WLS-AM reports:
It’s a monumental task!Virtuous Alderman Burke seems to have a history of helping mafia figures get on the payroll, so Chicago can be proud. We are sure Alderman Burke has heard of John D'Arco .
Sneed has learned a major move is afoot to remove a monument given to Chicago by Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1933.
• To wit: It’s a monument to Italo Balbo, an Italian Air Force Marshal famous for making the first transatlantic crossing from Rome to Chicago — and helping bring Mussolini to power in 1922. (He was Mussolini’s air comandante.)
• Translation: Watch for Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) to join Ald. Ed Burke (14th) “in righting a wrong” by also removing the name of a fascist lieutenant from one of the most heavily traveled streets on the lakefront: Balbo Drive, which was also named after the Italian aviation ace.
“I’m amazed the citizens of Chicago have not demanded that these symbols of fascism — a street and a statue bearing Balbo’s name — donated by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, a sidekick of Adolf Hitler, be removed decades ago from the city’s landscape,” said Burke.
“It is now time Chicago does something permanent about this embarrassing anomaly,” he added.
