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Barry Romo: Man of the People
By Kurt Hilgendorf
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Remarks from Barry Romo Memorial Day event in Chicago, May 27, 2024.
Barry Romo was a man of the people, and anybody here who knew him—you know what that means. He loved people, and he loved them deeply, and you saw it anytime he was walking in the neighborhood. He would say hello to every random person he walked past. It was always said most humbly and lovingly. He lived his life that way. Not only was Barry about love, he was about intersectionality before that was even a word.
I met Barry as a student in Joe Miller's class. When he talked about the issue of going to fight a war, he was clear that the same forces held women down at home. That's why you had to fight for reproductive healthcare, why you had to fight for union rights, why you had to ensure that people had decent jobs, and why people had to have housing. It didn't matter what the issue was; Barry understood it and connected it to everything else.
Barry would come to my class when I was teaching at John Hope HS in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. He would talk to the students about the issues of how the military weaponized racism to divide people. He spoke about how the military weaponizes misogyny to divide people. He was clear that the same forces at play in Vietnam, Iraq, Grenada, or wherever there was a military action were in play at home.
He was marching in all of those pictures in his home museum because he joined teachers, clinicians, and paraprofessionals on strike multiple times over multiple days when the Chicago Teachers Union was out advocating for the schools Chicago's students and their families deserve. He understood all of that and was with us anytime that it was a war issue, a labor issue, a schools issue—it did not matter. Barry was there because he loved people.
I'm gonna miss him deeply. I know that all the folks here will, too. I want to appreciate and honor his legacy because there aren't many like him. Thank you, Barry.
Kurt Hilgendorf is the special assistant to the president at the Chicago Teachers Union.
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Kurt Hilgendorf at Barry Romo Memorial Day event in Chicago, May 27, 2024.
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