Irony abounds in the struggle taking pace on the Southside of Chicago, where Barack Obama first cut his teeth as an Alinskyite community organizer. His desire to have a monument to himself in the form of the "Obama Presidential Center" (not a library, and not part of the National Archives System) is roiling community organizations who are not convinced that their park should be sacrificed to build a large shrine to the 44th president.
When plans for the privately financed and privately controlled center were announced, evidently, it was presumed that the grateful citizens of Chicago would be thrilled to offer their city-owned park land in tribute. But the community organizers were not so sure that reducing the amount of park space is in their interest. In fact, Friends of the Parks, a well established civic organization that had previously prevented appropriation of park land by a museum to honor filmmaker George Lucas, expressed its concerns, as did other groups representing neighborhood residents.
No comments:
Post a Comment