If Alderman Dorothy Tillman were a man, you might think she was the first priest in the Chicago City Council. How else to account for all the time she apparently spends on the dark side of a confessional?
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This time it was an ordinance banning tobacco and alcohol advertising on billboards, with some exceptions, such as on signs located in industrial areas. The purpose is to protect children from messages enticing them to smoke and drink. It’s the culmination of south-side priest Michael Pfleger’s 14-year crusade against such billboards. Tillman’s was the lone dissenting vote.
In March, when the council passed an ordinance that Tillman opposed extending health benefits to partners of gay city employees, she condemned the aldermen who had filed through her confessional. “I heard some of ’em say, ‘Well Dorothy, I really don’t believe in this, I don’t wanna vote for it, but you know I got those folks in my ward,’” she jeered.
Mayor Daley displayed his dark side when Alderman Ray Suarez introduced the Chicago Police Department’s Flying Knights parachute team to the council for a round of applause.
–Cate Plys
