His Royal Highness--King Todd

The following is a letter I wrote in to a large metropolitan newspaper last week but that was not published, there are similarities to an editorial in said newspaper published today that are eerily familiar though, hmmmm . . .

It’s Not Easy Being King


Poor, poor President Stroger, the lesser. He’s had a tough road lately. Ever since taking the trouble to wrangle the nomination for County Board President from those more qualified he has had a tough road to hoe. He’s had to ensure that all of his family and friends have high paying County jobs. He’s had to begin the biggest layoff that the County has seen in more than 20 years. He’s had to give up his elevator and he’s had to answer for his actions. And now he’s trying to downplay the importance of the mess over at the hospital that was named for his father. It must be bad enough skating into a position that shouldn’t have been yours to begin with, but then being expected to clarify the reasons for your actions, well, that must be unbearable.

It’s a funny thing when you decide you want to be in charge of a government system whose budget is larger than the budget of many Fortune 500 companies, you become what we in the rest of the world like to call accountable. And to blame the press for your own inadequacy, well that’s just silly. Some of us take exception as well with the insults handed out to both the press and the commissioners. It is the job of the press, nay their responsibility, to scrutinize our public officials. And to imply that the commissioners lack the ability to think for themselves, well that’s just the inane rumblings of the disenchanted.

I’m going to try to make this as easy to understand as possible Mr. President. We have what is called a system of checks and balances in government here in the United States. The framers of the Constitution, that means the guys who wrote and planned our government, decided that it would not be a good idea to not give too much power to any one branch of the government. Many local governments agreed and put similar systems in place. That way, if say the president decided he wanted to spend a bunch of money that belonged to the people without telling anyone, another branch would question him and ensure thereby that said government remained a democracy instead of a autocracy.

Stop whining chief. No one is making your job hard but you. You got yourself elected, something we’re all still trying to figure out. You made back room deals to get your budget passed, again something we’re all still trying to figure out. For some reason we still haven’t seen this mystery budget that is paid for by the taxpayers of Cook County for their benefit, not yours. At this point it would seem to the general public that nearly everyone in your family and personal circle has a great job within the County, quite frankly we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that you have a four-year-old niece in charge of the County day care system at $85,000 a year.

Sorry but you don’t get to complain about being scrutinized, it comes with the territory and you volunteered for this particular assignment. Now I don’t fault you for taking advantage of one of the last refuges for nepotism in the free world because it’s not just you taking from the kitty, but the time has come to pony up and take some responsibility for your own actions. Nobody ever said it was easy being king, but it’s a hell of a lot harder when you realize that your subjects are willing to take exception with the way you rule. So don’t fret too much because from here on out, it’s only going to get harder.