Bike The Drive....Walk The Ryan

As a two time participant in the annual Memorial Day Sunday Bike the Drive, I'm a tad confused over the fuss state and Chicago police are making over Father Pfleger's planned July 7 march on the Dan Ryan to protest violence and despair on the South and West Sides. Shutting down the 30 mile Drive is virtually seamless to the tens of thousands of us bringing our 'bikin' around money' into Chicago to boost the affluent Loop's economy. But shuttingdown the Ryan for a measly mile for no monetary gain has set the Power Elite's and the Law's collective hair on fire. The daily bloodbath, the double digit unemployment, the blocks of vacant lots, the runaway illegal drug economy, the despair are all a historical legacy of America's racist, slave holding past.

We need a Marshall Plan for America's inner cities and rural poverty pockets, be they black, brown or white. We need to govern where the money isn't instead of just where it is. We will never do that with the status quo. That is not acceptable for the truest Christian and his followers this Saturday. Shut it down Father. And if nothing gets done....shut it down again.