Dismissing 'cheap talk' a cheap shot

The last line of Kristin McQueary's July 17 op ed 'The anti Rahm rumbles on the South Side' caught my eye: "We’ll see. Talk — even when shouted at protests — is cheap." She was referring to the shouts of protesters over the Harith Augusting police shooting last Saturday that elevated the shooting response to a violent confrontation between protesters and police. I understand McQueary was only making the political point in her piece that blacks routinely criticize Mayor Emanuel over police shootings and lack of community investment but re-elect him at voting time, and that may well happen again next year.

But to call protests, whether they echo at the planned Dan Ryan shutdown march, or crackle spontaneously in the violent streets bordering the Augustus shooting, cheap, is highly insensitive and insulting. They are cries of people left behind to wallow in third world pockets of poverty and despair, largely ignored by the federal, state and local governments in the 153 years since America's shame of slavery ended. I mourn from my perch of white privilege and comfort how all branches of our government turn away from the continuing shame that legacy left to devote governmental resources to widening the divide between those of privilege and those without. The protesters' voices are not cheap. It's the tone deaf characterization of McQueary and company that are not only cheap, they're a cheap shot.