“Civilization is built on a number of principles….respect for human life, the punishment of crimes against property and persons….in a word justice.”
Max Nordau
Max Nordau in his book Degeneration, published in 1892, railed against the decline in values and their effect on modern society. This weeks brutal video of a group of high school students in Chicago beating and bludgeoning an innocent honor student to death, with boards and kicks to the head illustrate Nordau’s pronouncement.
Michelle Obama was quoted in today’s Chicago Sun Times, Wednesday, September 30, 2009, by Lynn Sweet, as saying, “The Olympic, (Committee), vote won’t be impacted by Chicago crime.” Realistically it may not, crime is allegedly down according to police statistics. That however may be a broad brush painting something untrue. For example, it was recently reported by Los Angeles Mayor ReConquista, (oops I meant Villaraigosa), that crime under Chief Bratton’s ‘Comstat’ program was down significantly – what they failed to mention is that a number of high crime districts were marginalized in those stats – this being a common practice in big cities where mayors with big egos manipulate statistics for their own purposes.
But in the spirit of ‘yes we can, social justice, corrupt politics, community organizing, radical socialism and Saul Alinsky, lets get past that. Chicago has great hot dogs and polish sausage and don’t forget kabasa, sauerkraut, the Cubs and the Chicago Bears, and oh yeah Mike Ditka – aahhh – tradition.
Should Chicago indeed be fortunate enough to secure the Olympics, I am sure the Chicago Democrat’s party machine will order the boards be replaced with the traditional baseball bats, made famous by Chicago gangster Al Capone. I know, I know….where am I going with this? I don’t know either – but hey it’s fun to kid around with words, even though I’m not a politician. Just my opinion – for what it’s worth.
William McCullough
