Chicago crime a lesson in politics
The story of Jennifer Hudson is a common one in the Chicago area. This year the murder rate in Chicago exceeds the death rate in Iraq. Like Iraq there are areas in Chicago that reporters can't safely go.
The stark difference is that Iraq is a war zone and Chicago is a peaceful city in America where gangs and corrupt politicians rule.
Our politicians here in the Windy City get elected by two ways. The first is to promise to protect citizens and "clean up" the city during election time or when we have a bid in for the Olympics. The second is voter fraud.
Voter fraud is nothing new to us here. We often joke about the dead voting and often laugh it off when more people vote than exist in a community.
America is being fooled if they think they can just elect a Chicago politician for a few years. Once in power they actively promote themselves through legislation and backroom deals invisible to the public eye. They look their constituents right in the eye and tell us how much they care about us and our children. Once elected, instead of working to clean up our city and protect our citizens they relentlessly work for "important" city agenda items like "increasing revenue" when priority No. 1 should be to protect our little ones.
Perhaps there isn't enough voter fraud going on right now to interfere with a "fair" win for the Obama/Biden ticket. But I am writing this to warn Americans that once they are in power, they can keep themselves in power indefinitely and there won't be anything we can do about it. Just like we can't do anything about it here.
For the sake of our country it should be added that most murders in Chicago go unsolved. And predictably, none of our local politicians care about that.
Joe Kocan
Warrenville