We don't want no Kent State

...here in the South Loop

09/13/2011 1:15 AM

By Bonnie McGrath

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According to the Columbia Chronicle, the spring 2012 semester at Columbia College Chicago is going to end two weeks early so the school can avoid the Nato and G-8 summits in May. Protesters are expected to be 30,000 strong in the South Loop. And DePaul, Roosevelt and the School of the Art Institute are considering making similar changes, says the newspaper. Columbia's big arts fest, Manifest, is going to be two weeks early, too. And the school's commencement will be rescheduled, as well.


“Based upon available information about the G-8 and NATO summits, and related activities happening near the South Loop and our campus area, it became clear that in the best interest of the entire Columbia community, we should shift the end of the 2012 school year by two weeks to avoid potential conflict with these international events,” President Warrick Carter wrote in an email, said the Chronicle.

All well and good--but what about us fulltime residents of the South Loop? Are we going to be in danger? Will those who beg to differ with the military-industrial complexes of the world summitting at McCormick Place make a point by hassling us South Loopers in our very own homes? Will they tie up streets and sidewalks? Break windows? Storm our living rooms? Cut our cable, our phones, our electricity and our internet connections? Will there be fighting in the thoroughfares? Transportation shutdowns? Poisoned water? Graffiti? Noise? Marches? Food shortages? And darkness at the Roosevelt Icon, Buddy Guy's and Jimmy Green's?

We South Loopers love being the center of the universe. But this situation may be going too far.



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