School funding protest at Wrigley Field, Cubs lose first game of NLDS

You can't depend on your family
You can't depend on your friends
You can't depend on a beginning
You can't depend on an end
You can't depend on intelligence
You can't depend on a god
You can only depend on one thing
You need a Busload of Faith to get by
Lou Reed, "Busload of Faith," 1990.

It was rough going last night on Chicago's North Side. The Chicago Cubs dropped the opening game of the National League Division Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And there was a protest about school funding outside Wrigley Field, the Cubs' "Friendly Confines."

Here's some background on the leader of the protest: The Reverend James Meeks was one of Barack Obama's earliest supporters when he was running for the US Senate. He's another Obama "spiritual adviser," as well as someone who served on Barack Obama's presidential exploratory committee, and a man who, according a 2004 Chicago Sun-Times article, serves as someone who Obama seeks out for "spiritual counsel."

What else about the not-so-meek Meeks? Well he's known for strident anti-gay rhetoric, and he once called Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley "a slavemaster."

Lately, he's been protesting underfunding of Chicago Public Schools. On the first day of classes in Chicago last month, Meeks let a protest that involved busing 1,400 students to New Trier High School's west campus in north suburban Northfield--just a few miles north of where I live. New Trier Township is one of the most affluent places in the country, and the schools there are flush with cash compared to Chicago's schools.

But those 1,400 city kids didn't learn much on what was supposed to their first day of school--because, duh, they weren't in school.

Lost in that story is the irony that convicted political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko, although he is now incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, is a resident of New Trier Township. Money tied to Rezko found its way into Meeks' campaign fund, which he says he was not aware of, according the the Chicago Reader.

But what does this have to do with the Chicago Cubs? Meeks held a protest outside Wrigley Field during tonight's game, as the Daily Herald reports:

We do not want the city of Chicago to pay more attention to the Cubs and the White Sox than they do to fixing our schools," Meeks said in Wrigleyville, surrounded by hundreds of protesters wearing orange T-shirts that said 'Save Our Schools.' Our schools should be number one."

I'm sure Cub fans were not impressed.

As for last night's game, the Cubs jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but to television viewers like myself, they seemed snakebitten after the Dodgers' James Loney slugged a grand slam in the fifth inning. That took the crowd out of the game. LA notched two more homers--the final score was 7-2.

Presumably Meeks will take his "Busload of Faith" closer to his South Side base when the Chicago White Sox host the Tampa Bay Rays for Game Three of the ALDS.

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