Posting Date: May 22, 2008
It’s Difficult To Swallow Some of Daley’s Tactics
The way the Chicago City Council on May 14, under the stern and approving eye of Mayor Daley, lifted the ban on selling foie gras in restaurants, really sticks in my craw.
Foie gras, literally “fat liver” in French, is the fattened liver of a goose or duck. It is controversial because its production requires force-feeding the birds for a couple of weeks before slaughter, thereby swelling their livers to many times their normal size. While sticking a tube down a bird’s throat a few times a day sounds cruel to me, I am not arguing for the ban sponsored by Ald. Joe Moore (49th), just the way it was so abruptly overturned.
After all, if the City Council were to widely apply the animal cruelty criteria it used to ban foie gras, restaurants would hardly be allowed to serve any meat, since calves raised for veal often spend their lives in crates and most cattle are unnaturally fattened for market. Even egg-laying hens are caged. And seeing how they bang at the lid of the pot, lobsters must feel something as they are boiled alive.
The foie gras ban was enacted in April 2006 by a vote of 48-1 as part of an omnibus bill. Daley criticized it then, and restaurants got around it by giving away the foie gras on expensive salads or calling it something else. The ban didn’t even affect most people, who cannot afford the pricey delicacy. I’m told it it is delicious, and while I am all for improving the taste of liver, which turns my stomach, the mayor’s penchant for overlooking the democratic process is what I find most upsetting.
Aren’t we all feeling a little like foie gras geese this year, getting one thing after another shoved down our throats? First taxes, now this, and remember to open wide for the Children’s Museum in Grant Park. We’ll probably see more of the same tactics when the Council takes up that controversial issue in June.
Daley’s penchant for not following rules goes back at least to 2003, when in a hurry to move ahead with his plans to redevelop Meigs Field, he ordered private crews to destroy the airport runway at night, without notifying the Federal Aviation Administration or the owners of 16 airplanes parked there. He said then that Meigs Field was only used by rich people, but maybe getting foie gras back on menus is their payback. And he did it faster, in about four minutes.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), a restaurateur, brought the ordinance out of committee and called for a vote without debate. I don’t think his Ann Sather restaurants serve foie gras, so he won’t benefit from lifting the ban. But seeing Daley on the dais sternly ordering the vote to continue over the shouted objections of Moore, who just wanted the usual procedure to be followed, was not the mayor’s finest moment. At least he didn’t shut off Moore’s microphone, but calling him Joe “foie gras” Moore” after the 37-6 vote was catty.
Apparently, parliamentary rules allow the City Council’s quick action, but that doesn’t make it right. The end does not always justify the means.
Maybe in Daley’s world travels drumming up support for Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics, he took a liking to how the People’s Republic of China conducts its government business. Obviously, having authoritarian rulers didn’t stop Beijing from getting the Olympics this year.
But he and the aldermen should remember Moore’s advice, that “what happened to me today could happen to you tomorrow.” Maybe when the Children’s Museum case is decided in court.
(Dermot Connolly can be reached at (773) 476-4800, ext. 240, or dermotconnolly@att.net.)