To the Editor:
Windy City Times touts the presence of five LGBTQ members on the new Chicago City Council. But before we congratulate ourselves with high fives, think a moment about whose class interests a couple of these political operatives promote. Are they serving all members of our community? Or do they promote the interests of the already wealthy elites?
Witness Tom Tunney: He's the millionaire restaurateur and Belmont Avenue real-estate baron who apparently doesn't want to share a bit of the wealth with his busboys and wait staff. For Tunney was one of five Council members who voted against raising the minimum wage in Chicago to $13 by mid-2019. Hiking the wage, he said, would "be bad for business profits," though he was careful not to mention that his own profits might suffer as well. Even the Chicago Tribune told Tunney to be "more independent" of his ward's business interests.
And witness James Cappleman: He's the toady of real-estate developers who presided over the loss of more than 900 low-rent single-room occupancy ( SRO ) units in his ward between 2011 and 2014, which almost equaled the total loss of SRO units for the rest of Chicago combined! This is the same guya former social worker, no lesswho barred a Salvation Army food truck from visiting his ward because it would encourage poor people to hang around.
Back when most LGBTQs thanked Helen Shiller for her AIDS and gay-rights advocacy, Cappleman launched shrill attacks against her for defending the poor in the 46th Ward.
So it's possible to be gay and, at the same time, serve corporate interests against working and nonworking Chicagoans, both gay and straight.
Tunney and Cappleman have made an art form of it.
Bob Schwartz
Roger Fraser
Passages
To the Editor:
I was sad to hear of Carl Sharp's passing ( in Windy City Times' April 1 issue ).
He was the first person I met in my first visit to a gay bar, in 1978; he was affable, glib and animated. It was at The Flight ( 1977-88 ) at Clark and Hubbard, and I was an extremely nervous 18-year-old that night. Carl made it easier as we talked about [the TV show] Baretta getting canceled, the Dave Clark Five and Jumbo Jarry's, a nearby hot-dog stand.
I also broke bread with Carl one night at a German-American restaurant near Clark and Ontario. Carl was tougher than a two-dollar steak, but was also as gentle as rain at the same time.
In the same issue of WCT, columnist Billy Masters talked of hearing of the death of a former tormentor in his youth, and Billy almost felt a sense of joy.
Those were my sentiments as, not too long ago, a vicious bully who verbally ( and sometimes physically ) assaulted me died in a grisly fashion. I took a page from the venerable Mark Twain and said to former peers who knew him, "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
Cy Gaffney