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For years, Evanstonian Cindi Schuneman has entertained her friends with parodies of popular songs and humorous postings on Facebook, including today’s “2017 in Rhyme.”

A former president of the Woman’s Club of Evanston, Schuneman was a co-founder of the annual “Haven Help Us” show at Haven Middle School, choreographer of the McGaw YMCA’s annual “Brillianteen” show for 32 years, and a volunteer at the annual benefit for the Evanston Community Foundation.

When asked by Evanston Now for permission to reprint her yearend poem, she agreed, with the caveat that readers should be warned that it “is definitely skewed to the more liberal perspective.”

Now that you’ve been warned, here is Cindi Schuneman’s “2017 in Rhyme”:

Trump took office, coined “covfefe” and “bigly”

Sucked all the joy from the triumph at Wrigley

Santa Ana winds spread California fires

Flynn and Manafort turned out to be liars

Fidget spinners – the hottest new fad

Actor George Clooney – the hottest new dad!

Atty. General Sessions just couldn’t recall

If any Trump staffer talked to Russia at all

People in Flint were in need of clean water

The climate and Ryan Gosling got hotter and hotter

Gays in Australia can legally marry

An actress from NU is engaged to Prince Harry

Mexico’s not going to pay for the wall

Roy Moore lost, is still banned from the mall!

GOP voted cuts for the rich and their taxes

We stared at the sun wearing just cardboard glasses.

Kim Jung Un and our Prez traded insults and threats.

Who’ll start the war? The world’s taking bets!

Jared’s complicit, Eric needs hugging,

Flynn is now talking, Mueller keeps plugging!

Hurricanes leave Puerto Rico without power

Trump lobs Scot towels from his Ivory Tower

Inauguration crowds for 45 are inflated

Every Kardashian’s been impregnated!

Women marched, “me too” was chanted

Bitcoin – the currency no one understanded

Gorsuch took a seat, Kapernick took a knee

Hillary wrote “What Happened”, O.J. was set free

Confederate statues dismantled and toppled

Nazis march in Charlottesville debacle.

United passenger dragged off a plane

Trump’s late night tweeting drove us insane.

The opioid crisis, the fight against ISIS,

Gone is civility, class, even niceness!

Shootings took a heavy toll

Yet still no gains in gun control!

Men in power showed bad behavior

Women came forward and became the savior.

Franken steps down, net neutrality gone,

Dreamers in jeopardy, Sarah Huckabee a pawn!

2017 was bleak as this poem affirms,

Make next year better – vote in mid-terms!

Charles Bartling

A resident of Evanston since 1975, Chuck Bartling holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and has extensive experience as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers, radio...

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4 Comments

  1. Agenda
    She certainly has an agenda that is her own. Why does Evanston Now allow her to editorialize her opinion. Does this mean we will all be allowed to do so or only far left people?

    1. Give it a whirl! And happy holidays

      Have you written your own rhyme on what you consider the important events of the year?  Send it in to Evanston Now so the staff there can assess its publication worthiness and maybe we can all read it

      No matter what your viewpoint on the year’s events, I would read it because I enjoy learning other people’s perspectives. Crabbing from people on how someone else got a chance to do something when they did not even try to do it…not so much.

      Happy holidays to all, no matter what you celebrate.  

      America’s diversity…that’s what keeps us truly great.

      …see, give it a whirl!

  2. Yes, vote next year

    Nothing in Schuneman’s rap-like poem about screaming at the sky to protest President Trump’s election anniversary?

    Nothing about the Democratic National Committee sabotaging Bernie Sander’s campaign or that Hillary Clinton set up an unsecure private email server in her basement bathroom in which she sent classified information and got away with it? No? 

    Nothing about WHY Democrat’s Al Franken and John Conyer’s stepped down? It’s because of their sexual harassment against women. And consider that Schuneman is the former president of the Woman’s Club of Evanston. A little one-sided wouldn’t ya say?

    Nothing about how Illinois Democrats overrode our governor’s veto of a huge income tax hike this year? And nothing about the fact that not one Democrat in DC voted for a tax cut for ALL OF US!!

    Nothing in her poem about how the economy started booming right after President Trump’s election.

    Yes, vote in the mid terms and vote out all Democrats who want to raise your taxes again and care not about how the party sabotaged the 2016 primaries.

  3. Cindi is an Evanston Treasure
    Cindi has been a fixture of this community for decades, and is one of those outsized personalities who makes Evanston what it is. So fun to see her work re-published here. Generations of Bteen’ers and Haven kids owe you a debt of gratitude – thank you for everything you’ve given us over the years.

    @Al – relax. It’s satire. Have a glass of scotch, kick back in front of the fire with a good book, and try soak in the spirit of the season. Who knows – you may even feel a bit of joy, if only for a moment.

    Merry Christmas to all.

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