Big shoulders and open arms // In this city, the heart of a nation beats

Welcome to Chicago, Democrats. We are you and you are us.

So much of what you are as Americans, Chicago is as well. Somuch of what you love and do not love about this nation, you willfind in Chicago in full.

If you came to save America, you came to save Chicago. You willfind America's reflection in our city's soaring skyscapers, in thebeauty of our lake, in the fading eyes of our dying young men.

Chicago is an American city. Perhaps the most American of allcities. Norman Mailer, reeling from the 1968 Democratic convention,once famously proclaimed Chicago "perhaps the last of the greatAmerican cities." And his words still ring true. The life-forcethat built the nation courses through Chicago like the river beneaththe Michigan Avenue bridge.

Like America as a whole, Chicago is a place of immigrants andchildren of immigrants, all races and religions, committed to adoctrine intensely American: Hard work brings personal betterment andhuman progress. Chicago is the meeting ground, as it was for thePotawatomi. Chicago is the land of new beginnings, as it was for theFrench voyageurs and New England speculators and bored Midwesternfarmers.

On Argyle Street today, a man from Vietnam runs an import shop.In west suburban Maywood, a woman from India works as a doctor. Insouthwest suburban Chicago Ridge, a man from Ireland worksconstruction.

"What I like about Chicago is, if you work hard you can getsomeplace," said Chai Roongseang, who runs a Thai restaurant, theNoodle Garden, in north suburban Evanston. Chai and his wife,Jintana, have taken off exactly two days in 1 1/2 years.

Studs Terkel, a conscience of our city, likes to call Chicago "acity of hands" - as in factory hand, dockhand. New York is a city ofpaper; Los Angeles, a city of celluloid. Chicago is a city of hands.

But the old hands are doing new jobs, and the callouses arefading. Chicago's economy, like the nation's, is shifting uneasilyfrom manufacturing jobs to service jobs. Mills close while hotelsboom. In Chicago today, the single most powerful union is not theiron workers or the electricians, but probably the Service EmployeesInternational.

Earlier this year, Jay Leno brought his "Tonight Show" toChicago and reveled in all our blue-collar cliches. He trotted outthe usual suspects - beef sandwiches, deep-dish pizza and da coach.But Chicago is as much a Starbucks caffe latte as a Mr. Beefsandwich, as much corporate Michael Jordan as combative Mike Ditka.

At your convention, somebody will lament the loss in America of"good-paying jobs," the kind of jobs men and women can raise a familyon. And if you need proof, you'll find it in Chicago. The guyselling you a hot dog at the United Center might have worked in afoundry two decades ago, earning three times the pay.

Somebody else will talk about America's "declining sense ofcommunity," and you will find that in Chicago as well.

Chicago is a mirror of America, a reflection deep and wide. Youwill talk at your convention about crime in the United States, andyou will find that here. You will talk about racial strife, and youwill find that here. You will talk about failed schools, and youwill find that here.

But you will find something else as well.

You will find the America you believe in, your very reason forbeing here.

Chicago is a town thrown up on a swamp in a burst of furiousenterprise. It is a town rebuilt after a great fire on a scale fargrander than before, showcasing the genius of Daniel Burnham, LouisSullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and - somewhat later - Mies van derRohe.

It is a town of flat prairie plainness, but also strikingphysical beauty. Our lakefront is our Rocky Mountains, our NiagaraFalls.

Chicago is a town of enormous on-the-make energy, but alsoreformist spirit - a backlash, no doubt, to all the greed. That mobof protesters outside the convention? They follow in the footstepsof our local rebel giants: social worker Jane Addams, attorneyClarence Darrow and community organizer Saul Alinsky.

At the '68 convention, Mayor Richard J. Daley complained of"outside agitators," but we grow plenty of our own. Chicago is inthe middle of the country and in the middle of the fight.

So welcome, Democrats. This is America. Hope you feel at home.