1969 Chicago Cubs, “Pennant Fever” (click to listen or download)
Willie Sutton supposedly once replied to the question, “Why do you rob banks?” with the answer “Because that’s where the money is.”
In his protests against the broken state school finance system in his state, the Illinois State Senator, Rev. James Meeks has shown a similar shrewdness. The first week of school he led Chicago school children to the rich suburbs to register for school; he went where the money was and the reporters and cameras followed. Now he has planned a protest outside the first playoff game at Wrigley Field (and here). Good for him!
I’m sure tickets are going for thousands of dollars, I know that a beer costs $6.00 at Wrigley. While the “haves” and others enjoy their good fortunes of having the opportunity to enjoy October baseball, it is a good thing that they be reminded that many of our children don’t have decent educational opportunities.
For more information on school finance in Illinois, see this page (and links) from the Access Network. Like Wisconsin, they have a broken school finance system. Illinois is also home to a very creative school finance advocacy organization, A+ Illinois.
For our readers in the Milwaukee area, the first home Brewers’ playoff game is Saturday at 5:30 PM. Not to late to get a protest together.
And for any who care, I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan who spent a good deal of my youth and young adult years regularly attending games at Wrigley. This post-season, I’m rooting for (in order) the Brewers, the Cubs and the White Sox.
Thomas J. Mertz
AMPS 