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.

Judges and lawyers will all agree that there are two sides to every story. Divorce lawyers usually assert that there are three sides: his side, her side and the truth. In the media debate raging over Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the Cambridge Police Department there are also three sides: his side, the police officer’s side and good old common sense.

While Gates is clearly an expert on African American History, after spending years behind the halls of ivy at Harvard and the world of academia, he appears to have failed to span the distance between the text book and reality. Just like Mark Twain who said that you can’t fight with people who buy ink by the barrel, you don’t argue with police officers with guns and the power to arrest you. Police officers have a job to do and a protocol to follow. When all is said in done, as a citizen you have the absolute right to dispute your treatment with a police supervisor, in court or the police review board. But yelling and screaming at police officers – no matter what the race of the officer or the accused is never a good idea.

As a citizen of and believer in democracy, I applaud the efforts of Mir Hossein Mousavi. His efforts are similar to what former vice-president Al Gore should have done during the controversy surrounding the United States presidential election of 2000. Gore should have continued to protest regardless of the political risks until all the votes were counted in Florida. Instead, former president George W. Bush was appointed by the United States Supreme Court to effectively overturn the will of the people and look at what has happened to the United States in the last eight years.

Mark Puente is certainly having a wonderful time tilling the rich corrupt soil at Cuyahoga County and Cleveland public offices. May his garden grow and grow.

The young Plain Dealer reporter is digging in fertile soil. You have to wonder where reporters who have covered Cuyahoga County for the last decade or more have been. They certainly haven’t been looking very carefully.

Anyway, Puente came at just the right time. Former Sheriff Gerry McFaul thought he was God and could dump on employees while he fattened the salaries of friends and relatives. People do talk when that happens.

They talked and Puente listened.

Now, Puente in today’s Plain Dealer set his sights on Earle Turner, the hapless Cleveland Clerk of Courts.

Hard to determine whether former Councilman McFaul or former Councilman Turner is the dumber or more arrogant. Neither one was ever mistaken as swift as Council members.

McFaul poking Puente with his cane perfectly fits the crudeness of the man. He’s been getting away with bad behavior for years. The signs were always there going back to his problems with women employees.

Turner reveals his idiocy by using the excuse, “I ride my bike. I am an avid cyclist” to divert attention from the fact that his vehicle hardly makes it very often to the Justice Center offices where he’s supposed to work.

...Just read that a Chinese company bought Hummer!

Introducing the latest addition to the Cleveland Leader team, Ralph Solonitz, whose cartoons will begin to be featured on our site. Although born in Munich, Germany, Ralph has called Cleveland home since a very young age. He graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1965, and from Kent State University in 1970 where he majored in graphic design. He started his own design business in 1975 called "Ralph Stuff", and does everything from "doodling" cartoons, to buttons, tshirts, and illustrations to drawing up promotional materials and logo designs.

For those unfamiliar with his work, here are a few samples to check out. This first cartoon is a new release, relating to the shooting of the late term abortion doctor George Tiller on Sunday. The other two are from earlier this month.

The following is a response to Cleveland.com's editorial "Slavic Village is battling back against the foreclosure crisis"

During my time (1993 to 1999) as President of {the now defunct} South East Clevelanders Together I worked to promote community organizing in Slavic Village to address quality of life issues {such as crime watch} in an aggressive and systematic manner. During that time, Slavic Village {Ward 12} was represented by current City of Cleveland Director of Building and Housing Edward W. Rybka and the former Broadway Area Housing Coalition nka Slavic Village Development headed then by current Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli. Needless to say, it did not take long for our organization to clash with the former Councilman's housing group. Their primary objective was to build and rehabilitate housing without any real regard for the other issues affecting the residents and business owners. Ms. Kitteredge illustrates this by clearly stating "rehabbed homes are sold using attractive financing...for families with ruined credit." As expected, her article mentions nothing about improving the quality of life for the people who have lived and worked there all their lives. What about them? Don't they count too?

Have you ever heard the saying "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt"? Apparently Aaron Renn, the author of a blog post entitled "Cleveland: What's Wrong?" hasn't. What struck me most about this post, which is mainly a commentary on the ruinous state of affairs in Cleveland and the city's decline, is the author's admission that he has never even been to Cleveland. Right then, he loses any shot at credibility he had going for him.

What's up with Cleveland humor?

One of the first things that Renn points out and clearly does not understand is Clevelanders' self-deprecating sense of humor. He points to a homemade Cleveland tourism video, which was obviously made by one of our own to poke fun at the city's own attempts to attract visitors here, and asks why anyone would create something like that. To understand WHY Clevelanders might have a penchant for poking fun at themselves, you must understand Cleveland and its history.

Letter to the Editor:

During my time (1993 to 1999) as President of {the now defunct} South East Clevelanders Together I worked to promote community organizing in Ward 12 {Slavic Village} to address quality of life issues {such as crime watch} in an aggressive and systematic manner. During that time, Ward 12 was represented by current City of Cleveland Director of Building and Housing Edward W. Rybka and the former Broadway Area Housing Coalition nka Slavic Village Development headed then by current Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli.