The White Sox and Cubs don`t start playing for real until April, and Bulls tickets are hard to get. But for cheap thrills, as always, the elected public officials at City Hall offered the best entertainment value in town Wednesday.
Several aldermen shouted and pounded their desks, while another screamed at them to shut up. Ald. Rickey Hendon (27th) threatened to go get his gun.
He and other black aldermen vowed to hold Democratic presidential candidates to a political litmus test regarding the remapping of the city`s 50 wards.
And a protest group tried to confront Mayor Richard Daley, but he slipped away, leaving Ald. Terry Gabinski (32nd), who is recovering from two recent heart attacks, to take much of the heat at the mayor`s rostrum.
The group, led by Eddie Read, president of the Black Independent Political Organization, wanted to present a so-called ”Bill of Wrongs” to Daley, but was prevented from doing so by police Sgt. Patrick Burke, who told the protesters there wasn`t enough space for them in the council gallery.
”Let`s just say it was an interesting day of debate,” Hendon said in a hoarse voice when it was all over.
A day at the council meeting usually starts off quietly, and this one did as well. Aldermen and their aides sipped coffee and chewed sweet rolls in the council annex, while Daley engaged in small talk and posed for publicity photos with people whose names he couldn`t quite remember.
But within a few hours, the following happened:
– Hendon lost his voice screaming at colleagues during parliamentary wrangling over the two ward remap plans that will be put before the voters on March 17. When his microphone was cut off, Hendon asserted that the only way to shut him up was to put a bullet in his head. And lest anybody take him up on the suggestion, he threatened to get his own .45-caliber pistol.
– That didn`t deter Ald. Thomas Cullerton (38th), whose family has been in Chicago politics for more than 100 years. He upped the ante somewhat by standing up and telling Hendon, ”Why don`t ya shaddup!”
– Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd), who sarcastically and repeatedly shouted
”Yassuh, boss!” at white-ethnic aldermen during the remap dispute, vowed to work against any Democratic presidential candidate who does not support the map that gives blacks majorities in 22 wards.
At the heart of the nasty exchange was Hendon`s contention that Daley, who is pushing a map that gives blacks majorities in just 19 wards, was cynically trying to confuse voters by the way the two maps would be identified on the referendum ballot.
For months, politicians debating the redistricting issue have referred to the black-backed plan as the ”fairness map” and Daley`s plan as the ”equity map.”
But the words fairness and equity will not appear on the ballot. Instead, the maps will be identified only by the names of the aldermen who sponsored them, which Daley says is required by law.
Hendon, who is running for a seat in the state Senate, also hoped to speak on a plan to freeze city property taxes.
”You`re all disrespecting me,” Hendon screamed at Cullerton and Gabinski. ”If I die or go to my grave, I`m not going to be disrespected by you or Daley or anybody. You want to shut me up, blow my brains out. But I`ve got a .45. You`ve got to bring some to get some.”
Tillman then shouted at Gabinski: ”Keep your mouth shut, and sit your butt down!”
After Hendon quieted down, Read stood up in the council gallery and shouted to the aldermen that he and his group of protesters were leaving because Daley was hiding in another room.
”We will leave this circus because the No. 1 clown has left the center ring,” Read said. He left in a huff, while an assistant clerk was reading off a resolution honoring Bessie Coleman, the first licensed black American pilot. Earlier in the day, Read and the protesters had gone to City Hall, where they unfurled the ”Bill of Wrongs,” a fancy scroll with a laundry list of eight grievances against the administration.
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The protesters accused the city of firing black city employees, of backing a ”racist” remapping of the city`s wards, of trying to convert the City Colleges to vocational schools and of backing a power grab of black legislative districts by white candidates.
The Daley administration also was accused of failing to provide leadership during the Chicago Board of Education crisis, of dismantling the city`s affirmative action ordinance, of trying to privatize city services and of pushing the new Lake Calumet airport that would destroy numerous homes and businesses in the city`s Hegewisch neighborhood.
That last charge explained the presence of several white senior citizens in the mostly-black group. ”We feel we have to get together to fight this thing,” said Leona Krawczyk of Hegewisch.
”The overall message is that this mayor simply doesn`t represent all the people of Chicago,” Read said.
Later, Read tried to confront Daley in the annex where the mayor was waiting for Hendon`s storm to pass. But he was pushed out of the room by police after a signal from Daley.
”He thinks it`s funny. Just look at him smiling there,” Read said of Daley, who quickly turned his head. ”But we`re not going anywhere. This is our city too.”