Something occurred to me this past weekend that almost has me saying with great sincerity that I want the Chicago Teachers Union strike of the public schools to continue for some time.
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| Now that the teachers' strike in Chicago is nearing its finale, will the activities recorded on the U.S. Cellular Field scoreboard garner the interests of Chicagoans? Or are we going to get sucked into following mind-numbing, trivial coverage of the presidential campaign cycle? Photograph by Gregory Tejeda |
All those column inches of newspaper space and airtime on television and radio that produced the content that was the basis of all the babbling on the Internet that was devoted to covering the labor dispute was less time spent on what can be the nothingness of the presidential campaign cycle.
JUST THINK ABOUT it. Yes, I know that if one was determined enough to find it, they could find reporting, writing and commentary about the Obama/Romney brawl that will be taking place.
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| Do we really need to hear more ... |
Yet let’s be honest. It got shoved to the background, just like Isaac (the storm that was a hurricane for awhile) knocked a day off the Republican National Convention and forced the final event of the Democratic convention indoors was able to steal some airtime and space away from blatant politicking.
Perhaps this is a sign from the heavens above that we should go out of our way to avoid paying too much attention to the blather that will be spewed in coming weeks by both President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
None of it is going to mean much in reality. It will all be spin. A factoid touched up with a partisan angle and a smidgen of cheap trivia to make it sound so interesting and significant – when in all likelihood it will be a whole lot of nothin’.
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| ... from either of these men? |
We’ve been able to ignore the poop, in all its slimy, green texture, by focusing attention on the labor dispute. Although I couldn’t help but notice those weaselly political types have tried to intervene on this issue.
We’ve had speculation about whether this labor dispute, because Mayor Rahm Emanuel is so tied to Obama, will hurt the presidential campaign. We’ve had more trash talk from Republican officials (such as Paul Ryan) who probably have never given a public school in Chicago one bit of thought until now – when they could see it as a chance to spew some cheap trash political babble.
Now, it seems that since we will get the kids back into the classroom in the near future (whether through a reconsideration of the teachers union’s House of Delegates or a court injunction that Emanuel sys he will seek in coming days), I’m going to have to find something else to try to divert my news attention span away from election coverage – which can get so frivolous.
THE TYPICAL LOAD of copy posing as campaign “news” is so high-calorie and loaded with trivia that it makes one’s mind numb – you read it or hear it and you feel bloated and sleepy and stupefied.
You most likely didn’t learn anything of substance. That’s a touch of spin dripping from your lips after you have “consumed” it.
Yet unless some other story of significance crops up in coming weeks, the odds are overwhelming that we’re going to get swarmed with all the campaign trivia we never wanted to hear. And I’m sure in some way, I will be partially to blame through my own commentary at this site – despite my best attempts to do otherwise.
So on that point, perhaps I should apologize in advance for any shortcomings that will come up in my work in coming weeks. I am trying my best with the time I have to provide fact and analysis that actually helps people comprehend what is really happening.
PERHAPS I’D BE better off if I focused my attention in coming weeks on the Chicago White Sox and whether or not they’ll be able to hold onto first place and actually have a chance to win something this season.
Monday’s make-up game against the Detroit Tigers will be a significant moment to watch – even though I’m sure Chicago Cubs fans will try to downplay it.
Which is too bad. The alleged beauty of all that ivy is nothing compared to a pennant race. I feel sorry for them in that they don’t know what they’re missing.
What a shame! Particularly if Republican partisans try to turn THIS into a political issue, what with Obama being a White Sox fan.
WILL REPUBLICAN IDEOLOGUES root, root, root for the Tigers, with delusions of Michigan’s votes in the Electoral College being swayed as a result? That’s the real problem with so much partisanship.
All that campaign coverage of the past few months has numbed people’s minds to the point where they’re missing out on everything else in life!
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