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A vault of accomplishments for what he personally cherished the most, Senator Merriman, was the

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University of Illinois Circle of Campus.

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You know, of course, the great stories. I've been, I've been crucified, I've been

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murder-lized, I've even been criticized. And of course, he was speaking at the University of Chicago once, where he was

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setting to hire and hire platitudes. But the one I like is an actual event, and we haven't time to play the tape, is when shortly

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after the convention, and the word student became a word that rose his blood, increased his blood pressure, you know, alarmingly, student.

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Well, he's challenged one day by Dick Simpson, who was also, who was an independent alderman, also a professor at the University of

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Illinois here in Chicago. And he was challenged on an appointment that he made of Tom Keane's son. Tom Keane was his powerful

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alderman, now in the pokey for Malfeasance in office. But Keane was his right-hand man. Keane's son, Tommy Keane, was appointed to a zoning

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board. Tommy Keane also was with Arthur Rubleff and company, the big realtor. And so, so Dick Simpson gets up and says he objects to the nepotism

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involved here, the son of, but also the conflict of interests. And daily heard the word nepotism. He says, my students will find this rather bizarre.

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And he heard the word student. So your students find it bizarre, professor. You wouldn't talk that way if you had children of your own.

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And he pulls a poem out of his pocket, the poem, the sentimental one, about once upon a time, my little boy stood on tippy toe as I kissed him on the forehead.

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And now he's so tall oak tree, I got to stand on my tippy toe and kiss him. Student, and now he's starting to roll.

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Let me tell you, professor, with their sneers and their smiles, you talk about fear, fear! And his voice is, who creates this fear?

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And you think he's going to have an apoplectic fit at that moment. And he was glorious. He was rolling. And he was just going like a house of fire.

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And finally, we thought that's going to be it. And he kept going further, stalking back. And it was a great moment, I think, in American theater.

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Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.

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Tap dancing Christmas trees, all 26 of them from the Amundsen Arts Academy on the city's north side.

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The material for these unusual and original costumes was provided by the McCallis Pattern Company.

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Decent tap dancing trees weighed in age from 3 to 45. And while it may look fun, his diety being a tap dancing Christmas tree,

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the state they were rehearsing for over a month under the direction of choreographer Colin Westman.

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Tap dancing Christmas trees.

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Everybody.

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Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

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The humor that we need to look at what we've had all these years. May I recount a sort of capsule history in two minutes of Chicago politics?

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The first mayor I remember as a small boy was Mayor William Hale Thompson, Big Bill Thompson.

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I must recount the legacies of each of these very briefly. What's he remembered for? His threat to punch King George in the nose?

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But mostly for a big bundle of bootle he left in a secret safe. He begat William E. Deaver, a name I'm sure you don't remember or never heard of.

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He begat the long reign of King Richard of whom no editorial comment is necessary.

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Who in turn begat the brief reign of Michael Balandek who begat a blizzard which begat Jane Burns.

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And the weather is as bad as ever.

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Now this is Chicago that has a history. Chicago Abe Lincoln was nominated for president.

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Chicago Jane Adams had a dream of equity that was defiled by the shallow women who run now in Chicago in nominating Jane Burns.

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They have demeaned, they have trivialized the feminists, but fortunately there are scores and thousands of women who know better.

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The people of Chicago and the people of Chicago united with Richard M. Daly to be the next mayor of Chicago.

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Chicago loves Daly. Daly loves Chicago and the people of Chicago united with Richard M. Daly.

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I've had some good days.

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I've had some hills to climb.

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I've had some worried days.

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And lonely nights.

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But when I look around

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And when I think things are bad

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And I decided that the mayor's office has a lot of power and that I think it's time for Cabrini to get that power personally.

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On my last trip back yesterday, which I practically made up my mind to do this anyway, I was present when a 16 year old girl was raped

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And I saw the 16 year old girl in the back of a squad car and take her over to Henroton.

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I had the experience at that time to think that perhaps if we had not put more police into that area this week, that that 16 year old girl would not have been taken to Henroton.

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And the two rapists would have raped again.

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Then I considered why don't the people come forward and understanding that they're afraid and understanding that they don't know how consistent we are going to be in their treatment based on the past history of the treatment in the projects.

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I decided that it would be very consistent if I went there and by going there I am sure that it will be very consistent.

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The women that are at the center.

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You know I'm not afraid of that because black people do not have a history of being racist.

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That is not our history. That's their history.

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So that's what they have to deal with. When I say blow back, I'm talking about pride and that's something altogether different.

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I'm talking about us being proud of our own because they have tried to keep us for so long not being proud of our own.

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They have always used us to move on each other based on us not feeling good about ourselves.

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And I'm saying feel good about yourselves and vote for one that's part of you.

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Hair washing is blood out of our blood. We don't have to apologize for that.

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He is the father of our fathers and sons and our sons and we must respect that.

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And don't be ashamed of that. I'm saying blow back because of pride, not because of racism.

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Because white folks are the ones that are racist not us.

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So when Verdoliac says vote white, what does he mean?

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Verdoliac is a gangster. And I don't know what gangsters think. I don't have a gangster mentality.

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You ask Verdoliac what do he mean? He's the one that's a gangster. I'm not no gangster. I don't know what he means.

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I can no more explain to you what Verdoliac means than you can explain to me what I mean.

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You understand what I'm saying? Because that's my mind. And that's my heart.

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And you can't tell what's in my heart. I know what's in my heart. And nothing in my heart but love.

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Well let me tell them all something. We don't want no more cheese. We want Washington.

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We want Washington. We want Washington. We want Washington. We want Washington.

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We want white ladies in love. We don't want white women. We don't want white women.

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We are big in the hole.

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I see the whole of well and we don't want no white men. We don't want no heartbeats. We don't want no heartbeats.

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We don't want no...

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He said for good. He said for good.

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He said for good.

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He said for good.

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And all I hear is a word.

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I can't find the heart.

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I can't find the heart.

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So I'll say please thank you Lord.

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To all of my hearties thank you Lord.

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I can't prove my heart. Thank you Lord.

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I feel I can't thank you Lord.

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I can't thank you Lord.

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Thank you Lord.

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Thank you Lord.

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Thank you Lord.

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The.

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The.

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The.

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The.

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The.

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The.

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The.

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The.

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The.

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intend to say about Mr. Vadollak in reference to this campaign.

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He has lowered this campaign to a base level, which

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is insulting to the people.

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And even though we, the three candidates,

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have at times been abrasive and maybe slightly intemperate,

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never do I recall that any of us have ever

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stooped to a foam ending, crass, dirty racism in this campaign.

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And I call upon this mayor again as she

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fades into the twilight at the end of her reign

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to make it clear that she does not support even remotely

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Mr. Vadollak's statement.

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That's the kind of thing that is bad.

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We have a volatile situation.

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We have struggled for 110 days to bring sanity,

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or start bringing sanity in this city by eschewing racism.

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We've talked about race relationships and race pride.

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We've eschewed that.

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And here at the last moment, afraid

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that he will not be able to continue to reign over this city

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and use this mayor as a puppet, he's

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gotten excited and resorted to the last defense

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of all scoundrels and demagogues.

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He has raised a race banner.

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Well, I hope he impales himself on his own petard.

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He deserves it.

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The mayor said today.

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Why does he say the workout never works,

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So we call upon Mr. inconceivable Chairman

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of the Citizen of the City to bring to light

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Well, the The Mothers has all the YouTube content

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to offer, and I hope that zoom was that amazing.

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Hall and Harold, the two coming together. Just underneath, talking to us, either pointing

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to it, you know, kind of buffing it up, whatever, whatever. Would he do it? It's a little bit

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gimmicky, but it's a nice shot.

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You've got a scoop. So you've got your picture already.

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I've got him in there. No, we need it for the first registry, for our two o'clock edition.

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Excellent. He said, he said, talk to you first.

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Yeah, we do it.

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Right after he's done. My first edition.

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The court of change. Some people feel a little hurt.

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And I know, I know you're not supposed to fight with the media. I know you're not supposed

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to fight with the newspapers, but I don't really give a tinker's darn for the town.

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I've got the people of Chicago with me, and that's what counts.

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We all know that people...

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What do you think of this debate?

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I thought it was mostly good theater. It didn't get too substantial in the discussion of the

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vital issues, but they were both well prepared and they both had good humor and they exchanged

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some pretty good barbs, made it more of a theatrical performance and a real serious

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debate on the, on the issues. I think most of the people watching it will enjoy it, for

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the probably the wrong reason.

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What's the role of theater in politics, do you think, in this city?

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Role of what?

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Of theater.

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Theater in politics? Well, good theater is good anywhere, it's particularly good in politics

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if you can bring it off. A little bit too much joshing back and forth and a little bit

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too many low blows aren't particularly conducive to understanding the issues, which are the

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important, which is the important matter here.

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I'm proud to be a part of that great adventure.

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I am so humbled by the fact that you have seen fit to give me the responsibility to

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lead that adventure.