A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr. Publisher, Westside Gazette
Chicago is once again on the brink of becoming another occupied territory, with talk of the National Guard rolling in as if the city is a war zone. But to understand what is happening today, we must first remember what Chicago has always represented — a battleground between authority and freedom, between oppression and the voices of civil rights leaders who refuse to bow down.
This is not new. Chicago has a long, painful history of policing that treated Black and Brown communities as enemy combatants. I recall the stories of weapons so powerful they could shoot through concrete walls — weapons used not on foreign soil, but in American neighborhoods, against American citizens. That reality still echoes in the fear and distrust many hold today.
Yet Chicago has also always been the home of courage. From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s marches through Marquette Park, to Fred Hampton’s organizing with the Black Panther Party, to grassroots leaders who fought redlining, segregation, and police brutality — the city has raised voices that refused to be silenced. Those voices remind us that when power comes down with force, it must be met with community standing tall, unafraid.
So here we are again, watching history circle back on itself. Chicago is not a battlefield; it is a community of families, of children, of workers, of dreamers. The answer cannot be to militarize the streets. Every time this nation has tried to crush a movement with guns and troops, it has sown deeper mistrust and greater wounds.
The true test is not whether the National Guard can control Chicago, but whether Chicago — and America — can finally face the truth. Policing without accountability is tyranny. Militarization without justice is occupation. But a city led by its people, by its courage, and by its refusal to be silenced — that is freedom.
Chicago has always produced leaders willing to stand against injustice, and I believe it still will. The question is whether the nation will hear them, or whether history will once again repeat itself in blood and betrayal.
