What Use is Berny Stone?

Ald. Stone is an embarrassment. To the 50th Ward. To the City of Chicago. To the country as a whole.

Stone likes to remind us that he is the Vice Mayor of Chicago. I haven't figured out what that means. I thought it meant that Stone had power. That the streets of the 50th Ward would be paved with gold. That the ward would be cleaner, brighter, better served. But that's not the case. Every candidate running against Stone points out that the 50th Ward gets the least amount of money from the city. Stone can't even pull in a few extra bucks. What influence does Stone have if he can't swing a few bucks for us?

At least he has an empty title. Goodie for him.

Berny Stone is a laughingstock, and we are made a laughingstock with him. People in the wards around us take pity on us because we have Stone. But it's not just the city of Chicago. Friends in Brooklyn know of Stone, and are embarrassed for us. Come east, they say. You can hold your head up here with pride. Friends in Arizona not only know of Stone, but call him the clown prince of Chicago. I can't tell if they are making fun of Stone's prideful boast of being Vice Mayor or just that he's a clown. Not that it matters.

But someone else I know, a former athlete who works with the US Olympic Committee, is convinced that Chicago will never win the Olympics as long as Stone is our alderman. Can you imagine all the things Stone will say with thousands of microphones and cameras here? Why would they take that chance?

Apparently, there is very little chance they will. And Chicago doesn't need to be embarrassed on an international scale.

Stone is quotable. He perpetuates Chicago's bygone image of the city of mobsters. He illustrates the city's problems with corruption and graft. He's a throw-back, not just to the 20 century, but to the early 20th century. Berny Stone would be more comfortable with the likes of Roti and Capone, and we shouldn't forget that.

Rich Daley's Chicago, the New Chicago, has no place for the Berny Stone's. Chicago will never be an international city, a city with a sterling reputation, as long as it has Stone as a mouthpiece. He will embarrass us. Again. And again.

There is no question that Dick Simpson was right. This election is a choice between the past and the future. Chicago has no future with Ald. Stone in it. And Berny Stone has no future with Chicago. It's time to let bygone eras rest. Time for Stone to be thrown out. Time for voters to show a little pride. Retire Berny Stone.