So who wins if the activists interfere with O’Hare access – the CTA?

Monday is the day that activists upset with the problems of urban violence in predominantly-black neighborhoods of Chicago say they want to impact O’Hare International Airport.

Activists want to ruin postcard-perfect image of O'Hare -- for a day

Figuring that such an act will get themselves national attention in ways that clogging up the Dan Ryan Expressway or the neighborhood surrounding Wrigley Field earlier this summer could not.

THE ACTIVISTS SAY they want to make it difficult for motorists to drive to O’Hare on Monday, which is Labor Day (a holiday weekend with a significant boost in travel traffic). They hope that such an act will offend the sensibilities of people whose economic well-being relies upon the airport that they will then pressure Mayor Rahm Emanuel to do something to address the problem of urban violence within parts of Chicago.

There may be some people who have that reaction. Although I also wouldn’t doubt there will be many others whose reaction will be to order Emanuel about to have the Chicago police do an encore, of sorts, of their behavior during the 1968 Democratic Convention protests.

What with all the attention the activity of 50 years ago has received in recent weeks, I wouldn’t doubt the idea would crop up into at least a few heads.

I do find it interesting that these activists at least have the sense not to try to interfere with airport operations proper. That, after all, would constitute a federal offense. Which would mean the federal courts and prosecutors getting involved.

Could this be O'Hare's easiest access on Monday?

IT ALSO WOULD put them in the bullseye of the officials in charge of this Age of Trump our society is now in. Not exactly a crowd that cares much about urban problems – except to the degree they can score cheap rhetorical points off of them for themselves.

So what should we think of the activity, where protesters say they’re going to gather around Noon to try to interfere with traffic using the Kennedy Expressway westbound from Cumberland Avenue to East River Road.

Which is the path that takes motorists into the airport grounds.

Is offending these peoples' sensibilities the goal of Monday activity?

Some activists have told the Chicago Sun-Times they are considering having some people jump over the median to try to interfere with eastbound traffic taking people out of the airport and back into the city proper.

REGARDLESS, IT WILL be interesting to see just how law enforcement behaves on Monday – a day that I’m sure they will wish they could focus on the usual inanity that tends to take place during holiday travel weekends.

Because they’re going to venture onto the Kennedy, this becomes an Illinois State Police matter – rather than one for the Chicago Police Department to address. Just think if they ventured a little farther west onto airport property and all of a sudden it became an issue for the FAA, the FBI and any other federal agency that could be dragged into the alphabet soup.

It would be a jurisdictional nightmare.

Although I couldn’t help but notice reports in recent weeks urging people who have to travel to O’Hare on Monday to consider using the Chicago Transit Authority to get there.

SPECIFICALLY, THE BLUE Line trains that run from downtown through the Northwest Side and wind up all the way at the airport.

Or is it all about embarrassing Rahm?

In theory, you can ride your train in to the airport, and wave bye-bye to all the protesters who think they’re causing chaos and bringing our society to a shutdown. I suppose activists could try blocking train tracks, but that would be insane on account of the legendary “third rail” (the electrified one that feeds power to the rail cars).

I’d hate to think there are people determined to die for this cause, which is supposed to be about reducing the level of people who are killed in Chicago.

Because they’d learn pretty quick just how apathetic many Chicagoans can be about this particular issue, which really reeks of a strong overtone of “It’s not my problem” for those who don’t live in the neighborhoods where the violence tends to focus upon.

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Sherman to learn whether he right or wrong, not that any of us really know

I’ll never forget the first time I ever met Rob Sherman – the suburban Buffalo Grove man who made a reputation out of fighting for a person’s right to be free of religion.

Not Congress-bound, by any means

Sherman was the long-time head of American Atheists who was long known for a willingness to sue just about any governmental unit that he felt was trying to force religious beliefs on all of us.

IT WAS IN that context that I met him back in 1988, when I was a kid reporter-type at the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago working the overnight shift. I was one of the people who kept my eye on the Second City at 4 a.m., waiting for any slayings or fires or other incidents that could be worth news coverage.

Which is why I was in the old office at 35 E. Wacker St., at about 3 a.m., busily banging away on a computer terminal that is downright primitive to what I use now trying to come up with some copy that would seem fresh for the early morning newscasts when suddenly, I felt a hand touch my left shoulder.

I must admit to being startled. I probably leaped out of my seat as I whirled around to see who put their hand on me. In my wildest fantasies, she would have been blonde and petite.

Instead, it was Rob, who I recall was wearing a jacket with the Atheist logo (which featured an atom, implying that their view was purely about science).

HE WAS BEARING one of those downright primitive tape players that we used to call a “boom box,” and he wanted me to listen to a tape recording he had made.

I don’t remember exactly what was said, but I recall it was then-President Ronald Reagan speaking – having said something particularly vacuous that Sherman wanted us to think of as the controversy of the century.

I remember we actually wrote up a brief story with Sherman offering up his reaction, and I think it got used in a news cycle or two on radio before real happenings occurred that weeded it out.

But I always remembered that incident whenever Sherman’s name came up in the news – the guy so devoted to his cause that he felt compelled to show up at a downtown newsroom in the middle of the night (when normal people were either sleeping or out partying) in hopes of getting a bit of coverage!

SHERMAN IS IN the news again these days because of an airplane crash near Marengo – specifically one involving an airplane he owns that crashed and killed the pilot. Although taking place early Saturday, officials wouldn’t identify the pilot as Sherman until Monday, and the FAA was continuing to investigate.

Sherman, the man who spent his life claiming that life is life and that when it ends, it’s over, will now learn whether the religious-minded crackpots with whom he’d do battle turn out to be right – that when they die, they get to enjoy Heaven while Sherman won’t.

Sherman was dedicated enough to try to promote his cause in many ways, including trying to win seats both in the Illinois congressional delegation and in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Not that he ever succeeded. All of his electoral bids were unsuccessful, But he was one who took his beliefs seriously. He had a cause to fight for, even though it was one that offended a certain segment of our society and had the bulk of us thinking he was in desperate need of a vacation.

OF COURSE, THERE also are others who remember Sherman for a Chicago Tribune story that featured the activist and his son – one in which the newspaper ended with an anecdote in which the younger Sherman Ricky wound up calling atheists “assholes.”

I suspect the people who will most eagerly remember that anecdote will be the ones who have their own hang-ups about life, and often use their religious faith as a way of trying to justify their sense of hatred toward certain others.

As though Heaven and eternal life is only for people who are exactly like them, and no one else. It almost sounds like a segregationist way of thinking of things, which is a way of thought I find bordering on repulsive.

As much as I found Sherman in life to be a bit overbearing, I’ll confess that I'd rather be on his side than with the people who want to view religious faith as an excuse to condemn everybody they don’t like to eternal damnation! Who are the ones that I'd truly like to think will face such a fate at life's end.

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EXTRA: O’Hare to Atlanta Hartsfield – We beat you!!! (For now, at least)

Chicago Aviation Department officials seem to be enjoying themselves these days – statistics released this week show that O’Hare International Airport had more flights during 2014 than any other airport in the world.

Including Hartsfield/Jackson airport in Atlanta – which for the past decade has acted as though having the “world’s busiest airport” title somehow makes their city more significant than it truly is.

OF COURSE, I’M old enough to remember when it was just a standing statement that O’Hare was the “world’s busiest” by whatever standard was used for measuring such things.

There are those Chicagoans who think the loss of that title to Atlanta hurts just as much as New York City being able to claim the “nation’s tallest building” title away from the one-time Sears Tower.

For the record, the Federal Aviation Administration reported that there were just over 881,000 flights to and from O’Hare last year, compared to 868,000 to and from Atlanta’s airport.

If one prefers to use the standard of the number of passengers who pass through the airport, then Hartsfield remains atop O’Hare.

PERSONALLY, I THINK it is important to keep in mind that this “busiest airport” standard really shouldn’t reflect upon the cities themselves.

Keep in mind that Chicago has so many flights in and out of O’Hare because this is a big nation and people needing to get from coast to coast have to transfer from one plane to another in order to make that trip.

Chicago had the busiest airport for so many years for the same reason that Chicago is the nation’s railroad hub and a center for transportation in general – our centralized location.

Which could have just as easily wound up in St. Louis – if our municipal neighbors to the south had had enough ambition to develop a sizable airport for themselves.

THERE ARE MANY generations of people who traveled by flight whose only “sight” of Chicago was the terminals of O’Hare in between flights.

Just as I’m sure there also are many people who now only pass through Atlanta – I still remember my nephew taking a flight last year from Midway Airport to Washington, D.C., that had a connection in Atlanta.

Which still strikes me as a ridiculous route to take – but I’m sure (at least I hope) some money was saved in the process.

So for now, Chicago gets to claim “Number One” status in airports. Although it won’t shock me to learn that numbers released next year for 2015 show the two airports flip-flopping back again.

I'M SURE THERE are some people who will use whichever title fits their needs at the moment -- such as one newsroom quarrel from over a decade ago back when I was with United Press International.

A Washington-based reporter wrote a story saying that Atlanta's airport was busiest. When Chicago-based correspondents challenged the accuracy, the D.C.-type said his story's premise was based on Atlanta having the title, and he didn't want to be bothered with any outside facts.

That doesn't make Atlanta superior to Chicago by any means.

Heck, even though one-time pitcher Greg Maddux ditched the Cubs for the Atlanta Braves for the bulk of his all-star baseball career, he couldn’t bring himself to pick the Southern City over the Second City when it came time for his cap "logo" for the Baseball Hall of Fame induction last year!

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We see terrorist attacks everywhere, particularly where they don't exist

It was just the other day I was sitting in the waiting area of an auto repair shop when the television broke away from the ladies of the View to tell us of a crucial breaking news story.

 

An incident at O’Hare International Airport. Security was beefed up significantly. Terminal One (the United Airlines terminal, a very significant part of the airport that once again believes it is the world’s busiest) had parts of it completely shut down.

 

THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY no detail given out by police about what exactly was going on. But news anchor Alan Krashesky gave us some information, purely on background, that implied something may have happened that could be construed as an attempt at a terrorist-motivated incident.

 

In the end, it turned out that a piece of luggage went unclaimed. Somebody took it to be suspicious. All the authorities were called in.

 

All for a bag that ultimately had nothing in it that could have been considered threatening!

 

A great big “Whew!” We can relax. No terrorist threat there.

 

NOR WAS THERE one on Friday, when a fire broke out at an FAA radar center in suburban Aurora. That center is an integral part of the communications that allow officials at O’Hare and Midway airports to keep track of which airplanes are coming and going from their respective facilities.

 

In this incident, officials knew right away about the fire.

 

But there were those who were convinced early on that this had to be some sort of terrorist-motivated attack on the United States (which makes sense since anything that impacts O’Hare and Midway has a backlash affect to airports across the country).

 

That fire managed to disrupt more than 1,800 flights into or out of Chicago, and Southwest Airlines wound up cancelling all its flights on Friday out of Midway. Which is a big deal because Southwest is the airline that essentially props up Midway. All those cheap, no-frills, flights wound up being cancelled.

 

MY FAVORITE ANECDOTE was to learn that the Valparaiso University football team over in Indiana had to scramble to get a charter flight out of South Bend, Ind., so that they could be in North Carolina on Saturday for their scheduled game.

 

They were already on the way to Midway when they learned of the chaos that passengers were being confronted with. Meanwhile, activist Gloria Steinem couldn't get a flight from New York to Chicago to appear at a campaign event on behalf of Gov. Pat Quinn's re-election desires.

 

For purposes of this commentary, it should be noted that FAA officials found out the fire was caused by a now-former 36-year-old employee of the facility who was upset about a job transfer to Honolulu. Nobody with ISIS or Al Qaeda or anyone else along those lines had anything to do with the incident.

 

Although I’m sure some people over there would love to be able to take credit for causing such havoc. It would play into their agendas.

 

WHICH IS WHY I’m bothered by all the paranoia that crops up whenever there is some sort of incident that people with certain ideological hang-ups will want to blame on people of Arab ethnic backgrounds.

 

It gets those of us who ought to know better all freaked out. We should be more rational, particularly in a moment of crisis. It is the people who panic and over-react and make misjudgments who wind up making mistakes that cause lasting problems.

 

It makes me suspect that the people who are quick to assume “Muslims” did it every time something bad happens are inadvertently giving aid and comfort to the terrorist-types who they think they’re attacking.

 

A moment of rationality every now and then would help us to put these incidents into a proper perspective – particularly the Aurora fire; which makes me think the offender is going to get the real punishment by being forced to endure future Midwestern winters instead of the balmier climate of Hawaii.

 

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Meigs Field (finally) to become park

The remnants of Meigs Field remain in place. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

I used to mock Detroit because of what became of Tiger Stadium.

The ballpark where the Detroit Tigers played for nearly nine decades until 1999 remained in place for another decade.

IT WASN’T UNTIL 2009 that the building finally was torn down. While there are some groups that like to go out and play ball on the old infield, Detroit still doesn’t have any official plans for what to do with the site at Michigan and Trumbull avenues.

Pretty pathetic. Except that I’m not sure Chicago is any better. Just look at the saga of Meigs Field – the air strip that for just over a half-century allowed private airplanes to land their craft within a short cab ride of downtown Chicago.

I’m not here to rehash the politics of how former Mayor Richard M. Daley wanted to shutter the air strip on Northerly Island, and finally overcame the opposition of just about everybody by having bulldozers demolish the runways during one overnight in March 2003.

We still tell jokes about the “X” shaped gouges in the runways – making it dangerous for aircraft to try landing on them.



No more need for control tower on Northerly Island. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda



BUT IF ONE happens to drive (or walk) through the area near Northerly Island, it isn’t blatantly apparent that the air strip is long gone.

The old terminal building is still in place, along with the air traffic control tower. Even though it has been just over nine years since the last aircraft left the airstrip.

I realize that part of the reason nothing was able to be developed on the site were lawsuits that were pending by groups wishing to challenge the city’s ability to shutter an airport overnight – and without getting Federal Aviation Administration permission first.

Although it has been about six years since the last of those lawsuits were resolved.



Tiger Stadium is no more, yet its remnants won't wither away



YET WE STILL sit. It’s like Meigs Field has become Chicago’s version of Tiger Stadium.

Which is why I was intrigued by a Chicago Journal report that says work on revamping Northerly Island could begin come autumn.

The newspaper reported this week that the Chicago Park District (which owns the land) and the Army Corps of Engineers have plans to turn the flat layer of grass into a varied nature preserve with various ecosystems.

Almost like we can take the airstrip desired by business interests because of its proximity to downtown Chicago and turn it into a nature preserve whose biggest benefit is its proximity to downtown.

WITHIN A SHORT cab ride of the skyscrapers, one could see what the Midwest used to be like before all the European settlers arrived just over two centuries ago.

And at only $6.65 million, it probably is one of the cheaper projects undertaken by government – particularly since the bulk of the money will come from federal grants.

This may be one of the most cost-efficient projects the Chicago Park District takes on – especially since it won’t cost them more than $1.5 million in local funds.

Of course, I realize that a project hasn’t begun until work on it actually begins. Who knows what could come up between now and September (when officials supposedly will start looking for a construction company) that could delay the project’s beginning?

EVEN ONCE WORK begins, it could take up to five years before we can seriously think of walking through the nature and assorted grasses native to our region – because officials believe it would take up to five years for the grasses to be fully grown.

There also would be one other benefit to having this project in place – it would bring an end to the talk in some quarters that the best future for Northerly Island is to develop a casino on the lakefront site.

I comprehend that a casino is going to go somewhere in Chicago. I just don’t think the gaudiness of a flashy casino needs to be so close to downtown and the lakefront.

If you need bright lights on the lakefront, go watch that giant Ferris wheel at Navy Pier!

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NATO summit being turned into massive inconvenience for Chicagoans

I can already anticipate the screwy news story that will occur some time this coming weekend – some airplane pilot is going to inadvertently fly his aircraft within 10 nautical miles of the McCormick Place convention center.

That is going to be a “no-no.” Whoever that pilot is will turn out to have committed a serious federal offense.

I’M SURE THE conservative ideologues will try to twist the incident into some major overstep by federal government – all because the NATO summit is being held there and Federal Aviation Administration regulations are being imposed for security measures.

They will be anxious for anything that can be twisted into the Obama administration abusing its authority for political purposes – which is nonsense, of course!

But the fact is that there are going to be a lot of high-level security measures imposed during the next few days – reaching a peak come Saturday through Monday when the world leaders will be in our fair city (or at least in hotel and conference rooms within our city) to try to negotiate deals that theoretically could provide that “world peace” that so many beauty pageant winners say they desperately want to work toward.

Somehow, I sense the end result of these measures is going to be a p’o-ed population that is going to view the presence of NATO in Chicago as nothing more than an inconvenience in their daily lives.

PERHAPS THAT WAS the intent of the people organizing the event. Have everybody focus attention on the protesters, and make them believe that all the inconveniences are because of “those people.”

Which would be nonsense. Then again, nonsense usually has a sense of prevailing.

Will they get the blame?



And considering that many people are going to view the NATO summit as the reason they couldn’t have their morning cup of coffee while riding the commuter train to work, it might well work.

Some people are self-centered enough to view events purely by the minute manner in which it impacts them.

THAT IS THE thought that popped into my mind the other day when I read about the security restrictions that will be imposed on Metra commuter train riders who try to get themselves to work.

Only one commuter line will be directly impacted – the Metra Electric line that runs from Randolph Street station to University Park, with spurs that go to Blue Island and to 91^st Street in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Basically, they’re closing down the bulk of the city-based stations, which will put South Side residents in a bind when trying to figure out how to get to work. They will have the serious imposition.

But the suburban people will be imposed as well, as officials are restricting the size of bags that people can carry on board the train, forbidding them from bringing their bicycles on board.

AND NO MORE of those aforementioned coffee cups – or any other food or drink.

As someone who used to use the Metra Electric commuter line on a regular basis (and still rides it on occasion because I detest having to pay for parking in the Loop), my mind’s ear can hear the rants and rages.

I’m wondering just how intense the whining and moaning will be when people also learn of the other security provision – people are being warned that they may be searched before being allowed to board a commuter train.

The only aspect some care about

Considering that I have seen many people throughout the years who honestly believe that they can arrive at the train station in the final seconds before a commuter train pulls in, how will they react to learning that they’re supposed to show up earlier than usual so they can be patted down?

WHAT ABOUT THE museums? I don’t know how much of an inconvenience it is for the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium (all located near the South Loop along the lakefront) to be closed.

Although I’m sure there will be someone who planned a trip to Chicago for this weekend for the explicit purpose of visiting those facilities who will manage to be grossly offended that their “vacation” was interfered with by something as “trivial” as NATO.

Because somehow the trivia of our daily lives will manage to become all-important to some people come week’s end.

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O’Hare still a focal point for nation, and the lessons we learn as a society

O'Hare International Airport has experienced physical changes since this 1960's postcard image. Yet it remains a place with an impact on the soul of the nation -- even when things occur at other airports.

It always seems to be about Chicago whenever airports get involved, even if it happens in some other city.

Chicago has always been a focal point for the nation’s aviation system, regardless of the mode of transportation. To this day, there are many of those hundreds of thousands of flights each year at O’Hare International Airport that involve people headed from one place to another – who make their connection here.

SO SHOULD IT be any shock that when controversial incidents occur involving airplanes, somehow Chicago will be involved.

One such incident took place at Reagan Airport near Washington, D.C. (I’ll bet the ideologues are wishing today that it were still known as National Airport), where it seems that an air traffic controller fell asleep on the job.

At least two flights headed for Reagan Airport wound up having to land without the assistance of someone in the control tower.

On the one hand, it means those were incredibly skilled pilots who managed to bring down their airplanes without causing commotion, a collision with another flight, or some other form of catastrophe.

BUT IT ALSO means that the people whose job it is to keep the various incoming flights under control were literally “asleep” at the wheel. And yes, one of those flights was one that originated from Chicago and was carrying 63 passengers to the nation’s capital.

I’m sure those people are now feeling a bit queasy to learn the lone control tower staffer wasn’t alert at the moment they were trying to land, and wound up having to contact Federal Aviation Administration officials at a facility about 40 miles from the airport, in order to receive any assistance whatsoever in trying to land.

That facility usually exists to keep small aircraft from getting anywhere near close to Reagan Airport, so as to make it easier for the control tower to guide aircraft in and out of the major airport for our nation’s capital.

For the record, the FAA is acting very offended by all this behavior. At least one person has been suspended, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ordered at least two people to work at all times in the Reagan Airport control tower – including the overnight shfit.

NOW I’M NOT one who flies very often. Not that I have a fear of flying (I actually see it as being safer than riding in a car, since it is a lot easier for some seriously incompetent people to get driver’s licenses than to get a pilot’s license).

But I have to admit this moment makes me wary of the whole process. It’s like driving an automobile and not being sure if the traffic signals are going to be working properly. All it would have taken was one seriously incompetent pilot and this whole situation would have become a mess.

It would have been one that would have entangled our own city’s flights. Because just as much as the Internet makes us all one big world and shows how arbitrary our local boundaries are, aviation has just as much of an effect.

Another aviation story cropped up into the news on Thursday, and it too had a Chicago angle – even though the dateline for this particular incident was “DETROIT –.”

A MAN WITH sympathies to al-Qaida had a desire to make his political/religious/social statement by causing an explosion on board an airplane – specifically a commercial flight.

Yes, he considered pulling his devastating and deadly action on a flight out of Chicago – perhaps envisioning us getting all emotional over the sight of an airplane exploding in the skies just moments after leaving O’Hare. It sounds too similar to the explosion some 25 years ago of the Challenger space shuttle – the one that caused schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe’s name to be placed on school buildings across the country as a tribute in the years since.

But this particular activist/radical/terrorist (personally, a prefer the word “nutcase”) ran into a very real practicality in trying to pull off this scam. Flights involving Chicago were just too expensive.

He couldn’t’ afford the tickets that would have gained him access to the aircraft. So, he shifted his attention to Detroit, according to the Associated Press newswire service.

NOT THAT THE people of Michigan should be expecting to see this happen any time soon. The plot got thwarted. The individuals involved are now trying to figure out how to cope with federal criminal charges, while also achieving their ultimate goal of spiritual perfection over a nation of “infidels.”

And we are left trying to figure out where the next batch of nutcases who use religion as a disguise for the reactionary thought against western world society will try to strike next.

So perhaps we in Chicago should not relax too much. Maybe the next batch of people seeking to make a statement with violence will have a little bit more money to afford an airline ticket originating at O’Hare International or Midway airports.

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