Is this the NATO Summit legacy?

Terrorists? Or three guys who should never have moved to Bridgeport? Photographs provided by Chicago Police Department.

The NATO Summit held last month at McCormick Place convention center fizzled out to a whole lot of nothin’ when it came to civil disobedience – just the usual few people acting up in a large crowd and not the large-scale rioting that some feared.

Nonetheless, we have a “NATO Three” – as in a set of defendants whom prosecutors are going to hold up as the ultimate example of bad behavior resulting from the type of people who feel the need to complain about conditions around them.

RATHER THAN JUST accepting the status quo!

It seems like some people are so determined to have a story line from this year that parallels the insanity that cropped up back in 1968 and the following year with the trial of the ‘Chicago Seven” (or Eight, or Ten, or however you choose to count the people involved in the criminal conspiracy that wasn’t all those years ago).

That’s why we’re getting this “NATO Three” rhetoric, which seems determined to portray the element that was going to use the protest activity (which on the whole really was so mellow and low-key) as a cover for their own subversive plot to overthrow Chicago, and possibly the world!!!!!!

Insert the sinister-sounding cackling from a criminal mastermind at this point.

ALTHOUGH WHEN I read about this particular plot, it comes across as sounding like something that “Dr. Evil” from the Austin Powers films concocted up – just like his “Preparation H” and his demand for “One Millllion dollars” in those silly parodies of the James Bond series of films.

This plot has three men facing criminal indictment for putting together the mechanism to create Molotov cocktails – those crude explosives – that would have been used to attack police squad cars and district police stations, along with the campaign office of President Barack Obama and perhaps even the Ravenswood Manor home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Of course, there are still those who insist that all the equipment that was confiscated when their Bridgeport neighborhood home/headquarters was raided was merely nothing more than beer-making equipment.

This raid created a stink when it took place in the days leading up to the NATO Summit, and it still smells.

LARGELY BECAUSE OF the fact that prosecutors are going out of their way to treat these defendants as though they were would-be terrorists being held at Guantanamo – no real charges, no trial, not much of a legal process, and unlike traditional prisoners of war, no sense that they’re going to be released when the war’s over.

I’m sure if they could get away with it, there are those who would want these three to be held indefinitely.

It seems they have been indicted, but this is the case where prosecutors refused to tell the defendants what charges they will face. They are not to be told until their next court hearing on July 2 – which is the date scheduled for arraignment.

Which literally means these three will be told in one instant what the charges against them are, and will be expected in the next instant to enter their plea of “not guilty” before being assigned to a trial judge.

IN FACT, THE Associated Press gets some bonus points (rare for a former Unipresser like myself to concede) for coming up this week with a copy of the indictment. This is very rare behavior, although I’m sure some people will think it adds to the sinister-ness of the overall case.

Perhaps learning that all three men face 11 charges each, ranging from the conspiracy to commit terrorism and material support for terrorism – along with more mundane charges such as attempted arson, solicitation to commit arson, conspiracy to commit arson and unlawful use of a weapon.

But the degree to which the legal process is working in bizarre ways (I have covered the courts in the Chicago area for more than two decades, and have never seen anything happen like this case) can’t help but create suspicions in my mind. Almost as though the crackpots who are complaining about a frame-up and conspiracy by law enforcement types might actually be correct this one time!

Sunshine, as in plenty of public disclosure, would go a long way toward convincing the masses that those people are off their rocker, and that there is some legitimacy to what is happening in the courts these days.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): What makes place historic? Helps if old

It seems Chicago has a new site on the National Register of Historic Places – although my guess is that it won’t be one that comes to most peoples’ minds.

The National Park Service has created the Cermak Road Bridge Historic District fto help influence future development of the blocks around the bridge that crosses over the South branch of the Chicago River.

I DON’T KNOW of anybody who lives in that district, or of any businesses in that area that I patronize on a regular basis. In fact, when I think of the area, all I envision are some warehouses.

Yet that is what federal and state officials (the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency helps administer the historic sites program) are hoping to pay tribute to. Because it seems that all of the buildings within the district date back to the first few years of the 20^th Century, and the bridge also was constructed back in the same time period.

In short, it is a place that has changed very little despite the passage of time. It still looks much the same. So it gets the historic designation – even though any events that actually occurred in that area during the past century likely wouldn’t trigger any memories in the minds of the average person.

The desire to preserve the “feel” of Chicago from those old days is what will be behind the historic designation. I’m just wondering how long will it be before some developer tries to come up with ideas for “revitalizing” the area that he complains are being interfered with by these “history zealots” the way that some people rant and rage about environmentalists somehow interfering with business?

YES, I HAVE to admit to getting a kick out of this newest historic site designation. Because I realize that our society has to keep some sense of where we’ve been, if we’re to fully appreciate what direction we ought to be heading in.

It would be easy for one new development to crop up to something of significance and ruin the effect. To me, the best example of that is the National Park that was created out of the blocks immediately surrounding the Abraham Lincoln home in Springfield, Ill.

Federal officials try to make the neighborhood look like it did when the Lincoln family actually lived there in the 1850s. But because officials didn’t get control of all the property in the area until the 1940s, some of the neighborhood houses have advanced beyond the desired time period. It can have a jarring effect.

What else is notable these days about life along the shores of the southwestern portions of Lake Michigan?

NOW WE KNOW WHAT HE WON’T DO:  I got my chuckles from listening to soon-to-be former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who told us he won’t run for political office and won’t become a criminal defense attorney.

He claims not to know what he’s going to do with his life once his “summer break” is complete. It seems he did make a recommendation to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., as to who he thinks should succeed him. But it seems that Durbin is honoring Fitzgerald’s desire not to publicly name that person at this point.

So we really don’t know at this point what’s going to become of the man, except for one thing.

He’s not planning to go back to his native New York City; he’s come to love living in Chicago. He says he’s staying. Which means on some level, he has some sense!

YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN:  Author Thomas Wolfe could have written the headline for the reports this week about the disappointment felt by Barack Obama for the couple of days he was in town during the NATO Summit held at McCormick Place.

The president publicly said that he couldn’t be at Wrigley Field to watch his fan favorite White Sox beat up on the Cubs because he’s not allowed to have much fun built into his working schedule.

But on a more serious note, he wasn’t even allowed to stop by the family residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood for a quickie visit. Which was something he had hoped to do.

Security was so tight that the roads leading up to his home were shut down for the duration. Even the president got inconvenienced by the NATO-related security.

SOMETHING FOR SOX FANS TO LOOK FORWARD TO?:  Could the big story of Chicago baseball in 2012 turn out to be a battle for who gets to be Comeback Player of the Year?

The annual award to the player who showed the most improvement compared to the prior year is something that could wind up being won by a White Sox – although whether it would be the “Big Donkey” or the man some fans try to call “Joliet Jake” is arguable.

The “Donkey,” of course, is Adam Dunn, who has wisecracked about how he expects to win the award this year because of how awful his 2011 season was.  Going into Friday, Dunn had hit 14 home runs and had a .568 slugging percentage – although the one category he was leading the American League in was strikeouts (68 in 155 at-bats).

But then there is Jake Peavy – the one-time National League Cy Young Award winner who has been truly mediocre pitching in Chicago. Thus far this year, he has a 5-1 won/loss record with a 2.39 earned run average and has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 5-1 – which is overpowering.

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Cops celebrated for doing their job

I couldn’t help but laugh a bit when I learned that the Chicago White Sox has a perk for Chicago Police Department officers – two free tickets for each cop to a Sox game later this season!

It’s because I have an uncle, Mike, who for more than two decades (until he retired in the early 1990s) was a police officer in the city.

AND I CAN recall him on a few occasions saying what he thought of people who went to ballgames. His experiences having to provide security for such events had him turned off to the experience.

He thought people who went to ballgames were wasting their time, and putting themselves in an undesirable situation with having to cope with crowds filled with knuckleheads.

Somehow, I suspect if somebody tried offering him a pair of Sox tickets as a reward, he’d think it was a pretty cheap gesture. I doubt he’d use the tickets.

And somehow, while I realize that some police officers are bound to be sports fans, I also doubt my uncle is alone in feeling the way he does.

IT HAS ME wondering how many Chicago cops are going to view the prospect of a pair of tickets as merely something they can try to exchange for a more worthwhile favor from someone else. I'm not implying that cops will scalp the tickets -- that would be illegal!

Because some people would view the chance at free tickets (or anything free) to be a big deal.

McCARTHY: A general, of sorts



But it seems that the White Sox are in fitting with the mood that we all now want to feel – our police department did not act like complete goons during the recently-completed weekend. So now, we have to praise them.

Personally, I think they’re never supposed to act like goons. They’re always supposed to be respectful of the rights of the citizenry, and restrained in their use of physical force.

SO WE’RE TALKING about praising police for doing their jobs. Then again, I also realize that it only would have taken one police officer to lose control of himself for a single moment at some point during the weekend for Chicago to have an “international” incident on its hands.

We’d have the punditry convinced that 1968 was somehow an essential aspect of the character of Chicago – and not just a freak moment reflecting the times that probably would have happened no matter where the convention was held.

But back to 2012 – where we seem to want to engage in a love-fest for the police department because they didn’t screw up.

I stumbled across one report that literally portrayed Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy as a general leading his troops from the front-lines – all because on Sunday when an outburst broke out at Michigan and Cermak avenues, McCarthy was at the scene personally giving orders to the officers who had to push back the few protesters who persisted in trying to get through to the McCormick Place convention center itself.

FOR AN EVENT of the scale of the NATO Summit, I would hope that McCarthy would be on the job and working hard – just like all the other police officers who had their scheduled time-off cancelled and were told they don’t have the option of taking “comp time” to reimburse themselves for their extra work.

I don’t mean to write this commentary as some sort of attack on the police. For I’ll be the first to admit that every cop I encountered this weekend behaved the way they should.

Personally, I’ll always remember the best impression of a Buckingham Palace guard that each Chicago cop I saw managed to do when one protester on Sunday marched in the parade with a fishing rod that had a donut on the hook as bait – and he proceeded to dangle the donut in the face of every cop he came into contact with.

None bit, literally or figuratively. Ignoring the stupid gag was the professional thing to do. Even though the people who like to think they’re about “law and order” probably think the officer s would have been justified in responding in some way.

BUT THAT KIND of act was unnecessary. With the fact that there was such an overbearing police presence in the city during the summit, it helped quell any potential for people who might be feeling a bit randy and thinking they could get away with some act of stupidity that they normally wouldn’t think of doing.

So if both the White Sox and Chicago Cubs felt compelled to have special ceremonies on Wednesday praising the police (the Sox prior to their game against the Minnesota Twins and the Cubs at the district police station located just a couple of blocks east of Wrigley Field), I’d only hope the schmaltz factor doesn’t go overboard.

Because what we have is police doing their job (a very tough job, I’ll concede). Going overboard would trivialize that duty.

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Low-key, almost mellow, were NATO Summit protesters, despite the end

If “the whole world (was) watching” Chicago on Sunday for evidence that our “brother’s bound and gagged, and they’ve chained him to a chair,” I can’t help but think they feeling rather disappointed right about now.

Sunday not likely to produce sequel



I’m sure some conservative ideologues will try to turn the end of the major protest march held Sunday against the NATO Summit into a “major catastrophe!,” what with the sight of some protesters being pushed by Chicago police when they tried to get a bit closer to the McCormick Place convention center than Cermak Road.

CONSIDERING THAT SOME of the protesters who at their peak created a mile-long line along State Street had already broken away to go home, and others stood by peacefully and complied with the police demand to move to the west (instead of further south), it’s hard to say that what occurred on Sunday was in any way unique or harsh or severe.

In fact, I think this is going to be an event that will be such a letdown for those individuals who wanted to believe that “history” would be made similar to the ’68 Democratic convention protests.

The ones that gave us the chant about the world watching us, and whose conspiracy trial a year later inspired Crosby, Stills & Nash to turn it into song.

Nobody is going to be writing songs about what happened Sunday!

PERSONALLY, I THINK too many Chicagoans viewed the day as some sort of trivial moment. Either that, or they viewed it as an inconvenience to their lives.

Such as the woman who lives in a downtown condominium who was only on hand to watch the protest to keep the activists as far away from her property as was humanly possible. Not that they really got anywhere near it.

But she was convinced the hoards of vulgarians were about to dump all over her property.

Then, there was another woman who was appalled by the fact that so many police were on hand to follow the protesters and prevent any scuffles from breaking out.

“THERE ARE STREET fights every day. This is Chicago,” she said. “There should be one cop for every 50 feet,” instead of the police lined up at arm’s length from each other – creating a gauntlet, of sorts, that protesters had to walk through.

Then, there was the humorous moment I noticed along State Street near the Harold Washington Library, when a young man had his (admittedly) very sexy girlfriend stand on the sidewalk so he could take her picture.

This guy now has a photograph of his smiling (and scantily-clad) girlfriend, with thousands of protesters marching right behind her!

I suspect he definitely will be paying more attention to her body when he looks at that photograph in their future, and probably will think it an afterthought that “those people” behind her might have had some serious point they were trying to make.

JUST LIKE I suspect many Chicagoans will have their own thoughts of what was more important to them at the time. I really don’t sense that the activity taking place inside the McCormick Place has put a dent on the city’s mindset these days.

Outside of the people who gathered at Grant Park for a noon-hour rally and the march to the Near South Side, I suspect the millions of Chicago-area people were going out of their way to ignore the activity downtown.

That activity really was mellow. The gathering, except for the fact that more people were wearing “Che Guevara” t-shirts than at any other public event, was probably less-hostile and spirited than the group that convened at Wrigley Field on Sunday.

Particularly since that group has a smattering of Chicago Cubs fans who left all irritable on account of the fact that not only did they lose all three games of the weekend series to the White Sox, the Sout’ Side ballclub was able to regain their status as a .500 ballclub against their beloved Cubbies!

ALL OF THIS has me thinking we had some very serious overkill in recent days when it came to security measures. Although I’m sure there are those who will argue that the reason things were so peaceful was BECAUSE of all those cops hanging around.

PETERSEN: Number 45?



Then, there was the gag of the protest march that I wonder if anybody got. Who in Chicago comprehended the signs in the march that read, “Boise State Rules All,” and “Coach Pete for President.”

Although when one looks at the field of candidates these days (and yes, a couple of Ron Paul supporters were at Sunday’s protest march to try to tout his non-existent chances of winning), the idea of Broncos head football coach Chris Petersen as our nation’s chief executive is almost feasible.

Particularly if he could duplicate his annual “Beat Pete” scholarship run/walk around campus to a nationwide event.

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We like NATO summit (or maybe it bothers us less than some want to think)

I’m not sure what to believe about this coming weekend and the potential for mayhem caused by all the activists holding protests in Chicago so they can feed off the international attention on the city caused by the presence of NATO at the McCormick Place come Sunday.

All of the rhetoric being spewed is reminiscent (to me, at least) of all those people back in 1999 who were convinced that the change of centuries to 2000 (going from ’99 to ’00) would cause major computer crashes and lead the world into chaos.

ARE WE FINALLY going to get chaos this weekend? Or is it going to be a whole lot of nothing?

And for the record, I do expect some protesters will get out of hand and be arrested. There probably will be a police officer or two who will over-react in use of force.

That, in and of itself, does not constitute chaos. It strikes me as a typical day in the life of Chicago.

That is where I stand on this matter. And after reading the results of a pair of polls published on Thursday, I’m starting to think that a majority of Chicagoans feel the same way. Which is a good thing!

I SENSE THAT if the real majority manages to keep a cool head, we will make it through this weekend without anything as image-creating as the protests that took place in Chicago for the ’68 Democratic Convention.

Those events, which everyone always uses to say we’re inherently an uncontrollable city, were probably more a matter of the times – along with the willingness of then-Mayor Richard J. Daley to give in to the negative sentiments and fear the worst.



Replacing State and Madison as the center of Chicago, at least for this weekend



Are we more enlightened these days? I hope so.

The polls in question were used by the Chicago Tribune and WFLD-TV (the Fox affiliate), which say respectively that 59 percent and 65 percent “approve” of the concept of the NATO Summit being held in our home city.

THE FOX POLL (done by We Ask America) went so far as to say 55 percent of people surveyed do not view the summit and its added security measures as an inconvenience, 60 percent think it will boost the economy and 56 percent think it is “worth it.”

The Tribune poll (also used by WGN-TV) gave us the statistic that 61 percent of people they surveyed think that protesters “should be protesting” the existence of NATO.

In all, Chicago isn’t panicking over the thought of all these people coming to our city. Which is good, because one of the benefits of a large urban area is that we’re supposed to be capable of handling large masses of people.

Maybe we’re capable of handling this responsibly. Maybe we won’t panic and turn this into an international fiasco.

IF ANYTHING IS catching my attention about this week’s protests, it might well be the mish-mash of protest activity. As I wrote earlier, everybody seems anxious to feed off the attention being paid to Chicago this week.

All the groups that have decided to publicly take up their cause have such diverse issues to talk about. I can’t help but wonder if they are going to blend into a mass of marching picketers.

Immigration. The environment. Economic issues. Women in Afghanistan. Those nurses who wanted to stage a little concert to go along with their picket in Daley Plaza.

Although I think my “favorite” events of this week are those “99 percent bus tours” meant to show people the REAL Chicago. Checking out Spanish-speaking enclaves in the Little Village and Back of the Yards neighborhoods.

GOING TO ENGLEWOOD on Friday, to see the part of the city that has one of the highest crime rates in Chicago, along with Brighton Park (which probably would be a good thing to see for people whose idea of Chicago doesn’t extend further south than Roosevelt Road and further west than Western Avenue).

But all of this is going to be forgotten come Monday, when all those foreign dignitaries will be making the mad dash for O’Hare International Airport (and city officials are advising people to stay off the Kennedy Expressway that afternoon to avoid the mid-day political rush that officials hope will be complete in time for the evening rush hour).

And with any luck, Chicago will have the feel of Grant Park on the day AFTER the Taste of Chicago – empty and barren, except for those people picking up the stray trash left by the spectators and no lasting scars.

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NATO summit being turned into massive inconvenience for Chicagoans

I can already anticipate the screwy news story that will occur some time this coming weekend – some airplane pilot is going to inadvertently fly his aircraft within 10 nautical miles of the McCormick Place convention center.

That is going to be a “no-no.” Whoever that pilot is will turn out to have committed a serious federal offense.

I’M SURE THE conservative ideologues will try to twist the incident into some major overstep by federal government – all because the NATO summit is being held there and Federal Aviation Administration regulations are being imposed for security measures.

They will be anxious for anything that can be twisted into the Obama administration abusing its authority for political purposes – which is nonsense, of course!

But the fact is that there are going to be a lot of high-level security measures imposed during the next few days – reaching a peak come Saturday through Monday when the world leaders will be in our fair city (or at least in hotel and conference rooms within our city) to try to negotiate deals that theoretically could provide that “world peace” that so many beauty pageant winners say they desperately want to work toward.

Somehow, I sense the end result of these measures is going to be a p’o-ed population that is going to view the presence of NATO in Chicago as nothing more than an inconvenience in their daily lives.

PERHAPS THAT WAS the intent of the people organizing the event. Have everybody focus attention on the protesters, and make them believe that all the inconveniences are because of “those people.”

Which would be nonsense. Then again, nonsense usually has a sense of prevailing.

Will they get the blame?



And considering that many people are going to view the NATO summit as the reason they couldn’t have their morning cup of coffee while riding the commuter train to work, it might well work.

Some people are self-centered enough to view events purely by the minute manner in which it impacts them.

THAT IS THE thought that popped into my mind the other day when I read about the security restrictions that will be imposed on Metra commuter train riders who try to get themselves to work.

Only one commuter line will be directly impacted – the Metra Electric line that runs from Randolph Street station to University Park, with spurs that go to Blue Island and to 91^st Street in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Basically, they’re closing down the bulk of the city-based stations, which will put South Side residents in a bind when trying to figure out how to get to work. They will have the serious imposition.

But the suburban people will be imposed as well, as officials are restricting the size of bags that people can carry on board the train, forbidding them from bringing their bicycles on board.

AND NO MORE of those aforementioned coffee cups – or any other food or drink.

As someone who used to use the Metra Electric commuter line on a regular basis (and still rides it on occasion because I detest having to pay for parking in the Loop), my mind’s ear can hear the rants and rages.

I’m wondering just how intense the whining and moaning will be when people also learn of the other security provision – people are being warned that they may be searched before being allowed to board a commuter train.

The only aspect some care about

Considering that I have seen many people throughout the years who honestly believe that they can arrive at the train station in the final seconds before a commuter train pulls in, how will they react to learning that they’re supposed to show up earlier than usual so they can be patted down?

WHAT ABOUT THE museums? I don’t know how much of an inconvenience it is for the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium (all located near the South Loop along the lakefront) to be closed.

Although I’m sure there will be someone who planned a trip to Chicago for this weekend for the explicit purpose of visiting those facilities who will manage to be grossly offended that their “vacation” was interfered with by something as “trivial” as NATO.

Because somehow the trivia of our daily lives will manage to become all-important to some people come week’s end.

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Some things just never change

Why do I suspect these '68 Democratic delegates were as oblivious to their protesters as NATO officials will be later this month to theirs.

In the course of my duties for a suburban daily newspaper, I happened on Friday to attend a Catholic mass performed by Chicago Police Chaplain Daniel J. Brandt and that bounced around my brain all weekend

While most of the service was a tribute to public safety workers (ie., cops and firefighters), Brandt also gave a mention to the upcoming activities that will take place when officials with NATO meet in Chicago during May.

FOR BRANDT ASKED those people in attendance to say extra prayers for those public safety people who wind up getting assigned to security details connected with NATO (meeting at McCormick Place) or any of the sites where demonstrations against NATO are expected to take place.

Now coming from Brandt, I realize he’s not an “objective” perspective. He has his view influenced by his job, and he has his right to his opinion. Yet I, and everybody else, have a right to our opinion too.

So here’s mine.

I couldn’t help but be a bit appalled at Brandt’s characterization of the people who will come to Chicago to protest (they will be here from around Planet Earth) as those who are here to cause, “trouble, havoc and mischief.”

AS THOUGH THE individuals who have their objections to the U.S. military might being used for what at times seems questionable purposes have no legitimacy to such a view.

As though on a certain level we ought to be hoping for a repeat of 1968 and the treatment given by Chicago police to the demonstrators who were in the city for the Democratic National Convention – the treatment later labeled by an official investigation as a “police riot.”

If we have officials maintaining this kind of a rigid, stubborn approach to viewing the issue, that is going to be what causes tensions that escalate into violence and vandalism.

We have history of siding w/ police in protests

 It certainly won’t be that “wannabe hippie freaks” came to Chicago just to cause trouble.

I DON'T GET as worked up about the sentiments that will be expressed by the activists who are determined to make their views known while NATO officials are in Chicago.

I am sympathetic to their viewpoint, but I’m not convinced that the “in your face” tactics being considered by some will do anything to sway anyone who attends NATO conferences being held here. As for those who are hostile to their viewpoint, they’re just looking for excuses to complain.

In fact, I won’t be surprised if those people are so isolated from the city’s daily life that they will be completely unaware of any protests being done against them. Just like the Democratic convention from 44 years ago – where many of the delegates didn’t learn of the violence in the streets until after they left town at the end of the event.

Yet that doesn’t take away from the legitimacy of their views, which ought to be heard. It is the failure to listen that will cause problems.

IT STRIKES ME as being ironic that I’m having these thoughts now, as we go into Tuesday – which for some people is May Day (a holiday that in part memorializes the deaths of labor activists in Chicago on May 4, 1886, although the city’s initial reaction was to build a memorial to the police officers who killed them).

Of course, there are those who prefer to think that Tuesday is Loyalty Day – the holiday made up in the 1950s to undermine anyone who might want to pay tribute to labor.

NATO protester instruction?

For all I know, they may be the same people who will follow Brandt’s request and add extra prayers for all the cops(who literally are being borrowed from suburban police departments across the metro area to supplement the Chicago police regular staffing) who have to work extra hours three weeks from now. As though the overtime pay they wind up receiving won’t be a sufficient reward in and of itself.

Personally, I take some joy in the fact that “real” people (most of us, that is) aren’t acknowledging Tuesday as any kind of holiday. It’s just another work day, and in a few weeks some of us will have our daily routines disrupted for a week or so (the time that NATO is in Chicago), before things revert back to the norm.

FOR WHILE I think those people are a little bit guilty of trivializing the greater issue by trying to claim that all these people will make it harder for them to go shopping or run other errands for a couple of days, I like the thought of those who aren’t eager to latch themselves onto a bandwagon that starts demonizing someone else.

Perhaps the legitimate way to view the upcoming events is to realize that come Memorial Day weekend, it will all be over and we’ll be able to look back on the experience as one of those moments that makes life in Chicago unique from elsewhere in the Midwestern U.S.

And it is why I personally prefer to do my celebrating on Monday, rather than Tuesday.

It is, after all, International Jazz Day. Listening to Billie Holiday or Herbie Hancock (the Chicago native who helped inspire UNESCO to create the holiday) sounds much more pleasurable to me than obsessing about a riot that may well never occur.

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There’s going to be a lot of last-minute adjustments for South Side commuters

Knowing my luck, at some point in the next few days I’m going to be offered some magnificent job that will be just too good to turn down, but will require me to turn back to regular use of commuter trains.

Because it seems that the commuters from the South and Southwest sides and their surrounding suburbs are going to have to figure out how to get between their homes and downtown Chicago next month when NATO has its summit next month at the McCormick Place.

THE PROBLEM, INSOFAR as security for that event is concerned, is that there are railroad tracks that run underneath the building – which makes it vulnerable in so many ways to someone looking to cause mischief.

Those tracks are used by the Metra electric trains that run to suburban University Park and Blue Island, along with the trains that run to the South Chicago neighborhood.

They also are used by the South Shore commuter rail trains that make a stop in the Hegewisch neighborhood – along with stops in several Northwest Indiana cities en route to South Bend.

I’m sure the people who live to the northwest who never give a thought to anything that exists south of Congress Parkway will be shrugging their shoulders and thinking, “Who cares?!?”

BUT THE FACT that security officials are hinting that trains may have to be halted for the duration of the NATO summit (scheduled for May 20-21) and the days leading up to the event threatens to interfere with many thousands of people being able to get to their jobs.

A lot of people are going to need all the time they can get to try to figure out a back-up plan; whether that means driving to work, or driving a bit to the west to catch a commuter train on the Rock Island line that goes to Joliet – making stops throughout the Beverly neighborhood and suburbs such as Oak Forest, Tinley Park and Frankfort along the way.

Which means those commuter trains will be overloaded with passengers – a fact that is bound to infuriate the “regulars” who are going to think of this as some sort of intrusion on their turf.

Yes, during my experiences with commuting, I have used both the Metra Electric and Rock Island line trains. So this is a very real experience that, at one time, would have impacted me personally.

IT MAY STILL do so, if it turns out that I wind up in Chicago (either at McCormick Place or in downtown proper) as a reporter-type person writing about the gatherings of people who feel it is their obligation to show up at the event and protest the existence and activities of NATO.

Or maybe I’ll get lucky and figure out a way to bypass those locales for those few days next month.

What complicates the situation is the fact that the Secret Service (which is overseeing security measures for the event) is going out of its way to say nothing whatsoever about the security measures.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Metra won’t know until the end of April what they will be allowed to do insofar as running those commuter trains in proximity to the dignitaries.

WHICH MEANS THAT real people likely will get about two weeks, at most, to figure out what they will need to do to ensure they can still get to their jobs – because somehow I doubt the employers of downtown Chicago are going to feel all that sympathetic to the dilemma being faced by their South Side-residing employees.

There’s also an amusing aspect to this issue – the fact that May 20 (a Sunday) is the date of a ballgame at Wrigley Field between the Cubs and cross-town Chicago White Sox.

Sox fans from the sout’ being unable to get to the Lakeview neighborhood to see their club of choice smack the Cubs around a bit will feel like a deprivation.

Unless, by some fluke chance, the Chicago Cubs actually manage to win that ballgame. In which case, the security interferences could turn out to be a bit of mental salvation for us.

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How different are we, really?

I couldn’t help but remember a moment from some two decades ago – I was at the Statehouse in Springfield sitting in the sorry excuse of a cafeteria that existed then in the Capitol’s basement and having a conversation with a Republican legislative aide.

OBAMA: Snatched away our G-8



This particular aide was a Springfield native and was among those whose vision of Illinois included very little of Chicago, when our conversation shifted to the ongoing (even back then) debate over building a new airport for the Chicago area.

AS HE PUT it, Chicago and Illinois really were two differing states because the scale upon which many Chicago political people thought was just so much bigger than what many natives of the rural parts of the state would come up with.

“It would never occur to many of us to want to build a new airport,” that aide told me. “We’d just make do with what we had, and accept its limits.” Even if it meant that the number of flights would be negatively impacted – resulting in economic losses caused by less traffic passing through O’Hare International.

Only Chicago-oriented political people, he said, would be so eager to dream big thoughts that they’d want to make them reality – no matter how impractical they might well be. Even though the impracticality, when achieved, is what makes for greatness.

What brought this conversation to mind was the moment on Monday when we all were shocked – the G-8 that had so many people wetting their panties at the very thought of all the activists who would come to Chicago to play “60s protester” was no more.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA has decided to have those world leaders gather at the official presidential retreat out in the country – which has so many security measures in place and restrictions that there’s no way political protest will be a much of a factor.

We in Chicago will still get to host the NATO conference scheduled for May 20-21. But the perception is that Chicago’s reputation has taken a blow. We have shown we’re not really capable of handling the kind of events and happenings that occur in “world-class” cities.

CAPONE; His name lives on, in lame gags



Which means the kind of people who are happy these days are the ones who “think” like the rural pols – who never would have had it cross their minds to have such an event take place in their home communities.

That is how I think of many of those activists who a couple of years ago were all worked up over the thought of squashing the efforts to bring the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to Chicago.

ALTHOUGH I DON’T get as worked up as those people who complain that the Super Bowl can never be held at Soldier Field – since I’m skeptical that Chicagoans would care to see any football game that didn’t directly involve the Chicago Bears.

Which is to say that I think the loss of the G-8 summit is something that reflects negatively upon us. I think it is a loss. It would have been a chance to show off our city to the world.

It makes me wonder if the kind of people who don’t want such events in their communities are really just ashamed of where they come from?

Which is why it may well be fitting that the activists/rabble-rousers who were planning on making a scene in May during the G-8 say they’re still coming to Chicago.

THEY WON’T BE able to get anywhere near Camp David without risking arrest and a criminal conviction that would result in serious prison time. So they’re going to do their thing here.

Which means our police are still going to have to cope with the issue – only we don’t get the benefits that would have been derived from having the world leaders themselves in our community.

We won’t have the dateline “CHICAGO” being transmitted all about the globe on stories about the efforts being made to try to make our world a better place (even though, to be honest, the actual accomplishments likely would have been far less significant).

We even have Russia Premier Vladimir Putin taking pot shots (although his gags are so dated – Al Capone, really?!? – as to be ever-so-lame) at Chicago’s image.

THERE WON’T BE much of anything taking place in May to distract us from the mediocrity that will be taking place in the professional baseball ballparks on both the South and North sides.

EMANUEL: One Illinois? Really?

So what should we think?

I couldn’t help but notice how Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in Peoria on Wednesday, where he talked down the significance of the loss (which sounded like such political spin that I doubt it “played” in that central Illinois city) and emphasized the need for Chicago and rural areas within Illinois to think of ourselves as being united.

A nice, noble goal, I suppose. But if it means we’re going to start paring down our urban aspirations, then perhaps it is a step in the wrong direction.

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