Mayor Daley yearns for war protestors

In a speech at the Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards Wednesday, Da Mare went off on a rhetorical tangent and  rambled in his remarks to lament “What happened to America?”

Mayor Daley on war protests: ‘What Happened to America?’ | WBEZ Blog | blogs.vocalo.org.

It’s worth a listen.  As much as he vexes us all now, life will certainly be more boring when he’s gone.  No one else, short of the old timer nursing an Early Times down at the Liquor & Tap, could deliver such a disjointed jeremiad about the country’s woes.  The most jaw-dropping comment was his lament over the absence of war protesters on the streets of Chicago.  Why aren’t they out there screaming about the country’s involvement in open-ended, ill-planned and expensive wars?

Maybe because the city almost never issues the permits it requires for any kind of meaningful public assembly, then lines the streets with police in riot gear so that no one will be able to get the 1968 Days of Rage out of their minds.

The cynic in me says that part of his newfound concern arises from the fact that his son Patrick is being deployed for his second tour of duty in the US Army.  Then again, in defense, my cynic is usually reliable.