EXTRA: Chicago a city of conventions, but also of sanctuary as well

Chicago likes to boast that we’re some sort of ultimate destination for places looking to hold a convention.

'Ground Zero' of the immigration protest movement this week

We have all these hotels, along with facilities capable of staging such events. When combined with all the other attractions of the city that people can stop by and visit while doing business here, we’d like to think there just isn’t any legitimate reason for people to want to do a convention elsewhere.

OF COURSE, THERE are those who’d rather have their events in Las Vegas – figuring that out-of-towners would feel more comfortable with gambling away their money rather than taking the time to study our city.

But nonetheless, we like to think we’re a major convention center. To the point that it becomes a big deal when Chicago actively tries to chase away a group that wanted to hold its professional gathering here.

But that’s just the case with the convention that began Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis Hotel – located just a block away from the McCormick Place convention hall.

For it seems the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency put together a program for all the businesses they work with in the course of their work. It would be a gathering of a who’s who of the federal immigration enforcement world. A chance for them to talk shop about their industry.

WHICH INCLUDES THE ways and means by which people are deported from the United States. Which, since we’re a sanctuary city that officially does not cooperate with the federal government in terms of enforcing immigration laws means we don’t even want their business.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot went so far as to try to get the hotel chain to kick the federals out, get them to find some other city to hold their gathering. It didn’t work. They’re still here in Chicago, and it means we’ll get to see people picketing the hotel to express their disgust with what it is these people do for a living.

It does seem that the hotel has agreed to prohibit immigration officials from trying to detain any guest of the hotel whose citizenship status is not quite clear. But that’s as far as they’re willing to go. They don’t want to lose any business.

So the gathering took place, with acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan being the key speaker Tuesday. And this will be one event that many Chicagoans will be more than glad to see finish its business and move on by week’s end.

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71 years later, and yet the Woody Guthrie tune remains ever-so relevant

Good bye to my Juan/Good bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos Jesus y Maria
You won’t have a name/When you ride the big airplane
All they will call you/Will be ‘deportees’
--Plane Wreck at Los Gatos/Woody Guthrie (1948)

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It’s kind of scary to think that a song composed some 70-plus years ago remains so dead-on accurate this far into the 21^st Century. Yet that seems to be the case with the famed protest tune “Deportee.”

Composed and originally performed by Woody Guthrie, the same man who gave us “This Land is Your Land,” the tune has come to be associated with folk singer Pete Seeger and has been covered by so many differing artists – including some such as Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash whom I’m sure many would think fit the profile of the “real America” the ideologues claim they support.

THE SONG WAS motivated by Guthrie being offended by the New York Times account of the Jan. 28, 1948 plane crash near Los Gatos Canyon – not far from Fresno, Calif. Guthrie was bothered by the fact that the report clearly identified the members of the flight crew , while merely dismissed the 28 migrant farm workers on their way back to Mexico as “deportees.”

Which, I would suspect, is exactly the way that the proponents of the immigration raids that President Donald Trump has been screeching and screaming about for months would like to see happen yet again.

The raids were supposedly (or at least according to the rumor mill that Trump is openly encouraging) set to occur Sunday – possibly in the early hours. Many hundreds, if not thousands, of foreigners whom the ideologues are determined to think of as criminal just for their very existence in this country will be woken up from their sleep, hauled off by authorities, and eventually put onto an airplane taking them to Brownsville, Texas – where a bus will then transport them across the border to Mexico.

The last thing we’re supposed to think about is the fact that these individuals are human beings, with lives and individualities. Who probably are doing work in this country that make a worthwhile contribution to our society.

NOT THAT THE ideologues want to hear any of this kind of talk. It was just a week ago I encountered someone (who actually is a decent-enough human being) who tried to justify his nativist thoughts by saying he’s really only against Somalis – whom he claims are absolutely refusing to assimilate to the ways of life of our nation.

I don’t doubt that any effort to do reporting on the actual deportation process to bring humanity to these people will be regarded as somehow being un-American. Although to me, the actual “un-American” conduct is having the authorities bust down people’s doors and haul them off – possibly before anyone is truly awake and aware of what is happening. Just like in the modern-day Russia or North Korea whom Trump claims aren't really all that bad!

Now it’s always possible that the anticipated deportations won’t be as extensive as some fear – and are merely trash-talk meant to feed the mini-mentalities of those people who want to think Donald Trump is a true patriot – rather than just an egotistical buffoon with a bloated view of his self-importance. Maybe Monday will feel like a relief.

But the way in which the Trump-types keep insisting they’re targeting people with arrest records in this country (and could accidentally pick up others in the process) makes it seem like Guthrie was on to something all those years ago when he wrote: “They chase us like outlaws/Like rustlers, like thieves.”

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Racial relations not quite as positive these days as we’d like to think

The south Cook County suburbs of Homewood and Flossmoor are a pair of municipalities that like to think they’re doing something right when it comes to race relations – that somehow they’ve reached a level of peace and cooperation other places ought to try to mimic.

'National' news occurring at Kedzie and Flossmoor Rd.

But then we look at the antics this week at the high school district that covers the two suburbs – and perhaps it shows we still have a ways to go before we reach the desired levels of racial harmony.

IT WOUND UP becoming news this week about the antics of some white students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School who thought of it as fun and games to be seen out in public wearing their high school colors (the Vikings wear red and white) and faces painted in black.

Like many other young people, they felt the need to document their behavior (including a trip to the local McDonald’s) on social media outlets. Which means things became public.

Black students at the high school took offense. The issue has become a big stink. And for what it is worth, school officials called a meeting on Sunday with the parents of the students they could identify.

School officials won’t say exactly what they told those parents, or what they intend to do with the students – citing state laws that provide young people with some protections of confidentiality.

THAT IS WHAT has the black segment of the Homewood-Flossmoor student body outraged. They WANT public disclosure. They want these little white twerps to be shamed, and perhaps have some sense of stigma attached to them for their nonsense antics.

They think the high school administration is covering up for the white students, with some going so far as to tell the Daily Southtown newspaper that if a black student were to have been caught doing something equally stupid, he (or she) would have faced immediate expulsion.

That is what led to the student walkout that took place Tuesday, with many of the black-majority of the student body marching around the neighborhood surrounding the campus to express their outrage.

For what it’s worth, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that police from the two suburbs were joined by officers from Matteson, Park Forest and the Illinois State Police to patrol the area – although there wound up being no arrests, or any examples of behavior that could be construed as improper.

EXCEPT, PERHAPS, TO those people who think that the concept of free expression of ideas is somehow subversive to the American Way of life! Particularly when it’s being done by people who don’t look like themselves in the mirror.

It’s going to be interesting to see how these racial tensions linger, and if they’re capable of dying down. Although it could be argued that they were inevitable.

Personally, I didn’t attend Homewood-Flossmoor High School, although I have two nephews who did. I DID attend a high school in a nearby community, and H-F High was considered one of our athletic arch-rivals.

But back in the days some nearly four decades ago when I was in high school, Homewood and Flossmoor were overwhelmingly lily-white communities. The extent to which there was diversity was the existence of some Jewish people living in Flossmoor.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED. The most recent Census Bureau population count (of 2010) showed Homewood barely with a white majority (54.7 percent, which dropped to 50.7 percent if you subtracted those who identified ethnically as Latino or Hispanic), while Flossmoor already had developed a 56.7 percent African-American majority population. Some might want to say the communities have accepted black people.

But for what it’s worth, the news accounts (which are spreading nationally, the student walkout is turning up in news reports from around the United States) indicate the H-F High enrollment is some 69 percent African-American. That could be evidence that many kids of white people living in the communities are following the lead of Chicago city residents and sending their kids to private schools instead.

By the time the Census Bureau does the next national count (on April 1, 2020), I suspect both communities will officially be African-American majority, with a still-sizable white population that remembers the “good ol’ days.”

While the developing black people majority will feel no sense of love lost for what used to exist locally. With incidents such as the inanity of white kids thinking “black face” is funny likely to become the norm and everybody convinced that it’s “someone else’s fault” that things became the way they are now.

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Taunting the taunters; or is intimidation really the all-American way of life?

By now, I’m sure everyone inclined to care (and probably even many who don’t care) have seen the photo of that smug teenager feeling compelled to taunt an American Indian activist who was partaking in a march to celebrate his culture.

Will this boy's image from Saturday become as well-known … 

The event was the Indigenous Peoples’ March that took place in Washington, D.C., and we’ve now seen the group of protesters from Catholic schools who felt compelled to have their anti-abortion protest at the same time and place.

WHICH RESULTED IN the confrontation that included students getting in the faces of those people wishing to celebrate their American Indian cultures. There even are the pictures of teens doing that silly Atlanta Braves-like gesture with the tomahawk – as though they are clubbing the activists and mocking their culture as well.

But the image that most will stick in the public mindset will be that of the kid wearing one of those Donald Trump-style red caps with his “Make America Great Again” slogan. Even though the way we’d really make this country great again would be to have the indigenous activists put a boot or two up the behind of every single one of these snot-nosed brats.

What bothers me the most is the fact that these kids claimed they were expressing themselves (which they have a right to do in our society) as some sort of religious gesture.

The Catholic school these kids attend, to their credit, has already denounced their conduct and hinted they could face some sort of official discipline for their garish behavior.

… as that of this teenage girl from mid-1950s Little Rock, Ark.?

BUT I SUSPECT these kids are going to grow up into adults who, on some level, will take great pride in the fact that they acted like a batch of twits. Perhaps on some level like all those Southern whites of some 60 years ago who protested against all those black Civil Rights activists.

Who may well have held their greatest contempt for those white people who sided with the blacks in their desire for equal treatment!

As much as many of us would like to think this Age of Trump is just a silly fad that will die off once the man is removed (one way or another) from the presidency, these kids are likely to grow into adulthood carrying on such attitudes.

Intimidation was the intent, both now and back then

They may well try to pass them along to future generations. They certainly are going to resent anybody who tries to remember them as behaving like a batch of brats this past weekend.

IT WAS TRULY an embarrassing sight for us to have to see such tacky behavior in public. Even though we’re officially going to regard it as such, there also will be many who will want to defend it.

As though they think they have a right to harass and intimidate those in our society who aren’t exactly like themselves.

So yes, I can comprehend that when it comes to racial and ethnic relations, things are better now than they were a half-century or so ago because we no longer have the letter of the law reinforcing the attitudes of the more ignorant amongst us.

Does this man who protested in Boston against school busing think using the flag as a weapon makes him a "real" American?

But there are those individuals determined to cling to the past, and take it on as some sort of crusade to restore the narrow-minded ideals of the past. Which may well be the most contemptable aspect of the Age of Trump – his existence gives those people aid and comfort to support their ignorance.

PARTICULARLY SINCE THE kids in question come from a Catholic school in Kentucky – meaning these kids made a special trip to the national capital and felt compelled to express their xenophobic hang-ups.

I guess they’ve never heard that old cliché about remaining silent and be thought of as a fool, rather than speaking out and removing all doubt. Then again, they probably think Mark Twain was just a guy who wrote a boring book they’re forced to read in English classes.

Which also makes me suspect they’re going to be inclined to think of Monday’s Martin Luther King, Jr., birthday commemorations as something that brings them mixed feelings.

They get an extra day out of school, but they’re not about to do anything meaningful to acknowledge their day off!

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Do we over-react to, and in effect empower, very notion of Farrakhan?

A part of me becomes amused every time I learn of an incident where someone becomes offended by the very concept of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

We won't see encore come January of 2017 women's march in Chicago

Then again, another part of my essence is bothered by people who want to demonize Farrakhan as the ultimate example of antisemitism in this country.

BECAUSE MY OWN thought is to think of the group with their mosque down around 73^rd Street and Stoney Island Avenue as a fringe element – one that almost borders on irrelevance in the daily lives of the bulk of our society.

Do we manage to elevate their significance every time we try to portray Farrakhan as some sort of demon presence? Are we managing to over bloat the egos of those people inclined to think of Elijah Muhammad as a grand historic figure (and Malcolm X as some sort of renegade)?

And are we feeding into the victim mentality of modern-day Nation of Islam members into thinking they are the ultimate victims – being picked upon by the masses of our society.

Particularly by all those white people amongst us, including the many who do have their racial hang-ups.

FARRAKHAN: Seems to enjoy offending masses

THOUGHTS OF THE Nation of Islam popped into my head on the Day After Christmas when I read news accounts of how there won’t be a Women’s March next month in Chicago.

The event that in recent years has cropped up in placed across the nation to give women a chance to express themselves and show they’re not going to be intimidated into submission in our society was to be held locally on Jan. 19.

The past two years have seen the women march in great numbers (several thousands of people) through the streets of downtown to Grant Park – with the crowds being so great that some marchers hadn’t even begun their walk yet while others were already gathered at the park on the lakefront.

But not in 2019.

IT SEEMS THE Chicago activists who would have coordinated the local version of the Women’s March are upset that the national leadership have expressed support for Farrakhan.

Or maybe it’s that they haven’t thoroughly repudiated Farrakhan enough to satisfy certain elements of society – particularly people who are bothered by the fact that Farrakhan himself gave a speech earlier this year where he both praised Women’s March Inc. leaders, while also blaming “the powerful Jews are my enemy.”

Or, quite possibly, it’s that a whole lot of disparate groups are upset thinking that somebody else is trying to usurp the position they think they ought to have as the ultimate victim?

I’m wondering if the Chicago activists (who say they’ll hold their own event to be held separate of the Women’s Marches that will take place in Washington, D.C., and other cities across the nation) are really doing nothing more than empowering the Farrakhan followers.

GIVING THEM MORE reasons to think he’s a great man worthy of dignity and their respect – instead of just another crackpot saying whatever he thinks will gain him some public attention regardless of how ridiculous he sounds or how offensive he comes off as being.

Farrakhan followers congregate on Stoney Island, and nowhere else

And yes, I’m very aware that some people will read that last sentence and think I’m attacking Farrakhan himself.

Even though a part of me thinks we all tend to focus way too much attention on the man himself.

I’m sure the only real winners in all of this verbal brouhaha turns out to be that segment of our society that takes great pleasure from this Age of Trump we’re now in – as I’m sure they view the constant haggling amongst the majority of us as evidence of their own narrow-mindedness having a touch of legitimacy.

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Some in Catholic church want to attach “exorcism” label to homosexuality

An exorcism, of sorts, took place just last week in the Avondale neighborhood.

A 'Page One' controversy

There, officials with the Resurrection parish held a ceremony where they burned a decades-old banner; as part of their desire to express their opposition to homosexual behavior of any sorts.

THE BANNER THAT was burned is one that belongs to the church. It’s their own property, which means that the letter of the law says they can do what they want with it.

The banner is one that used to be prominently displayed in the church – it incorporates a Christian cross with a colorful rainbow. It most likely was intended to be a peaceful image. As in, “Love of Christ” and all that kind of talk.

But in today’s mentality, the ideologues determined to put a hostile spin on just about everything see a similarity between their banner (which had been in storage in recent years) and the multi-colored rainbow-motif flags that gay rights activists often unfurl on behalf of their own cause.

Which led church officials to hold the ritual of exorcism to chase the demonic influence away from their church building.

SERIOUSLY!

Church officials said they viewed their peaceful banner as having evolved into something by which pro-gay propaganda was trying to express itself within their allegedly hallowed halls.

To me, I can’t help but see the activity at Resurrection Church as bordering on grotesque. People with far too much free time on their hands trying to come up with yet more ways to taunt those who aren’t like themselves.

CUPICH: Being challenged by his priests

I’d be willing to dismiss it as too petty to be taken seriously, except that it seems these church officials are eager to look to their past to find ways of justifying their backward thoughts.

ALL THE MORE reason why I find the idea of “Make America Great Again” to be inherently false. I suspect these parishioners think they’re merely making their church ‘great again’ by seeking out absurdly-outdated ideology.

Then again, these people probably are the same ones going about wearing their red caps in hopes of intimidating others around them. It’s embarrassing that too many church officials have the same mentality of the schoolyard bully of old.

What scares me is that this rhetoric, which officially is being denounced by Chicago Archdiocese Cardinal Blasé Cupich, is too similar to the acts back in 2013, when the Bishop of the Springfield, Ill., Catholic diocese decided to express his opposition to then-Gov. Pat Quinn approving the law that made gay marriage legitimate in Illinois by holding an exorcism on behalf of the whole state.

Are we literally going to have church officials holding their ritual to chase the Satanic spirits they see around every corner? Which to the masses merely brings up tacky memories (Ragen’s head twisting completely around?) of that 1973 horror film, “The Exorcist.”

I SUSPECT THAT most people don’t understand a thing about what exorcism really was. Just as many people probably have the whole of their religious knowledge coming from scenes of the 1956 film “The Ten Commandments.”

Extent to which most comprehend exorcisms

Is actor Charlton Heston really their vision of a holy man?

My comprehension of exorcism is that it was often used in olden times as a way of dealing with ailments we now comprehend as evidence of mental illness. It’s not a process anybody turns to these days, unless they’re desperately determined to live in the past.

Although I suspect many of those who approved of the banner burning that took place last week are amongst those who would be grossly offended if the banner had been the Stars and Stripes, and who have holy-like visions in this Age of Trump when they think of our nation’s current commander-in-chief.

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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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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Call it a ‘win’ for Quinn – for now

One-time Gov. Pat Quinn, the man who’s leading the effort to tell Rahm Emanuel he can’t run for a third term as Chicago mayor, has at least one point going in his favor.

Pat Quinn not likely to 'play nice' … 

The Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners says that amongst the 87,000-plus signatures of support on the nominating petitions to put a term limits proposal on the ballot for the Nov. 6 elections in the city, there are 54,995 that are valid.

WHICH IS IN excess of the 52,533 minimum that Quinn needs to have for his measure to have a chance of being put up for consideration by voters.

Of course, there still are issues of whether there’s room for Quinn’s referendum question because of the City Council’s effort to crowd stray issues off the ballot. There’s also the issue of whether Quinn goofed when his petitions asked people to consider both term limits AND creation of a consumer advocate for taxpayers.

An issue that some people cynically say is meant to create a position that Quinn himself could hold in the future. Which would be a brilliant political move, if he can pull it off.

Eliminate Emanuel (who already has served two terms as Chicago mayor) and gain himself a post to fill – since he lost his bid for Illinois attorney general back in the primary and may not be able to win election to a more-conventional political post.

… as he challenges Rahm Emanuel's political future

THE BOTTOM LINE amongst all this is that there’s a long way to go before we know if the mayoral election cycle of 2019 will consist of Emanuel and a dozen-or-so people who can only fantasize about replacing him; or will it be just the political dreamers on the ballot next year.

Because even if the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners thinks in favor of the Mighty Quinn, this is a case bound to wind up with lawsuits in the courts and all of the rulings appealed all the way to the very top.

It will be the Illinois Supreme Court that ultimately decides whether or not Quinn’s hard-ball political maneuvering actually bears some line of logic within the law.

What other issues are of note this coming week in this wonderous land along the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan?

ORDER IN THE COURT? I’LL TAKE A HAM-ON-RYE:  Anybody who seriously watches our legal system knows that the people who work in at have touches of “control freak” within them.

VAN DYKE: Was his speaking out contemptable

Take the case of Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago cop facing criminal charges for the shooting death of a teenager. He’s supposed to go on trial this week, but the legal proceedings will step up with a special hearing on Saturday – with the great legal issue of whether Van Dyke ought to be held in jail while the trial takes place.

Van Dyke gave interviews to the Chicago Tribune and to WFLD-TV, trying to portray the public perception of himself as something other than a thug. That has the special prosecutor brought in to handle the case upset – and he wants Judge Vincent Gaughan to find the cop in contempt.

Considering that Gaughan has gone to extremes to control what people have been able to say publicly about this case, he may well decide in favor as part of his efforts to maintain order. Anyway, it means the activity around the Criminal Courts building will be more active compared to what usually would take place in the days of a Labor Day holiday weekend,

JAZZ ‘FANS’:  It will be an intriguing weekend for fans of jazz music. The city’s annual Jazz Festival will take place through Sunday, with famed composer Ramsey Lewis scheduled to give on Saturday what some are billing as his final Chicago concert ever. 

Jazz 'fans likely to celebrate this weekend

Although I hear that phrase and can’t help but wonder if Lewis, who has produced more than 80 albums during his lengthy career, has a touch of the Rolling Stones in him. How many times have we heard of that crew making their “last performance ever” – or last until they change their mind and decide to perform yet again.

One other thought. Should the gubernatorial campaign of J.B. Pritzker consider the Jazz Fest, and all other events held at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, to be free advertising?

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‘Whole world was watching’ Chicago 50 years ago; does it still care now?

I was a mere child just a few days away from my third birthday on the days some 50 years ago this week when the Chicago police engaged in their officially riotous behavior that included use of so much tear gas that even patrons of the upscale Conrad Hilton Hotel wound up impacted.

History Museum artifacts of convention protests

For that matter, it was exactly five decades ago Tuesday that the protests taking place to express objections to U.S policy in Vietnam reached the peak of some protesters being thrown through the glass of the hotel’s front windows – and some protesters who tried fleeing police beatings wound up being dragged back outside the hotel before being administered a walloping in the name of “law and order.”

I’VE HEARD THE stories throughout my life, and those images pop into my head every time I have reason to walk past the hotel. Trying to envision the carnage that occurred in a stretch of Michigan Avenue that would like to think itself too refined for such uncouth behavior.

It definitely was not the typical presidential nominating convention such as the one held in Chicago 28 years later – that event held at the United Center felt like a political pep rally and I recall many people wishing their access to the arena included a pass to the team clubhouses so they could stop by and check out Michael Jordan’s locker.

What was supposed to happen

But it caught my attention that amongst all the stories being published in recent weeks commemorating the fifth-decade anniversary (of sorts) of the event that some people are determined to put their own partisan political spin on what happened all those years ago.

Even from some who, like myself, only have second-hand memories and tales to tell of the events of the Democratic National Convention of ’68.

THE CONVENTION HAPPENINGS did eventually result in an investigation – one that found the police to be responsible for the outlandish and violent behavior that occurred. A “police riot” was the official term used to describe the events.

Convention craze incorporated into film

Even though then-Mayor Richard J. Daley always tried defending police behavior by citing it as “fact” that nobody was killed amongst the violence. As though he wanted to think police showed restraint in the way they conducted themselves.

Similar to those people who these days probably think police officer Joseph Van Dyke – who is set to go on trial in a couple of weeks – was merely serving and protecting the Chicago populace when he fired all those shots into a teenager who may or may not have posed a physical threat to those nearby.

I don’t doubt there are people who think it was 50 years ago today that the world went haywire, and their idea of “Make America Great Again” includes returning to those days when a cop was a hero – and the perps all got what they deserved.

Convention outcome an afterthought?

I LITERALLY STUMBLED across an anonymous Internet comment recently about how it was the reporting of the convention happenings (both inside the International Amphitheater where the political rallies occurred and outside where the protests happened) that was flawed.

It was Walter Cronkite, this person wants to believe, who “lied” to the American people about what happened in Chicago, all as part of a plot to promote the anti-war message that the activists were trying to spread.

The “most trusted man in America” was supposedly an un-American freak? A conspiracy between the protesters and news media organizations?

It definitely seems like someone is trying to revise history in the image of The Donald; making sure our perception of past events coincides with this modern-day Age of Trump we’re all supposed to want to live in now.

THEN AGAIN, THE kind of people who want to believe this most likely are the grand-children of those gullible enough to believe all the Yippie-activist rhetoric of 50 years ago that they were going to spike the city’s drinking water supply (as in Lake Michigan) with LSD.

Which was something that activist Abbie Hoffman always encouraged because it would make he and his group seem much more powerful if they were actually capable of doing such a thing.

I don’t doubt that tales of protesters throwing bags of excrement at police have some bearing in truth. It was just the kind of behavior that would offend certain types of people into voting for Richard M. Nixon’s “law and order” platform and to thinking the only real wrong was that he was driven from office six years later.

As for the rest of us, we’ll wonder about the passage of time. And perhaps try to speculate on what Mayor Daley REALLY said in response to then-Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut when the latter accused the Chicago police of “Gestapo-like tactics” in their behavior of some five decades ago.

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With all these felons in Trump entourage, it’s ESPN that’s at fault

Years from now, when we look back at this Age of Trump and try to comprehend just how nonsensical the era was, this week has the potential to be the height of ludicrousness.

TRUMP: Evading reality?

Particularly Tuesday, which was the day that former campaign chair Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight criminal offenses, while former attorney Michael Cohen avoided going to trial by pleading guilty to several offenses. Many political observers are going so far as to call it the “worst day” of the Trump presidency.

SO JUST HOW does Donald J. Trump respond to all of this?

He ventures down to West Virginia to speak to the partisans, and engages in a rant against ESPN – the cable television sports channel that winds up accounting for a significant part of one’s cable TV bill.

Specifically, Trump complained about how the channel – which these days has the Monday Night Football national broadcast rights – is refusing to include the playing of the National Anthem as part of the game broadcast. It is ESPN’s way of not drawing attention to those football players who try to protest their causes during the anthem’s playing.

They’re taking the same attitude we used to take back in my police reporter days when it came to writing about crime involving street gangs – we tried to pretend they didn’t exist on the grounds we didn’t want to glorify the gangbangers.

MANAFORT: Eight convictions

TRUMP APPARENTLY WANTS the anthem played, and every protesting football player caught on camera. Perhaps he thinks there can be a “hit list” of sorts against athletes who try to express their thoughts on issues.

ESPN’s attempt to downplay the issue bothers Trump because it is the very phony issue that he’s been trying to play up – largely because it gives him something to complain about rather than have to acknowledge the serious issues confronting our society.

Such as the growing number of Trump-types who are finding themselves in legal trouble and, particularly in the case of Cohen, could find themselves having to testify someday against the “Big” man himself – the one whose many critics deride him as “the big Cheetoh” on account of that ridiculous fake tan he has.

COHEN: Pleaded guilty to avoid trial

Complaining about ESPN and professional football is so much easier than having to acknowledge all the things going wrong on his watch.

NOW I KNOW some are going to want to point out that Manafort actually was not found guilty of many of the charges he faced, as though that works in his favor. The reality, however, is that all it takes is one “guilty” verdict for the “convict” label to apply. I also heard one legal observer explain that in cases where there is potential for a “hung” jury on certain counts, juries can be persuaded to go for the guilty verdict on some issues, and let everything else up in the air.

Which for the prosecutors who are trying to build up a conviction rate, that works well enough. Manafort is going to go into the history books as a corrupt government official just as much as any other political person who wound up being found guilty.

But Trump? He’ll continue to evade responsibility, acting as though it’s irrelevant.

Which will be made possible by the number of Trump supporters determined to believe in him – largely because they like being able to offend the sensibilities of those people who back in 2016 cast their ballots for having a responsible government in place.

HECK, IN WEST Virginia on Tuesday, there were Trump backers engaging in a “Lock her up!” chant – bringing back memories of the ’16 campaign rhetoric of how a “President Trump” would have opponent Hillary Clinton incarcerated.

Trump thinks the problem lies here

Rather ironic they’d chant that on a day when it’s the Trump allies who literally face a stint in the federal Bureau of Prisons.

But I’m also sure the people making the chants don’t have a clue what it was that Manafort or Cohen have done. They probably think that such details are “Boring!” and that paying attention to them is what is wrong with our government these days.

I understand that some people are just lacking in interest, and that they have a right to be that way. But the fact we have such people, and enough of them to elect a chief executive, IS the reason we are in this Age of Trump, and why it will get even uglier before it’s all over.

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Is this the calm before the storm?

VAN DYKE: Protector of the public?

The idea of August as being the summer doldrums gets reinforced all the more this year – what with the trial of the Chicago cop who faces criminal charges for the shooting death of a teenager back in 2014 finally scheduled to take place.

Come Sept. 5, the Cook County courts will finally get around to holding the trial that will decide the fate of officer Jason Van Dyke – the man who got captured on crude video firing 16 shots into the body of a 17-year-old who may, or may not, have been acting irrationally.

McDONALD: Could he have been a scholar?

THERE’S NO DOUBT that Van Dyke fired the shots that killed Laquan McDonald. The issue in this trial is going to be whether his actions were justified as part of his duties “to serve and protect” the people of Chicago.

Which is going to be a judgment call. It’s clear that no matter what, the public perspective will be such that Chicago will be seriously split. This verdict is going to leave the populace of Chicago seriously p-o’ed.

For every single person determined to believe this is an instance of a police officer committing cold-blooded murder, there’s going to be another individual wanting to believe that McDonald got what he deserved – and that perhaps we ought to be thinking of giving him a medal.

A concept that will seriously offend those who have been outspoken in their rhetoric that Van Dyke belongs in prison. They probably won’t be happy until they hear word that “inmate” Van Dyke was assaulted by fellow inmates while in prison.

THESE FACTIONS OF people are going to be going at each other once the trial gets underway. Which means we ought to regard the next few weeks of August as being the calm before the storm.

How will their reputation be altered?

Before the sides start going at each other with full force. Before the rhetoric gets ultra-ugly, and before things get said and done that manage to bring embarrassment to the public perception of Chicago.

I say full force because we got a little taste of what will be forthcoming this very weekend.

It was the Bud Billiken Parade, and the parade’s co-grand marshal, rap singer Vic Mensa, managed to ruffle the sensibilities of police. Mensa on Saturday carried a “Convict Jason Van Dyke” banner. Police officers on duty to maintain order during the parade gathered around him.

WORDS WERE SPOKEN between the two sides, and Mensa at one point taunted the police to arrest him. Daring them to make a national story out of the event by taking him into custody!

Police maintained enough professional restraint to avoid escalating the incident. But it is likely once the trial gets underway and we begin getting the daily dribble of testimony, we’re likely to learn something that offends the public sensibility to the point the outbursts will get out of control.

I’m not making a judgment, as the outburst could easily come from either side of those in our society who are going to take offense.

It could easily come from those people who are offended by the testimony that will be presented in the form of animation.

FOR IT SEEMS that the Van Dyke legal defense team wants to give us a very technical version of what happened – depicting some 5 of the 16 shots, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Even if relocated, Cook will get tainted by trial

Perhaps they think that an overly technical visual version of what happened will somehow make the incident seem less offensive and brutal.

Which is a concept that will offend those inclined to believe the worst about police and their brutality towards the people, particularly the segment that could never be described as Anglo in complexion.

I don’t know if it will become (I hope it doesn’t turn out to be) a race riot. But I suspect the next few months will provide anecdotes that will embarrass our city’s public perception – and we’ll all be very grateful come the arrival of 2019.

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