Thursday, March 3, 2011

Vehicle

“I’m the friendly stranger
In the black sedan.”
“Vehicle,” Ides of March

The days are getting longer. Last evening driving to bowling, I noticed an orange U.S. Steel-enhanced sunset, and this morning light streamed in the condo windows around 6:30. A few mounds of snow remain from recent blizzards, and I expect we’re in for more, hopefully not as severe as the mid-March storm of 1998 that knocked out our power for a week.

Hearing the old Chicago band Ides of March while in my vehicle gave me a brainstorm to nudge Anne Balay about asking her Gender Studies students to keep journals for the single day of March 15 (she passed on such an assignment for an entire month). Along the Frank Borman Expressway (80/94) are a bunch of new billboards for Albert’s Jewelers (a sign of economic recovery?), in addition to the usual compliment of ads for the area’s two growth industries, truck stops and strip clubs (Déjà Vu advertises Showgirls – double entendre intended - and Club 390 proclaims, “All the liquor, none of the clothes”). Another new one claimed the Toll Road can get you to downtown Chicago in 35 minutes (unlikely and costly). With the Gary mayoralty primary just two months away, a host of fresh signs near campus read KAREN in huge letters; one can barely make out “Freeman Wilson,” the candidate’s last name. Mayor Clay has similar RUDY billboards. Hopefully we’ll soon see RAGEN signs soon touting my favorite, Mayor Hatcher’s daughter.

Post-Trib reporter Jon Seidel called to ask whether I thought Ragen was a clone of her dad. There were parallels in their careers (attorney, council member, candidate for mayor) and while both are visionaries, she represents a new generation with different priorities but facing challenges no less daunting than his. Her election would put Gary on the map in terms of national attention in ways not seen since her father’s defeat in 1987. Her election, in other words, would be a vehicle for starting a serious discussion about the obligation of the federal government (and the Obama administration) to help distressed cities.

Ron Cohen is speaking on the Gary schools in Steve’s Indiana History class. I recall how excited he was when he had an epiphany about starting each chapter of “Children of the Mill” with a human story. One deals with YJean Chambers’ mother learning her daughter had to go to an all-black school. Another documents Betty Balanoff’s determination to get a new elementary school in the Norton Park neighborhood where overcrowding was so dire kids were only attending class half a day. Ron inscribed my copy of “Children,” using a nickname from his days as a radio deejay, “To Jimbo, in friendship over 20 years, Sparky.” “Children of the Mill” opens with an event that occurred at a boarding house where 30 single men lived in the winter of 1909. Fourteen year-old Katie Kordich worked as a cook and maid for two dollars a week even though state law required that she be in school. After the authorities ordered the father to enroll the girl, the boarders refused to give her up and shot at him. The police finally rescued her.

At lunch medical School director Patrick Bankston told me that at his State of the City address Mayor Clay gave away copies of “Gary: A Pictorial History” to the two hundred or so guests. Ron and I knew the city still had some, but I am surprised at the Mayor’s largesse. Greg Gates who visited the Archives last week, sent us his history of Horace Mann men’s basketball, including four chapters on the 1928-29 season. In the school’s third year in existence they traveled to Indy (a four and a half hour trip then) to compete in the 16-team Finals. Led by Don Elser, also a football and track star, they won two games before bowing to eventual champ Frankfort. The final two chapters were on the 1941-42 season, when they finished the regular season ranked second with a 20-1 record. The team eventually lost in the Semi-State opener to (guess who?) the Frankfort “Hot Dogs,” who went on to defeat a South bend Central squad coached by John Wooden. Gates sent me an impressive list of books he owns about Gary, including the Pictorial History.

East Chicago Councilman John Gomez was in the Archives looking at material about the Concerned Latins Organization, a 1970s protest group interested in affirmative action and bilingual education, among other things. Gomez, who is planning a reunion benefit for April 2. Gomez was one of the main leaders of the group, along with David Castro. In “Forging a Community” there is a chapter on the Concerned Latins.

1 comment:

  1. The sudden sprout of campaign signs in yards throughout the city is an indication that an election is underway and a new mayor for the City of Gary is about to spring. It is true that as you venture through the streets of Gary (dodging pot holes, no doubt) the city is becoming the billboard for campaign 2011. And while many of us sit in anticipation to learn who will lead this city out of the wilderness the truth remains there is only one Moses on the ballot that is qualified to handle the job-Karen Freeman-Wilson.

    You are entitled to have your favorite Mayor but Richard G. Hatcher is of the old generation when Gary was hungry for a change and the time for a new revolution was on the horizon-when the civil rights and the black power movements set the tone as Hatcher became mayor in 1968. Where you think he was capable of leading the revolution as mayor from 1968 to 1987 I disagree that Ragen Hatcher is ready to thrust forward the revolution for the new generation. Ragen is a new generation running with old priorities. The old generation will vote for her for her father’s namesake and the young will vote for her because she is young. But often times young can come with inexperience and many mistakes and Gary has no room for mistakes. Therefore, my candidate for Mayor is Karen Freeman-Wilson. Karen is a Harvard Law School Graduate, former City Judge and former State of Indiana Attorney General. In addition, she has served as Executive Director for a National Organization and continues to have integral roles with other organizations locally and nationwide. Ragen has only served as the legal counsel for the Gary Community Schools for the ailing Gary Community School System and most recent a partial city council term. The next mayor of Gary needs to be a seasoned professional with public service, knows fiscal policy, has their own networks in Washington and can relate to the people. My candidate for the 2011 mayoral election is Karen Freeman-Wilson.

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