I ran across a story at 9wsyr.com last week telling how the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, is bad-mouthing Harrison Ford. I wondered how anyone could be so unwise as to insult a man who has been America's hero in dozens of ways over the years. What's the big issue at hand? Meigs Field, of course.

In case you missed the story, Meigs Field was a GA airport in Chicago until March 30th 2003. That night, with almost no notice, Daley had the airport destroyed. Not only were his actions wasteful and illogical, they were completely illegal. This was evidenced by the $33,000 fine Daley had to pay and $1 Million in federal taxpayer dollars he had to return, just part of the money the city had taken for improvements to the airport...and then squandered.

Harrison Ford spoke out against Daley's ridiculous actions back in 2003 and, as mentioned in the Chicago Sun Times, he reiterated his disgust with the situation on a recent visit to Chicago. Daley responded to Ford's comments and the Times published them as well. Daley called Ford an "elitist" and said that the property where the airport used to be doesn't belong to "a few Piper Cub people."

I think Daley would be surprised how many Piper Cub people there are out there.

It strikes me as odd that Daley would choose to call Ford an elitist as well. For the past few years, Ford served as the chairman of the EAA's Young Eagles program, helping kids to experience the joy of flying for free. Though he is wealthy, he seems like a decent enough guy.

Ford doesn't seem much like the Illustrious Mayor of Chicago to me. Daley supposedly delivered his criticism from one of the most expensive and prestigious restaurants in Chicago...where he was hosting a group of people. He was in the same restaurant as the supposedly "elitist" actor, except that Ford was in the less formal section of the place. The Great and Glorious Mayor decided on a whim to bulldoze a public area, funded in part by millions of our tax dollars, that brought business and recreation to the citizens of Chicago. That's a lot of power to be throwing around. So, who's the elitist here?

You might think that Daley would have had a plan for the land he usurped. He did...sort of. It was offered as the location for a sports complex as part of Chicago's failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics. Now, he's scrambling and offering the place as a nature area. We'll see.... You can get up-to-date information on the state of Meigs at Friendsofmeigs.org.

So, a mayor takes a great airport supported by tax dollars by citizens from all around the country and destroys it. This eliminates a source of business traffic and revenue for the city of Chicago. It eliminates a popular GA airport in the area. He personally pays tens of thousands in fines and has to give back a million dollars in taxpayer resources that could have gone to benefit the people of his city. Years later he boasts, unrepentant, from the heights of a (dare I say?) elite downtown restaurant how he thinks his actions were fine and criticizes those who oppose him. In the meantime, the land that could have been generating money and pleasure as an airport sits empty, unused, wasted.

Congratulations to you, the people of Chicago. You have a real winner on your hands. I hope you are all proud.