Democratic Party boss and County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora stated at a news conference on Monday (June 29) that it was time to “fight fire with fire” as he accused the U.S. Department of Justice, in cahoots with Bush deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, of essentially launching a witch hunt against him in hopes of influencing the outcome of the 2008 presidential election. He also charged that his ethnicity is playing a role in the probe.

While the local media will scoff at such accusations, the Toledo Blade, in an editorial that ran immediately after the countywide raids were carried out, questioned their timing and purpose. If indeed skullduggery was afoot in Cuyahoga County (and there is ample reason to believe there was and perhaps still is) why not wait until after the election to launch the probe, so as to remove any possible taint of political chicanery or election manipulation?

(If you don’t, you’ll continue to get the kind of government you’re constantly complaining about)

As the talk of county reform continues to heat up, driven by the scandal that won’t seem to go away or come to an end, I’m put in mind of a T-shirt I saw a few years ago that read: “I’ve given up on reality, and am now trying to find a nice fantasy to believe in.” And that’s exactly what we’d be doing if we think that the county reform plan that has been put forth will solve all of our problems (or hardly any of them, for that matter); truth is, it might just make the situation worse.

Statistics indicate that in counties across the U.S. that have the one supreme county elected official instead of the three (which, by the way, is the construct in 90 percent of the 3,140 counties — or county equivalents — in the country) indictments have run higher than in counties with three elected officials. Changing from three to one elected official won’t prevent misconduct, and might open the door for more. If 90 percent of the counties in the country can operate efficiently with the system we currently have in place, isn’t that proof there is nothing wrong with the system itself--that the fault actually lies with the leadership?

Few men, I would venture to guess, can — upon reflection years later — recall the instance or incident whereupon they started to become men; where, when and what happened that caused them to take their first, tentative, mental step onto the bridge that would ultimately lead them across the yawning chasm that separates soft, carefree puberty from the onset of the hardening of eventual manhood. Fortunately for me I can recall the time and date of the beginning of my personal transition with such an evocative clarity I swear it seems as if the vignette played out only yesterday.

It was not something I did — but rather — something I, in the waning moments of my childhood, was about to witness. It was to be one of those father/son lessons that have been transmitted down from generation to generation since the beginning of time. The type of lesson that is taught by doing, not by telling — the type which becomes permanently ingrained on the psyche of the young person on the receiving end in such an indelible manner that it lasts a lifetime. A lesson learned simply by the witnessing of it; not by being told how to be a man, but by simply watching a man be a man.

The whole world is filled with speculation
The whole wide world which people say is round
They will tear your mind away from contemplation
They will jump on your misfortune when you're down

Ain’t Talkin’ Bob Dylan, 2006

Since I’ve been led away to prison in shackles more times than a persistent runaway slave repeatedly being returned to a plantation, I know a little bit — OK, what the hell, I know quite a bit — about the proper form and etiquette of doing the perp walk. With so many Cuyahoga County elected officials and public employees looking down the double barrel of two buffalos (a “buffalo” being a nickel, hence, in criminal argot, a five year sentence) quite a few people might be in need of this type of information in the near future.

I consider it a public service to give these guys — and perhaps a woman or two — a few pointers on maintaining their pride as they fall… since they will have little else left afterwards.

My column last week, wherein I challenged the efficacy of America’s Promise Alliance (a program run by Colin and Alma Powell, and touted by Bill Cosby) certainly caused a firestorm of controversy. There’s nothing like challenging the logic of two of America’s most beloved and venerated father figures to stir things up a bit; but despite the criticism I received, I’m sticking to my position. This issue is just too important to gloss over.

Powell and Cosby want to increase the graduation rate of America’s inner-city schools and you’ve got to admire them for that. They are lobbying for better schools and teachers, and you’ve got to admire them for that too. But a large part of their argument is that underclass parents in disadvantaged neighborhoods are not doing their jobs in terms of getting their children ready to learn. I’m totally in agreement with them on this point, and actually do admire them for saying it. Where we disagree is — what effect will their criticism have on the situation?

May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.

Bob Dylan, “Forever Young”

How can two of America’s brightest, most revered, and obviously caring men be so right … and so wrong, at the same instance?

Colin Powell and Bill Cosby were in town last week, courtesy of America’s Promise Alliance to remind us of the continued failure of Cleveland’s schools. They’re doing a U.S. tour, so don’t think that it’s just Cleveland schools that are doing badly (you know that we have this deep-seated inferiority complex) Unfortunately, the drop-out rate hasn’t improved under Eugene Sanders’ watch, and, despite promises of new initiatives and schemes to impact on the problem, it’s probably not going to improve enough to make a significant difference.

When I first started covering City Hall well over a decade ago, I asked someone who really knew their way around city government (they've since retired) what was up with the Department of Building and Housing (B & H). Why couldn't it be reformed and brought into the modern age of government? The cryptic answer I got, along with a knowing smile, was, "They'll never be able to make reforms there." I pressed my source for more information over the years, but all I ever got was that wry smile.

Still today, most local contractors would rather get beat with a two-by-four with a rusty nail in it than go down to B & H. I’m the project manager for a small development in my ward, so I know more than a few tradesmen. The 5th floor of City Hall is like a Bermuda Triangle for builders... some go in for a permit and are never seen or heard from again. Their families file missing persons’ reports, search parities have been sent out, but to no avail. They seemed to have vanished into thin air. Rumors of ghost-like creatures have been reported, blueprints under their arms, roaming the halls of B & H at night, begging the cleaning staff, anyone, if they can please, please get permits for their projects. It’s spooky.

As I approached the steps of Cleveland City Hall on May 7 for the noon celebration regarding the first official day the Domestic Partnership Registry enacted by City Council was in effect, I passed a friend who laughingly said, “I know you’re not attending that!”

My response was, “In fact, I am, and I'm scheduled to give a short speech.” The shock on my friend’s face — actually by then he was a former friend, since our relationship changed immediately — was palpable. As I walked up the steps, a female acquaintance was coming out of the doors of City Hall, where black ministers were (by chance) holding some sort of prayer breakfast. It wasn’t a counter demonstration to express their displeasure with the law, I was later assured … and we all know that black ministers never lie, don’t we? They just twist the Scriptures to fit what they’re being paid to say.

You do know that white conservatives pay black ministers to fight battles they can’t win in their own communities, don’t you?

However, know this: The “threat” to marriage in America doesn’t come from domestic partner registries or gay marriage … the real threat to marriage comes from divorce — and the failure of mainstream ministers (white and black) to do enough to stem this rising tide.

“Where black is the color, where none is the number”
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Bob Dylan, 1963

By now ex-sheriff Gerry McFaul has been accused of everything except being Jack the Ripper … but that might come later. However, the latest accusations deal with the “N” word. No, not *that* “N” word. This time the charge is nepotism. It now seems that the best way to become a deputy was to be a close friend or family member of McFaul’s. The only problem with that construct is that not many Blacks were close friends of McFaul’s, ergo, few deputies are Black.

However, even thought he didn’t walk the walk, ‘ol Gerry sure could talk the talk. Put him in front of a Black crowd, close your eyes and you’d swear that he was born Black and raised on Kinsman Avenue. He was a master of this disgusting and demeaning habit of jive-talking in front of Black folks. However, hiring them was another matter.

Oh, I would suspect that a majority of the employees of the Sheriff’s Department are minorities … but they virtually all are low-level guards at the jail or janitors, jobs few White dudes are willing to take. When you were a kid, you might have heard someone talk about becoming a police officer when they grew up … but you never heard anyone say they wanted to become a jail guard, now did you?

Back in 2006, I went to a reentry seminar hosted by Professor Charles Ogletree at Harvard University. The three days I spent there had a profound impact on me, and I draw on the experience often as I go about my work of trying to assist those returning home from incarceration.

I know that some of my readers feel that I’m involved in this kind of work because of an affinity for the population, since I myself was formerly incarcerated (five times over a 29-year career as a credit card counterfeiter; I speak so openly about it that some even accuse me of being proud of that part of my past — I’m not. But I have paid for my crimes with those five incarcerations, so if the fact that I’m a former convict bothers you, you deal with it, that’s not my problem, and I’m not going to allow you to make it mine). The simple fact is, I’m more concerned with keeping my dollars in my wallet. If we don’t do something about the recidivism rate our prisons are going to put us collectively into the poor house. California is already $8 billion in the red over prison costs. But there are real answers out there.