Chicago Alderman Ray Lopez of the southwest side is the first candidate in the race for mayor of Chicago

and the race for mayor is always the main event.

I love my city, he said, and like most Chicagoans, I'm sick and tired of watching Chicago flounder

at the hands of a rudderless ship. That's what he said in his announcement,

and it comes as no surprise to the worst mayor in the country, Chicago's incumbent mayor

Fallis Maximus. Under Lori Lightfoot, we've seen skyrocketing violent crime in a city that

seems to be collapsing before our eyes. It is crime is the number one issue, and she panicked and

turned the city over to the black lives matter rioters and it's got worse ever since.

And the Chicago public schools turn out car jackers rather than students, and all those taxes

to feed the dysfunctional government. So yes, she's going to be challenged. I don't see her as

winning in the end. She'll be defeated, but she's having trouble raising money,

wonder why Lori, and the people vote with their feet. But Lopez, Latino in the first openly

gay male candidate wants to change that, and he'll be tough on the crime mission.

I saw him personally face down murderous street gangs alone. It was a hot afternoon on the

southwest side in his ward. There were people shot, and he stood up to them, and I thought,

all right, okay, this guy is courage. Yet almost as soon as Lopez announced the Chicago Press

Corps began treating him disrespectfully, they gave him the back of their hand. He's not woke.

Maybe that's not why they don't like him. And they're saying that he's a creature of, you know,

those pink white guys as if they don't count anymore. He's pro police. He wants order to

replace chaos and anarchy. And we hope to have him on the Chicago way on our next episode. Today,

though, we're not talking politics. We're talking culture, because as any fisherman can tell you,

politics is always downstream from culture. And my friend, the great writer, Dr. Cory Franklin,

...