Saturday coffee.
JUNE 12, 2010
City Hall press flacks claim two million people lined the streets of the Loop yesterday to cheer the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.
Maybe.
Or maybe it was just City Hall puffery.
There was defiinitely a lot of folks including several of my colleagues who left school before the official noon check-out time and grabbed a CTA train downtown. There is genuine excitement about the Blackhawk victory in this city that loves sports and experiences champions rarely.
I’m excited by a smaller number.
That would be the 12,000 members of the Chicago Teachers union that voted for Karen Lewis and the slate of progressive union activists in CORE. That added up to 59% of the high turnout. It blew the entrenched bureaucrats, including present CTU president Marilyn Stewart, out of their chairs and their seat of power. Stewart’s last minute pretense of militance fooled few.
Mayor Daley has something to worry about now. The new Chicago union leaders have pledged to fight for their membership and will not be satisfied by just being permitted to sit at the table.
I’m reminded of the bumper sticker I’ve seen lately: “F*ck Awareness. Find a cure.”
The hell with process. Get results.
I’m pretty sure that in the long term, those 12,000 teachers will have far greater meaning than the 2 million Blackhawk fans.
But bless ‘em all.
What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan?
