By Ben Joravsky
Chalk one up for consistency. Win or lose, empty seats or sellouts, as far as Peterson’s concerned his war for “honesty” will continue.
His political beliefs are somewhat surprising, given that he’s the son of a conservative Republican who ran a trucking company. He was raised on the southwest side–hardly a bastion of radical politics–and graduated from Marist High School in 1977. “I can’t say that there was any kind of earth-shattering event that took place in my life transforming me politically into what I am now,” says Peterson. “But a lot of the nuns I had from fifth to eighth grade were of the new generation coming out in the 60s. They were not afraid to ask questions, so maybe that had something to do with it.”
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He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a major in philosophy, and helped rehab buildings for a few years before quitting to devote his time to research and writing–making ends meet by “watching things closely.” Peterson says his workday begins early, as he confronts the mass of newspapers, magazines, and journals he regularly reads, clips, and files by subject. By his own count he subscribes to 40 different publications–ranging from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to Covert Action Quarterly to such journals of the Right as the American Spectator and the National Review.
“If the government’s going to subsidize anyone it ought to be on the basis of need,” he says. “You can’t make the case that an owner has any authentic need or that resources ought to be dedicated to that use. Beyond that, it’s fairly clear that these things [ballparks] are money losers–that is, the Chicago White Sox don’t add anything significant to the local economy.”
It’s disgraceful, Peterson says, that local publications did not pick up on Reinsdorf’s comments. “That should have been a big banner-headlined story,” he says. “In effect, you have the governor colluding with the owner in order to get a subsidy. Instead, it goes virtually unreported in this town.”
Peterson says he has no interest in the Cubs because the public didn’t build them a new stadium. “I’ve never been a Cubs fan,” he says. “I’m not that much of a Sox fan anymore either–the owner’s killed it for me. I wish sports teams were owned by someone who isn’t separate and distinct from the players. I think they should go back to the way they had it in the 1850s when the players owned the team. It’s been downhill since then.” o
