By changing nothing, nothing changes

Growing up with a father and uncle involved in the teamsters union at Ecolab, politics would come up and I would ask who we are for and why. The answer I heard most was “whoever is with us and keeps us working making soap”. When I later went and worked there during summer and winter breaks in college the other employees usually had their guys. At the time it was Bill Clinton who signed a 217-billion-dollar infrastructure bill that put people to work and job sites needed soap. It was a working-class party then and we supported who supported us.

Fast forward to today and who is with “us” here in IL and around the country? The MAGA movement has been branded as a party of bigots, misogynists and racist by the media due to their disdain for Donald Trump. That has begun to change to what most of us are looking for, America first. As people from both party's cross party lines, Democrats and Independents joining the movement are building a big tent environment. For starters, Black people in the inner cities are asking who is with “them” as they witness undocumented people using the assets they have been denied. The reason, we don’t have the money for that… but you have the money for them.

The Latino community is witnessing firsthand as foreigners received resources they were denied upon their own immigration story. Couple that with political dissent in the City of Chicago as the contract negotiation between CPS and CTU and the question begs to ask… who is with us?

We have great local leadership in our town and surrounding areas who put our residents first. However, there is nothing they can do when armed robbers are arrested at places like Jewel and are pre-trial released. A man with a gun who robbed someone gets to go home… That's the law now. The SAFE-T act passed in the General Assembly has done nothing of the sorts. Criminal behavior is punished by releasing violators back into the population on a subpar monitoring system. Repeat offenders are causing most of the crime as 90% of people have to live with a more heightened sense of their surroundings.

Yesterday the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. came out and endorsed Bob Fioretti for Cook County state's attorney. He has recognized what most have as well, existing leadership is not making decisions for us, they are making decisions for them. Political parties and movements change forms to meet the needs of the society they are governing. I understand the notion that “it's always been this way for as long as I remember” and rightfully so. At some time in the past, it wasn’t and there was a move to “how it needs to be” ...

So come out of the closet and join millions of “us” because this is how it needs to be…