Please don't go to Copenhagen. Maybe you haven't had a chance to talk to your old neighbors lately, but we really are not in love with the idea of the Olympics. Don't let Daley and Oprah fool you, most of us think it's going to be a disaster that we will have to pay for for the next thirty years. http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/...
So please stay home. Don't put your prestige on the line for this folly. Don't put the prestige and grace of the presidency on the line for this, it's heavy handed and pushy. If Chicago doesn't win, our President loses status, but if Chicago does win, it will be worse, and you'll have to shoulder some of the blame:
They've probably told you that while the City of Chicago is on the line for all costs the 2016 games incur, the Committee has recently arranged for 'insurance' to cover the losses which will undoubtedly occur. Did they tell you that it's not 'economic loss' insurance? It's great insurance if you're expecting people to get injured and sue the Olympics & City if they trip over a sidewalk defect, but it's not going to help a dime if the games lose money and the City has to pay. For everything. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/... href="http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/09/tribune-poll-olympic-opposition-getting-s
econd-wind-as-support-in-chicago-fades.html">http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/
Did they tell you that the City is so broke right now we've rented out our parking meters for the next 75 years? That 16 people got shot this past weekend, and that our police department is at it's lowest manpower since 1975? And that the police, who will undoubtedly be heavily relied upon for Olympic security, traffic and crowd control, have been working on an expired contract for the past three years because the City doesn't have the money to give them a raise?
Did thay tell you that all city employees are working four days without pay, because we don't have the money to pay them? That more than 35 public school kids have been killed this year? http://www.cnn.com/...
Did they tell you that one of the members of the Chicago 2016 Bid Committee is already bidding on property that's being bought for Olympic sites? And that's just what's in the records in his own name. http://www.chicagotribune.com/... Not that the Games require much building, a strange quirk that's actually one of the plan's 'selling' points, even though it means construction jobs won't be part of the 'Olympic stimulus'.
I know you're smart. You know people are hurting all over this country, but maybe you don't know how much we're hurting back home in Chicago. The Games are not going to pay for more police, safer streets, or cover our budget gap,they never have and they never will.
You have a lot to do for all of us. Health Care. Afganistan. Iranian Nukes. Swine Flu. The Economy. Please stay home and handle those issues. Watching you pitch the Olympic ponzi scheme is going to be little more than a lot of us can stomach right now. So please, please don't go to Copenhagen.