The Jesse White Tumblers
Monday, January 12th, 2009
It probably seems that I post a disproportionate amount about local Chicago politics and culture. It seems that way because it's true - it's a topic I'm always willing to babble about. And, of course, my indulgent tendencies haven't been helped by the senatorial / presidential / gubernatorial drama that the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago, and the neighborhood of Hyde Park have seen in the last couple years. This new national attention puts me at odds with my frequent defensive Second City-syndrome assertions that Chicago is as much a significant world-class city as New York, London, or Berlin. How do I reconcile that with that "look ma, our house is on the TV!" feeling of novelty that I still get when local figures and businesses get mentioned by the mainstream media?
The latest Illinoisan to join Barack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, Bill Ayers, Rod Blagojevich, and Roland Burris in the Household Name club is Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. White was at the center of the Senate Democrats' dubious attempt to block Burris from being seated, based on the argument that his letter of appointment lacked White's signature. I, of course, don't want to see a Blago appointee either, but giving a state's secretary of state veto power over Senate seats doesn't seem like the best precedent to start.
It's just amusing to hear people talk about the guy who I previously saw only as the smiling face on the Rules of the Road booklet I was mailed when I was getting my driver's license as a 17-year-old. But what tickles me the most is that in all this press, people seem to be ignoring the thing that I think many of us Chicagoans associate the most with Jesse White, and have done so since even before he was sec of state:
The Jesse White Tumblers.
The tumblers are an acrobatic tumbling team founded by Mr. White in 1959, made up mostly of inner-city African-American children. The tumblers often come out and somersault through half-time shows at Bulls games or between innings at a Kane County Cougars game. They have this joyous, feel-good Jackson Five-vibe about them.
Why oh why couldn't Blagojevich have appointed the Jesse White Tumblers to the Senate seat? It would be the only thing funnier than him appointing himself.
Note: must check to see if jessewhite.tumblr.com is taken.