John Kass On Patrick Daley
Kass came to the Trib to try to fill the hole left by Mike Royko. While I guess no one will be able to do that for me, Kass sometimes comes close. In this column he does an admirable job of reflecting Chicago values, which are a bit more nuanced than some other cities:
Exactly one week before Richard Daley talked about his only surviving son, Patrick, enlisting in the Army, the mayor was at a news conference, waving a section of the Tribune at reporters.
Daley didn't mention Patrick then. The mayor hinted at it, though, with that paper, printed with photographs of young Americans killed in battle in Iraq.
The news conference was about some new plan to use computers to help firefighters combat fires in high-rise office buildings. Next year, they'll offer another new computer plan.
When the news conference was about over and he was changing the subject, Daley deliberately pulled the section of the paper out of his coat--he'd kept it with him for days--and waved it.
I'm not suggesting the Tribune is his favorite newspaper. That wouldn't be true. Most folks in media in this town know that when the Daleys want to put out a message, both the good and the bad, they go elsewhere.
But Daley didn't have a political message then. He wasn't speaking as mayor, but I didn't know it at the time.The father in him was speaking. And he found the Sunday, Nov. 21 Perspective section to be compelling.
It contained photographs of Americans killed in Iraq, from May 26 through Nov. 11. Thanksgiving was days away.He had the paper folded in his hands. He didn't wave it angrily, he just held it up there, above his shoulder, to make sure we reporters would see it.
"When we reflect upon Thanksgiving, we have to look upon all those men and women that have been killed in the line of duty," he said.
His face was gray. He was composed but tired."You look at the ages. You look at 20, 19, 21, 25, 28, 37," he said. "And you think about all these and you go through these pages and you look at these pictures of these young men and women that have been killed in the line of duty."
They keep pointing that out," Daley said. "I think all of us, both schools and the churches and synagogues and mosques and everybody else, should reflect upon what this country means in regards to Thanksgiving.
"Then he turned and walked away. That was last Tuesday, just before Thanksgiving.
And on Tuesday of this week, the mayor talked about Patrick's decision to join the military, how it was his son's decision and that he didn't try to stop him. The mayor and Maggie Daley lost their other son, Kevin, to spina bifida, in 1981.
"I'm very proud of the decision he made," Daley said. "He has friends who are in the military today. He has friends who are firemen and policemen. He believes that is part of public service. I'm very proud of his decision and stand by his decision.
"This had been discussed, privately, in Daley family circles for more than a month. A few days ago, it had leaked to other City Hall insiders and business people and Bridgeport types.
So it is natural that there are some skeptics out there who wonder if there's anything else behind it, since Patrick Daley is 29, with a University of Chicago graduate degree and contacts that could make him wealthy.
I understand. This is a political town where hearts are brutalized by the tribalism and greed and corruption of what goes on at City Hall. Others can't stop nattering about whether a stint in the Army will be good for a political career, if Patrick Daley chooses one.
Yes, he washed out of West Point years ago, and, yes, political strings were pulled to secure that appointment. Yes, he has been shamed by failure.Yes, he got into trouble with the law, at a brawl at his family's summer home before he went to West Point, and he has gotten into scrapes here in Chicago.
Boys with red blood in them get into scrapes with the law. Perhaps you know one yourself. If his name weren't Daley, you'd never have heard about it. And, yes, he has hung out on Rush Street with people who've wanted to use him.
"He's tired of all that," said a man who knows him. "It's hard being the son of the mayor. Even the mayor knows that, since he was the son of the mayor too. "Think how hard your heart would become. Every time you met someone, you'd have to wonder why he or she was being so friendly. You'd have to wonder about that disturbing glint deep in the smiling eyes, about whether you were being set up.
Even though I'm critical of his father's deals, I've always considered the mayor's children off limits for my column, even when they dabble in business and on the edge of politics.But I'd like the skeptics to consider something. Patrick Daley comes from privilege. His father has great power. Yet he's like thousands of other young people in this one thing.He's willing to risk his life for his country, like all those other sons and daughters, their photographs in the paper in the mayor's hand as he waved it and thought of his son.
jskass@tribune.com
Exactly one week before Richard Daley talked about his only surviving son, Patrick, enlisting in the Army, the mayor was at a news conference, waving a section of the Tribune at reporters.
Daley didn't mention Patrick then. The mayor hinted at it, though, with that paper, printed with photographs of young Americans killed in battle in Iraq.
The news conference was about some new plan to use computers to help firefighters combat fires in high-rise office buildings. Next year, they'll offer another new computer plan.
When the news conference was about over and he was changing the subject, Daley deliberately pulled the section of the paper out of his coat--he'd kept it with him for days--and waved it.
I'm not suggesting the Tribune is his favorite newspaper. That wouldn't be true. Most folks in media in this town know that when the Daleys want to put out a message, both the good and the bad, they go elsewhere.
But Daley didn't have a political message then. He wasn't speaking as mayor, but I didn't know it at the time.The father in him was speaking. And he found the Sunday, Nov. 21 Perspective section to be compelling.
It contained photographs of Americans killed in Iraq, from May 26 through Nov. 11. Thanksgiving was days away.He had the paper folded in his hands. He didn't wave it angrily, he just held it up there, above his shoulder, to make sure we reporters would see it.
"When we reflect upon Thanksgiving, we have to look upon all those men and women that have been killed in the line of duty," he said.
His face was gray. He was composed but tired."You look at the ages. You look at 20, 19, 21, 25, 28, 37," he said. "And you think about all these and you go through these pages and you look at these pictures of these young men and women that have been killed in the line of duty."
They keep pointing that out," Daley said. "I think all of us, both schools and the churches and synagogues and mosques and everybody else, should reflect upon what this country means in regards to Thanksgiving.
"Then he turned and walked away. That was last Tuesday, just before Thanksgiving.
And on Tuesday of this week, the mayor talked about Patrick's decision to join the military, how it was his son's decision and that he didn't try to stop him. The mayor and Maggie Daley lost their other son, Kevin, to spina bifida, in 1981.
"I'm very proud of the decision he made," Daley said. "He has friends who are in the military today. He has friends who are firemen and policemen. He believes that is part of public service. I'm very proud of his decision and stand by his decision.
"This had been discussed, privately, in Daley family circles for more than a month. A few days ago, it had leaked to other City Hall insiders and business people and Bridgeport types.
So it is natural that there are some skeptics out there who wonder if there's anything else behind it, since Patrick Daley is 29, with a University of Chicago graduate degree and contacts that could make him wealthy.
I understand. This is a political town where hearts are brutalized by the tribalism and greed and corruption of what goes on at City Hall. Others can't stop nattering about whether a stint in the Army will be good for a political career, if Patrick Daley chooses one.
Yes, he washed out of West Point years ago, and, yes, political strings were pulled to secure that appointment. Yes, he has been shamed by failure.Yes, he got into trouble with the law, at a brawl at his family's summer home before he went to West Point, and he has gotten into scrapes here in Chicago.
Boys with red blood in them get into scrapes with the law. Perhaps you know one yourself. If his name weren't Daley, you'd never have heard about it. And, yes, he has hung out on Rush Street with people who've wanted to use him.
"He's tired of all that," said a man who knows him. "It's hard being the son of the mayor. Even the mayor knows that, since he was the son of the mayor too. "Think how hard your heart would become. Every time you met someone, you'd have to wonder why he or she was being so friendly. You'd have to wonder about that disturbing glint deep in the smiling eyes, about whether you were being set up.
Even though I'm critical of his father's deals, I've always considered the mayor's children off limits for my column, even when they dabble in business and on the edge of politics.But I'd like the skeptics to consider something. Patrick Daley comes from privilege. His father has great power. Yet he's like thousands of other young people in this one thing.He's willing to risk his life for his country, like all those other sons and daughters, their photographs in the paper in the mayor's hand as he waved it and thought of his son.
jskass@tribune.com
posted by Am I Conservative or Lil' Libertarian? | 3:03 AM
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