Editorial: Tear down Trump’s sign? Not worth the time

Follow @csteditorialsChicago aldermen are all in a tizzy to tear down a “Trump Plaza” honorary street sign as payback to Donald Trump for his verbal trashing of Chicago and immigrants.

We respond with a phrase borrowed from first lady Michelle Obama.

“When they go low, we go high.”

Slapping Trump down in such a petty way is unworthy of a great city. And we’re pretty sure the City Council has bigger stuff to worry about.

Follow @csteditorialsYes, we share Ald. Brendan Reilly’s disgust toward Trump. Reilly’s the chief sponsor of the proposed ordinance to take down the Trump Plaza sign on Wabash Avenue, near Trump International Hotel and Tower. We agree with the alderman that Trump did our city no good in dismissing it as a “war zone.”

And, yes, we sympathize with Reilly and 46 other aldermen who signed on to the proposed ordinance out of their annoyance with Trump’s racist rants against immigrants and Muslims.

But we’ll go high when the Donald goes low.

Reilly says Chicago’s more than 2,000 honorary signs are intended to celebrate Chicagoans “who help lift up this city and move us forward.” But it hasn’t always worked out that way. We’re thinking here of Hyman Tucker, once described by City Hall reporter Fran Spielman as “the poster boy for ghost-payrolling in Chicago.” And we could name a few other dim lights.

Trump is a bigot to be spurned, but not in this way.

The best way to strike back is to vote against him Nov. 8.

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