Chicago already has earned Olympics diversity medal
It took U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth to remind us that Chicago's greatest strength is its ethnic diversity. All too often we focus on how our city's jumble of cultures divides us.
Chicago is "still not anywhere near first" in the competition to win the 2016 Olympics, Ueberroth said earlier this month, but it ranks first among competitors in diversity -- and the Olympics is all about diversity. The whole world lies just outside every Chicagoan's door.
Consider Albany Park, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the nation, where more than 40 languages are spoken in the schools. There alone you'll rub shoulders with people from Guatemala, the Philippines, Korea, Bosnia, Iran and Lebanon, to name a few countries. Elsewhere around town, you'll find folks from Brazil, Japan and Spain, countries that are Chicago's closest competitors for the Olympics.
Chicago's Olympic organizers should take the hint from Ueberroth and do more to promote the city's diversity, by working with community groups and businesses to promote the city's culture and traditions. Cultural ambassadors from the neighborhoods, whether they be Irish, Pakistani or Mexican, can help bring the Olympics home.
Let's give the world a true taste of Chicago.