Ken Berwitz
Why is Chicago in such a deep mess? Well, there are lots of reasons. But it is hard to escape the fact that its current Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is a major part of the problem.
The following excerpts from two articles in today's Chicago Sun-Times tell the story.
1) Excerpted from an article written by City Hall reporter Fran Spielman, about Chick-Fil-A head Dan Cathy, and his anti-gay religious beliefs::
“Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values. They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values,” Emanuel said Wednesday.
“What the CEO has said as it relates to gay marriage and gay couples is not what I believe, but more importantly, it’s not what the people of Chicago believe. We just passed legislation as it relates to civil union and my goal and my hope … is that we now move on recognizing gay marriage. I do not believe that the CEO's comments … reflects who we are as a city.”
2) Excerpted from another article written by City Hall reporter Fran Spielman - same writer, same day, about the same person:
Ignoring Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitic remarks, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday welcomed the army of men dispatched to the streets by Farrakhan to stop the violence in Chicago neighborhoods.
Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th), an Orthodox Jew, has said it’s good that Farrakhan is “helping” in the fight against crime, “but it doesn’t eradicate the comments that he’s made about the Jewish community.”
Emanuel offered no such caveat. Although Farrakhan has a history of making anti-Semitic statements, Chicago’s first Jewish mayor has no interest in revisiting that controversy.
“People of faith have a role to play and community leaders have a role to play in helping to protect our neighborhoods and our citizens. You cannot get there on just one piece of an anti-crime strategy,” the mayor said.
To review:
-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel comes out full-bore against Dan Cathy, the CEO of a fast food chicken restaurant chain, because of his personal religious beliefs and tells anyone who will listen that the restaurant - not the CEO, but the restaurant itself which is on record as being 100% okay with gay clientele - does not reflect Chicago values;
-But Emanuel - who is (at least ancestrally) Jewish, and most of whose family members strongly support the state of Israel - is fine with a career Black supremacist, anti-Semite and avid Israel hater, louis farrakhan, sending the presumably similar-minded private army his racist organization has trained into Black neighborhoods, to do a job that is supposed to be done by law enforcement. Emanuel's rationale: "People of faith have a role to play...".
Dan Cathy, a deeply religious Christian, is persona non grata to Rahm Emanuel. But louis farrakhan, a hate-filled scumbag, not only is acceptable, he is being given responsibility - and, I would assume, considerable compensation - for performing police work.
Do these two articles show there something wrong with Rahm Emanuel, and the way he is running Chicago? Something very, very wrong?
You tell me.
you have to admit Ol rahm was pretty smart.....getting his name out there so he could become mayor of chicago as opposed to an 8 year tenure in DC......... who wants to retire in DC anyway?
