Today, the world is STILL watching Chicago, AGAIN for the wrong reasons.
Forty years ago, the Democrats had their convention in Chicago. While delegates hid in their hotel rooms downtown, hooligans ran wild through the streets and parks of Chicago. Rioting engulfed large portions of the city. That's why the world was watching then.
The world is watching Chicago again, ironically because of the current Democrat National Convention. It is ironic for several reasons.
In 1968, Chicago's police had their hands full as lunatic nutjobs overturned cars, set fire to cars, pissed on cars, shat on cars... they liked cars back then. Chicago, it seemed, was about to self destruct. The world was watching Chicago, but for all the wrong reasons. Footnote to the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention: Hubert Humphrey was the nominee. He lost to Nixon.
In 2008, Denver's police have their hands full as lunatic nutjobs overturn cars, set fire to cars, piss on cars... you get the idea. There are worries about the safety, as in 1968, of the delegates and the nominees. Denver, it seems, could explode into real violence, but probably won't in any scale near what Chicago suffered in 1968. The irony: Chicagoan Barack Obama is this year's presidential nominee, a Black man who has built a career in large part on the false propagandist claim that a Black man cannot get ahead in this "racist" nation. His presence in Denver this week puts the lie to that.
Another irony is that even though the 2008 convention is in Denver, the world is watching Chicago - again - because of bad things happening here. Tony Rezko. Joseph Cari, Jr. William Ayers. Reverend Wright. Father Pfleger. Cardinal George, the patron saint of child molesting priests. UIC-Annenberg. Delmarie Cobb, the Chicago political consultant that Illinois Senate President Emil Jones called an Uncle Tom. The mess in the labyrinth of Cook County "government." Inefficient schools. A murder rate that's nearly 20% higher now than a year ago. The highest taxes in the nation. The most corrupt city government in the nation. The dumbest City Council in the nation. City laws that make Chicago more restrictive than any other city in the nation. And so on and on.
The world is watching. Again.
More irony: The goofballs who were rioting in 1968 Chicago thought they were going to change the world, presumably for the better. Some, notably their "leaders," went on to become the very things they despised and spat on. The result of the 1968 riots, here and across the U.S., was a shake up in the political and social climate. That's the grist for twenty books right there, so let's just summarize by noting a few of the things that the Failed Revolution of the 1960's brought us: Tony Rezko. Joseph Cari, Jr. William Ayers. Reverend Wright. Father Pfleger. Cardinal George, the patron saint of child molesting priests. UIC-Annenberg. Delmarie Cobb, the Chicago political consultant that Illinois Senate President Emil Jones called an Uncle Tom. The mess in the labyrinth of Cook County "government." Inefficient schools. A murder rate that's nearly 20% higher now than a year ago. The highest taxes in the nation. The most corrupt city government in the nation. The dumbest City Council in the nation. City laws that make Chicago more restrictive than any other city in the nation. And so on and on. After all those broken windows and broken bones, broken dreams and broken promises, that's what their "revolution" has given us: More of the same with a dose of cynicism and resignation.
Barack Obama was born in 1961, four years before the events in Selma that he falsely claims brought his parents together. He did not know the 1960's first hand; he was only nine in 1970. By the time Obama was 14, disco had replaced the protest music. Today Obama tells us that the United States is more racist than ever, more compassionless than ever, more despised by the world community than ever.
Obama was only 14 when the United States pulled out of Saigon, Vietnam in 1975. The world's opinion of us was pretty low then, after it realized that the sudden withdrawal allowed the slaughtering of more than a million South Vietnamese by there "brothers" from the communist North. We were seen as irresponsible, uncaring losers. Obama wanted to repeat that script in the theater of Iraq.
He may yet get the chance to produce that script. That, and so much more.
FOLLOW on SOCIAL MEDIA
The Whole World is Watching
Today, the world is STILL watching Chicago, AGAIN for the wrong reasons.
Forty years ago, the Democrats had their convention in Chicago. While delegates hid in their hotel rooms downtown, hooligans ran wild through the streets and parks of Chicago. Rioting engulfed large portions of the city. That's why the world was watching then.
The world is watching Chicago again, ironically because of the current Democrat National Convention. It is ironic for several reasons.
In 1968, Chicago's police had their hands full as lunatic nutjobs overturned cars, set fire to cars, pissed on cars, shat on cars... they liked cars back then. Chicago, it seemed, was about to self destruct. The world was watching Chicago, but for all the wrong reasons. Footnote to the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention: Hubert Humphrey was the nominee. He lost to Nixon.
In 2008, Denver's police have their hands full as lunatic nutjobs overturn cars, set fire to cars, piss on cars... you get the idea. There are worries about the safety, as in 1968, of the delegates and the nominees. Denver, it seems, could explode into real violence, but probably won't in any scale near what Chicago suffered in 1968. The irony: Chicagoan Barack Obama is this year's presidential nominee, a Black man who has built a career in large part on the false propagandist claim that a Black man cannot get ahead in this "racist" nation. His presence in Denver this week puts the lie to that.
Another irony is that even though the 2008 convention is in Denver, the world is watching Chicago - again - because of bad things happening here. Tony Rezko. Joseph Cari, Jr. William Ayers. Reverend Wright. Father Pfleger. Cardinal George, the patron saint of child molesting priests. UIC-Annenberg. Delmarie Cobb, the Chicago political consultant that Illinois Senate President Emil Jones called an Uncle Tom. The mess in the labyrinth of Cook County "government." Inefficient schools. A murder rate that's nearly 20% higher now than a year ago. The highest taxes in the nation. The most corrupt city government in the nation. The dumbest City Council in the nation. City laws that make Chicago more restrictive than any other city in the nation. And so on and on.
The world is watching. Again.
More irony: The goofballs who were rioting in 1968 Chicago thought they were going to change the world, presumably for the better. Some, notably their "leaders," went on to become the very things they despised and spat on. The result of the 1968 riots, here and across the U.S., was a shake up in the political and social climate. That's the grist for twenty books right there, so let's just summarize by noting a few of the things that the Failed Revolution of the 1960's brought us: Tony Rezko. Joseph Cari, Jr. William Ayers. Reverend Wright. Father Pfleger. Cardinal George, the patron saint of child molesting priests. UIC-Annenberg. Delmarie Cobb, the Chicago political consultant that Illinois Senate President Emil Jones called an Uncle Tom. The mess in the labyrinth of Cook County "government." Inefficient schools. A murder rate that's nearly 20% higher now than a year ago. The highest taxes in the nation. The most corrupt city government in the nation. The dumbest City Council in the nation. City laws that make Chicago more restrictive than any other city in the nation. And so on and on. After all those broken windows and broken bones, broken dreams and broken promises, that's what their "revolution" has given us: More of the same with a dose of cynicism and resignation.
Barack Obama was born in 1961, four years before the events in Selma that he falsely claims brought his parents together. He did not know the 1960's first hand; he was only nine in 1970. By the time Obama was 14, disco had replaced the protest music. Today Obama tells us that the United States is more racist than ever, more compassionless than ever, more despised by the world community than ever.
Obama was only 14 when the United States pulled out of Saigon, Vietnam in 1975. The world's opinion of us was pretty low then, after it realized that the sudden withdrawal allowed the slaughtering of more than a million South Vietnamese by there "brothers" from the communist North. We were seen as irresponsible, uncaring losers. Obama wanted to repeat that script in the theater of Iraq.
He may yet get the chance to produce that script. That, and so much more.
