Posted on 10/03/2009 8:59:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Chicago’s vitriolic West Side Catholic leader and one time Obama spiritual mentor Father Michael Pfleger is known by some as the “white” Jeremiah Wright. Pfleger, who has called Louis Farrakhan a “great man” and Rev. Wright “one of the greatest Biblical scholars this nation has,” earlier this year thundered about the hypocrisy of fighting a war in Iraq “when we have innocent children dying on the streets right here at home.”
At home, meaning Chicago.
In 2008 for example, America lost 314 fighting men and women in Iraq while 509 unfortunate citizens were murdered in Chicago. The case this year of nine year old Chastity Turner is illustrative of a city in serious trouble. According to reporter Monica Land:
“In June, Chastity was visiting her grandmother on the city's South Side. While washing the family's dog outside with her father, a van pulled up and at least twenty shots rang out. Chastity was shot in the back while running for cover. She was only nine years old. Two men, aged 17 and 19, have since been charged with her murder and police are searching for a third suspect.”
Land also reports that many of Chicago’s children are having nightmares about the recent carnage:
“Many Chicago parents have kept their children inside this summer for fear they will be killed playing on the street, particularly in Englewood, which is statistically Chicago's most dangerous neighborhood. Children have nightmares about being killed or beaten coming from school. Sadly, for many of them balloons and stuffed animals have come to symbolize death, not joy and celebration.”
Barely a week after the young honor student Derrion Albert was beaten to death in Englewood, a 14 year old high school boy was chased down a few days ago and beaten by three assailants in the North Side Edgewater area of Chicago. The boy suffered a fractured skull and barely survived the vicious attack. According to one witness:
“He was covered in blood. Blood was all over the street.”
On the day after last year’s presidential election AT editor Thomas Lifson received a disturbing communication from a Chicago waitress named “Tina” who was working the late night shift at an area bar on election night. The bar’s patrons included a table of six African-Americans who, instead of leaving Tina a tip, graced her with the following note:
“Tip 4 the Day – Blacks Run the New Black House Bitch!!!!”
We’ll probably never hear about the real reason the International Olympic Committee dumped Chicago from the shortlist of host cities in 2016, but it would be naïve to omit the committee’s concerns about the safety of thousands of foreign tourists. Many of those tourists would have been sampling the Chicago bar scene too.
Writing about the brutality during the Spanish Civil War the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda distilled the essence of his experiences into the following lines:
Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
The blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood
In the streets!
Many of Chicago’s kids are having nightmares about being killed, yet Chicago’s most notable son skipped town for a Copenhagen adventure. Maybe this disturbed someone at the IOC too.
My folks and I are traveling via AMTRAK through Chicago’s Union Station ... like downtown ... so how safe is that? Where are all the shootings taking place? We have to change trains there ... I’m for opting to just stay in the station for the two hour layover ....
Downtown is safe. You can go to the Sears Tower or Navy Pier if you would like. In the Sears Tower (now renamed), you can go to the skydeck and see the entire city for $15.
Just don’t take the Red Line or Green line south, or the green or blue line west. Those are the bad areas.
We’re on our way to Galesburg so we catch that commuter south ...through Naperville, Hensdale, etc ..... I heard there was this famous cafe where Route 66 starts ... supposed to be like two blocks away from the station ...would be nice to see it ...
The terminal is downtown. Things are pretty safe there. If you venture out you will see a lot of panhandlers.
All this is happening to Chicago because of two basic reasons:
1. The whole city is a hotbed of political payola, bribery and corruption on a scale so huge as to bugger the imagination.
2. The police are even afraid of the gang and drug violence that overwhelms the city, worse there than any other city in the country (even Los Angeles and that is really saying something).
That's probably what most were thinking right after the election. I'd like to ask them collectively, "How's that Obama Black thing workin' out for you?"
Warning them about the "rough areas" would be embarrassing. There were no "rough areas" in, say, China.
Obama wants to take his successes in Chicago, and bring it to the rest of the world.
As far as the IOC not picking Chicago because of concern for safety...I don’t buy that one bit. Rio is a heavily crime-laden city...worse than Chicago, no doubt. Had to be something else besides a concern for safety.
In Rio are they more likely to snatch your purse or to shoot you in a drive by?
Can you imagine that if the Olympics were held in Chicago how many people would be murdered by the thugs there..I think the Olympic judges have seen what goes on in that city and decided by what they saw not to trust it..Obama is safe there because he is the gang leader just like Wright putting this hate in these young peoples hearts..And then they have the parents that teach them from birth to hate anyone that seems to have more and especially Whittie..Sick place and I will never go there..
Whoooops, you have to type in Union Station on the top line of map directions, enter, and select Chicago Union Station from the list ...
We pretty much want to stick close to the station ... and since we’re walking it’d be nice to just see what’s around ... this is only the second time we’ve taken the train. The last time was last Christmas when it was 4 or 5 below and made the mistake of going for a walk ... the cold on my cheeks was like having four root canals at the same time LOL
Great city you live in CC.
In Rio are they more likely to snatch your purse or to shoot you in a drive by?
In Rio they are more likely to kidnap you for ransom just for not looking like a bum. and failing that, they will just kill you outright.
There is also a huge problem with street kids turned pickpockets and worse...
>>> Rio is a heavily crime-laden city...worse than Chicago, no doubt. Had to be something else besides a concern for safety. <<<<
True from what I’ve been told about Rio.
A friend was chased across a busy beachfront road in downtown Rio by an armed mugger brandishing his pistol.
He got away unharmed, but he and some other well-traveled folks I know have called it the most dangerous city they’ve visited.
But they were eliminated immediately. I believe it was their own speeches that did them in - along w/BO apologizes for America and then when he wants something - he sings another song. The world knows them and Chicago and their being eliminated in the first round was very telling.
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