The Third World Shuffle

One aspect of daily life in modern America that wears me down is having my intelligence insulted. I think casino advertising is the biggest offender, but Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago runs a close second. In the middle of last night, he closed Meigs Field. Sent the dozers and backhoes out and dug big X's in the runway. It's probably legal: the airport belongs to Chicago, and Chicago is Daley's fiefdom.

The excuse (here's where today's insult to intelligence comes in) is that this step was necessary (in the middle of the night) to obviate some threat to downtown Chicago from aircraft on approach to Meigs. The serfs should take no notice of the facts that last week the Mayor denied any knowledge of specific threats on Chicago and that the Mayor has been trying to close Meigs for years.

Roe Conn observed on WLS this afternoon that the Mayor's actions were "sneaky and cowardly." That's on the mark, as was his observation that Chicagoans are probably used to Mayoral sneakiness but do not appreciate cowardliness. Of course, the election was several weeks ago and there is no significant political opposition to the Mayor, so he can do this sort of thing with impunity. The citizenry is either cowed or happy with their piece of the action. That's the Chicago Way.