By Joel Thurtell
George Orwell explained how history could be obliterated — state-appointed historians in his novel, 1984, would simply clip offending facts out of news reports and drop them down the “memory hole.”
Reuters, a self-styled news service, had a similar purpose in judging that the events of the most recent protests in Chicago — benign in Reuters’ view — somehow negate the brutal behavior of Chicago cops during the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention.
“Erase” is the operative word in Reuters’ judgment.
There were no police thugs in ’68. Simple as that.
Reuters has a problem.
Me.
I was there in ’68.
I got whacked for no reason.
And I have not forgotten.
What happened to me is not something that Reuters or anyone else can erase.
I wrote plenty about Chicago and ’68 on this blog during the 40th anniversary of the pig show.
I saw Chicago cops whacking people in Grant Park for no reason.
Unprovoked violence — police violence.
Erased?
Chicago can’t cleanse that stain from its history.
Chicago does not own a memory hole.
