FAILED MISSION

Congratulations on 160 years of serving (as Col. McCormick would say) "Chicagoland" and the world as well.

Your birthday editorial taught us your illustrious newspaper was named "after the tribunes of ancient Rome - magistrates who protected the rights of plebeians against the might of patricians."

Too bad you have not followed that hallowed credo these past five years.

You have failed to protect us common folk from leaders that implemented their grand vision of conquest in the Middle East with a made up war that has been an unrelenting and deadly disaster.

You have failed to protect us common folk from leaders who condone and even promote dispicable and un-democratic concepts like torture, secret prisons, illegal spying, rescinding of habeas corpus, and firing competant US Attorneys who refused to implement a partisan political agenda designed to insure permanent Republican rule.

Maybe you should be a little more honest and rename your newspaper for this new credo: The Chicago Enabler.


Originally published in Chicago Tribune, June 14, 2007