Danny Davis was a no-show this morning at 2nd Baptist, Maywood. His office in DC had told Organizing for America (OFA), the Obama campaign agency turned policy muscle, he’d be there for a town hall. Not only was that wrong, or turned out wrong, but his office had the address wrong — 36 S. 13th Ave., vs. 436, the correct address.
This misinformation — fishy, I’d call it — sent Yours Truly on a self-conducted auto tour of Maywood, a mostly black ‘burb a few miles west of Oak Park. This was interesting — I saw a man in his back yard where he had corn growing — but not what I planned.
Two residents were as helpful as they knew how to be when I stopped and asked. One said to try Melrose Park (to the north); so I took 13th Ave. north — finding 2nd Baptist, in fact, where a cop was in the street directing people away from that location, explaining that inaccurate emails had been sent out.
I verified this with several OFA stalwarts who were as disappointed as I was, in uniform tee shirts and beautiful signs made with help of the OFA site — www.barackobama.com or if you sign on, mybarackobama.com. Chatting with them, I suggested that Republicans had sent out the false messages, which they enjoyed.
One asked me to sign a statement of support for Obamacare. I said I had some issues. She asked me what. I said the cost. She offered this solution: measure the cost by the year and not the decade, and it’s not so scary. She also opined that the money saved would balance out the cost. I said I’d have to think about it.
But wait. The costs we hear about are to the federal government, that is us as taxpayers. It’s new expenditures. So that balancing-out idea won’t work for me. I will have to go with her annual-cost suggestion and forget the ten-year business. That way, I won’t feel so bad. We parted friends, that much I know.