The so-called “Obama Presidential Center” in Chicago is not a presidential library, and it is not part of the National Archives.  It will contain no collections of presidential papers and therefore will have little if any value to historians and scholars of his presidency.  It is a private building, financed by private donations.  Its function appears to be serving as a monument to the man himself, offering space for basketball courts and meeting rooms for “community organizing,” among his favorite pursuits.  (No word on whether the presidential NCAA basketball brackets will be memorialized as yet.)

This private endeavor wants to take over land in two publicly owned properties that are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jackson Park (on the Lake Michigan shoreline) and the Midway Plaisance, a treasured legacy of the Chicago World’s Fair that defines the surrounding neighborhoods, including the University of Chicago.  This federal landmark status of the two park properties triggers a requirement for what is called a “Section 106 review” under the terms of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.  Local Chicago officials are conducting that review and holding public hearings.  Sort of.

A local citizens group, Jackson Park Watch, is monitoring this review process and has discovered that it appears to be skipping over the hard part and moving toward a conclusion before the facts are considered.

As eloquently noted by Openland’s CEO Jerry Adelmann at last Thursday’s Section 106 meeting, there are significant problems with the process the City’s Department of Planning and Development and Department of Transportation are following as they conduct the required federal review of the proposals for the Obama Presidential Center and the related road changes it requires.  Two problems stand out: First, the City departments have omitted the necessary first step of including public participation in developing the statement of “purpose and need” that defines the project for review.  Second, they have instead drafted their own “purpose and need” statement without public input.

Already, it appears that the fix is in.  The public, who own the land, must be heard.  The power to define the purpose and need is close to the power to define the conclusion.  But it gets worse.  Much worse:

Rather than taking the current configuration of the park as the starting point for assessing the impact of the proposed changes, their statement disingenuously presumes that all of the OPC construction and road work has been completed and that only the resulting traffic problems need to be addressed.  As with the South Lakefront Framework Plan, there is an ongoing attempt to put the cart before the horse.

They have assumed away the nub of the problem: taking protected properties on the National Register of Historic Places and handing them over to a private party that will alter them forever.  This is the question that must be vetted by members of the public and the affected communities.  Focusing on traffic, as if the entire project were approved and completed, is short-circuiting the requirements of the law.

But there is even more chicanery:

Also of note at Thursday’s meeting was the new proposal to take the eastern portion of the Midway – land that the Obama Foundation previously hoped to use for a parking garage – for use as “replacement” land for the baseball diamonds that will be displaced as a result of the OPC siting in the park.  Ironically, this proposal could result in a net loss of park space unless the City fully meets its commitment to give the Park District new open green space equal to that taken for the OPC.  Further, this proposal disregards the fact that there is an existing Midway Plaisance Framework Plan, developed through a proper community process, that envisions other uses for this space. 

This refers to the revisions made to the plan for a parking garage built on park land that is protected on the National Register of Historic Places.  Instead of an above-ground building, it is to be built below ground, and as I interpret this, they want to count it as “replacement” for other land (baseball diamonds) taken by the OPC.  Sorry, but at best, burying the garage only “replaces” the land it takes.  It should not be double-counted.  And the existing Midway Plaisance Plan, which was properly developed with community input, just gets junked.

The late, great Mike Royko coined the term “clout” as the characteristic description of the essence of Chicago politics.  With “clout,” anything is possible.  Without it, nothing ever gets past the governing authorities of Chicago or Cook County.

It is painfully obvious that plenty of old-style clout is in the hands of the OPC-backers.  What remains to be seen is how much clout the community groups can generate.  Jackson Park Watch concludes:

We hope that the haste with which the City and Obama Foundation are pursuing their objectives does not result in mistakes that will ultimately slow the entire project down.

I take this as a warning that the entire panoply of court reviews will be employed by opponents of taking park land, unless local officials start playing the game by the book.

“You can tell a Benchmark kid.  They love their country – they know why it’s special.”  I asked Carole Challoner, one of the founders of this public charter school in Phoenix, how she teaches patriotism to her elementary students.  The teachers do it by inspiring the kids with opportunities for gratitude, service, and patriotism.  Carole explained how Benchmark does it in ten easy steps.

1. August.  The school year begins with teaching the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance.  Many students coming in from other schools do not know them.  Each morning, we play the national anthem over the P.A. system.  A couple of students from kindergarten, then rotating up the grades through the year, go to the office and lead the Pledge over the P.A. system.  The kids love being picked.

Lesson plans: Each grade learns the meaning of each stanza, what pledging means.  They know what they are saying.  “If I promise if I’m going to donate $2 of my allowance, that’s a pledge.”  Allegiance is standing for something that is right.  “To the flag” means you believe in what the flag stands for.  They learn how the flag came about, part of beginning a new country.

2. September.  We hold a school assembly outdoors and raise two new flags on 9/11 in remembrance.  In preparation, each class learns patriotic songs, appropriate to the grade – “We Love America,” “Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue” and so on, different for each grade level. 

Reinforcement: At the end of the year, two students are recognized as “good citizens” and are given the flags to take home.  It is a great honor.  The teachers keep their eyes out for good citizenship – respect to teachers and fellow students, holding a door open for a teacher, cleaning up a mess in the playground without being asked, being kind to a fellow student.

3. October.  The kids collect jars of peanut butter and jelly for the troops serving our country.  Students help with the delivery to Packages from Home.  They collect nearly 3,000 jars in total.

4. One year, Benchmark had two teachers become new citizens and held their naturalization ceremony at the school.  This is now a yearly tradition.  The students sing their patriotic songs, and the new citizen takes their Oath of Allegiance.  After the ceremony, a new citizen visits each classroom to answer questions and explain why he wanted to become an American.  

The lesson: It’s an eye-opener for kids, why people want to live here.  They realize how lucky we are to be born here.  The two things they all mention are, “I came here for freedom and to live the American dream.”  To work as hard as they want at what they want in order to become successful.  Kids love it; they are very excited.  They want to know why they left, why they came here.  We’ve had people from Venezuela, Bosnia, African countries.

5. November.  On Veterans Day we invite a veteran to each classroom.  It is great.  They explain why they served in the military.  How important it is to serve your country.  The students write personal notes of appreciation and give them to the vet – expressing appreciation for keeping them free.

They learn what kind of sacrifice is made for them.We’ve had vets without limbs, we’ve had family members talk about not having Dad at home for 18 months – that’s 2 school years. There is also an all school assembly attended by the veterans in their honor. Students share their poetry and letters to the vets along with singing beautiful patriotic music.

We keep a bulletin board in the school office to honor staff members and family members who have served -they all have their photos up with captions explaining who they are and where they served.Grandpa Joe served in Vietnam.

6. November – Thanksgiving.  The last two weeks of the month are a segment on the Pilgrims, with age-appropriate lessons for each grade.  They realize how brave the pilgrims were.  Kindergarteners tape out on the carpet the size of the ship the Pilgrims traveled on.  It is always a shock to see how cramped they were in the long journey over the sea.

7. December is Wreaths across America.  Kids and their families volunteer to buy wreaths and go to the National Memorial Cemetery.  Families and veterans show up to put wreaths on graves, but some graves have no one to honor them.  We have been able to purchase and place 400-500 wreaths yearly.  The Benchmark choir performs.  Kids hand out notes saying thank you to the visiting vets.  About 150 families do it each year.

8. December is also Christmas.  Every two classrooms adopt a military family, through the chaplain at Luke Air Force Base.  The kids buy Christmas presents and food for the military kids and their family.

9. Writing is an area where patriotism is regularly taught.  They write essays for Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day.  Ten students are chosen to present their essays at an assembly.  This is a big deal, and the kids are thrilled to be recognized for their achievement.  They compete in history essay contests held by the Daughters of the American  Revolution, Constituting America, the VFW, and the Elks Club.  They have to do the research.  Benchmark has had a number of contest-winners. 

10. On Washington’s birthday, Nancy Arnold, a retired Benchmark teacher who is very patriotic, dresses as Martha Washington and comes to school to teach.  She’s the author of Patriotic Pups, a children’s book on the American Revolution.

The classroom environment reinforces these lessons every day.  There’s an Uncle Sam poster in the classroom, asking, “What Are You Doing to Protect the Constitution?”  The kids learn that each of us has the responsibility as citizens to protect our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Classrooms have pictures of the current president; the Founding Fathers; the Declaration of Independence; and, in upper grades, the Preamble of the Constitution.

Benchmark is a public school.  Students are not handpicked – they get in by lottery.  Tuition is paid for by taxes, but as a charter, Benchmark has independence from the public school system.  Benchmark achieves academic excellence.  The school scores are almost twice the state average – 96% scores in science, for example – but equally important is teaching character.  “Everyone can tell a Benchmark student.  Our students are kind, they are respectful, they are caring, and they love their country.”

The two teachers who founded the school, Carole Challoner and Barbara Darroch, invested their own money for land and buildings, putting in sweat equity and years of hard work, because they had a clear idea of what they wanted to do differently.  As children, they lived in third-world countries, Carole because her very patriotic father served over 20 years in the Air Force, and Barbara because her father worked in the oil industry.  

Carole explains, “We know how lucky our students are to have been born in this wonderful country, and it is our responsibility to make sure they never forget that.” 

As news junkies, American Thinker readers learn weekly about the terrible things being taught to our kids in the public schools.  It is important to know our opponents and do everything in our power to stop what they are doing to the next generation.  It is equally important to know and celebrate the everyday heroes on our side.

Gratitude is the beginning of wisdom.  We have a lot of smart, dedicated, and capable people working for what is right and good.  As Carole Challoner teaches her students, we have many people to thank for their hard work and sacrifices.  Never forget the teachers out there who love our country, buck the system, and teach our children to love the national treasure that is America.  The Benchmark example can be spread far and wide.