To the editors:

Thank you for running Doug Cassel’s article, “Is Tim Evans for Real?” [March 17]. When I was recruited as a volunteer for the Evans campaign, by unacquainted friends living in different wards, I was skeptical. I consider myself an anarcho-syndicalist. I’ll be pragmatic and vote, but work for a politician? Me?

Tim doesn’t have the avuncular nature that Harold had, plus, he had come in with the machine. Over several months time, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Evans’s concerns were my concerns: recycling as a solution to the city’s garbage problem, better schools (and a sound plan to achieve true reform), improved public health via better education, and a plan for economic development that favors real workers, not developers.

The campaign runs a tight ship, too. Nothing is wasted, and aluminum is separated for recycling. Best of all, it really is a multi-racial coalition.

It’s disconcerting that the daily (make that “Daley”) press is so biased. They report that Daley says he wants to talk about the issues, but though I’ve heard him laugh a lot, he never seems to discuss specifics. Yet I’ve found that you can rarely catch Tim off guard. I guess I shouldn’t expect the news media, run overwhelmingly by white males, to listen to an articulate nonwhite who threatens the “old boy” network. Workers rarely buy display ads–developers do. Being a white woman, I’ve seen evidence of this for years, but I’ve also learned that people working together can make a difference.

I, too, used to think that all politicians were the same. In Chicago, you try to tune it all out. I saw what Harold did, though, and what Tim is starting to do. The white community, if it does vote race, should be embarrassed that Vrdolyak and Daley are the best we can come up with. As a Chicagoan, though, I’m proud to be part of a coalition that supports Tim Evans. His support doesn’t come from law firms or people doing business with the city. His support comes from people in the communities, people who care, like me.

Robyn Michaels

N. Wayne