Principal events in the Nazi-Skokie controversy

Nazi march
What's it all about?

HE HAS no press agent, but the news media cover his every move.

He has no money, but he enjoys excellent legal counsel.

He has no power, but thousands fear him.

His name is Frank Collin. He is a Nazi.

For more than a year he terrorized the citizens of Skokie by nothing more than his announced desire to march in front of their village hall. Three times in 13 months his rights were upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Along the way, he was vilified, ridiculed and threatened. The press had a field day. His defenders, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), got hurt.

Finally the controversy ended, but a question lingers: How could a person like Frank Collin and his tiny band of followers manage to create such a stir? The answer is worth searching for.

The Nazi-Skokie story began early in 1977 when Collin, head of the National Socialist Party of America in Chicago, applied to the Skokie Park District for a permit to hold a rally in a Skokie park.

Skokie is a northern suburb of Chicago with a population of 66,000. About one-half of its people are Jewish; many are survivors of Nazi Germany or relatives of Hitler's victims.

The park district responded by informing Collin that he would be required to come up with a huge liability insurance policy to cover possible damages at the rally &O5533; a requirement the district knew he could not fulfill.

The Nazis want to march

Collin then announced his intent to march with his followers, in uniform, in front of the village hall on May 1. On April 27, the village's lawyer went to court, and the following day he obtained an injunction to block the demonstration. The village board also enacted three ordinances: Requiring insurance for demonstrations, banning persons

ED McMANUS
Urban affairs editor for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago columnist for Illinois Issues, McManus has been Springfield correspondent for the Trib and also for Chicago Today.

November 1978/Illinois Issues/11

from parading in "military-style" uniforms or displaying offensive symbols, and banning distribution of hate literature.

Collin obtained counsel from the Illinois Division of ACLU, and a lengthy series of court battles ensued. Ultimately, both the injunction and the ordinances were declared unconstitutional. Then, his victory won, Collin announced that he would drop his plan to go to Skokie if he won permission for a rally in Chicago's Marquette Park &O5533; something he had been seeking for two years. The U.S. District Court ordered Chicago to grant the permit, the Skokie march was called off, and Collin had his day, July 9, 1978, in Marquette Park.

A simple recital of the events from April 27, 1977, to July 9,1978, does not convey the mood that existed. Skokie's Jews were both terrified and infuriated at the prospect of Nazis marching in their midst. Some argued that the best way to deal with the Nazis was to ignore them, but most felt they must take a stand against C

AGAINST ALL ODDS: Obama's report card shows failing grades

Ashlie Rodriguez, Staff Columnist

After two failed stimulus packages, no job creation and only deeper deficits, President Barack Obama is off to a bad start. It?s been a mere seven months since the inauguration and already his approval rating has fallen almost 20 percent, dwindling from a high of 68 percent to 50 percent.

Democrats are critical of Obama for breaking multiple campaign promises, Republicans are disgusted with his insatiable social spending and everyone in the middle is just plain skeptical.  He has failed us on both a practical and ideological basis.

Obama promised us the $787 billion stimulus bill would save our suffering economy. So Congress passed it. Yet shockingly, more than 2.6 million jobs have been lost since Obama took office, according to www.cnn.com. Unemployed citizens can?t afford to buy things — meaning business owners lose profit, resulting in more layoffs and a seemingly unending cycle of financial hopelessness.

Unemployment will soon hit double-digit rates, more and more homes are being foreclosed, and fewer people are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

The hope of Obama fixing our economy is quickly fading.

After analyzing the state of the economy, the idea of government-funded health care leads Americans to question Obama?s elementary school math grades. Many are asking themselves how the government can consider subsidizing a $1.6 trillion health care plan when it can?t even provide its citizens jobs.

With an ever-increasing deficit, a stagnate economy and depressing unemployment figures, there is no way our government can carry health care for the entire nation without either raising taxes or falling deeper into debt. Because subsidized health care was one of his campaign promises, Obama would rather see it implemented and see himself ideologically gratified than use fiscal discipline to get our country of back on its feet.   With such a narrow-minded agenda, Obama is losing sensible supporters. Americans expected him to prioritize more efficiently by fixing the economy first, then considering a universal health care plan, not the other way around.

Obama?s lack of practical planning is upsetting, but so are his ideological deficits.

The re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ignited violent protests on the streets of Iran. Supporters of candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi were enraged by speculative voter fraud and took to the streets to rally against the undemocratic election. Iranian security forces immediately were called to violently subdue the protests, killing more than a dozen protesters and wounding countless others.

When the world turned to the leader of the free world for a response, Obama did nothing. Instead of condemning Ahmadinejad for resorting to violent acts against his own people, Obama simply stated ?The election is an internal matter for Iran.? Americans expected a highly critical response to the undemocratic injustice committed on Iranians, but instead, got unapologetic apathy.

The president should reflect national sentiment.  Obama?s failure is reflected in his lower approval rating.

Not only did he disappoint the international community, he embarrassed his own country.
Instead of using logic in analyzing the arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., Obama went to press defended Gates and referred to the arresting officer James Crowley?s as having behaed ?stupidly.? This immediately infused racial undertones into a situation necessitating no presidential involvement.  Not only did Obama act foolishly by blaming an innocent officer for supposed racist behaviors, but he carelessly offended many of his white supporters, the 45 percent base that voted him into office.

Although one of Obama?s campaign promises was to not play the race card, he broke that promise by impulsively attacking an American police officer without knowing the facts.