Revolution at hand?

People ask me, in fact my friend Sherman asked me today. "Are they crazy or just crooked?" Sherman was talking about the CTA's latest shout-cast. We were having lunch. Sherman was eating pastrami, and while I wanted roast beef, I was eating turkey. Despite the topic at hand, Sherman seemed to be enjoying his lunch.

"Listen," he said. "You ride the Brown Line, right?" I do, I told him. Five days a week. On at Kimball, off at Quincy, and back again. "So you've seen the CTA graffiti then," he said.

I told him I thought they pretty much had gotten rid of it. Something I've given them credit for.

"No, not the tagging of the stations and the trains. The graffiti aimed at the CTA. People living along the tracks are defacing their garages - begging the CTA not to cut their service, not to close their station."

I'd heard that. But on the ride in I usually have my head in a book. On the ride home I nap. Sure, I told him. I've seen it. But isn't that about the CTA's plans to close stations while they do improvements?

"Right!"he said. "They have the bungalow crowd so pissed off they're spray-painting their gargages. Begging for mercy."

Begging?

"You bet. And now this," he said, slamming his hand down on the Sun-Times. "There's gonna be a revolt."

I didn't have the heart to tell him that he's wrong. How it will play out the way it always plays out. Fares will probably rise, a little. Service maybe will get cut, a little. Springfield will give, a little. And this summer, when the kids are out of school, and the fathers and the mothers want them out of their hair, block by block you'll hear parents yelling out, "Get off your butt and paint the damn garage."