Setting the Record Straight in Response to 8th Ward Alderman Michelle Harris Statement to a News Reporter About my Actions
This article is to set the record straight. What the 8th Ward alderman said is misinformation.
By Dr. Juanita Bratcher
Editor & Publisher, CopyLine Magazine
I’ve been an Author, Publisher, Journalist and news reporter for 42 Years. I don’t usually make statements to the press because I am the press. I do investigative stories and ask questions of others.
Recently, a news reporter interviewed 8th Ward Alderman Michelle Harris about the low income Section 8 Senior building that is proposed to be built at 9329 to 9429 on Stony Island Ave. The building will consist of 134 units, 7 story tall.
Harris told the news reporter that she had met with “your group” for a year and there is nothing she can do to change your mind about the low income facility because “your group” is against her.
Let me make it very clear, Harris has never met with me or anyone I know. I do not have a group. That’s something she created in her mind. I do communicate with neighbors, friends and residents that live in the 8th Ward. Most good neighbors and friends do that all the time. Certainly, I am no different.
However, this is my response to the news reporter:
“Here we go again! Alderman Michelle Harris got it wrong again, as she always does. I do not have a “group.” I attend meetings that other residents or organizations in the community sponsor and write articles about what happened at those meetings. That’s what the media do. I am a media person. Shame on the alderman for not getting anything right. Or maybe she deliberately gives out misinformation to those who don’t know what is going on in our community, her ward. I know what is going on because I am active in my 8th Ward community. Sometimes I wonder does she purposely give out wrong information.
In an interview with a local newspaper, she claimed that it was a “small group” of people in opposition to her bringing in the low income project, that they don’t support her. That statement couldn’t be further from the truth. There were about 200 people that came to an already canceled meeting at St. Ailbe Church on a rainy cold night to protest the building coming to the area. It was canceled because someone called the church and reserved the room under false pretense, pretending to be a woman that many at the church were familiar with. Her name was falsely used and when the woman found out that someone had falsely used her name, that she never reserved a room there, the meeting was canceled. That was not my meeting. I never scheduled any meetings. I attend other people meetings of concern.
I live in the 8th Ward community and want to preserve the integrity of our community. I make no apologies for that. I have no idea who put the meeting together but I attended the meeting after receiving a flyer in that regard, just like most people who attended. The alderman keeps saying that she has a lot of support from the community to bring the low income housing for seniors in. She does not! There are more residents in opposition to this building coming in than supporters. And I’m sure she knows that already.
