The Campaign

In his now famous Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, then President Abraham Lincoln stated that "Government of, by, and for the people has not perished from the earth". If such a form of governance hasn't perished and still exists, it's lying in the Emergency Room somewhere on life support. Up to this point, the blog posts I've written were basically geared towards teaching others how to best protect themselves from street criminals. Today, my goal is to lend hope and support towards protecting ourselves from another form of predator. I'm referring to career politicians. All too often, these people study opinion polls and voting trend charts, in an effort to figure out what to say to us that will keep them employed for another term. Once elected, many of them spend the next four years trying their best to line their pockets as quickly and carefully as possible. Most of them can't even do that right, and end up being indicted for some form of corruption. Something happened to me in the 1980's that might help you understand what kind of person I am. I was an Officer in a world famous facility, and responded to a stairwell door alarm.  I encountered two gentlemen from the former Soviet Union, who were onsite for a gathering at a private social club. They'd wandered off in an attempt to scout around like mischievous teenagers, and ended up setting off this alarm. As I began my interview with them, and asked for some form of identification, they both handed me their  passports, and one of them had folded a $100 bill around his passport. Without missing a beat, I gave back the money, and took down his information for my report. My goal was to send a message to the Soviets, that although we are a capitalist society, money, in and of itself, does not rule our decision making processes. We still know how to do our jobs for the wages we're due, and we are not all ruled by an unquenchable desire for every dollar we can lay our hands on. In some small measure, it appears that they got my message, because the Soviet Union of that era is now called the Former Soviet Union. In 1991 when I first ran for a place on the City Council, the salary was $45,000 a year. Today it's $104,000 to $115,000 per year for four years. That's more than enough to keep a roof over my head, and my cowboy hat clean. So far the City Council has allowed the mayor to sell off Chicago's parking meter revenue, parking garages, and if we don't watch out, Midway Airport will be sold. Besides voting responsibly on municipal legislation, my goals upon being elected are to: Enhance public safety in my ward, support local businesses to a degree heretofore unheard of, and consistently  monitor, criticize, badger, and support the Chicago Public School system. Check my earlier posts for a link is to my book, "Personal Security Techniques". I'm raising campaign funds via "Fundly"  at 2015 6th Ward Alderman of Chicago. Thanks for your support!