God Bless Willie Wilson, Chicago's 'Free Gas' Man Of The People

CHICAGO — When I was a boy, my dad told me there are two kinds of people in life: givers and takers.

Dr. Willie Wilson gives. His generosity is the best of him.

The self-made businessman gave away face masks in Illinois, Los Angeles and Detroit during the coronavirus crisis, handed out $100,000 to financially struggling churches, paid back taxes for poor folks in Cook County and handed out $1 million cash to people struggling to rebuild after a hurricane in New Orleans.

[COMMENTARY]

Wilson gave away $200,000 in free gasoline last week as prices at the pump neared 15-year highs.

He got criticized by politicians upset over the snarled traffic caused by drivers desperately seeking a free tank of gas. Ald. Maria Hadden said it was "irresponsible and reckless" for Wilson to create such a traffic disaster. Some critics called the gas giveaway a publicity stunt.

Transit advocates who don't know what it's like to wait a half hour for the Cottage Grove bus on Tuesday afternoon asked," Why not give away CTA passes?"

A south suburban police chief whined that Wilson's gas giveaway would gobble too much of his department's overtime budget and create a traffic jam that might, for a few hours, grate on the nerves of residents that just want to shop for groceries.

A Tribune columnist wondered in print if the giveaway might violate state election laws, even though the former mayoral candidate currently isn't running for office.

Wilson responded to the blow back by scheduling a second gasoline giveaway for Thursday, this time for $1 million, at nearly 50 gas stations in the city and suburbs skyrocketing gas prices that hit poor families and seniors on fixed incomes the hardest.

On Wednesday, Wilson told me that if gas prices don't decline — and sitting politicians don't cut gas taxes to help working-class families and seniors on fixed income — that he plans to schedule another $1 million gas giveaway.

"Politicians should lower the gas taxes and give people some kind of relief off the gas tax burden. Families can't pay for gas to get to work and daycare centers," Wilson said.

"And to criticize me for traffic, people got a mentally ill problem. The city does events in Grant Park, no one hollers about traffic. There's traffic for Bears games and the Irish parades, no one complains about traffic then. I'm doing something for people to help them make a living, and politicians should get on the bandwagon and lower these taxes. ... But I'll tell you what, I'm gonna continue to do good no matter what they say about me."

Some people are saying that Wilson might be using his deep pockets to boost name recognition and win votes in advance of another run for Chicago mayor, a decision Wilson told me he'll make next month.

Believe him or not, the free-gas philanthropist says his unleaded giveaways have nothing to do with his future in politics.

"How could what any of them are saying hold water. Why was I giving to people 20 to 30 years ago? I wasn't running for office then. It ain't like my record of giving ain't out there. I'm on TV. My income taxes show I gave out $4 million to churches alone," he said.

"When I make a decision to run for mayor or not, my giving has nothing to do with it. I feel responsible for Chicago and Cook County, and responsible for my next door neighbor. I take that seriously. Why would I give away money in the whole Cook County area. I'm not running for mayor in Evanston or Harvey or Cicero or Melrose Park. I'm not running for mayor in Phoenix. Why would I do that [to win votes in Chicago]?"

Personally, I hope Wilson doesn't run for office at all, and remains unencumbered to help people any way he sees fit without the political status quo in America's most corrupt state trying to stop him.

Here, wealthy politicians are better known for spending a sliver of their vast fortunes to convince poor people to vote for them.

If you believe that's exactly what Wilson is doing, let's compare how he does it to, say, Illinois' currently campaigning billionaire governor.

J.B. Pritzker has spent close to a half billion dollars campaigning for office.

He donated $10 million to campaign funds controlled by indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who later muscled the legislative agenda Pritzker takes credit for into law.

A couple of years back, Pritzker kicked in more than $50 million of his inherited fortune in a failed attempt to convince voters to change the state's income tax system.

And last month, Gov. Pritzker's wife donated a $400,000 bust of former President Abraham Lincoln to a Springfield museum to inspire visitors to "reflect on the need for unity in our own time."

Wilson knows a lot of people can't afford to reflect on the prospect of world peace.

So he tries to help them out. He often has noticed ways to help underserved communities and found an extra million dollars in his bank account to make it happen.

He's donated facemasks, supported struggling churches and filled the gas tanks of strangers, among other things.

Yes, he regularly runs for office.

But his random acts of kindness have never helped him win an election.

Still, Wilson gives.

"A million dollars is a lot of money to me. And I took the million that I didn't have invested in anything, just cash in a CD or whatever it may be that I wasn't doing anything with it," Wilson said. "People are more important to me, to give it to them to get to work and help family, and keep down crime. And people in the community that receive this are ecstatic, elated and so appreciative that someone is making an effort to care for them. So, if I'm compelled to do it again because politicians won't get rid of the tax, and gas prices don't go down, I'm going to do it."

Wilson is right.

The price of gas in Illinois is too damn high for work-a-day folks trying to recover from the financial devastation of a global pandemic.

That's why I only buy gas in Indiana, where a gallon is about 40 cents cheaper.

Illinois' billionaire governor — whose gas tax hike has funded the infrastructure spending he touts on his private jet tour of campaign events camouflaged as official business — could do something about that.

Snarled traffic caused by Wilson's gas-giveaways on Thursday is a reminder that he has not.

Thanks, Willie.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots.

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