My wife and I recently visited Chicago for a business conference and a visit to our daughter and son-in-law in nearby Aurora. We drove into Chicago and first saw the city from atop the Sears Tower, from which it appeared Lilliputian majestic.
We next descended into the real streets, teeming with hurrying pedestrians and honking taxicabs rushing to and fro like carnival bumper cars. We visited the Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier before joining the ever-frantic traffic in search of our appointed restaurant as darkness descended.
The next morning I absorbed your entire paper, and I was struck most by the lead editorial, which endorsed the mayor’s plan to recruit policemen according to ethnic proportion in the population yet cautioned against intrusion by political cronyism in the selection process. You promised to keep watch.
I came to marvel at the city that’s probably more populous, by itself, than any state we drove through, yet it hosts the world’s best sports, entertainment and cuisine and still absorbs huge business meetings, political conventions and first lady visits–all with barely a shrug of its massive shoulders. I marveled at your great paper, which dispatches its own reporters far and wide to cover the nation and world yet remains vigilant enough to keep the city’s feet to the fire on good government.
