My Kind of Town, Chicago Is!

Wednesday night I read two unrelated articles in the online version of the Chicago Tribune that I would like to comment about.

The first was concerning the Cook County Sheriff, Tom Dart and the second was about Chicago Department of Sanitation workers.

Sheriff Tom Dart announced that he would no longer be evicting people from foreclosed homes. He cited the growing number of evictions that involve rent-paying tenants who suddenly learn their building is in foreclosure because the landlord neglected to pay the mortgage. He’s refusing to do any foreclosure-related evictions with the hope is that banks will change their policies. Good Luck!

Mr. Dart I applaud you for trying to ease the pain of the downtrodden masses. You have a good heart, sir.

But on the other hand I must condemn you. You sir, took an oath to uphold the law. This oath didn’t specify which statutes, no matter how repugnant you may find them, that you can bypass for the well being of others. You swore an oath when you took the job as Sheriff. If you can’t keep your promise in good conscious, then perhaps you should resign.

Besides swearing to tell the truth in court, I have taken one oath in my life:
"I, state your name, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

I kept my promise.

The other story in the Tribune was about a report from investigators, who spied on garbage collection workers who were loafing for hours each day. The average slacking time was 2 hours per 8 hour shift. This means that 25% of their on the clock time was spent loafing. That 25% is probably below the average time that a City, State or Federal office worker spends slacking off each day.

But to keep the pressure off of themselves, they must put the pressure onto someone else. Who better to blame than the Garbage man. He’s not sitting at a desk (in an air conditioned or heated office) where he could hide his slack time and pretend to be working. He is out working in the elements, dealing with the putrid refuse of others.

For those of you who complain about the Garbage men loafing on the job, I suggest you trade places with him for one day.

The Beach Bum