"Don't talk kid. Just write. We don't have much time. Chicago is in pain. So I've got a message for Rahm from a friend. All you gotta do is write it down. Got it?"
"Wait a minute Lester! Who's your friend? I don't get it. This can't be Royko, could it? Guy died in 1997. You knew him, right?"
"Yeah, I knew the guy. So what? You can say the message came from anywhere you want. Ready?"
I looked over at Lester Lapczynski on the other side of the red vinyl booth at the Burger and Brandy on South State. Outside it was one of those storms that dump everything. Snow, rain, sleet hail, maybe a locust swarm if you weren't paying attention. "Yeah OK Lester. Shoot. What's the advice your friend has for Rahm?"
"Here you go, beer-for-brains. This is what my old pal would tell Rahm.
Forget your Neighborhood. Hire TALENT. You hire people from your neighborhood Rahm -- just like everyone's always done. And that just don't work anymore. Because your neighborhood is the 1%. Just like your pal Governor Hedgefund. Your neighborhood is the 1%. Look at your people Rahm. Who's gonna say 'no' to you? Who ain't tied by a connection or by money? You're so far from TALENT that you don't even know how to talk about it. If I said, FIND AN ACTIVATOR! Or YOU NEED RESORATIVE, would you know what I meant? Of course not! That's because it's from a book that provides a data driven language of talent. Strengthsfinder 2.0. By Tom Rath. Pretty easy book to find. Get one then find someone who knows how to use it. I gotta name if you don't.
Listen to Your Drivers. Start with the cops who guard your house. They like that detail? Talk to the guys who drive you to yoga class. You know, the guys who look like they can take down a tank with just one glance. Or the guys who run in to get your coffee at the tiny coffee shop owned by the big money guys on Irving Park. Find out what life is like for the drivers. Not just the money guys
Look for Small Gifts. You don't remember the morning your driver came out of that coffee shop and was also carrying a book on thinking differently about finding a job. You took the book, and tossed it. In the book was a collection of 40 little stories and dozens of questions designed to prompt the reader to think differently about finding work. Imagine that Rahm: not TIF funds, economic policy or make work projects. Instead, thinking differently about finding work. Imagine individuals figuring out their own path to finding work -- and then getting jobs! Turns out the book you ignored really works. Go buy a copy. You won't have to go far to find the title. Then read it. All of it. Then find somebody who knows how to use it to prompt any given individual Chicagoan to think differently about finding work.
Small gifts like that book. They are everywhere. They are connections to solutions.
Picture Streets Full of Working People. Imagine, like you, they all have jobs. Doing what they do well. You haven't shown that lately. But you could. You have stepped into systems and ways of doing business that have been here forever. Read Nelson Algren's Chicago: City on The Make. Get that every word is absolute truth. Which is why it was banned and hated by the powers that be. Make that book Chicago's "One Book, One Chicago," then listen till you hear somebody say, "The book is a love song to Chicago." This time though, it's the real Chicago. All of Chicago. You once said, "When a child is shot in Englewood, I want people crying in Ravenswood." In the streets full of working people, the vulnerable don't have to lose for everyone else to win. Secrets are gone and pain is shared. But so is joy. Everyone has a job.
Stay or Go. Now that we have, like Algren said, 'revealed our backstreets to the indifferent stars,' I do not blame you for the history of our home's 'rusty, iron heart.' Generations of mayhem and mischief soaring up in searing horror that flamed up on your watch. I hear the anger.
From where I am now though, I see things a bit differently. I know you can't change history.
But you can make history. A leader that, again like Algren, 'loves the alleys as much as all the grand boulevards.'
If you stay, you must show that love to everyone. In action. And if you don't, it's time to let someone else try."
Lester was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded once, got up and walked out without a coat into the storm. As I watched him through the window, I saw a man in a trench coat walking, face down, fall in line next to Lester. In the middle of winter. Tossing a 16 inch softball up in the air as he walked through the snow.
As if it were spring.