When Families Gather, Politics Should Be On The Table

Over the next few weeks as we celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the New Year, we will be getting together with family and friends. We will see people whom we see all the time. We will see others whom we don't see as often. A lot of the conversation when people get together will be discussing their lives, the lives of their children and life in general. One subject that people don't bring up but should be at the forefront of any conversation is politics. Now, I know a lot of people like to proclaim that they don't deal in politics. Unfortunately, if you're "living and breathing," then politics is affecting you. In truth, it affects 100 percent of what we do.

Now, there is one subject that I would like everyone to discuss over Christmas dinner, while lighting the Kinara at Kwanzaa or during the commercials on all the football games on New Year's Day. That subject? Why it's one which should be on the mouths of anyone living or even visiting this city. Who will be the next mayor of Chicago?

The major media and many pundits have already anointed Rahm Emanuel as our next mayor even before the voting has begun. Heck ... truthfully, it's been even before we know who will officially be on the ballot and who will be kicked off. But I am not one to give Rahm that much credit. In truth, the very strategy of his campaign to overload the media with his face has backfired. It has done little more than draw attention to the fact that he is quickly becoming "the candidate whom we see but never hear." Rahm is becoming like Jackie Kennedy Onassis. A face we all recognize but a voice that we don't.

A lot of talk has been going on because Rahm has decided that he doesn't want to do many of the political forums. He wants to win the mayoral ship without addressing issues directly to the voters. He wants to win based on hearsay and not speech that is directed at us, the everyday man and woman walking the streets of the West Side.

If you're like me, any candidate wishing to become the next mayor of this city has a lot of questions to answer. This city is currently near bankrupt, directly related to having had a mayor who didn't feel he needed to talk to his populace. He did what he wanted to do and look at the fine mess we are now in.

So, as you gather together this holiday season, talk about the upcoming municipal election and whom you would like to see win. Encourage your family members if they aren't registered to vote, to get registered. If any member of your family will turn 18 on or before Feb. 22, they can register and vote. And, most importantly, on Election Day get out and vote.

Voting and for whom will be the subject of my columns for the next few weeks. I am a believer that politicians spend their entire time figuring out how to lord over us with politics. Therefore it is imperative that we do back to them what they have been doing to us for decades. And the easiest way to do it is to vote into office those who will serve our needs, and vote out of office those who don't.