On March 15, the Democratic Central Committee will meet to choose a running mate for Gov. Pat Quinn in the November general election.
On March 15, the Democratic Central Committee will meet to choose a running mate for Gov. Pat Quinn in the November general election. Voters already chose a running mate, but he is a wife-beating, prostitute dating, steroid using, child-support dodging pawn shop owner. He has been convinced that he should resign from the ticket, leaving a gaping hole where there once was a candidate for lieutenant governor. Now, everybody is weighing in on what should be done next, and offering up opinions on who should be chosen. House Speaker Mike Madigan has gone one further, by introducing legislation that would abolish the position of lieutenant governor in 2015 and change the order of succession to governor to make the attorney general the next in line. Madigan, who never met a conflict of interest that could give him pause, thinks it is just coincidental that his daughter is the current attorney general. But Madigan will be Madigan, and the central committee will be the committee. What should Black people do? Some think we should rally around the second place finisher in the race, Art Turner, and try to influence the committee vote. Some think that we should come up with a more “electable” candidate, since Turner actually did not win the Black vote in Chicago (the winnah was Rickey Hendon). Some think we should think outside the box (and outside the primary ballot box) and push some other candidate who might electrify the Quinn ticket. Quinn has been called many things (most famously by Harold Washington 23 years ago), but he has never been called “electrifying.” For the record, Dan Hynes, Quinn’s primary opponent, is about 40 amps shy of an electric load as well. But whatever Black people do regarding this issue, we should recognize that we have much more power working together than we have working apart. That’s because there is an element that is pushing division rather than cohesion. There is an element that takes to the airwaves, the newspapers, the street corners, Twitter-land and Facebook and MySpace, along with every possible email address imaginable, to push a singular agenda, and damn to those who might disagree. I stopped having to carry my Black ID card a few years ago. I’m old enough to have been born “Negro.” I’ve been called colored also. Thirty years in the news business, much of it with the Black Press, got me a special pass. I’ve been Black all my life and never got caught up in shades of Black. But some people in Chicago think they are Blacker than other people. They think that they have the pulse of the people because they have been Blacker, for longer. They have railed against “Black leadership” because it had the temerity to back Pat Quinn for governor, even though – again – he is not “electrifying.” For their transgressions, Black leadership is painted as being out of touch, off base, even co-opted. Instead, it is Black community leaders who know best. This discussion that separates “Black leadership” from “Black community leaders” is counterproductive and doesn’t advance anything. You don’t like the “Black leadership,” vote it out. What it sounds like is that some “Black community leaders” want to be “Black leadership.” So, Danny K. Davis and Bobby Rush are wrong now because they have moved into leadership? Have they lost touch with the streets because they go to Washington? I don’t think so. They are still activists, still community-based. You can’t beat the street out of those brothers. There is no separation. There is no division. We ALL have a stake in this, and the only way for it to work is for everyone to respect each other, and respect each other’s disparate roles. Everybody cannot be in the streets. That’s not where ALL of the change has to take place. Some of the change has to take place on the corporate level. Some of it has to be political. Some of it has to be grassroots. Some of the change has to be IN YOUR HOUSE. What should Black people do? We should accentuate what we have in common, instead of some trumped up differences. We should focus on the real prize, and not get sidetracked by the fulminations of people who exalt speaking truth to power, but think that their truth is truer than anyone else’s because of their own personal resume. Lou Ransom is executive editor of the Chicago Defender.
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