Instead of NATO go further north
Saturday May 19, 2012
So NATO is in Chicago this week, and along with it, pretty heavy security. Instead, maybe take the metra North.
There's been lots of press about extra security on trains, street closings over the last week. Getting on the northbound metra, there are a couple of security guards. These are not the guards you usually see--the ones that don't look particularly fit or attentive. This pair, while they looked a a little scruffy, were the real deal. Checking each person's face, hands, eyes.
Stopping at Great Lakes, you recall the young relatives who have gone there for training. Three cousin's kids.
Next is North Chicago. Looks like the back end of some refinery. You recall that this must be the Abbott factory. Serious number of pipes running from one building to the next.
The Waukegan train station has a little shop, so you get a cinnamon roll and a bananna. The next southbound train arrives from Kenosha. You see another set of security guards poke their heads out as the train fills.
You walk up the ramp that takes you up to the level of the street is quiet. Turning east, the first building is the Waukegan Carnegie Library. Sadly, it is in disuse, although there is constant talk of renewal. This library is where Ray Bradbury visited twice a week when he was young.
So who, among the very wealthy, builds libraries for the public these days?
Further down the road, you come to the courthouse street and head north. Up a slight ramp, you enter. Too early to go through the metal detector. You wait at the bench. People stream in, and somehow consistently don't read the sign "Lawyers left, Public Right". You can tell who is here for the first time. You imagine their nervousness, mouth tasting sour, time slowing to seconds.
As you wait, a fragment set down amidst the controversey comes to mind:
The coach, now disgraced, is walking down the hallway, accompanied by his highly-respected lawyer. Inside, the coach is agonizing over what he should have done.
The lawyer will help him out, his advisors say. His family is supportive of his move to hire the lawyer. It is the right thing to do, they say.
His long career suddenly and badly ended, his reputation tarnished, his accomplishments no longer revered.
He walks down the hallway next to his lawyer.
The lawyer will help. He is very distinguished, knows what to do, how to make the public releases.
The coach looks to the lawyer as they approach the room. "Should I have acted earlier?" The lawyer, with his hand on the door handle of the room, pauses. The lawyer, the distingushed accomplished lawyer, gives him a kind gaze.
The lawyer says "we need to prepare the best defense, and this is the first step."
The coach realizes that the lawyer didn't answer the question. Perhaps the question was rhetorical. He tries to phrase the question differently in his mind. He pauses at the door, his hand on the lawyers arm, "What should I have done? Should I have called the police?"
The lawyer says "Let's go in, shall we?" his face blank.
As they go in, the prime lawyer in the lead, the other lawyers following, it slowly comes to coach that the help the very good lawyer is giving him is not going to include any sort of redemption.
They go to the front of the crowded room.
"All Rise".