7/14/22
I also want to keep my readers posted on letters I have sent
to the Sun-Times. These are short and
to the point; I wish my “blog exclusive” scribblings could be so concise…and
doubtless so do you.
On some Chicago political history…
6/6/22
I can’t believe that the Sun-Times, in citing the notable
politicians who have held Illinois’ 1st Congressional District seat (“Big
Shoes to Fill,” 6/6/22), failed to mention two whose impact on Chicago politics
was immeasurable and remains to this day:
- Big Bill Dawson, the undisputed political boss of Black
Chicago in the middle of the last century and the man most responsible for
putting Richard J. Daley in the Mayor’s office, and
- Ralph Metcalfe, Mr. Dawson’s successor, Harold Washington’s
mentor, co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the first major
Black officeholder in Chicago to break with the Daley Machine during the
racial turbulence of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Oscar DePriest, Harold Washington, and Bobby Rush were indeed
notable holders of the seat, but one cannot discuss the 1st Congressional
District without mentioning Messrs. Dawson and Metcalfe.
On the naivete, or the primacy of posterior-covering, that
prevails among many, or at least one, of our public servants… (This
one was published on 6/19/22)
6/16/22
State Senate GOP Leader Dan McConchie, referring to the
widespread giveaways that somehow happen to be taking place during this
election year, states (“Freebie Frenzy,” 6/16/22) that “Nobody will fall for
this gamesmanship.”
Nobody will fall for this gamesmanship? I wish I lived in the fantasy world Mr.
McConchie apparently inhabits. In the world
with the blue sky that we live in, broad swaths of the electorate routinely
fall for the lies, stories, chicanery, and general carnival barking that constitutes
modern politics. Why else would
politicians spend so much money on the big scale sleight-of-hand we call running
for office?
On Mayor Lightfoot’s seeming attitude toward Alderman Ed Burke,
to wit “(She) can’t live with him, (she) can’t live without him.”…
6/23/22
In this midst of the City Council histrionics over attempts
to raise the threshold for speeding camera tickets, Mayor Lightfoot rolled out
her all-purpose bogeyman, Alderman Ed Burke, even though the increasingly
irrelevant Mr. Burke said little or nothing during the febrile “debate” on this
issue. (“Road Rage,” 6/23/22)
One wonders what a somehow re-elected Mayor Lightfoot would
do if Mr. Burke were to fail in his attempts at re-election in the 14th
Ward. Who would she cite as the diabolical,
yet silent, force behind every attempt by the City Council to act as a legislative
body rather than a lapdog of whomever sits on the Fifth Floor? Perhaps one of your intrepid reporters
should root around in the financial records of the Burke campaign to see if the
Mayor is secretly one of the Alderman’s supporters.
On neither of the Illinois gubernatorial candidates’ reflecting
voters’ views on abortion, but at least one of them lacking shame…
6/27/22
Darren Bailey argues (“GOP Gov Hopefuls: Reversal of Roe Signals ‘Battle for Life…Moves
Right Here to Illinois,’ 6/26/22) “Unfortunately, billionaire J.B. Pritzker is
an abortion extremist out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Illinoisans.”
The irony here is comical; Mr. Bailey could have been writing
about himself. On this issue, neither the
rabidly pro-choice Mr. Pritzker nor the doggedly pro-life Mr. Bailey is in
touch with the “overwhelming majority of Illinoisans.” The consensus on abortion, both in Illinois
and in the country as a whole, long has been, and continues to be, that abortion
should be legal but restricted. That is
highly unlikely to change, even, perhaps especially, in the post-Roe world
despite the febrile efforts of the camps of Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Bailey.
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