In an era of rampant voter apathy and the growing sense that special interests run the politicians who, in turn, run our government, today we recognize and thank the increasing number of activist citizens who have banded together primarily in neighborhood groups to educate themselves and get involved in the process of making public policy in our community.
Within just the past year alone several citizens groups have formed to oppose such diverse special interest initiatives as zoning variances for the Executive Office Plaza development, bringing a PADS homeless shelter to Park Ridge, the extension of Cumberland Avenue under the railroad tracks and, most recently, building a CenTrust Bank and/or CVS pharmacy on the old Napleton site.
In so doing, these activists have begun the process of re-claiming local government from those special interests which have turned it into a tool for concentrating and accumulating power and money in the hands of a select and privileged few – while foisting the costs of that government upon all of us. In return for such a noble effort, however, these public-spirited citizens have been criticized and even condemned by many of our local politicians – both those at City Hall and those in the various churches comprising the Park Ridge Ministerial Association – who see this activism as a clear threat to the power and influence they’ve enjoyed for so long.
That these “ordinary” citizens have stood their ground against such an onslaught is even more impressive and admirable. In fact, it is nothing less than extraordinary.
They are acting in the tradition of such grass roots activists as the “Sons of Liberty” who – under the leadership of Samuel Adams – were successful in undermining support for British rule and advancing the cause of American independence among colonists who were, as Sam’s cousin John Adams would later put it: “about one-third Tories (sympathetic to the Crown)…one-third timid, and one-third true blue.” Sam Adams recognized that the first step in overcoming the apathy and fear infecting many colonists was to cultivate “an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds,” which is exactly what our Park Ridge activists have done for those of us who don’t always pay enough attention to what goes on at City Hall, or at the respective headquarters of School Districts 64 and 207, and/or the Park District.
That is why we encourage and applaud these citizens in their efforts to return our local government to one that is truly of the People, by the People, for the People. And we hope that they also realize that each of their “neighborhood” interests forms a vital piece of the bigger and broader fabric that is the Park Ridge community as a whole.