Chicago, no one else can take your place
by CarolineThe New York Times pays gracious tribute to Chicago in this article: A New Wind is Blowing in Chicago. (The photo with the article shows the sign for one of the city’s busiest train stops, Jackson on the CTA’s Blue Line.)
Oh, Chicago, no longer even the Second City but the third. My friend John described it best as a big city on a budget: Chicago is well-organized, inexpensive, accessible, and humble. The whole city was offended when Sarah “Irascible Moron” Palin cut down the work of community organizers, especially in the city’s flux, transitioning South Side neighborhoods. She really drove a stake between working-class Republicans and working-class Democrats, who often believe in the same values but live in different environs.
I think many people forget that charity is as often about advocating for poor people as it is helping them financially — it is by no means a “HANDOUT” to educate a single mother on her tenant’s rights, to offer her guidance on cheap, healthy meals for her family, to help her choose the right schools for her children. Is this the stuff of controversy, over which city-dwellers and small-town citizens disagree? I’m guessing it isn’t.
Last week I picked someone up at O’Hare, and while circling the airport several times waiting for his arrival, I noticed the parade of Obama banners attached to every lightpole. Oh, hometown pride. As usual, the particulars of Obama and his connection to Chicago are only symbolic of a much bigger feeling.
Title taken out of context from “Chicago,” written and recorded by Graham Nash but most famously performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on the live album Four Way Street:
no responsesSomehow people must be free
I hope the day comes soon
Won’t you please come to Chicago
To show your face
From the bottom of the ocean
To the mountains of the moon
Won’t you please come to Chicago
No one else can take your place