Next week, ten days before his eight-year presidency ends, Barack Hussein Obama (D) will officially return to his violent hometown of Chicago, where his public life began, "to say my grateful farewell to you."

I'm just beginning to write my remarks. But I'm thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here.

Since 2009, we've faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger. That's because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding—our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better.

So I hope you'll join me one last time.

Because, for me, it's always been about you.

President Barack Obama

While he's thanking America for his "amazing journey," where he's "come through stronger," and "to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better," what about the residents of Chicago?  Has Chicago changed "for the better"?  Well under the eight-year presidential reign of their most famous ex-resident (he probably won't return, and, as you'll read further, you probably won't blame him), his city, his county, and his state of Illinois (where he once served in the notoriously corrupt state legislature and which he represented casually as a senator while he ran for president) are all broke, broke, broke despite raising taxes while residents and jobs are fleeing.

They are also violent despite (because of?) some of the strictest, oh so sensible gun control laws in the nation.  While Chicago is not the most murderous or dangerous city in the U.S. – that dubious distinction belongs to St. Louis – the sheer number of murders is appallingly high.  Indeed, as many have noted, the number of murders in Chicago is higher than the combined total of murders in New York and Los Angeles, both of which have larger populations.

And 2017 in Chicago isn't starting any better.

An overwhelming majority of the victims could have been the Obamas' sons or other relatives.  Correspondingly, the overwhelming majority of the murderers also could have been the Obamas' sons.

Between 75% and 80% of Chicago shooting victims are black. (snip)

Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on Sunday blamed the Black Lives Matter movement for causing a rise in violent crime around the country.

During a radio interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York, McCarthy blamed protests against police brutality in cities like Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and Charlotte, N.C., for creating a "political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment."

"So what's happening, and this is ironic, is that a movement with the goal of saving black lives at this point is getting black lives taken, because 80 percent of our murder victims here in Chicago are male blacks," McCarthy said. "Less than half of 1 percent of all the shootings in this city involve police officers shooting civilians."

As President-elect Donald J. Trump noted: 

Chicago murder rate is record setting - 4,331 shooting victims with 762 murders in 2016. If Mayor can't do it he must ask for Federal help!

Welcome home, Barack Obama.  Despite your fine words, Chicago hasn't "changed for the better."