Dragging the Klan into the mix is nothing but foolish for Cardinal

Cardinal Francis George is correct in saying that the Ku Klux Klan has a history of being just as anti-Catholic as it has been anti-black.

Does anyone seriously believe ... 



In fact, if one goes back to the late 1910s and early 1920s when Klan chapters expanded beyond the Deep South and it almost became respectable to be a member, there were some people who joined because of their religious bigotry more than any hostilities felt toward black people.

THE REALITY WAS that some parts of the country had very few black people. The Catholics, however, were a foreign conspiracy that was taking over the world. Or so the nitwits of that era wanted to believe.

But the Cardinal made himself look like the nitwit earlier this week, and he had to go ahead and do it on television. People across the Chicago metropolitan area who happened to watch WFLD-TV’s evening newscast on Wednesday got to see and hear George when he compared the gay rights activists upset about a Catholic parish’s objections to the route for the 2012 gay pride parade to the Klan of old.

As George put it, the “Gay Liberation Movement” has the potential to “morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan” for daring to suggest that Catholic officials might be mistaken.

This makes the Cardinal sound as ridiculous as Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., who got himself international attention for his wisecrack about how low approval ratings for Congress reflect badly upon its Republican members, saying, “if Josef Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat(ic) Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine.”

NAZI PROPAGANDA IMAGES for speaking the truth about Republican partisan political tactics? Just like thinking ill of the Catholic church. It all sounds like people who are way too touchy; perhaps because on a certain level they realize their side is wrong on a certain issue – but don’t want to admit it.

Of course, just as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives shot down an attempt to censure West for his over-the-top rhetoric, I suspect a lot of Catholics are going to be quick to jump on the bandwagon of support for the Cardinal.

... these people are comparable?



Which is a shame, because this is a case where everybody would be better off if this issue withered away – instead of being prolonged by defensive talk. Which all winds up being a defense of a ridiculous position.

Now the fact that the Catholic Diocese for Chicago is concerned about the gay pride parade next year isn’t new. Parade officials altered the route through north lakefront neighborhoods, and also wanted to start the event earlier.

THE END RESULT was the potential for the parade to pass by a Lakeview neighborhood Catholic church right as Sunday morning mass was starting. There may have been some parishioners who would get offended, but there also was the potential for an area traffic jam as a large-scale parade passes the Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish (although church officials had hinted that many passengers might just skip church that morning in protest of the parade).

Which is why parade officials have agreed to alter the starting time. Now, it should pass the church a couple of hours after the Sunday morning mass is over. Which, to my mindset, makes it sound like the parade organizers are trying to be reasonable.

But the rhetoric we got from the Cardinal makes it seem that being reasonable isn’t good enough. They’re upset anybody challenged their opposition at all. And now, they want to resort to Klan analogies – hoping desperately that they will capture the support of the “middle” of our society.

Which I’m skeptical would happen, because the imagery of gay rights activists being aligned with the Klan is just too absurd to take literally. It’s even more ridiculous than the concept of a “World Series champion Chicago Cubs” team.

BESIDES, IT REMINDS me of the occasions when, as a reporter-type person, I have covered rallies involving the Klan. I have seen the robes and the hoods up-close, and I also have read their literature that attempts to make them out to be an organization promoting “American values.”

One thing I noticed is that the modern Klan, in stating who it does not want, has altered its rhetoric slightly. Catholics are no longer forbidden. Catholicism has become so mainstream in our society that many of its members now qualify as ordinary white people – in the Klan’s eyes.

Although I’m going to stop short of stating that George may well have given verbal comfort to real-life Klan members by making statements that indicate opposition to gay rights activists. I’m sure real Klan members don’t object to what he said.

But I do, and I’m sure there are many other people (both Catholic and non) who do object – particularly in these days leading up to the holiest of all holy days. The concept of bringing up the Klan at Christmas-time seems particularly venal.

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Columbus Day not the same as our youth

I recall a moment that took place more than a decade ago – I was chatting with a person who worked on the Illinois state government payroll and we were joking about the concept that while the rest of the world worked, she would have the day off.

It was early October of that year, and Columbus Day was just a couple of days away. “It’s the first time I’ve had Columbus Day off since I was in grammar school,” she told me.

NOW, IN CHICAGO proper at least, even that’s not true.

For it turns out that the Chicago Public Schools aren’t going to waste one of their “holidays” to celebrate the explorer hired by the Spaniards to go to India (but managed to stumble his way into Puerto Rico instead).

His “Indians” were actually “Boricuans.” But it made for a nice story to tell grade school children about how Cristobal Colon “discovered” a whole new continent. Who today would give Christopher Columbus such a noble image? Illustration provided by the Library of Congress Collection.

His “discovery” was one of the stupid accidents of history that likely would have happened eventually (it was just a matter of time before those Eurocentric Europeans discovered the existence of two more continents on Planet Earth).

WHEN ONE CONSIDERS the number of other holidays that vie for the public’s attention, perhaps it is fitting that Columbus Day be taken down a notch or two to the level of a lesser holiday.

Put it up there with Flag Day, which to my mindset is about where it belongs.

So I’m not bothered by the fact that Chicago schoolchildren (or at least those whose parents don’t make a point of sending them to the Catholic schools maintained by the Chicago Archdiocese) won’t be getting a day off to sit around the house watching cartoons or roaming the streets in search of something, anything to fill a day’s worth of downtime.

There will be enough private school kids and suburban youths (including my nephews and nieces) who will get the day off, although I don’t think the day will be anything resembling an educational experience – which is what proponents of keeping the holiday will claim is its purpose.

NOW I PROBABLY should state that while I do agree there is some element of truth to those people who would argue that Columbus was just another conquistador in search of riches whose actions wound up causing harm to the indigenous peoples already here (Hernan Cortes meeting up with the Aztecs in what is now modern-day Mexico would be a similar example), I’m not inclined to get as worked up over the issue.

I think the people who start making comparisons to Adolf Hitler or going out of their way to write sentences that pair up the words “Columbus” and “genocide” are getting a bit overworked. Did they forget to take their medication this morning?

Just about anyone who takes on some project on a grand scale has an ugly side that can be exaggerated into pure evil. It also is true that many of those grand-scale projects were flukes, as the person likely was in search of something much less moralistic.

Are we better off thinking of Columbus as a seeker of riches who made the trip in the first place because he was paid very well by the Spanish royal family? Probably.

ARE WE BETTER off trying to ignore outright the man who was one of the first contacts between indigenous American (even though they never would have thought to use that label for themselves) and European cultures?

No. Because that would be just a gross a rewrite of the history books as those people who want to view him as some sort of saintly character.

So what we in Chicago will get this year is what has become the typical ethnic holiday parade – the one that starts at Balbo Street and works its way up Columbus Drive to Monroe Street.

At least this is the proper holiday to have a parade there. The Columbus Day parade on Columbus Drive sounds cute – unlike the St. Patrick’s Day parade that always leads to silly jokes about Cristobal being renamed “O’Columbus” for the day to make him an honorary Irishman.

JUST FOR THE record, I’m not going, nor do I plan to watch any of it on television. The only times I have seen these parades are when I had to work as a reporter-type person and cover them.

Otherwise, they just don’t do much for me. Because in a sense, the parade itself will become the generic ethnicfest that all of the downtown Chicago holiday parades have become in recent years.

How else to explain the fact that the Mexican Folkloric Dancers will be among the many groups participating in the event? You’d think my ethnic brethren would be aligned with those Puerto Rican activists who want to mourn the arrival of Columbus on the Caribbean island.

Except that we’re too busy working to get all hot and bothered about this cause. In fact, there are times I think only the Italians are truly concerned (and I don’t just say this because of the episode of “The Sopranos” where Tony’s mob administered a serious beat-down to native American activists) about this issue.

WHICH IS PROBABLY fitting, since the fact that Italians like to claim Columbus as one of their own even though the concept of Italy as a single nation united didn’t exist until some 350-plus years after his death.

Would Columbus himself (born in Genoa in 1451) have thought such a characterization accurate? It is the question I always wonder when I think of the holiday, not about whether Columbus was a genocidal maniac?

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EDITOR’S NOTE: For those of you who have no desire to see yet another downtown Chicago parade (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources/inside_station/station_info&id=7051611) on television, avoid WLS-TV (Channel 7) at all costs between noon and 3 p.m. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

What is gained from acknowledging Mexico holiday & who will offend more?

I’m trying to figure out which Illinois Democratic gubernatorial hopeful is more likely to tick off the nativists of our society with their current attempts to get a significant portion of the Latino vote. Not that it matters. The kind of people who get offended by this would never vote for a Democrat to begin with.

I wonder because we’re coming up on that time of year when we get Hispanic Heritage Month – that effort to spend a special time of year acknowledging the cultural contributions of Latinos to this nation.

BOTH GOV. PAT Quinn and his significant challenger, state Comptroller Dan Hynes, are looking for favorable ways to use the month to reach out to voters.

I literally came home to an e-mail message from Hynes telling me that the candidate has plans to celebrate Mexico’s Independence Day. Actually, all it means is that he’s planning to participate in the parade scheduled for Saturday along Columbus Drive.

The actual Independence Day comes in mid-week, so we’re going to have to settle for a weekend appearance, although the Mexico ambassador to the United States may be in Chicago for a couple of days next week.

But Quinn is not going to be outshined in coming days. He wants the Latino vote just as badly as Hynes does.

SO IT IS with that in mind that the Thompson Center state government building will be included in the Chicago Skyline Tribute, in which buildings will use colored lights to give them the outer appearance of “los Tricolores.”

A whole sea of red, white and green across the downtown area. And for buildings that can’t light themselves up in such a manner, there will be Mexican flags flying over the streets of downtown Chicago come Wednesday.

I can already hear the rhetoric.

Why are we doing anything to celebrate a foreign holiday?

FOR THAT MATTER, why are our government officials bothering to dignify the proceedings with their presence?

Of course, considering that political people usually show up at every sort of ethnic-oriented event in Chicago to try to get votes, the shock would be if they thought they could ignore the Independence Day holiday of the ethnicity that comprises about one of every six Chicago residents.

But then again, this shouldn’t be a surprise. These are the Democratic candidates, which means they’re of the party that sometimes appears to be clueless about Latinos but not openly hostile to our existence.

The real surprise would be if any of the Republican candidates for governor were to bother to do anything to acknowledge the Independence Day celebrations that will take place in Chicago in coming days.

THUS FAR, I haven’t heard a peep out of any of the GOPers, nor do I expect to.

But that’s not to say that I think the Democratic candidates are doing anything all that spectacular by bothering to show up at the events.

Insofar as Hynes is concerned, I’d be more impressed if he were to show up at any of the Mexican Independence Day parades that will be held in the neighborhoods – either the big one along 26th Street in the Little Village community or the South Chicago neighborhood parade (the city’s oldest one) along Commercial Avenue.

Both are scheduled for Sunday and would give Hynes a more true picture of the Mexican-American population of Chicago than he will see at the Columbus Drive parade – which is kind of the parade equivalent of going to Pepe’s Tacos for Mexican food rather than a real restaurant.

AND AS FOR Quinn, I can’t help but wonder if someone needs to read up on their Mexican history. For the lighting up of downtown Chicago in red, white and green as a Mexican tribute sounds like it will come a day late (along with the proverbial dollar short).

It is true that Mexican Independence Day (the anniversary of the date in 1810 that the Spanish colonies declared themselves to be an independent nation, taking an Aztec-inspired “nombre” for their country) is Sept. 16.

But typically in Mexico, celebrations begin the night before, with the “Cry of Independence” (“el Grito”) taking place at Midnight when the days switch.

Are we really going to get a lit-up downtown Chicago the following night – literally as Mexican Independence celebrators are finally tuckered out and getting ready to sleep?

IN ALL, IT has the potential to be a letdown for those who want to celebrate the event.

But I will pass along to both Quinn and Hynes one piece of advice – the same one I traditionally give to every political person who makes a sojourn into a Latino “environment” to try to scavenge up some votes.

Don’t wear the sombrero. There have been cases where I have refused to vote for somebody because they let themselves get photographed in one of those oversized hats and their reaction made it clear how uncomfortable they were in the environment.

It will make you look silly to the point where you will appear to be doing nothing more than pandering to people to try to get votes.

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Burris sides with black people, gays

It would seem that “The $845 Man” is trying to bolster his “liberal” credentials these days.

Roland Burris wants to keep his political post in the U.S. Senate beyond next year, and he’s making the gestures that a serious Democratic candidate would do in order to gain the support of two factions that have become stalwarts of the party – African-Americans and gay people.

BURRIS ACTUALLY VENTURED outside of his Chatham neighborhood to appear along with other political people in the Gay Pride Parade – which has become an annual tradition in the neighborhood just east of Wrigley Field (not that there was any gay people/Cubs fan conflict on Sunday, the Cubs/Sox matchup took place on the South Side).

For those who think that is a bold statement, it really isn’t.

The parade is little more than any other parade, except that some of the costumes worn by some people both participating and watching may be a little more outlandish than something worn to the “Back to School/End of Summer” parade held every year in Naperville because the locals can’t stand the thought of honoring Labor Day.

Roland likely looked as ridiculous waving to the crowds of more than 400,000 people who gathered along Halsted Street as he did during his cameo in “The Fugitive.” Remember Roland at the St. Patrick’s Day parade of 1993?

THERE’S ALSO A good chance that the people who were paying any attention to participating politicians were more likely to catch a glimpse of Lisa Madigan or Pat Quinn (two candidates whose political chances in the future are a tad more optimistic than Burris’ these days).

But this has become the kind of event where, if a political person doesn’t show up, it comes across as more of a statement than intended.

So Roland, Roland, Roland was out waving to the masses that gathered in Lakeview to make a political statement by doing little more than enjoying a sun-shiny day at a parade.

I don’t know how many people who saw him at the parade on Sunday will actually bother to cast a ballot for him in February come the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. But I’m sure it didn’t hurt, particularly since Lakeview is close enough to Chatham that even his struggling campaign could afford to pay the cost of a couple of gallons of gasoline so he could drive up to the North Side neighborhood.

IF ANYTHING, BURRIS’ more bold political action of recent days took place last week when the Senate approved a resolution that offers an apology, of sorts, for the fact that enslavement of Africans was ever considered legal in the United States.

The resolution even offered some legal language that could be construed as an admission that the “Jim Crow” laws that enforced racial segregation throughout the Southern United States were wrong.

But this resolution is intended to be a symbolic statement with no real power.

So Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa (how many of you remember when Harkin seriously thought he was fit to be president of the United States?) included some legal language to indicate that nothing in the resolution should be construed as an endorsement of reparations.

THAT IS WHY the black members of the House of Representatives are now seriously talking of voting against the resolution when it comes up for a vote before their chamber. Some people are trying to claim it is absurd that black people could be against an apology for slavery and segregation.

But this reminds me of a measure I once wrote about in the Illinois House of Representatives. It was a change in state law with regards to interracial adoptions (specifically, white people adopting black children).

The vote itself was something like 109-3, with 6 more voting “present.” It sounds like a non-controversial, overwhelming support measure.

But all of the support came from non-black legislators. The vote among black representatives was 4 for it, 3 against it, and 6 voting “present.” In short, the people who might see the most direct impact from the measure were split, while everybody else just sloughed off the issue.

COULD THAT BE what is happening in the Senate, where most officials are just assuming they should take the symbolic vote and get it over with? But the black politicos whose constituents would be directly impacted are finding the measure to be inadequate?

By the way, what do the black members of the U.S. Senate think? Don’t forget, there’s only one. Roland himself. So he became the voice protecting the interests of those who believe that black people are entitled to some sort of financial compensation for the suffering of their ancestors in this country.

After the measure passed on a “voice vote” (which means everybody officially says “aye” and there’s no actual “yes” or “no” record for the resolution), Burris made a statement saying he does not want the disclaimer about non-endorsement of reparations to be seen as some act preventing the Congress from approving some form of reparations payments in the future.

Roland is the “black caucus” of the U.S. Senate, even though some people are inclined to dismiss that fact as insignificant.

I’M NOT SAYING that Roland’s race ought to be the sole factor taken into consideration when we go to the polling places next year.

But perhaps it is at moments like this that Illinois voters ought to give serious thought to what kind of statement it sends to the rest of the nation if we are so eager to dump the only African-American currently in that congressional chamber.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Roland, Roland, Roland is the prototypical politician in that (http://cbs2chicago.com/local/gay.pride.parade.2.1063041.html) he likes parades.

The “black caucus” of the U.S. Senate wants to make sure that an apology for slavery and segregation (http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090618/pl_mcclatchy/3255365) under consideration on Capitol Hill does not permanently cut off the option of financial reparations. Of course, the black caucus these days is little more than Burris himself.

5 days of being Irish? Only in Chicago

Perhaps it’s the timing of the holiday festivities this year, but I feel like we Chicagoans are in the midst of a five-day holiday weekend running through Tuesday.

That day is the actual calendar date of St. Patrick’s Day, which may have some significant cultural history to it but has become little more than an Irish ethnic pride day – one in which everybody likes to claim they have a wee bit o’ Ireland in their blood.

BUT BECAUSE IT is easier for the city to have official festivities on the weekend, we’re getting the actual St. Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday.

And in the Beverly neighborhood on Sunday, we’ll get the South Side Irish version of a parade.

So people literally could begin their Irish-inspired celebrating Friday night after work, carry it into the official downtown parade today, then spill over into a drive to the South Side for a third day of festivities. That river looks green to me, and it wasn't even St. Patrick's Day. Photograph provided by State of Illinois.

But those people who are determined to carry out their celebrations as much as possible, they will also insist on partying on the holiday proper on Tuesday. And why let a holiday-less day on Monday go by without some intoxicating behavior.

THE THOUGHT OF such a schedule strikes me as mind numbing, primarily because I’m not 19 anymore. I don’t think I’m physically up to such consumption of Guinness or any brand of beer with a green food coloring added for the holiday.

So maybe I’ll be the guy with a look of disgust on my face as I watch people around me this weekend, while going out of my way to wear nothing that resembles the color green. Then again, I’ll also be the one on May 5 having fits that the historic holiday of Cinco de Mayo has turned into little more than a Mexican version of St. Patrick’s Day.

But many of my Chicago colleagues will want to be in on the fun. In fact, some suburbs already have had holiday parades – giving people a chance to “rehearse,” so to speak, their Irish-inspired consumption of intoxicating beverages.

There will be the crowds that work their way downtown Saturday for the parade down Columbus Drive, which I still think is a letdown compared to the old days when the parade literally cut through the Loop.

CHECK OUT A copy of the Harrison Ford film “The Fugitive,” which included scenes that were filmed during the real Chicago St. Patrick’s Day parade of 1993 – and even includes a cameo of our now-U.S. senator, Roland Burris.

We’ll get to hear the Shannon Rovers play once again on Saturday, before they take off for the District of Columbia to perform in festivities to be held Tuesday at the White House. Those are just more of the benefits Chicago will continue to reap from having President Barack O’Bama (groan!) in office.

The holiday is even the inspiration for what may very well be one of McDonald’s most overrated concoctions of all time – the Shamrock Shake. I have never tasted anything even remotely mint-y, or even remotely delicious, about it.

Yet there are people I have met who swear they must have one of those mid-March McDonald’s milkshakes as part of their holiday tradition. Then again, these are the same people who think the McRib sandwich is some sort of delicacy, rather than just ground meat made from the disgusting parts of the pig.

BUT THEN, THERE’S the Second City tradition that I always find to be the most ridiculous aspect of a Chicago-style St. Patrick’s Day – the idea that the city dyes the river green.

After having an orange powder dumped into the water, the river takes on a kelly-green tone for a couple of hours, before reverting back to its natural dirt green tone – created by decades of pollution that once literally had the Chicago River classified as “toxic.”

Only out-of-towners would think having a green river is cute. The rest of us realize how disgusting the concept is.

That is why I got my holiday chuckle from a commentary recently published by www.australia.to. One of that Australia-based news-oriented website’s columnists speculates that the green dye is really nothing more than toxic waste that has accumulated throughout the past year.

ASIDE FROM DISPOSING of such waste without having to deal with the Environmental Protection Agency, “it would explain the mysterious appearance of the Zebra mussels in the Illinois River – which are clearly mutated quahogs.”

So by that theory, the holiday meant to celebrate the saint who eradicated Ireland of snakes is also responsible for the rise of Zebra mussels in Chicago.

Does this mean that if someone ever figures out a way of eliminating the mussels in the Chicago area, people throughout Dublin will get intoxicated in his honor? It seems only fitting.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: What does the rest of the world (or at least a few Internet geeks in Australia) think of us Chicagoans as we’re (http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7013:st-patricks-day-now-100-snake-free&catid=108:dan-h-woods&Itemid=122) inclined to behave this weekend?

It’s too bad John F. Kennedy never got to hear the Shannon Rovers play (http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/03/chicagos_shannon_rovers_to_pla.html) on his behalf.

A place for those of you with Internet access, too much time on your hands and deadened tastebuds (http://shamrockshake.com/) to go to find a Shamrock Shake.

White Sox mascot to help represent Illinois in D.C. inaugural parade

Tourists to the District of Columbia and residents of the capital city are going to get a garish sight when they happen to catch a glimpse of the float included in the inaugural parade that is meant to represent Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois.

To be pulled by a John Deere-brand tractor (the company is based in Moline, Ill.), the float will have a display meant to represent what the Land of Lincoln is all about.

BUT INSTEAD OF having some young girl in a tiara and sash that declares her to be Miss Illinois something-or-other waving her hand, one of the things meant to represent us will be a fuzzy green blob (that’s the best way I can think to describe it) waving its left paw to the masses gathered along Pennsylvania Avenue.

I can’t help but wonder what all those people who don’t have a direct tie to the South Side will think of the sight.

Will some think that we’ve gone goofy in Illinois and/or Chicago? Perhaps they’ll think some creature from the California float snuck onto the Illinois float to try to take over, or that Rod Blagojevich wanted to be a part of the day’s festivities, but had to put on a silly costume in order to sneak in because nobody would let him in as himself?

Because what those people will really be seeing, is Southpaw.

FOR THOSE OF you who have no clue who Southpaw is, the character is the official mascot of the Chicago White Sox baseball team. The guy who wears the costume at White Sox games and at public appearances on behalf of the team is now in the District of Columbia, waiting for his participation in the inaugural parade.

The White Sox (whom Obama has often said are his rooting choice for a professional baseball team) approved inclusion of their mascot on the Illinois float – probably with delusions that it would result in lots of national publicity for the ball club spinning about in their collective head.

Now there are a couple of professional sports franchises who have costumed mascot characters that are a significant part of the teams’ public character. Just about any fan of professional sports in this country knows what the Philly Phanatic is.

In fact, there’s always “The Famous Chicken,” who has become bigger than his original ball club, the San Diego Padres (who now employ a giant costumed missionary named “Friar” to dance around in between innings).

THEN, THERE ARE teams like the White Sox with “Southpaw,” a character created a couple of years ago out of hope that he could help enhance the child-appeal of the ballpark atmosphere at U.S. Cellular Field. Nobody outside of the hardcore fandom has a clue what it is supposed to be.

I don’t know how successful Southpaw has been in trying to gain the love and respect of White Sox fans, or of Chicagoans in general. There are many in our city who don’t have a clue as to his existence. He certainly isn’t beloved.

For every kid who gets a kick out of a giant ball of green fuzz shaking their hand in between innings, there are several (slightly inebriated) adults who find his presence irritating – usually because they think they have to have an attitude that if something didn’t exist in the ball park when they were kids, it must be bad.

In short, Southpaw certainly isn’t a figure that I think of as universally representing our city or state.

I CAN’T HELP but wonder why Jerry Reinsdorf didn’t send the mascot of his other professional sports team in this city – Benny the Bull of the Chicago Bulls would likely have had greater recognition upon being seen by the masses from around the nation. It would also seem to work better, since Obama himself has indicated that while he likes watching the White Sox, basketball seems to be his preferred sport.

So what will the nation think of Southpaw when he gets his national introduction on Tuesday? Will they think he’s cute? Or will they wonder what “Oscar the Grouch” is doing wearing a White Sox uniform?

There is one plus. At least the White Sox no longer have their dueling mascots from the 1980s.

Just think of how ridiculous people would think Illinois is if they were to see the sight of Ribbie and Roobarb engaging in slapstick while roaring down Pennsylvania Avenue on their motorbikes?

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EDITOR’S NOTES: There will be moments of sophistication and high culture as part of the Inauguration festivities on Tuesday. Then, there will also be moments such as those (http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090115&content_id=3745736&vkey=news_cws&fext=.jsp&c_id=cws) involving Southpaw.

Jesse White will go from being the guy whose bureaucratic action stalled Roland Burris (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/obama_inauguration/chi-obama-parade-09-dec09,0,2963946.story) from becoming senator for one week to being the namesake of the tumbling team that also will represent Illinois in the parade.

Moline-based John Deere will have dealerships in Pennsylvania and Maryland provide the tractors that will pull floats (http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_11482546) in the inaugural parade.

This (http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/cws/community/southpaw.jsp) is Southpaw.

Mexican independence parties city out

Residents of the South Chicago neighborhood down in one-time steel mill country have celebrated Mexico Independence Day with a parade for 69 years, including this celebration from 1957. Photograph provided by Southeast Chicago Historical Society.

It’s Independence Day in Mexico on Tuesday. Yet for those people in Chicago with an interest in celebrating the holiday, it is already over.

The official citywide celebration on Columbus Drive took place 10 days ago, while the Mexican-oriented neighborhoods of the city had local celebrations this past weekend. From Pilsen to Little Village to South Chicago, one could literally celebrate the holiday over and over and over.

SO WHAT IS the significance of the actual holiday, which is a factor for the roughly one in six Chicagoans who are of Mexican ethnic descent? It’s less about allegiance to a past homeland, and a celebration of cultural pride.

Which makes it about as significant as the St. Patrick’s Day parades or the New Year celebration conducted each year in Chinatown. One should read The South Chicagoan (http://southchicagoan.blogspot.com/) for more thoughts on this issue.

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"Hispanic Hoosiers" who will visit New York are also representing Chicago Latinos

When Puerto Rican officials in New York City honor Indiana this summer, they are going to expose what has always been the state’s paradox.

In theory, Indiana’s primary city is also its capital city – Indianapolis ought to be the mecca of that rare breed of human being that willingly calls itself, “Hoosiers.” Yet the engine that in some ways provides what little significance Indiana offers comes from the northwest counties.

YOU KNOW, THE area on the South Side surrounding the Calumet River in Illinois that swings east across State Line Road to encompass a bi-state section known locally as the Calumet Region (the Region, for short).

The cynic in me would say the only part of Indiana that matters is the portion of the Chicago area that spills over the state line into Lake and Porter counties. With nearly 20 percent of the state’s overall population of 6.31 million, the area would be a hefty city in and of itself – if only the people of those counties had ever incorporated themselves into one municipality, rather than splitting themselves up into several small cities and towns.

The fact that Lake and Porter counties (Hammond, Gary and Valparaiso, for those who are more comfortable referring to cities instead of counties) are an extension of the Chicago area means, among other things, that the bulk of any Latino population in Indiana is to be found there.

Scenes like this woman wearing a dress in a Puerto Rican flag motif during the 2005 parade in New York are likely to be repeated in this year's parade June 8. Photograph provided by Puerto Rican Day Parade.

So when officials organizing the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York (it’s actually a several-days long series of events honoring Boricuan culture) decided to pay tribute to the state of Indiana as part of this year’s festivities, it turns out that the bulk of the delegation that will represent the state is really a batch of Chicago-area people.

THE PUERTO RICAN Parade and Cultural Organization of Northwest Indiana is taking the lead in organizing the state’s delegation, which will participate in the New York parade on June 8, then return to Indiana for their own parade this summer on July 20.

In a sense, New York gets to be a rehearsal for the Indiana version.

Personally, my first reaction to learning of the heavy Chicago-area presence to the Hoosier delegation for a Puerto Rican parade was to wonder why any Mexicans would be willing to participate.

Northwest Indiana’s Hispanic community is still predominantly Mexican-oriented and centered around East Chicago, Ind., where Mexican immigrants who decades ago worked in Chicago South Side and Gary, Ind., steel mills turned to the Illinois-Indiana border town for a place to find affordable housing.

THE TOWN REMAINS a hotbed for Latinos because it is a place where both Español y English are spoken. These days, 51.6 percent of the town’s total population of 31,366 people identify themselves as Hispanic.

Like many other aspects of life, Hispanic Hoosiers are becoming both larger and more diverse. One can no longer presume that the Spanish-speaking person who maintains an address in Indiana comes from places like Jalisco or Michoacan.

He could just as easily have his ties to San Juan and have concerns about whether his native island should someday be a state or remain a commonwealth (only the most delusional of Puerto Ricans seriously believe independence is the way to go).

In the Calumet Region, the Puerto Rican community became big enough to warrant its own group in 1996, and the local parade became an annual summer event shortly thereafter.

OTHER TOWNS IN Lake County, Ind., also have some Spanish-speaking populations, and the total is 13.9 percent Latino of the 494,202 total people who live there (almost 10 percent of the state’s population is in one county).

The state tribute is a regular part of the annual parade in New York. Although this is the first time Indiana was chosen, each year a state is singled out by parade organizers as a way of showing that Puerto Rican people are not restricted purely to a Spanish-speaking barrio in New York.

They’re everywhere.

That’s a good thing. All people need to realize the Latino population is going to be a significant part of the United States. Instead of trying to figure out how to deport it (that wouldn’t work for Puerto Ricans, since they are U.S. citizens by birth), we need to celebrate its contributions to the American Way of life.

AND IT IS not just inner city neighborhoods where Spanish is becoming an accepted second language. Even places like Indiana (which was once a hotbed for Ku Klux Klan activity outside of the South) are seeing increases in Latino populations.

Although the Latino populations in Indiana made up only 4.8 percent of the overall state as of 2006, that figure likely is obsolete. Between 1999 and 2004, the number of Hispanic people living in Marion County (Indianapolis and its suburbs) more than tripled from just over 13,500 to 47,000.

How accurate that figure is remains uncertain. Part of the problem is the fact that Latino populations can be hard to count in that some elements of the society aren’t particularly interested in being accounted for (in the past, many European ethnicities experienced the same dilemma). Indiana officials themselves concede that the official U.S. Census Bureau count of 214,000 Hispanic Hoosiers in 2000 is too low. They say 242,518 is probably a more honest figure.

But despite the growth (a nearly 350 percent boost in five years is tremendous), there’s no denying that the heart of the Hoosier Hispanic community is in the Calumet Region, where officials estimate there are just under 68,700 Latinos in Lake County, Ind., alone – about 30 percent of the state’s total.

THAT IS WHY it will be largely a Chicago-area contingent of people representing the Land of Quayle come parade time in New York City.

It will be interesting to see the Boricuan community as they represent both their home state and their regional home. Just because they live on the “wrong” side of State Line Road does not mean we should deny them their place among the areas that, when put together, comprise the Chicago metropolitan area.

State borders are not always absolute demarcations. Consider Illinois, where the St. Louis area crosses the Mississippi River to include Madison and St. Clair counties. Even outside of municipalities like Alton, Belleville and Brooklyn (the Illinois town, not the New York borough), there are life-long Illinois residents who associate themselves with the Missouri city rather than our own glorious metropolis.

Places like Gary, Ind., and East St. Louis, Ill., have always struck me as carbon copies of each other, and not just because both have seen better days in decades past. Both are small cities that have to look across a state line (in the case of Gary, they also have to squint through pollution caused by still-operating steel mills) to see the focal point of their metro existence.

IT ALSO WILL be good to see a Chicago-area presence in the New York Puerto Rican parade, which should not be thought of as just a day for the hired help to inconvenience the rest of us with their partying.

It is a day to celebrate yet another culture that is merging into the overall picture that makes up the modern-day American Way of life.

In that sense, the Puerto Rican Parade in New York (and similar events held across the country, including June 14 in Chicago) is a day when we can all be honorary Puerto Ricans.

It’s just like St. Patrick’s Day, only we don’t have to slosh our way through all that disgusting green-dyed beer.

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What point would there be to a parade if there weren't a few pretty ladies wearing sashes, tiaras and form-fitting gowns, such as these girls who participated in the 2006 parade. Photograph provided by Puerto Rican Day Parade.

EDITOR’S NOTES: Puerto Rican activists in the Indiana portion of the Chicago area have their own cultural festivities (http://www.officialpuertoricanparade.com/) scheduled for this summer.

“Hoosier” and “Hispanic” are not mutually exclusive terms anymore. The Latino population (http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=16567) in Indiana is rapidly rising.

Indiana state officials concede (http://www.in.gov/ichla/conference/population.html/) their Latino count is off by a few tens of thousands of people.

For those whose only knowledge of the Puerto Rican Day parade is the “Seinfeld” episode where Kramer wound up stomping all over a Puerto Rican flag to try to put out a fire, the event (http://www.nationalpuertoricandayparade.org/index.html) is much more involved than a single parade.