Posted on 03/26/2015 12:36:08 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared to suggest renaming one of Chicago’s airports after President Barack Obama on Thursday, but also sounded confused about how the O’Hare and Midway got their current names.
During a mayoral forum at Chicago State University, the mayor seemed a bit flustered as he answered a question about his quick about-face after he suggested naming a Chicago high school for President Barack Obama, and renaming Stony Island Avenue for the late civic leader Rev. Arthur Brazier.
That’s when the mayor brought up the city’s two airports.
“We have to, in some way, whether it’s President Obama or in the other case, Dr. Brazier, acknowledge people who have done significant things. We have an airport, two of them, named after – Midway Airport, O’Hare Airport – these are people who have been transformative in the city of Chicago,” he said.
The problem was, Midway International Airport is not named after a person at all. It’s named after the 1942 Battle of Midway, a pivotal conflict in the war with Japan during World War II. When moderator Charles Thomas pointed out Midway is not named after a person, Emanuel still couldn’t seem to pin down the origin of the Midway name.
“I’m just saying, but we have airports named after, obviously, battleships,” Emanuel said.
That’s not true of either airport. O’Hare International Airport is named after World War II pilot Edward “Butch” O’Hare, who became the Navy’s first flying ace in 1942, when he single-handedly attacked a formation of nine bombers attacking the aircraft carrier Saratoga, and shot down several of the bombers. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the first member of the Navy to receive that award during WWII.
Regardless of the mayor’s confusion over where Midway and O’Hare got their names, the mayor’s office told the Chicago Tribune he does not plan on renaming either airport.
>>Don’t they have a nice sewage treatment plant they could name after our president?
I work for a wastewater utility. Sewage treatment is essential for healthy civilization. Someone should name an empty field after Obama and then put a fence around it so it can turn into a place where cheap hookers and drug addicts can do their thing out of the public eye.
That is the Obama legacy.
I doubt he could tell you who we fought in WWII.
Why search for when one of his greatest achievements already exist.
Obama High Speed Rail. How about Obama Junction?
I'll second that.
There’s a water treatment facility right across 130th Steet from Altgeld Gardens, a housing project where young Obama used to organize.
They could just rename Man’s Country after Soetero.
Or even a landfill.
Another piece of trivia: The ICAO identifier for O’Hare is ORD. What’s the origin of that name?
Rahm is an absolute MORON
Knows. Don’t care.
Midway is what they used to call the knock-out game. I think.
Isn’t this putz in trouble with his own primary? Or has he won the do-over? Can’t keep track of Chicago politics.
There’s still the runoff I think.
He thinks it was a ballet.....
The airport was originally known as Orchard Field back in the early 1940s.
That got started at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
Since then, "Midway" has been associated both with fairs and amusement parks and with the University of Chicago which was located next to the fair site.
So "Midway" has Chicago associations that could well confuse somebody. Thinking "Midway" was a person, though, is dumb.
I always thought it was named for the same Midway as “The Monsters of the Midway,” the 1940-41 Chicago Bears. They got their name from a park in a nearby part of town. (Actually, the story is more complicated, involving the University of Chicago football team and the 1892 Columbia Exposition, but that’s a digression.)
Any opportunity to prove himself stupid.
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