Will Karen Tallian use her voice to hold Mayor Tom McDermott accountable for an avoidable environmental tragedy?

Hammond, IN Mayor Tom McDermott, a Democrat, is ready to bulldoze thirty acres of the most endangered ecosystem in the world.

It could happen sometime this year. Tomorrow, the new leader of the Indiana Democratic Party, Karen Talian, is showing up on the mayor's podcast.

Like the area's residents, Democrats and environmentalists should and are saying no, not on our watch. 

It seems that the new leader of the Indiana Democratic Party, Karen Talian, seems pretty clueless about it as she is showing up on the mayor's podcast on Friday, March 21.

Shortly after the above Chicago Tribune story dropped, the city of Hammond released an unhinged press release. Despite what scientists and environmentalists are saying, the city calls Briar East Woods "unsuitable for designation as a nature preserve."

Talian was just barely elected State Chair last Saturday, 18-14. Backroom deals were seemingly cut to put her across. One of those was former Allen County Democratic Chair Derrick Camp dropping out and endorsing Tallian. McDermott had endorsed Camp. This is the uglier, anti-progressive part of the Democratic Party; the side of the party that cares more about self-serving politics within the blue dots than actually defeating Republicans.

McDermott is the prime example of this type of self-serving. In February, I was kicked out of a Hammond City Council meeting. Hammond residents had created an uprising against McDermott's plans to destroy the Briar East Woods. On the night, he was to pass a resolution that could doom the forest, over a hundred people showed up at city hall to protest.

Instead of being embarrassed by the turnout against him, McDermott packed the city hall full of city workers for hours and what seemed to be aging family members. The fire marshall and police then declared the chambers off-limits to people showing up and we had to watch the city council in a basement hallway and conference room.

The woods are 32 acres and date back 4,700 years. Where the woods are now is the Lake Michigan shoreline, which is now 4.5 miles to the northeast. The famous Jackson 5-family home is even closer, 4 miles east. 

The Briar East Woods is an outright miracle. The remnant forest was once part of the black oak savannah ecosystem. It once stretched 50 million acres from Nebraska to Toronto. Now, only .02% of it is left. It is the most endangered ecosystem in the world. 

One scientist writes:

"The Black Oaks here tend to be smaller [near Lake Michigan] because the sandy soil limits their growth. It may take several hundred years of plants enriching the sand with humus (decayed plant material) before the area can support a woodland. Watch for birds, mammals, and insects hiding in the hollowed-out trunks of the trees." 

Don't worry. McDermott says trees will be replanted. The Governor's Parkway bridge is needed to go over the railroad track. Nobody disagrees with the need for the bridge. There are just better and cheaper places to put it.  

Like in the great American novel  Moby Dick, McDermott is Captain Ahab. He is obsessed and revengeful. Listen to his podcast. Listen to the way he berates constituents. Listen to the way he berates Hammond city councilors.  His obsession with controlling nature and defeating the forest activists could be his ruin.

The Mayor and the entire city council are Democrats. McDermott has also run for Congress and Senate, losing badly both times. He is a sad mixture of Richard M. Daily and Donald Trump, mayor of a midsized Indiana city. There is no doubt that McDermott has built an impressive political machine built on revenge and city patronage.

To save the forest, Democrats, especially Indiana Democrats, must make him a pariah.