There is not enough space to detail in any meaningful way what Michael meant to this city and to the “movement” for social justice across this country. That his passing is likely to be missed by the Tribune and the Sun-Times and the rest of media is a reminder to all of us of a grim reality. That being that we live in a world where men whose worth seems to be weighed by how little they care about humanity and instead by how much they can profit from controlling and curtailing the aspirations and wellbeing of human beings. Michael was not one of those men. The good minister lived a life that could be measured in compassion and weighed by his concrete actions in service of a higher moral good.

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On Election Day 87% of Chicagoans allowed to vote for an elected school board, did so. The good news for the Mayor is that that would be nine or ten points lower than the union vote to go on strike. It speaks to a level of unrest and anger that should alarm anyone currently in charge as it has aldermen acting like autonomous beings, reporters acting like journalists and citizens acting like… well citizens. It has transformed Aldermen like Joe Moore (49th) and “Fighting Joe” Moreno (1st) into possibly private citizens next time out and is in the process of transforming a ragtag band of Aldermen into points of opposition. (They would be Ald. John Arena (45th), Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) Ald. Tim Cullerton (38th), Ald. Rick Munoz (22nd), Ald.Robert Fioretti (2nd), Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), Ald. Toni Foulkes (15th) and Ald. Nicholas Sposato (36th). The vote is just the latest clash that has people chanting for a number of candidates to unseat Mayor Emanuel. What the hell is going on?

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I did not know Chris Drew well but what I did know of him was that he was an activist, a good man and dedicated soul. He was a Champion of the City and though monuments and newspapers will not note his passing all of us are the poorer for him not being with us. Jay Becker passed on this Facebook message about how Chris lived and who he was and I thought here at the Tutorial we’d mourn one of our own… an ordinary person, being an extraordinary citizen in a time of deep struggle and desperate strife. Chris Drew got off the bench and was directly involved in democracy. Thank you Chris, rest well.

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One thing you can always count on is that most parents will move mountains to protect, support and secure opportunities for their children. The Chicago Parents for Quality Education (CPQE) are such a group. Yesterday they released a white paper called: The Best Education of the Just the Longest. Clearly not a great step forward in marketing but so incredibly clear and spot on you know that that the Emanuel Administration and the editorial board at the Chicago Tribune could not possibly have understood it as it was written in a language they do not understand… truth.

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​Yesterday the good people from the Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE) attempted what had to have felt like an exorcism on Mayor Rahm Emanuel when they presented him with the terrible and not surprising news that everything he knows about education is wrong. In fact, most of what he knows has been tried before and failed miserably everywhere it has been tried and a lot of it has been tried here before in small doses called probation, intervention, reconstitution, transformation and now the new-improved lunacy entitled turnarounds. He even has indisputable evidence that the direction he’s taking is about as responsible a public policy option as putting a toddler in a hungry python’s cage and hoping for the best.

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For the second time in three years the workers at UE Local 1110 demonstrated what democracy looks like and defended their jobs from the soulless considerations of a corporate “person” who does not care if their children eat or go hungry. The principle foundation of democracy is an active and engaged citizenry; that has the capacity to control, create and prevent change and the workers at UE Local 1110 demonstrate what that means.

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In a sweeping ordinance designed to bar the Chicago Police Department from shutting down cell towers, aiding or engaging in preventive arrest, the track-tracing of activists; where law enforcement and other authorities take information from confiscated electronic devices to target other activists and citizens as well websites and social media sites and finally from directly blocking access to the web in any way shape or form. The ordinance also requires the set up a special committee to credential social justice, community groups, civic and religious organizations and independent media outlets to insure that as many perspectives as is possible are covering the G8/NATO. The idea is to create positive civic pressure on the Chicago Police Department, elected officials and citizen activists to be on their best behavior. In a country where preventive detention and spying are accepted norms Ald. Munoz reminds us how things are supposed to be and that for evil to flourish all good men have to do is… nothing.

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You could make a credible argument that the reason George W. Bush became President and why people don’t know that demand drives an economy or how Medicare and Medicaid work is because we have about the worst high school civics education ever. Fortunately for Chicago there is an alliance of educators who are absolutely affronted that someone can scream fascist-communist-socialist and still be taken seriously in public discourse, like they are an informed individual not the village idiot. They would be the Teachers for Social Justice (TSJ) and for eleven years they’ve been trying to hold democracy together one classroom at a time.

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In the wake of 9/11 the Bush Administration set an anti-Constitutional agenda that has led to documented and widespread abuses of human and civil rights both here and abroad, stripping American citizens of their rights through a mix of programs that range from racial profiling to illegal seizure, detention and in some cases torture. One of these fear-based, anti-Constitutional programs is the ICE Detainer Program. A recent study tells us a number of delightful things about how a program put together by a frightened, faux-Christo-fascist Administration is harming entire communities and destroying the damn Constitution. • 93% were of those arrested are Latinos even though Latinos make up roughly 66% of all undocumented in America. So if you think of the ICE Detainers as being racist and Un-Constitutional you are correct.

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Ameya Pawar is not supposed to be the 47th Ward alderman. His victory, was an alchemy of a couple of progressive organizations doing real footwork, door-to-door campaigning and an honest to God progressive message about being accessible and working to make the ward work for everyone. It was the kind of message that the media absolutely ignored and the Machine as it existed then did not even consider a threat until they were beaten. Now, as a progressive, Ald. Pawar’s first time to the legislative plate he’s going to bat to add “credit history” and “gap in employment history” to the city’s Human Rights Ordinance.

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Thousands of teachers gathered in Washington D.C. to attend the Save Our Schools Conference and between five and eight thousand of them marched on the White House in an expression of something deeper than populist anger. Anger is not what animates the Save Our Schools coalition. They are not involved in some uprising against Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Save Our Schools is a response to reactionary attacks on one of the cornerstones of any republic… its teachers and by extension its children. In a democratic society, based on the concept of meritocracy education is the great equalizer. Save Our Schools is committed to defending this premise with proven educational policies and principles that have worked in the past and will be work in the future.

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Two weeks ago the Grassroots Collaborative brought a few thousand citizen-activists together with nineteen Aldermen at the People’s City Council Meeting. It was a clear enunciation of the difference between the dark side of the force; organized money and the living side of the force; organized people. On one side the anti-human forces of privatization, outsourcing, foreclosing, wage-reducing and benefit eliminating interests. On the other ordinary people who need unions to protect their wages, living wages to take care of their families and government services because there is no market that caters to the poor and the taxes we all pay should support them and the middle classes that make the wealthy possible.

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After a year-long fight the parents of Whittier Elementary School compelled legislators to allocate $364,000 in TIF dollars to renovate the La Casita Parent Youth Center and lease the space out to the Whittier Parent Committee. After being in office for less than sixty days the Emanuel Administration is actively ignoring the agreement, not releasing the TIF funds and punishing this band of dangerously informed, completely engaged and demonstrably prepared parents by literally bulldozing their hopes and dreams for their kids. Asking why the Emanuel Administration is doing this is like asking why a tiger eats meat, they just do.

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That David Protess is retiring at the end of August is a sad day for activism. I am trying to figure out how zealously uncovering facts that led to the exoneration of 11 wrongfully convicted men, five of whom were on death row marks him “controversial” or in some coverage “disgraced”. Protess’ Innocence Project made the Moratorium possible and was one of the reasons Illinois abolished the death penalty earlier this year. Still, this is the same media that wants Julian Assange dragged to America in chains for espionage, concealed President Bush’s illegal spying until after his fraudulent re-election and can’t seem to cover the rampant violations of our civil liberties that Bush began and Obama won’t stop.

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Mick Dumke has been writing about justice and accountability for more than a decade here in Chicago. Full disclosure, I met Mick when I was the Associate Director over at the Community Renewal Society and he was one of the leading lights at the Chicago Reporter. He was smart, aggressive, funny and resourcefully inventive then and he’s only gotten more so since he left the Reporter. Mick is one of the best journalists in Chicago and he is a Champion to City. The best thing that could happen to the city would be if the reporters covering the Mayor were forced to run their copy and story ideas past Mick Dumke because he is a journalist not a stenographer or interested in making the powers that be look good until they do something so egregious that even our press has to say that they’ve done something wrong. Mick Dumke is such a civic-bad ass and all the above is so true the City of Chicago has decided to stop honoring his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

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Anyone who has ever had to deal with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) around one of its nonsensical school closings or with a query about how or where money is being spent has had the feeling that even if they got an answer it wouldn’t make any sense. Well after at least three years of hard work parents, community activists and state legislators defeated attempts by even Mayor Emanuel’s “education team” to pass SB 620. They are truly Champions of the City but the fight for them and us is not over. The Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force will remain as watchdog and partner to monitor CPS and the Board of Education to insure that they live up to their legally mandated permissions. As is always the case at some point they will need your help.

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Last week in Illinois a decade of advocacy ended in a 61-53 vote. The legislation creates a state fund that would route privately funded college scholarships to as many as 95,000 children of undocumented immigrants. It will allow undocumented immigrants ages 18 to 29 with taxpayer-identification cards to invest in the state’s Bright Start and College Illinois programs. This didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen because wise politicians or a small group of powerful people pooled their resources made it happen.

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It is a dark time in America. Banksters and Corporate Criminals walk the earth with virtual impunity; protected by cowardly/compromised corporate Democrats and evil/sociopathic Republicans they destroy the very fabric of our society from the social safety net to the Constitution and the populace is helpless before them… but are we? Sometimes, somebody, somewhere says enough is a $&##@!* enough and they gather together to go toe-to-toe with these demonic, prick-rat-bastards.

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Every once and awhile a rag tag band of rebels flies out to meet the political equivalent of the Death Star and unlike the movies we usually don’t win the first time out and all of us are really happy that the arc of history bends toward justice. Enter Amisha Patel and the Grassroots Collaborative throwing down a serious challenge for the Mayor to do three things he has never done in his entire political career. One talk to actual people from real neighborhoods who can’t afford the $5,000 a plate dinner talking to him typically requires. Two stop giving money to the rich and powerful people, he’d call friends if he made any, and instead use it for something called the public good. Three appear before community groups, who have invited him to come to them with some innovative ideas about better ways to spend the money.

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As of Wednesday, May 4th, a developer can receive TIF assistance for 30, 40 or 50% of the purchase and rehab cost of a vacant multi-unit rental building as long as 30, 40 or 50% of the units become affordable to families making no more than 50% of AMI, or about $37,000/year for a family of four.  Additionally, homebuyers making no more than 120% of AMI can receive TIF assistance for up to 25% of the cost of purchase and rehab of a vacant owner-occupied building of 4 units or less.

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