http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0215-mccarron-20100213,0,1142827.storyaudio here:
http://blogs.vocalo.org/ccahan/2010/02/mayor-daley-on-war-protests-what-happened-to-america/14738Was that really Mayor Richard M. Daley last week urging people to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
It sure looked like the mayor, up on the speakers' rostrum of the Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards ceremony at the Hyatt Regency. And it sure sounded like him, all wound up and passionate about the federal government needing to spend less on war and more on education.
But Mayor Daley? Making an anti-war pitch? Is this not the son of Mayor Richard J. Daley, whose police infamously clubbed the stuffing out of war protesters back in the day? And did not the current Mayor Daley's own police department rough up some Iraq war protesters a few years ago when they tried to march down Michigan Avenue?
Yet there he was last week, venting about war eternal and getting cheered by a ballroom full of community development types. And a lot of us, especially the graybeards who know the history, still can't believe our ears.
My trusty digital voice recorder, however, does not lie:
"We always believe America is No. 1," the mayor declared, citing our nation's battlefield prowess in wars past. But lately, he went on, we've been quick to dispatch armies abroad instead of taking care of business at home.
"Just think of all the money that we spend on wars to save the world. Today we can't save America. Why do we always have to go to war, continually, why can't we rebuild America? Why is it we have to take $300 or $400 billion dollars . . . and then tell people we're only going to be there for a year and we're coming home . . . and then we'll declare victory."
"What is it about America?" he challenged the crowd. "How did we start this century with 10 years of war? Ten years of war!"
Then the mayor aimed a dart at those who protested when George W. Bush was commander in chief but now sit on their hands rather than criticize President Barack Obama.
"Where are the anti-war people?" Daley wanted to know. "I look down at the Dirksen Center (the federal plaza in the South Loop favored by protesters). Where are they? They've disappeared! What happened? I thought war was evil? Where are the people who believed in their heart against George Bush. What happened?