Ode To Chicago...

“Chicago, there is a resilience that rises from somewhere deep in your streets.

You can’t define it but, you can feel it.

You can feel it overflowing from the people who call you home.

The people who will always proudly declare,

"I'm from Chicago",

you took our country from infancy into industry

and your name still carries with it the idea of a nation built on steel, muscle, and sweat.

You became the city that carried a country, the city, like the sport, is built on dreams.

People who arrived here driven to excel, who know that nothing is accomplished without hard work and without sacrifice.

When you hurt we hurt

Your streets witness our struggle, your bricks show our rage, through the emptiness of each house shuttered, of each factory closed.

We've lived through the ups and the downs and we remain..... Chicago.

We can never turn our backs on you Chicago because we are you, my home, the home of Michigan Avenue ,The Bears, and Al Capone...

Through all this, we can not be defeated because we have never been defeated, you've built us, you've moved us, you've shaped us,

sometimes down but never out, take strength in us, your people...

Out... Cundiff