How Illinois State Reps worked to build up popular support for Chicago mayors recall law
Back on January 9, Illinois State Representatives La Shawn Ford (D-8) and Mary Flowers (D-31) invited residents of Chicago West Side - and beyond - to attend a town hall event about a law that would allow Chicagoans to recall their mayors.
Well, to recall Rahm Emanuel specifically, but the law would apply to every mayor.
It was something that Ford introduced back in December 9. At the moment, the law only has a few sponsors, and Ford wanted to get more state reps on his side before he would bring it to the floor. And to do that, he needed to build up public pressure.
The people who were in the town hall - who came not just from all across Chicago, but from the suburbs as well - were more than happy to do their part.
I covered the event for Austin Weekly News. Most of the important stuff I wrote made it into the published version, but there is one bit I wish they would’ve kept
Flowers compared the black community's relationship with the city's government to having an abusive husband and hoping he would change. In order to break away from such relationship, one must realize that the husband is not going to change.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we've been in a very abusive relationship,” said Flowers. “We can't do anything about the past, but we can do something in the future.”
Like other panelists, she emphasized that the issue went beyond Emanuel.
“It's about anyone who thinks they can abuse the privilege of we the people,” said Flowers.
At the end of the meeting, I ran into Austin Weekly News columnist Arlene Jones. She wound up writing her own take on the meeting. I’m not sure about the print version (since I haven’t had a chance to see that issue yet) but the online version used one of my photo. Which is kind of ironic, since the online version of my article didn’t use any.
Oh, and one final thing. Last Sunday, I got a Facebook friend request from a name I didn’t recognize. But once I checked her wall, I realized that she was a student activist I interviewed for the article (I quote her at the very end).
I remember thinking that she was surprisingly receptive to being interviewed - most activists I’ve talk to are, at best, reticent and, at worst, outright hostile toward the “mainstream media” (apparently, small neighborhood newspapers count as the Evil Mainstream Media). And I was very pleasantly surprised that she liked the article.
It’s always nice to get some praise - especially from interviewees.