Thursday, November 08, 2007

Where's the Outrage? Where's the Anger?

I just got the second installment on my tax bill and the amount went up over 75 percent. That was after I had gone to the Board of Review and appealed my taxes. Otherwise my taxes would have gone up over 100 percent. As our elected officials continue to spend tax dollars as if we are supposed to work for them, I have a question: Where is the anger and where is the outrage?
One of my best friends called me up. She's selling her house and moving to the southern suburbs. She can no longer take the filth and drug dealers on every corner. She's been very active in the community but can't take it here anymore. As Austin continues to lose good people like her every day, I have a question: Where is the anger and where is the outrage?
We have had a number of young black men shot and killed in Chicago for who knows what reasons. Earl "Tony" Hughes was the latest to die. He was shot and killed a block from my house. When there is a fire in the community and people die, firemen go door-to-door passing out fliers and smoke detectors. Yet when a young man is murdered, why haven't we seen an initiative from the CPD to go door-to-door, passing out fliers, and asking people to report anything they might have seen? We have a cold-blooded murderer running loose on the streets of Austin. I have a question: Where is the anger and where is the outrage?
In 1988, people in the North Austin community marched at the corner of North and Cicero avenues, demanding that the CTA move their bus barn from that location so we could get a grocery store and shopping center on that corner. It took 14 years to get Washington Square Plaza. After losing Cub foods, we went through the holiday season last year without a grocery store. Now a year later, the shuttered location which was home to that crappy Grand Mart International (ha ha, now that's a joke!) food store is gone, and we again will go through a holiday season without a grocery store. I have a question: Where is the anger and where is the outrage?
Mayor Daley recently announced he was going to cut back on the amount of property tax increases he was requesting in his 2008 city budget. First he asked for a huge increase and proclaimed the money was needed, then he backtracks and claims the city can function on less. It makes me wonder if the initial increase was just pure greed for all his pet projects and to make us pay for all the cost overruns (just think Millennium Park and O'Hare Airport) and lawsuit damages paid out for the behavior of rogue cops. I have a question: Where is the anger and where is the outrage?
The CTA just put many of its riders through mental hell-twice. In proclaiming that the agency didn't have money and was about to shut down a number of bus lines, the CTA also managed to place on every bus stop a colored notice. The CTA also took out a full color ad in a number of newspapers telling us about their pending financial crisis. It's amazing-the CTA could on one hand threaten the safety and livelihoods of the people who need it the most while spending money for color posters and ads. I have a question: Where is the anger and where is the outrage?
Every year about now we get reports about the lack of city contracts to black people. Every year our black aldermen act like it is a surprise to see that we get so little of the money we pay in taxes coming back to our community. Every year the aldermen puff up their chests and act outraged while every other ethnic group in this city reaps the reward of city contracts and we who represent almost 50 percent of the city population receive a paltry 9 percent of the contracts. I have a question: Where is the anger and where is the outrage?
Sadly, I have an answer to my own question about the anger and outrage.
There isn't any!