C. Dwayne West / CEO, MG Media

PUBLISHER'S PEACE

What Room?

So-called experts say that when you have powerbrokers in the 'ROOM', you should allow issues to be heard without disturbances. OK. Correct. But a few community advocates expressed that the black people who protested at the South Shore Cultural Center (ROOM) should not have interrupted the mayor of Chicago, who attended to hear people's concerns. You can't call an open air forum with hundreds of angry ass people, the 'ROOM.'

The 'ROOM' is when power brokers, i.e: the mayor, the governor or others, invite select leaders or spokespersons for the (angry ass) people to an enclosed 'ROOM' to calmly or angrily discuss relevant issues. This can be somewhere within City Hall or at a private establishment like Mama Wade's restaurant, where the mayor and governor have met many times in the past with people in private.

So for these activists to express disappointment in the (angry) people because they didn't sit down and shut up to let the mayor give his normal scripted speech is unfair of them. First, these (angry) protesters have every right to be pissed! Second, if Rahm really wanted to hear from the people, he would have invited the protester's leadership to a private 'ROOM' without show, cameras and interruptions.

It's similar to when police chief Garry McCarthy went on his negro tour to hear people's concerns about violence and crime. He knew how people felt before he arrived. People's frustration have bubbled up for decades. Most of the people who commented openly about being saddened that the protesters interrupted the mayor, are the same people who denounced McCarthy's circus tour.

So which is it? The angry people got it right, in my mind. This is for the mayor and others: Don't come to an open forum knowing that hundreds of people are pissed and upset - thinking that something is really going to get done! Folks, when have you ever seen anything get accomplished at a make-shift shouting and chat session like that? We've witnessed on network news where suburban residents screamed angrily at board members and elected officials looking for answers!

Fact for thought: Each of the protesters and their leadership have requested meetings in the 'ROOM' with the mayor for months, if not years. Those dozens of requests were the time for the mayor to invite anyone on the leadership team of protesters to sit with him and hear their community concerns. These recent three town halls were stunts! Clearly the mayor knew he would not be received with opened arms by the very people who he sees standing on LaSalle St. downtown every day, either when he's leaving or returning to the 5th floor.

These protesters are not the same Negroes who love the mayor and follow his every words or moves - good, bad or indifferent. Those blacks, sadly to say, are not even allowed in the real 'ROOM.' Peace and One Love.

I Write to Differ...

NOTE: By the way, in an announcement yesterday, the Dyett school protesters got some of what they starved themselves for. So disrupting the mayor at his stunted town hall must have worked. Maybe the red light camera protesters and others should go on a hunger strike and crash a budget hearing! Hooray for Dyett and its leadership and community servants who served and WON!