were kids on the playground and there was an angry dispute, someone would always shout “majority rules.” And we’d vote. If the losers didn’t like the outcome, there were two options: punch the winners in the stomach or take the ball and go home.... Read More

October 1, 2020
by John Kass
What Trump Said About the Proud Boys Was Unconscionable

President Donald Trump’s failure to loudly and forcefully condemn white supremacists in his debate with Joe Biden was an unmitigated... Read More

President Donald Trump’s failure to loudly and forcefully condemn white supremacists in his debate with Joe Biden was an unmitigated disaster that may have cost him a chance at reelection. What Americans witnessed in the chaotic dumpster fire of a debate was this: an angry, stubborn... Read More

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