Mayor Richard M. Daley said Friday that he would plant a tree with Tom Hayden, the former Chicago 7 protester, when Hayden returns to town Aug. 26-29 as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
“I’ll walk with him in Chicago, yes. He has asked me,” Daley said.
But as soon as Daley gave the OK to the much publicized tree-planting idea, Hayden’s folks demurred.
“We had talked about a tree, but whether it will be that or another gesture, is still being discussed,” said a spokeswoman for Hayden, who now is a California state senator.
“What trees do they plant?” was the late Mayor Richard J. Daley’s way of dismissing the exploits of protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Hayden will hold a $15 per person gathering and concert Aug. 25 in Arie Crown Theater. But there is doubt about whether he’ll be joined by fellow demonstrators who disrupted the 1968 Democratic convention here, or relatives of those protesters who have died.
Among those less than enthusiastic about Hayden’s plans were Andrew Hoffman, the late Abbie’s son who plans to be here to raise the issue of homelessness, and Lee Weiner, a 1968 protester.
No average tourist: The last time Michigan City, Ind., welcomed a U.S. president, it was William McKinley in 1899. The city’s next turn comes when President Clinton will board a boat that will take him across Lake Michigan for a grand entrance at the Chicago convention.
“This is the biggest thing that’s happened to us in a long time,” said Michigan City Mayor Sheila Bergerson-Brillson, who said her town of 3,000 draws 4 million visitors a year.
More Top Picks Best Hand Grippers For Grip Training
“For the president to come to our lake shore during August is great. He’s going to see us in our prime season.”
Around the block: U.S. District Judge James B. Moran is expected to rule next week whether security measures around the United Center during the convention violate protesters’ 1st Amendment rights. In preparation for his decision, he and parties in the case took a walk Friday around the West Side convention hall.
Moran is considering arguments raised in four suits that seek to let protesters use the sidewalks near the United Center.
Moran did minor legal work on one of the appeals made by 1968 protesters. But he never met any of the principals.
Scent of Rodman: A T-shirt distributed at the Republican National Convention in San Diego recites the “Top 10 Reasons to Choose San Diego Over Chicago.”
Among the reasons the California city is a better convention town: “No danger of being stuck in overheated taxi with Dennis Rodman.” Also: “GOP convention confetti not made from shredded White House files.”
Permits, permits: Robert MacDonald, a coordinator of the “Festival of Life” planned for Grant Park to re-create the activism of 1968 without the violence, said the Chicago Park District agreed Friday to let the group use the Petrillo Music Shell, as it had requested.
A Park District spokeswoman said the decision will be made Monday.