When Academy Award winner Sally Field, playing the title character in the 1979 film “Norma Rae,” finally becomes totally frustrated at the cowardly response of her coworkers as she and a New York labor organizer attempt to form a union in a small Alabama cotton mill town, she scrawls the word UNION on a piece of cardboard and defiantly climbs on top of a worktable and holds it up over her head for everyone to see. As her coworkers (previously too intimidated to call for vote on establishing a union — in spite of the fact they were being treated as badly as the descendants of slaves they worked right alongside of) began, one-by-one, to show solidarity with her efforts and shut their equipment down, I got a huge lump in my throat … such was my affinity for the American trade union movement. The union won that day, but seemingly the movement has been losing steam ever since. Membership ranks have been in steady decline for years.

I was not raised in a “union” family; my father was a saloonkeeper, and a Republican to boot. Upon gaining my majority we used to have — what I will euphemistically call — “spirited” debates about the rights of workers and the social order. He strongly believed that workers had but one right: The right to remain silent.

There’s a better than even chance that Dr. Conrad Murray may go to prison for the death of Michael Jackson. He was the physician in attendance at the time of death of the pop icon, and admitted injecting Jackson with the powerful anesthetic propofol in the hours before his death. But does that mean Murray is responsible for the superstar’s demise? Somehow I doubt there will be a groundswell of public or prosecutorial sentiment to pin what is now being called a homicide on Murray … and for good reason.

Like Anna Nicole Smith and Elvis before him, the combination of wealth and celebrity proved Jackson’s undoing. Both fame and fortune were heaped on them — as we continue to do to others — by an adoring and uncritical public in amounts they were ill-equipped to handle. In the end, no one could just say “no” to their unrelenting demands as they attempted to simply escape their brutal realities … if only for eight hours at a time.

More than a homicide, Jackson’s death — along with those of Jimi and Janice — is another case of celebrity “accidental suicide.”

Just when it appeared that things could not get any worse for Alternatives Agency (a halfway house located in my ward on E. 55th Street near Hough) they did. The former director of the facility recently pled guilty to using the agency as an ATM to illegally enrich himself and a number of his business associates. So this past May a new director, Thomas Griveas, was brought in to set the agency back on course. The problem is that it seems as if Griveas knows little, if anything, about prisoner reentry, and perhaps less about politics and diplomacy.

As part of his restructuring, he summarily (and without notice) fired 16 people who worked at the agency monitoring the residents and providing other necessary services. And here’s where Griveas tries to get real clever: While he says he has made an offer to hire back some of the terminated employees, he also pointed out that 13 of them have a prior criminal background. So, guess what’s going to happen when they apply to the new security company he’s bringing aboard? “Sorry, we don’t hire people with criminal backgrounds.”

Since, over the years, I’ve been vociferous in regards to condemning the lack of minority workers on road and bridge jobs in African-American communities, I need to be just as vocal in praise of what I saw on Monday morning (Aug. 17) as I drove down Kinsman Avenue. A three-quarter mile stretch, from E. 93rd to E. 79th Streets is being repaved, and, while I wasn’t able to make an accurate count while driving, it seems that about 40 workers were on the job and — wonder of wonders — a full third of them were workers of color.

This kind of inclusion (especially on projects so highly visible) is something that I and others have been agitating about for years. So, to all of my well-meaning white friends who say “Why don’t you guys just get over it?” here’s your answer: If we had just “gotten over it” nothing would have changed. I applaud the efforts of whoever brought about this shift to fairness, and can only hope that it continues and expands. Things can — and do — change.

Getting a Jump on the Political Season

Jeff Johnson's endorsement in the Ward 8 City Council race by Cleveland's only daily newspaper is of profound historical significance. Few, if any, American newspapers have taken so bold a step, and this endorsement speaks to a changing national mindset in regards to how individuals that have a blemish on their record are viewed. This is a wise move in the right direction, and in line with the Second Chance Act passed in 2007 under President Bush.

As a society, we have been shooting ourselves in the foot – actually, in the wallet is more like it – by attempting to forever keep someone who has run afoul of the law locked out in terms of becoming tax-producing citizens once again. There are those among us who would rather pay thought the nose to keep people like Johnson on the financial sidelines forever. Indeed, when Johnson (who is a personal friend of mine) was given an opportunity to work at City Hall after his release from prison back in 2002, howls of outrage were raised by the mean-spirited and small-minded in our region … a demographic we certainly have no shortage of; these are the same folks that keep our region from progressing.

An article I wrote for The Daily Beast regarding the brouhaha surrounding the arrest of Harvard professor Skip Gates snagged me an appearance on the Today Show last month… most likely my first and last appearance on that program. It wasn’t that I flubbed any lines or busted any verbs — I’m a pretty fair speaker and know the King’s English — it was what I said that will most likely preclude me from having another 15 seconds of fame.

The offer was originally extended because I’d somewhat taken Gates to task for mouthing off to an armed intruder in his home; sure, the guy also had a badge and a uniform, but he indeed was armed, and he certainly wasn’t invited — which makes him an intruder. To me, and most other blacks with any street smarts, the wise thing to do in this situation is get this dude out of your house with as little drama as possible. You don’t talk about his momma; guns can somehow go off in those kinds of tense confrontations, and guess whose version of the event will be believed in court? Even if a tinge of racism is detected in the officer’s tone or demeanor, that’s an issue that should be taken up with his superiors in the relative safety of the police station — not mano a mano inside a house with no witnesses.

While the firestorm of controversy surrounding the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. will soon tone back down to a slow simmer, the underlying issues that caused it to ignite in the first place will be with us far into the foreseeable future … and probably beyond. Our national racial animus is akin to that crazy uncle families prefer to keep locked away in the attic — because he so embarrasses us when he’s glimpsed by the public.

This old coot even caused our normally sure-footed and deft president to step into dog poop by chiming in on an issue that should have been left in the province of the local authorities and news commentators of every ilk and stripe — yours truly being one of them. Rest assured that when President Obama used the term “teachable moment” in his non-apology, he was also referring to himself. He most assuredly learned something from all of this.

One of the consistent complaints of minorities in Greater Cleveland is that we’re not invited to the political table until after the deal is done; our input is not solicited in the formative stages of whatever project happens to be in the works; we’re just asked to sign on after the fact so that the actual designers can then claim “inclusion.” The county “reform” plan currently being touted is the most recent example of this brand of legerdemain.

Of course one or two African-Americans were paid (I don’t have to name names, just think of the usual suspects) to put their imprimatur on the reform plan so that the leaders of the effort — one of whom allegedly went on more than one Las Vegas junket with Frank Russo, which makes him a great reformer, right? — can speciously claim buy-in by the Black community. This is simply racial “poli-tricks” as usual.

Who can seriously fault Blacks in Cuyahoga County for being skeptical of the notion that the leaders of the “reform” will go back and address our concerns at some future date after the measure passes, given the extent to which we’ve been systematically excluded to this point? Why not address issues of fairness now? If, as it has been said, that truth is the first casualty of war, then trust is the first casualty of racism.

Last week Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the Vera Institute of Justice’s Third Annual Justice Address, an annual meeting featuring a prominent national figure who explores important justice issues of our time. In his remarks, Holder outlined the Department of Justice’s agenda for reducing crime rates and the cost of incarceration, issues that he characterized as the Department’s main concerns.

“To begin with, high rates of incarceration have tremendous social cost,” Holder said. “And, of course, there also is the matter of simple dollars and cents, and the principle of diminishing marginal returns. Every state in the union is trying to trim budgets. States and localities are laying off teachers and canceling sanitation department shifts, but in almost all cases, spending on prisons continues to increase. Not only is this unsustainable economically, but it is also not proving to be effective at fighting crime. For while prison building and prison spending continue to increase, public safety is not improving. Since 2003, spending on incarceration has continued to rise, but crime rates have flattened. Indeed, crime rates appear to have reached a plateau, and no longer respond to increases in incarceration.”

John Zitzner is an entrepreneur, a visionary, and some would say that he’s a bit of a dreamer. He was positive that in the proper setting, inner-city kids could do as well educationally as their better situated suburban counterparts, and he set about to prove it.

With the assistance of the able team of educators he has assembled at E Prep School, a charter school sponsored by the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) he is achieving phenomenal success with a cross-section of grade 6 through 8 students — educational refugees from the public school system if you will — who are willing to face up to the challenges of a rigorous educational environment. And no, he’s not cherry picking, he’ll accept all who are sincere about learning in a safe, caring — albeit rigorous — educational setting.

In the process, he’s painting those who make myriad excuses for our abysmal public education system into a very tight corner. The myths school administrators and teachers’ union officials continually make in regard to their wards’ consistently poor showing on state tests are being blown to smithereens by the students of E Prep; their accomplishments proves there is nothing wrong with inner-city kids, it’s our approach to urban education that has been all wrong.