In his novel, Kaddish for a Child Not Born, Imre Kertész tells the story of a man who, like the author in real life, had survived Auschwitz. The narrator relates how once in the concentration camp he was too ill to get his own meal–a meager portion barely enough to sustain him. A fellow prisoner brought the narrator’s meal, the other man not only risking his life to do so, but also missing the opportunity to eat a double portion and increase his own chances of survival. Years later, the narrator still wonders “… why did he do it?” The narrator can understand evil as the way of the world. It is the conscious choice of doing good that he cannot fathom.

While many of us face serious challenges in daily living, few have had the misfortune of contending with the violent and senseless death of a loved one. If we had, would it change our view of the world? Would it make us bend to cynicism or instead, like the narrator’s companion, defy evil through acts of goodness?

On April 7, 1990, a sixteen-year-old junior from New Trier High School entered the home of his Wilmette neighbors, Richard and Nancy Langert. He brutally murdered the young couple and their unborn child. It took six months for police to identify and arrest the teenager, who admitted that he had murdered the Langerts simply to feel what it was like to kill someone.

In contrast to that message of hate, Nancy Langert, bleeding to death, crawled next to her already dead husband and drew with her own blood a heart and a “U.” It was was the way she had always signed her letters –“Love U.”

When the killer was arrested, a television reporter stuck a microphone in the face of Nancy’s sister, Jennifer Bishop, and asked if she was upset that, because of his age, the young murderer couldn’t receive the death penalty. As Jennifer explains, “That was a watershed moment.” Her sister had used her last moment on earth to express love and, in Jennifer’s mind, would not have wanted as her memorial a boy’s death.

Like the second prisoner in Kertész’s novel, Jennifer chose to do good in the face of evil. With her sister Jeanne, she began a long career in what she terms “restorative justice.” They both joined a national organization for families of murder victims, and they began to speak throughout the country for legislation to ban handguns and against the death penalty for children. Jennifer, the founder of IllinoisVictims.org, has been a consultant for several organizations dealing with victims’ rights and has helped persuade Congress to pass federal gun violence prevention legislation.

Jennifer and Jeanne’s work has earned them great respect from anti- death penalty advocates, but the sisters have been willing to risk this support by opposing a bill that would grant automatic parole hearings for young people, like the Langert’s murderer, who have been given life sentences without the possibility of parole. Jennifer believes that some of these teens are sociopaths who will always pose a danger to society. In addition, the victim’s family should be spared the anguish of attending these parole hearings and reliving the horror of the crime over and over.

Most recently Jennifer has decided to run for the Cook County Board. This is a daunting task, if for no other reason than the county’s reputation. Typing “Cook County Corruption” on a Yahoo Search, I learned there were over four million “results” available. In comparison, Hercules’ cleanup of the Augean Stables was a simple job for Drano. In addition, Cook County has the largest unified court system in the world, as well as a budget and population that would make it the seventeenth largest state in the nation. What would make her want to get involved with the overwhelming problems of such a behemoth?

Besides working for political action groups such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Jennifer taught high school social studies for 25 years. She calls her teaching experience “extremely formative, second only to my sister’s murder.” She and her students discussed current events every day, and each of her classes addressed the concept of citizenship as “informed participation.” As she continually told her students, “If you don’t like things, change them.” She kept encouraging her students to consider one day running for office, while they encouraged her to do the same.

Finally, she did.

Two years ago, as a gun control activist, Jennifer attended a meeting of the Cook County Board. She was saddened to observe several “incompetent people on the board.” She had also been a volunteer with the Cook County Juvenile Probation Teens program, an inexpensive and cost-effective program that resulted in a 43 percent drop in recidivism among first-time, nonviolent offenders. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger cut that program while giving county jobs to his family and friends.

She learned that her County Board Representative, Republican Gregg Goslin, supported Todd Stroger’s budgets of 2007 and 2008, which cut physicians and law enforcement personnel while granting some of Stroger’s cousins six-figure jobs. She contends that, while Goslin portrays himself as an environmentalist, he votes against forest preservation practices. And she believes that he is unresponsive to his constituents’ concerns. After seeking advice from leading Democrats in the area including Dan Seals, Lauren Beth Gash, and Lee Goodman, Jennifer decided to run for the Cook County Board.

The 14th District’s boundaries are roughly Lake Cook Road to the north, I-90 to the south, western Wilmette to the east, and Barrington to the west. While solidly Republican in the past, this is changing. Although Goslin won his first race by 17,000 votes, he won his last election by only 6000. Jennifer has calculated that about half of the district is independent, and “We’re going to give them a reason to cross over.”

Jennifer’s platform, reformist and progressive, centers on four issues. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she considers the budget as “a moral document.” She will work to eliminate the “Stroger Sales Tax.” She believes in zero-based budgeting, which, unlike across-the-board cuts, would maintain good programs while getting rid of waste. She will take a hard look at streamlining and/or consolidating many county departments, and she will seek increased funding sources, including federal block grants.

Second, Jennifer is committed to eliminating the county’s corrupt hiring practices, which she contends is part of a patronage system that wastes 12 to15 percent of the county’s budget.

Third, based on her experience as an advocate and volunteer, Jennifer will bring best practices to develop crime- prevention programs that are proven cost-effective measures for reducing violent crime.

Finally, Jennifer will be a strong supporter of the county’s vast forest preserve system. Disturbed by conflicts of interest that can arise by having the same people serve on both the county and forest preserve

district boards, she supports an independent, all-volunteer forest preserve district board.

Surviving Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Imre Kertész had the courage to write novels that pose questions challenging the common assumptions of what it is to be human. For his efforts, Kertész was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature. In wrestling with the senseless horror of her sister’s death, Jennifer Bishop Jenkins chose to react not with hate or nihilism but rather to advocate for causes she believes will make our world a better place in which to live. Her decision to run for Cook County Board is but the latest example of her desire to commemorate her sister’s memory by working for the common good. For this, she deserves our gratitude and active support.