Letters

Friend Natasha, an observant reader of the local blogs, makes the following observation: Well, I read a bit of "Wee Wee" Westgard's website today and I stand reproved. He's not as funny as you are (who is) but I see now how wrong I was about him. There was one particularly illuminating post that turned me around. An Anonymous poster wrote, "you have never --- never --- made the first positive contribution to your community. . ." Westgard replied, "Oh, I don't know about doing nothing for the community. I would say that helping to bring a $2,000,000 per year Federally-Qualified Health Clinic to the neighborhood might be a pretty cool thing to have done. And then, bringing a $250,000 per year Boys and Girls Club to the neighborhood is something to be proud of - even trying to do that would be pretty great." Westgard helped bring the clinic to Rogers Park? I thought it was Heartland and federal earmarks compliments of [Congressman] Jan [Schakowsky]. And the Boy's and Girl's club? That was WeeWee too? Wow. What a guy. I didn't know he had enough pull with Sen. Steans to get $50K from the state much less $2 million from a Congresswoman. Looking back, if we had just listened to him, we would have saved tax payer dollars AND had park services at Gale on Sunday. Just like church in a way. What can we say about a guy who even counts "trying" as something great? Tom, a generous, magnanimous spirit like this can't be bought. I'm sure he donates his blog-for-hire retainer to charity because, well, he's clearly not motivated by the money; it really is all about the children. Your friend, Natasha Note: It is true that Wee Wee, with Jim Ginderske, was involved in the "effort" to get the federal grant money for the health clinic. In fact, I sat in on one of their meetings in a basement meeting room on W. Lunt Ave before Ginderske was defeated in the February 2007 election. However, let's keep in mind what this really is. Somebody wrote a grant request. The grant request was passed on to Congressman Schakowsky, who bumped it up in Washington D.C. In other words, Wee Wee and Ginderske asked somebody to write a grant request, which a fancy way of holding a cup out and begging for change. Schakowsky took the cup and shook it. She got some change - money out of my pocket and your pocket - and gave it to a handful of physicians to open a clinic. The fraudulent organization called Neighbors for a Healthy Rogers Park (NHRP) had its hand in the effort. NHRP is Ginderske's club, but keep in mind that NHRP was involuntarily dissolved by the Illinois Secretary of State on May 9, 2008 for failure to disclose required information. Wee Wee was on the board and is the one who ultimately failed to lick a stamp and send the annual report to the State of Illinois, thus resulting in NHRP's disqualification as a legitimate non-profit organization in this state. Subsequently, Wee Wee has been booted from the NHRP board. If and when NHRP registers again with the State of Illinois, it will be without Wee Wee. (See: "Did NHRP Break the Law?", "NHRP: Ginderske's Sham Organization" and NHRP: Odd Man Out) There was never, ever any financial risk to Wee Wee, Ginderske or anybody else involved in taking money from the public. Wee Wee did not hammer any nails, he did not draw any plans, nor did Ginderske. Admittedly, the grant request was written well enough to do the job, but even a barely adequate one would have done the job with Schakowsky backing it. So, Wee Wee is essentially bragging about being an efficient accomplice to a successful group effort at stealing public money for a clinic run by pals. Same with the Boys and Girls Club: No risk, no real work, just a lot of begging, pleading and manipulation of other people's money and resources to further their own political and egotistical goals. But then, that's how socialists and communists operate.