Once there was a mayor

Tomorrow Chicago voters go the polls to elect a new mayor. There are zillions of candidates, so this doesn't mean the election will be settled; the top two will go to a run-off. I don't pretend to understand Chicago politics, so I'll comment no further on the current race.

But it does feel as if a wide open mayor's race in this essential city is something that hardly ever happens. The guy (Richard M. Daley) before the present infuriating and unpopular incumbent (that would be Rahm Emanuel) held the job for six(!) terms.

But back in the day, Congressman Harold Washington's election in 1983 and untimely death after re-election in 1987 brought Black and working class Chicago alive!

We are coming not to suppress anybody but to add our good ..we have not just a right but a responsibility to give the best that we have to a society. We want to give it, and we're going to give it if we have to knock them down and beat them on the head and make them take it. ...

Now there was a mayor and a right leader.