It's The Same Old Windy City

This week in poetry class we talked about a great poem called "Chicago," by Carl Sandburg. Sandburg describes the city as a new city where people need to work to maintain it and to earn a living. He talks about how the city of chicago is the city of the slugger, and the strong tall man. He also talks about how the man flings magnetic curses so when someone insults you it sticks.

He describes the city as the city of the winner, and he says the city doesn't know what losing is like. He glorifies the working class man and says the benefit of the society should go to people who work the hardest. At the same time he says Chicago is a city of corruption. He goes so far as to say "And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again."

Sandburg describes Chicago in 1916 as the city of the worker, the strong man, the slugger, and the city of corruption, and I think it is not even a stretch to call it that today.

When I read "Chicago" it really reminded me of the politics of Chicago today. Chicago is known around the country as a very liberal city. It constantly elects hard core liberals such as Mayor Richard Daley, Rahm Emanuel, and now President Barack Obama (although I would not label him as a hardcore liberal). These politicians often run on the platform of supporting the average working class citizen. They often make this their top agenda when in office. The funny thing is that in the poem Chicago, Sandburg says that you have to work hard to advance yourself in Chicago, and all three men have done just that. All had to work their way to the top on their own because in Chicago you are not born into anything. Even though Mayor Daley's father was mayor for such a long time, he had to overcome obstacles as well because he was born into a working class family. In Chicago there is no sense of entitlement. If you want to rise to the top you must work hard.

When I read about "flinging magnetic curses," and how citizens of Chicago are not used to losing, I thought about Rahm Emanuel. (How could you not?) Rahm Emanuel is the current White House Chief of Staff to Barack Obama, but before his current job he used to be a Congressman representing the city of Chicago. Rahm is a rough, and tough guy who is famous for swearing excessively, being extremely competitive and strong arming people. There are a few really funny, but really representational episodes involving Rahm Emanuel, which also reflect back upon the city of Chicago as a whole.

Example #1: Rahm Emanuel has been known to mail dead fish to people who get on his nerves. Once a pollster made Emanuel furious by delivering poll results to him after they were expected to be delivered, so Rahm sent him a dead fish in the mail.

Example #2: Back in March of 2010, Congressman Eric Massa who was under investigation for ethical dilemmas involving the harassment of male staffers came forward and revealed that while trying to garner enough votes for President Obama's stimulus package, Rahm Emanuel actually approached Massa in the shower completely naked and started poking Massa trying to strong arm him to vote for the bill.

Massa calls Rahm Emanuel "The son of the Devil's Spawn." He goes on to say that Rahm Emanuel "is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."

WATCH Massa Explain the Ordeal:

I think that Rahm Emanuel is a prime example of the fighting man Carl Sandburg was talking about in his poem "Chicago."

The comparisons of Chicago today compared to the vision of Chicago that Sandburg depicted could go on forever. I will further elaborate on one more point, which I think is important, and that is corruption in Chicago. A recent example of corruption in Chicago that gained national attention was a conspiracy on the part of former Governor Rod Blagojevich. After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, his U.S. Senate seat was left vacant. Under state law, the governor of the state of Illinois is required to appoint an interim senator to fill out the rest of the term of the vacant seat. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who had been wiretapping Governor Blagojevich's phone for a separate issue, claims that he overheard that Governor Blagojevich was planning on selling the senate seat to the highest bidder. "Blago" as he is known for short, was caught on tape saying "I've got this thing [The Senate Seat], and it's f*****g golden. I'm just not giving it up for f*****g nothing.^{" Blagojevich wanted to get people to pay him to put them in the United States Senate. He vehemently denied these claims, but was impeached and convicted in the state legislature and subsequently removed from office. Tapes show that Blagojevich was very interesting in profiting from this position he was in to appoint the next senator by acquiring money, or other political favors. He also thought about appointing himself.}

LISTEN to the tapes of Rod Blagojevich talking about the senate seat. Notice he is not interested in pleasing President Obama, he only wants self gratification from this appointment.

It's funny how the description of Chicago by Carl Sandburg from so many decades ago is still so applicable to the city as it is today.