Really?

"I don't want to." Really, Carol? This is the measured way you communicate to your voters, explaining why you do or do not want to share your financial information with them? Really? I don't take issue with the decision to share or not share. I don't even take issue with the flip-flop. Intelligent people reevaluate their decisions. But I ponder the maturity of an individual who in the complete non-heated repartee of early election gab is unable to come up with a reasoned response.

As I was reading the Trib this week--paper, in my hands, away from a screen, dinosaur that I am--the word "maturity" came to mind a number of times relative to the Chicago mayoral race. Looking at the field, now narrowed, of African-American candidates, I began to question the maturity of black leaders. Is this the best they can offer?

Don't worry. I get smarter. Really--courtesy of a self-delivered NCIS Gibbs head-smack. Um, Liz? This lack of maturity, this meager offering of leadership, is hardly limited to black politicians. Consider the last Illinois governor's race. Hell, consider almost every race held in the state of Illinois in the past 20 years. Are those fielded the best the leaders of Illinois, regardless of their race or ethnicity, can offer in the way of mature, pragmatic and compassionate leadership?

Don't worry. I don't have the time nor inclination to list all of our loser leaders. But I do have just enough time to deliver a head-smack to Dennis Bryne, who did not get any smarter. He managed to write 700 plus words casting aspersions on black political leadership, questioning only THEIR maturity, rather than casting a broader net over all self-serving politicians and their self-serving decisions. Really, Dennis?

Don't worry. I do see the possible irony of which he speaks, African-Americans making race-based choices. But doesn't he see the correlating irony of the race-based choice he's chosen to write about? Really, Dennis? He acknowledges it, but manages to focus only on black leadership, in the end. Which possible explains away the "irony" of continued race-based politics. Really.

Liz