By Dennis Byrne -
So long, Illinois. Goodbye, Chicago.
Here, I was born and raised. Schooled and worked. Practically my entire life has unfolded in Chicago and close by.
As a kid, I rode on Chicago street cars and the wooden "L" cars before there was a CTA. Took the old North Shore Line to high school and college. Flew out of Midway Airport when it was the nation’s busiest and before there was an O’Hare. Caddied in Northfield and labored over a North Avenue knitting mill’s steam table. I’ve worked for three Chicago daily newspapers. I love Chicago. Chicago is my town.
But I’ve had enough. Fed up. I’m gone.
There are as many reasons for leaving as there are people fleeing, the weather not being the least of them. But little is to be done about Chicago’s weather. Unlike how the city and state have been ravaged. By the greedy, incompetent and power-hungry. By the boodlers, gonifs and crooks who fancy themselves as the feudal lords and we their vassals. By public employee unions that have turned the idea of “public service” into a joke on the taxpayers, who, in fact, have become the public servants. By voters whose party loyalties, ideologies and self-serving have made Chicago not just a national laughingstock, but a dangerous place.
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