via an exclusive Sun-Times report:
It’s a monumental task!
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.
The move follows in the wake of plans in other cities to take down Confederate statues, but is intended to deal with a monument of a different sort, “one from a repressive dictatorship that has nothing to do with our history,” said Burke.
• The plan: To petition the Chicago Park District for the removal of the Etruscan pillar located on Park District property — Grant Park — and petition the City Council to rename Balbo Drive “after a late Chicago mayor who never was honored by having a building or street dedicated to his memory,” Burke added.
Photo courtesy of Rich Hein/Sun-Times
