For those who follow Justice Center politics with a mixture of amusement or disdain, recent events have provided a wealth of material to digest. Some of it would be funny and worthy of a sitcom, except for the fact that lives and the idea of justice seem to be compromised. First we have [...]
Victorian society rewarded the landed gentry while pushing those with nothing further into the margins until they were collecting filth in the courtyard of a debtor’s prison to survive. It was all praised as ordained by God. Charles Dickens quietly fought these exploitative economic realities by creating heroes whom fate plucked from the mire [...]
Politically and legally speaking, the week of January 18, 2010 will not soon be forgotten. In a one-two punch, democracy took a crushing hit. With Monday’s memory of Martin Luther King Day still fresh, Tuesday welcomed a conservative anti-health care reform candidate to the seat of the late Senator Edward Kennedy. His election single-handedly [...]
IN THE SUMMER of 1991, local developer Bart Wolstein summoned then Cleveland City Councilman Bill Patmon to his corporate offices in Beachwood for a luncheon meeting to talk about various city projects. During the meeting, Wolstein led Patton to a large scale-model of the Flats East Bank, an exact and elaborate replica of [...]
Bill Mason takes a page from the Soviet Union playbook. It’s a time-honored cliché – the people elected to a government decide what kind of government exists. Thought you got reform when you voted for Issue 6? Thought you’d get better reform if instead Issue 5 had passed? Any promised level of reform must [...]
George Forbes has crawled out of his hole, Aunt Jemima is serving pancakes to State Senator Nina Turner, and the entire political landscape of Cuyahoga County is heading to battle stations. Who doesn’t love Issue 6! From 1973 to 1989, George Forbes was the circus act known as City Council President. And as [...]
The Call & Post’s racial slur of a black elected official in an editorial cartoon underscores two significant problems in post-segregated America. First is the trope of a homogenous black community. Second is the total bankruptcy of race-only centered politics. Both dynamics, as a friend points out, are different sides of the same coin. [...]
We got greedy, didn’t we? I know I did. Like many of you, I purchased a house I could barely afford. Shit, why not? No money down? Sign me up! We did it because it felt good, then, remember? We were making too much money. We needed a bigger house in [...]
By: Larry Durstin THE RECENT PLAIN DEALER front-page endorsement of the Issue 6 reform proposal should have been a surprise to no one. Those who have closely watched the PD’s coverage of the debate surrounding Cuyahoga County reform were aware that the local daily has served as a PR arm for Issue 6 and its [...]
State Senator Kevin Coughlin is the father of two adorable girls whom he showcases on his campaign website and literature. He sits on the board of directors at a camp for seriously ill children, and is a past “Advocate of the Year” for the American Cancer Society. He looks like a Scoutmaster, with his [...]
