WTF?

By Alicia Dorr in News on May 25, 2006 7:10PM

After more than two months of being totally out of commission and out of the public eye it seems John Stroger and his wife are selling their South Side home. The $289,000 home in Pill Hill, which Stroger has lived in since 1968, already has interested buyers.

That’s all well and good. But while the politicians who are still actually reporting to their elected offices debate about whether it is disrespectful to debate about whether Stroger will come back or not, everyone is tiptoeing around the most important questions. For example, why is there no one in the Cook County Board President position right now? Why is it that after a local news outlet discovered the home up for sale no one came out to speak to the facts? Why is it that the voters—on both sides of the political fence—have no idea where one of their highest elected officials even IS, or what his plans are for even the near future?

Say whatever you want to the conservative or liberal leaning, but the fact remains that even in the Cook County Board a lot can happen in two and a half months. Like a bunch of squabbling youngsters on a playground, the board needs a leader so that it can get past talking about who is the leader for a minute. Don’t get us wrong—we love Cook County Board meetings for the fact that there is never easy agreement, and that it doesn't usually smack of rubber stamping like the other side of the building often can. But when even Stroger’s son claims he doesn’t know what his parents’ plans are with the home or otherwise, we have to do more than just raise our eyebrows. Since when does asking questions like, “Gee, who’s running the government?” disrespectful? We thought that was part of being an active citizen.

It has nothing to do with race. It really doesn’t even have to do with illness—though we will contend that it is ridiculous for Beavers to compare Stroger’s “serious” stroke with the one Richard J. Daley had. It doesn't even have to do with Peraica running his mouth in City Council chambers. It is about an elected official not even having a press secretary come out with some kind of explanation for these things. On our honor—if you give us that, we’ll quit bitching. Well, for a little while.