Past is not explicitly prologue, but as the rhetoric between state and federal officials regarding immigration enforcement and domestic military deployment simmers toward a boil, the curious mind noodles over Chicago’s history of civil unrest, to use a soft term for a legacy of violence and death that stretches back to before the Civil War.

Looking ahead to a purported surge in immigration enforcement operations at the end of next week in confluence with the always robust Mexican Independence Day in the Pilsen neighborhood Sept. 6, and freshly recalling inflamed passions in Los Angeles just a few weeks ago, engenders an uneasy feeling of concern for the need to one day erect monuments like those recalling Haymarket, Pullman, the Red Summer of 1919 and more.

Hopefully I look back at those paragraphs in a year – or a month! – and see only unfounded hyperbole. But in the relative suburban calm of late August, with school back in session and Friday night lights all aglow, and perhaps only out of complete selfishness: it sure would be nice to keep the peace, in Chicago and throughout Illinois.

Outside politics but implicating government: our tax dollars are in some way paying for whatever happens in this arena.

MAILBAG: A favorite emailer, RK, weighing in with his usual poetic prose in response to Thursday’s column about automated license plate readers:

“Now the program … is viewed with alarm and public protest of surprise. Yet history is replete with examples of collection of data that soon draws in the innocent. Cautionary words have been expressed by some of this nation’s wisest, like Ben Franklin, who said, ‘Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’

“And now in the age of all that is digital, the range is greater, the deployment is innocuous and the opportunity to monetize presents an apparent path to the wealth of King Croesus. Better than closing with an idiom of reproach, resolve to start every conversation of data collection with the question, ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.’ ”

WEEKEND READ: The Illinois Answers Project and Capitol News Illinois collaborated on an in-depth analysis of how the state budget impasse – which started a decade ago and lasted two years – devastated our social service agencies, which aspects are rebuilt and what the future might portend. Reporters Casey Toner, Hannah Meisel and Molly Parker, along with excellent photographs (especially from Julia Rendleman) and illustrations, present an essential look at a unique period of Illinois history that ought to be required reading for anyone, especially elected officials, interested in scoring political points on the backs of human suffering. See for yourself at tinyurl.com/ServicesTsunami.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.