A few days after the city finally got around to releasing the horrific video of a police officer shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo, Mayor Lightfoot called for Chicago to come together and rally around her plan.
The official reaction from Mayor Lightfoot and her editorial and corporate enablers went a little like: Shut up. Take your pay raise. And get back in those classrooms. If we wanted your opinion, we’d ask for it.
Segregating people by class and race. But especially race. God forbid Black and white students go to the same schools.
By and large, Chicagoans favor a more retaliatory approach to conflict resolution. You hit me? I’ll hit you back harder. Hence our masochistic affinity for tough mayors who know how to “get things done.”
I realize that by pointing this out, I will, again, be written off as a harmless gadfly. But look on the bright side—at least they’re not hitting me in the head with a rock.
If you have schools with fewer students, you can offer more services to the children you have. Instead of closing schools, we should turn them into community centers. Keep them open day and night. We can have preschool programs. After-school programs. Intramurals. Art classes. Theater.
