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| The Chicago River won't be the only body of water turning green -- the Daley plaza fountain also likely to take on color. Photo by Gregory Tejeda |
BECAUSE
ALL THOSE crowds coming to downtown Chicago on Saturday sure ain’t a gonna be
headed for the Loop supersite, at 175 W. Washington St., which will be set up so
that anybody living within the Chicago city limits can cast their ballots for mayor.
Lori
Lightfoot, or Toni Preckwinkle?
Personally,
I expect the pathetically low, near-record-setting, turnouts that we saw on
Feb. 26 will recur themselves again for the April 2 run-off, with the early
voting portion actually beginning Friday.
So
yes, people can take a trip downtown Friday, Saturday or Sunday to cast their
mayoral vote. Maybe even do so Saturday in and around attending the St. Patrick’s
Day parade – the annual tradition that now takes place along Columbus Drive.
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| Will Lightfoot top Preckwinkle (below) … |
BUT
I DON’T expect a lot of people to turn out to cast their ballots. The Luck of
the Irish will probably mean too much green-dyed beer being consumed for people
to even want to think of casting a ballot.
Even
though all those Irish politicos of the past would probably think that casting
a vote, particularly if for a “Machine” candidate of Irish-American ethnic
origins, is the ultimate gesture of cultural support one could show.
Perhaps
if it were Toni O’Preckwinkle on the ballot, she’d be able to get more
excitement from would-be voters. Or if Alderman Edward M. Burke hadn’t have won
his Feb. 26 election so handily?
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| … for public attention, or … |
But
I suspect this weekend will be about people trying to find the appropriate way
of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, the date upon which the saint used his shillelagh
to whack at snakes and chase them out of Ireland.
OR
AT LEAST that’s what we were taught when I was in grade school. I suspect the
reality of the holiday is to have an excuse for beer companies to push their
product, similar to the way in which they have turned the Cinco de Mayo holiday
into a generic Mexican fest.
Only
I’ve never seen anybody dye the Chicago River a Red, White and Green tri-color
mixture the way the city every year turns the city’s namesake river a bright,
obnoxious Kelly green that in some ways looks even more sickly than the dingy
shade of green the river takes on the rest of the year.
Seriously,
those people who miss out on Saturday’s downtown parade can always venture out
to the Beverly neighborhood’s South Side Irish parade for a chance to see the
Irish bands and dancing girls work their way along Western Avenue, and the local
residents will have to spend the rest of the day (and night) chasing away the
overly-imbibed partiers who don’t have a proper sense of when it is to go home.
I’m
sure all of this will be more on people’s minds than their mayoral vote. For
all I know, they may view the St. Patrick’s festivities as an escape from the
political nonsense that wishes it could overtake our lives for the next couple
of weeks.
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| … will Madeline Mitchell top both on Saturday? |
MAYBE
THIS WEEKEND would be more intense if we’d have got a Daley, a Joyce or a
McCarthy into the run-off election. But we didn’t. They didn’t have the Luck of
the Irish back on Feb. 26
But
we are getting closer to it all being over.
For
Monday is the day that early voting extends to the neighborhood polling places.
One site in each of the 50 wards, so that you can cast your vote without having
to make the trip downtown.
Then
on Election Day, you can go to the polling place located in your neighborhood proper.
A chance to take part in this great American experience of Democracy – which also
includes the four-year follow-up period of voters ranting and raging on how
stupid the electorate was for choosing the nitwit who ultimately prevails April
2.
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