O'Hare battle costly for Elk Grove

When the battle over O'Hare expansion commenced, I wrote and suggested to Mayor Craig Johnson that it was a losing battle, and that he or his representatives sit down with Chicago representatives, determine what they wanted, compute what we could live with and settle the thing. Rather, he chose the litigation method that has cost the village unknown sums of money. When I call the finance office and request an estimate of the funds spent, "someone" always will get back to me. And the "dream team of lawyers" has lost every case that has been adjudicated.

Mayor Johnson announced that we definitely would win the cemetery case as it involved religion, death, sacred ground, emotion and so forth. Well, again, we lost! The lead attorney was "astonished" that a precedent had been set to relocate the 1,300 graves. I wonder if he bothered to look at the "Eisenhower case," which involved the same arguments, and the cemetery backers lost as we have lost. The Eisenhower was built, and I wonder how many drivers are concerned about the relocation of the graves blocking that roadway. That was a good enough precedent to preclude filing a lawsuit.

Further, the mayor should dispense with his juvenile threats to meet Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in a "winner take all" cage wrestling match -- that made him sound like a juvenile whose final gasp is, "My dad can beat up your dad."

In one of my letters, I suggested he count the number of "votes" in his hip pocket and compare it to the number of votes Daley could muster. Again, we lose.

I realize he is committed to fighting O'Hare expansion. However, as our platoon sergeant in Korea said, "When you are outgunned, outflanked and outmanned, get … out of there." That is advice I well remember, and I suggest that the mayor consider such a course of action.

David H. Pollack

Elk Grove Village