Gary's Next Mayor

I interviewed Karen Freeman Wilson, Gary’s next mayor, at her law office downtown across from The SteelYard, where the minor league baseball team, The Railcats, play their home games. We talked mainly about her parents for my book “On Their Shoulders.” She’s a Gary native who went to Harvard after graduating from Roosevelt High School. Then I attended her Press Conference at IUN where she introduced members of her “New Day Task Force.” There was a big crowd, including Chancellor Lowe and legislator Charlie Brown.

Steve Walsh had me on his noon Lakeshore radio program, along with Times reporter Bill Dolan and Cal Bellamy, a former bank executive and President of something called the Shared Ethics Commission. The occasion: the recent indictment of former Lake County Clerk Thomas Philpott, who evidently paid himself $25,000 in incentive money without getting approval from the Lake County Council. I mentioned how the two former Gary mayors who went to jail were popular and effective, only they made enemies in high corporate places. Lake County graft is small potatoes compared to the millions Governor Daniels’ law firm has made and the tens of millions Dick Cheney raked in as he went from the Pentagon to Haliburton to the Vice Presidency. In his new book “Keeping the Republic: Saving America By Trusting Americans” Mitch Daniels trashes Northwest Indiana, calling it corrupt and union-driven. Labor organizations, of course, were responsible for moving steelworkers into the middle class and the main protector against worker exploitation. He has been bent on destroying public schools just as he wrecked the state welfare system by privatizing it. He also sold away the Toll Road so he could claim he balanced the budget. What a slug. Mitch is a pawn of big business, whose lobbyists have corrupted the system much worse than former Gary City Clerk Katie Hall making her staff sell candy or former East Chicago Mayor Pabey having city employees make improvements on a house.

One more “High School Confidential” paragraph: After Wendy got off the phone, Jimmy opened his yearbook to see what he recalled about classmates. Often it was embarrassing stuff, like so-and-so farted in class, or this guy had such a small dick he was ashamed to shower in gym class. One guy was a total klutz in every sport but tumbling, for which his roly-poly body was perfect. If they got talking about classmates at Wendy’s, Jimmy hoped he could censor himself against making any cruel remarks. What a wide variety of characters in the Class of 1960, and how few had aspirations to attend college. On the first senior page under Clyde Alexander was the caption “a future auto mechanic” and under Mildred Armstrong “wants to be a receptionist.” Bruce Allen’s ambition was “to buy a Ferrari” and Joanne Arnold hoped to be a nurse.

Love the new Jayhawks album. On WXRT I heard a cut off it, “She Walks In So Many Ways.” Also am enjoying my new Avett Brothers album. I’ll be sitting in Row F tomorrow. Good single tickets are always available.

I sucked at bowling but did pick up a 8-7-10 split.