Remembering the Past Winning the Future

Earlier this week Judge Thomas Hennelly pronounced Derrick Lemon "a very dangerous person" who acted as if he were "above the law".

I am reminded of Chicago in '94 and Derrick's little brother Eric being thrown out of a high-rise window by two kids only twice his age - Eric having been all of five.

I am reminded that Derrick described how he'd scurried the fourteen cell blocks stories of the Ida B. Wells Prison Homes to the yard below in an attempt to catch him before he hit the ground.

I am reminded that naming housing projects after Black civil rights activists makes liberals feel good about their compromises triumphs and gives conservatives figures to mock failures to point out.

I am reminded of Robert Taylor resigning from the board of the Chicago Housing Authority once the city council had decided that integrated housing would not be as effective as stacking the coloreds in a corner locating the underprivileged centrally.

I am reminded of an instance when politics is local: community activism funding education via property tax.

I am reminded of the Democratic Republic's ability to strike a deal compromise on issues of integration and affordable housing.

I am reminded of treating children like goods to be shipped school busing.

I am reminded of how William Jefferson Clinton gesticulated anti-school privatization with his left hand, while privatizing career centers prisons with his right.

I am reminded that the mighty Rama is betraying what's left of his base skillfully crafting an education policy with his Wall Street hedged, corporate education program sagacious support for charter schools.

I am reminded by the Sun∼Times that this is the way democracy works one great big fuckin' tragedy, but what're ya gonna do?