Gloria Ferris

Lately, there has been a lot of talk of what occupation better prepares one to be President of the United States or what set of experiences makes one the more likely choice for president or even the importance of how much experience one has at a certain occupation.  It got me to wondering about past presidents and what there previous occupations were and how those occupations may or may not have had a direct correlation to the presidency.

After this cursory bit of research, I realized that maybe occupation and experience are not the criteria we should use to select our next  president.  Maybe, we should be looking at what kind of leader the candidate would be.  Now, there are many types of leaders so maybe the first order of business would be to choose the type of leader that would make you more comfortable.  Then, it would be important to choose the attributes that you would find important in a leader of your nation. So for now, here is what I am looking for in the next president of the United States:

-the ability to speak coherently and intelligently about a myriad of subjects.  This attribute is necessary so that he does not embarrass us at home or abroad by misspeaking or miscommunicating our policies as a nation.

-the ability to listen.  I want someone who will listen to other viewpoints and weigh consequences before making decisions.  

-the ability to know that it is not about him but about US.  The president of the United States should make every decision based on how it will affect our nation not only today but seven generations from now.

-the ability to surround himself with people more talented than him so he gets the best advice possible.  This attribute will become EXTREMELY important when choosing a cabinet to guide us.     

-the ability to talk to the American public like we have a brain.  I am SO tired of elected officials acting like “they know what is best for the masses”.  We are, after all, on the ground and know better than those who live within the beltway the pulse of our economy, our educational system, our banking system., our social services safety net.

-the ability to step away from sound bites and ACTUALLY tell it like it is.  If the next president doesn’t do this, a huge opportunity will be lost.  

-the ability to embrace the idea that we are in the 21st century and old models will no longer work to make our nation as a whole more prosperous.  Time is shifting and we need to shift as well if we are going to be where we should be.  

Five out of seven will probably make it for me because if one of the candidates has that many abilities, there will definitely be hope.  Oh yeah,  did I mention hope.  Hope is a big one for me because actually, the American people have the ability to do a whole hell of a lot on their own, but only if they have hope.

Many who read this will find this simplistic but maybe it is.  Could we have made it way too hard recently?  Could we be so intent on what keeps us apart that we have failed to see what keeps us together?  Is that the function of a president?  Is he the one who helps us stay focused leaving it up to the rest of us to make it better?  After all, if we truly wanted a manager wouldn’t we be looking somewhere else? 

I believe that our forefathers set up a great government way back when.  How could they have known how important the checks and balances of a judicial, executive, and legislative branch would be?  How would they know that in the coming years that those checks and balances would be used again and again to keep our country alive and strong?  And most of all, how would they have known how important it would be to guard against presidents who would be king or presidents who just weren’t up to snuff or that others who really had never shone in any other occupation would become giants among men? And, although, the media and the political parties would have us think that who we choose for our next president will make us or break us,  I seriously doubt it.  Does that mean I don’t want to make a fair and balanced choice when I cast my ballot?  No, but I sure think it brings some things into perspective.   I hold the cards just like every other voter who will cast a vote in November.  Let’s make them work for our vote.     

I wrote what appears below as a comment over on RealNEO in response to a great post about the value of community organizing by Kevin Cronin.  When I previewed the comment before posting, I decided that I wanted to crosspost it here at my site because I believe that we need to make sure that at every turn our elected government officials know that they are public servants and that the public they serve is us.

I think the disparaging remarks about community organizing shows that these politicians are very out of touch with the reality of the world.  Community organizing and community engagement will be the future of government in our nation.  Those leaders that understand the immense value of the knowledge that people on the ground and in the neighborhoods bring to what is needed and how to provide it will be key in our government moving into the 21st century.  Although some would have you believe that people want hand outs and a free ride, the exact opposite is true.  The vast majority want the chance, sometimes the second chance, to make it on their own.  Unlike some who strive for wealth they instead know that health, education, and opportunity is what is important. 

Instead of looking down their noses at community organizing, they should understand that the dismissing of the community by those offhand remarks will probably in the end be their undoing.

Lately, in news stories and on blogs I have read a lot of criticism about my generation–the boomers.  Some of it deserved. some of it written by journalists and bloggers who are obviously not boomers.  Even when we were younger, our parents’ generation called us the “me” generation so a lot of what is written is nothing new.  We have heard it time and time again throughout our lives.

We grew up in a time when thinking about “me” was possible.  it didn’t mean that we were not aware of what was going on all around us or that we didn’t care.  I graduated in 1968.  Graduation is a time when the whole world is right there in front of you ripe for the taking.  This is what was happening in my world and my friends’ worlds-The TET Offensive,  Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Bobby Kennedy’s assassination,  The Chicago 7, the looting and burning of our cities,  many of my friends, at 18, went to Vietnam. Yet, we dared to hope. We hoped that someone with the vision of MLK or RFK would step up and be able to right our world.

In 1970, things had gone from bad to worse.  The invasion of Cambodia began.  On May 4, Kent State experienced a tragedy that no college campus should have in their history, and ten days later on May 14, Jackson State experienced the very same tragedy.    Many of our friends who had been to Vietnam were now home telling us that the stories in the press didn’t tell the truth.  “If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem” cropped up everywhere on campus-sidewalks, walls, signs.  Nothing was safe.  The environmental phrase had ventured in to every aspect that we who could not vote were trying to change the only way we knew how by shouting, by writing, by standing up and refusing to believe what we were hearing and seeing were the only alternatives open to us.

In 1973, we were beginning our lives in the “real world”-the world of opportunity and work.  The fall of Saigon happened.  Soldiers coming home from Vietnam were met with contempt, disdain, and unemployment as if they were some how to blame for America’s plight.  College students were met with distrust and unemployment.  Everyone suffered from high prices, inflation, and the threat of unemployment.  Me,  a month before the school year started had no offers of employment.  Two weeks before the school bells rang,  I had three.

Today, the world is changing quickly.  What my cohorts and I experienced is the past.  We can do nothing about the past, but we can do something in the present.  Someone very close to me says that we are getting a second chance.  This time we need to get it right.  I believe that.  And I believe that as a boomer I have the chance to make things turn out differently this time.  Sometimes, we need to go through troubled times to understand what can be done differently.

As boomers, we have real choice in the coming election,  we can vote.   What we cannot afford to forget is what we experienced in 1968 when we did not have the right to vote.  This time the future is in our hands.  This time we can change the world.  I hope that we all have the nerve to look back, remember, and jump feet first into uncharted waters.  After all, what do we have if we don’t have hope.

l                      

Something is greatly disturbing me on this Election Day.  Reading comments on blogs, reading news stories from the wire services, and receiving three phone calls last night from Republican friends asking for advice on which judges to vote for on the Democratic ballot has made me shake my head in wonder.  How have we come to this?  Has the casino mentality really entered our election process?  For years, I have felt that the comparison to horse races and other sports events didn’t bode well for how we looked at elections, but this year has made me convinced that we have come to what may be seen as a new low.

The crux of my concern is this, folks; apparently the Republicans led by Rush Limbaugh believe that their boy John McCain has a better chance in November if the Democratic nominee is Hillary Clinton.  Hence, Republicans switching parties to help us Democrats choose our candidate to run in November.  Does anyone else think that this scenario is terribly wrong? Independents are the only ones who should decide on Election Day if they want to back one particular party over another to nominate a candidate for president.

Don’t get me wrong. If a Republican or Democrat truly believes that the ideology of their party no longer represents what they believe then by all means change parties, but to cynically change parties for the short term for the ability to choose the candidate for the general election, because you have no race in your own party, is just PLAIN WRONG!! 

The first time I saw this happen was when Democratic women were urged to vote for Robert Dole in the primary so that in November a pro-choice candidate would win the presidency.  I thought it was cynical and wrong then, and I still do.  We should not be switching parties like we do last year’s fashions.  But then again, does this speak to a much deeper problem within our party system?

I think that the bigger question might be why is there such little loyalty to a party that switching is no big deal?  Could it mean that the party system is little more than frosting to hide the fact that under the surface not much is different between them?  Would anyone say that either party speaks to a large percentage of Americans or, would it be safe to say that each party speaks more to smaller factions and special interests while the huge majority of us feel like poor wayfaring strangers?

After the dust settles and the winners are announced later tonight, several questions will remain?  Just whose interests were served today?  And, how can we fault voters for cynically feeling that the votes they cast really don’t mean very much?  I challenge each and every one of us to turn this country toward a new day and get off this cynical self-interested merry-go-round that infiltrates one of the cornerstones of our republic.  We need to treat our election process with the respect and dignity that it deserves.  Our ancestors who founded this country and those of us who had ancestors who came here for a better life deserve better from us their descendents.  Our children and grandchildren deserve a better legacy that what we are forging today.

I hope that each and every one of you voted today for someone that you believed in and not because you thought that that person would lose in November.  How very sad that some of us see changing parties as a valid option, not because of a change in belief but trying to achieve an outcome.  We need to remember that this is not a game of chance but the future of our country.  We may not agree on how to get to where we are going, but we should all agree on how damn important it is.

Tomorrow we vote for two very important issues that identify us as a community.  The voters of Cuyahoga County consistently support quality of life issues that affect our communities.  These are hard times financially for a lot of folks in our communities in Cuyahoga County, but I believe that again our voters will rise to the occasion and vote “YES” on these two issues. 

Issue Two will be voted on by the people of Cleveland.  The Cleveland Public Library at its inception was noted as “the People’s University”.  That moniker has been resurrected by Library Director Andrew Venable and succinctly voices the place that this library holds in our community. Ranked third nationally in the “best in research”, right behind the Boston and Chicago Public Libraries, our library stands with some great company. 

While researching for a quote earlier today, I found the perfect one on Dr. John Ellison’s website. Dr. Ellison is an associate professor of Library and Information Studies at the University at Buffalo.  His website was a rightful place to find a quote on the importance of libraries.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words ring as true now as they did then.

“It seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith. To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a nation must believe in three things:
It must believe in the past.
It must believe in the future.
It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future.”

                       (Remarks at the dedication of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, June 30, 1941.)   

Issue 15 will be decided by a majority vote of all Cuyahoga County voters. And, a reason to vote for Issue 15 needs nothing more in my book than the words of Hubert Humphrey:  This quote comes to you thanks to Brainy Quotes-a place where I find many of the quotes that I can’t quite place in regards to who said it or how it was said. Please Vote March 4th.  
 
It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. 
 

Ironically, the one county official that should NOT have a primary does.  I cannot imagine that Cuyahoga County voters will turn their backs on the man who has had their backs through these tough times.  But just in case you need to be reminded who he is, what he stands for and how he works for us each and every day.  Go here to Jim’s website and to Meet.The.Bloggers for Jim’s conversation with us to refresh your memory.  Please VOTE on TUESDAY, MARCH 4th!   

There is a lot of talk lately about historic moments occurring during the Democratic Primaries in 2008 and the eventual nominee chosen at the Democratic Convention later this year.  The two moments talked about more than any others is the nomination of a black man or the first woman for the president of the United States.  I think the most historic moment to me is the fact that the last one standing will most likely be voted for by a woman.  Women are a huge factor in this presidential primary race.  Whether we are white or black is not as important as the question of  who will receive our vote.

Needing the ‘woman vote’ has become a necessity for the eventual winner, not only in the primary but also in the general election.  I believe that this shift in focus is causing a change in leadership in our country.  Women are all about the need for collaboration and cooperation.  If they are mothers of more than one child, they know by necessity.  If they have suffered exclusion at some point in their lives, they understand the need for inclusion.

Women are masters at the “win-win” scenario.  With women, it is seldom “winner take all”. Compromise and collaboration are stalwart words in any woman’s vocabulary.  Women know that there is strength in numbers, and keeping your friends close and your enemies closer is essential for moving forward.  The conversations I have with women are encouraging.  Women know that the best path out of poverty is education.  Women know that the way things are is not “good enough”.  Women understand that money is a tool and that health and relationships are more important to the prosperity of our country than the pursuit of ever bigger “numbers”.  Social justice looms large in the future of our country.

So, the women of Ohio  have an opportunity to transform our country when they walk into that voting booth and cast their ballot on March 4th.  So much for the pundits that said the nominees for President would be picked long before the primaries of Texas and Ohio.  All that says to me is that ”change is truly in the air” and we don’t know which way the wind will blow.   So, I am asking the women of Ohio to make history March 4th and decide who will run for election in November 2008.  VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!           

By now, we all know that the Wide Open experiment at the Plain Dealer is history, but I just can’t seem to get this thought out of my head–a measly $100 contribution to a congressional candidate wiped out a really good idea.  How can that be?  An idea that would go a long way to securing the Plain Dealer’s presence beyond print media gone, just like that.  It was bold, it was cutting edge, and it was risky.  I think Jean Dubail knew all of that, I think Tom O’Hara knew that, but unfortunately for Jean, Tom has moved on and Brent Larkin remains, and Susan Goldberg is just too damn new to Cleveland, The Plain Dealer, and the lay of the land here.

But back to that $100. They hired these four bloggers to write opinion and to debate issues and candidates, right?  If campaign affiliations or ties to candidates could become an issue, wouldn’t you think that this would be discussed up front, or would you expect it to be “understood”?  Actually, there is much more to undertand in regards to affiliations than mere contributions.  Connecting the dots can be so much fun, and actually, the dots on the other side of the equation are much more complex than Yellow Dog Sammy’s dots.  Liberal+Ohio Daily Blog +Critical post on Congressman LaTourette=Yellow Dog Sammy.   Plain Dealer+Wide Open+Liberal+Blogger=Yellow Dog Sammy. These are Jeff’s dots for the purposes of this post.

But back to that $100.  I just couldn’t believe that a complaint by a sitting congressman because of a contribution to a challenger could be the ONLY reason that Wide Open hit the skids.  A few years ago, much was said about Jennifer LaTourette’s position as a lobbyist with Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc., and her association with Steve LaTourette–she is his wife but nothing much ever came of it.  I guess you would call it sort of a “flash in the pan” discovery.  I already knew that Congressman LaTourette served on the Financial Services Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure committee in the House of Representatives, but I didn’t know much about Jennifer and her firm. I googled Van Scoyoc and found the website. When I clicked on biographies and then, Jennifer LaTourette,  no biography appeared.  Only three of her other colleagues had the same glitch.  I called the firm and talked to a very nice receptionist who said she had had that complaint before and she didn’t know why it happened to just those few.  She put me through to Katie McCall’s voice mail. She said that she would be the person to help me. me.  I haven’t received that return call -so, I apologize, but I don’t know Jennifer LaTourette’s specific areas of expertise.   I was able to glean from another on-line source that she served as Steve’s chief of staff for 5 years and that she had a brief stint at the Cleveland Clinic.

The Van Scoyoc firm lists 21 areas of expertise on their website, but for my purposes I will use only two: Financial Services and Transportation and Infrastructure.  I clicked on the client list, and here is what I found: Clients in Northeast Ohio: Akron General Health System, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland Museum of Art, Hiram College, and Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. There may be others but from a cursory look this is what I found. So, Ted Diadiun’s explanation of the “firing” and journalist ethics being different than blogger ethics takes on a much different meaning.    Complaints could have come from any one of a number of people or places as well as Congressman LaTourette. Although Ted and Susan only compare blogger and newspaper reporter ethics I would go as far to say that newspaper reporter ethics and newspaper owners ethics may have quite a different set of criteria as well.

But see it never was about a $100 contribution,  it was all about ethics.  So lets, connect these dots.  Believe me, this is a much longer connection than the one above so I have broken it down into parts and feel free to connect the dots in other ways for I have in no way made all of the connections.  In fact, I have probably barely scratched the surface. U.S. Congress+House of Representatives+Financial Services and/or Transportation and Infrastructure Commitee +Congressman Steve LaTourette,  Jennifer LaTourette+Van Scoyoc Assocites, Inc. + The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and/or Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, The Plain Dealer+Terry Egger+The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. I have not given all the connections here but it is truly fun to hop from one connected source and tie them to another connected source., try it for yourself.  Power and influence are alive and well in Northeast Ohio.   I am sure that many of you know of other links and associations that would make these connections even more interesting.  

And then, when the dots intersected,  Wide Open+Jeff Coryell+Bill O’Neill+ PlainDealer+Steve LaTourette+???, Wide Open and Jeff became negatives and the negatives outweighed keeping the experiment alive.  Now I don’t know about you, but  I feel a bit better that four stellar bloggers are no longer associated with the Plain Dealer for maybe a bit more than a $100 contribution to one congressman. Hey, I don’t know anything for sure, but I’m  just saying…

Power and influence could have played more of a part in this little storm than anyone has said.  I can live with conflicts of interest a whole lot better than thinking that Congressmen and newspapers think that we don’t know that it’s not all about the money. And then when it is about the money, it isn’t about the campaign contributions, but about the contracts and the money to be made from our tax dollars. Power and influence go a long way in deciding what regions get what contracts.

Voters have the ability to change this culture or keep the status quo.  Unfortunately, non-voters think that they don’t have the power or the influence to change the culture as it stands today. And the percentage of us who decide who leads us becomes more and more of a minority.  And as the balance  in the House of Representatives shifts to the Southwest from the Northeast, the Senate becomes ever more important. Voting should not be an option. And voters should use the ballot box to remind our elected officials that they are to represent us and the public good.

When you live in a city with one newspaper who tends to follow and not lead it is hard to have hope that this can and is changing, but I do have that hope because there are those who work at the Plain Dealer who “get it” and they will continue to work for a change of “the old guard”.  I heard recently that there may be another buyout at the paper soon.  The problem with buyouts can be that higher management remains, the middle with the expertise leaves, and all  you are left with are “newbies”  still trying to find their legs. 

And, with appointed boards such as the Port Authority, the GCP, and the Arnold Pickneys and Sam Millers and oh so many more in this town trying to hold on for dear life. But, as the “old boys club” is striving to remain significant by using the Plain Dealer as their bulypulpit,  more and more people are talking to each other, and the dialogue is changing.  We have thought leaders and new industries in this region that are looked at not only nationally but internationally due to the changing ways we share information which then becomes knowledge which turns into action and that fact gives me great hope that Ohio is not only a political epicenter but a change conduit.  We are in the place to be in the 21st century. 

But back to the $100.  It was never about the $100. It was about the collective voice of Wide Open and how it could change the dialogue.  The Plain Dealer simply wasn’t ready for it because the ties to the old ways are just to strong. But, we’re getting there.  And as Tim is fond of saying “the song of the turtle will be heard across the land” and some day The Plain Dealer will have an investigative reporter who wins a Pulitzer Prize.

Although many of us kept our thoughts to ourselves because we were hopeful that the WIDE OPEN experiment would work, many of us thought that it was only a matter of time before the blog would be shut down for some nefarious reason.  Little did we know that it would happen so quickly and for not a predictable reason. Before continuing, I must disclose that I know Jeff Coryell who will always be “Yellow Dog Sammy” to me, and the gal who “Writes Like She Talks” Jill Zimon. They are personal friends of mine.  I have never met the two bloggers on the other side of the aisle NixGuy and BizzyBlog but I do know Bill Pierce who challenged Mike Dewine last year and he has nothing but good to say about the man behind BizzyBlog so that is good enough for me.  If these three stellar individuals were chosen, I can only believe that the fourth has the same credentials.

I do on a regular basis read all four blogs because I feel that the four bloggers stick to the issues, have integrity, check their facts, are perceptive, and give a wealth of information to people  who want the story behind the sound bite.  I commend Jean Dubail for choosing these four bloggers for the experiment.  He chose a stellar crew.  Unfortunately, a “tetchy” Congressman got “in the way”.  And, to me, that is the story behind the story.  If indeed the political conributions of the four had been an issue, the Plain Dealer would have asked the question before employment.  They, obviously, didn’t ask because probably none of the four would have been employable.  These are after all staunch supporters of each party. Bizzyblog opts out on political contributions.

In fact, that was what I thought was the point of the experiment.  Get four bloggers from both sides of the aisle to interact, drawing in readers and commentors to widen the dialogue and get us beyond these partisan “knee jerk” reactions and into a discussion of the issues that face us all-Republican and Democrat.  Few of us disagree on the problems or, in the end,  the solutions it is the path along the way where compromise and dialogue is needed that we all fall short.

The surprise in this series of events for me is that a sitting Congressman, Steve LaTourette, would  find a measly $100 contribution to a competitor’s campaign by a Northeast blogger to be worthy of his time and attention.  Does not his tenure speak for itself?  Many voters in Northeast Ohio believe that Congressman LaTourette is the reason that there is an ongoing construction project at East Ninth expanding the NDFS facility here. They credit his intervention for the positive outcome. Why would he find it acceptable to meddle in Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech?  And that is the bottom line. How dare he treat the Bill of Rights with such a cavalier attitude.  And for those of you who say we don’t know the whole story,  I have not seen one word from the Plain Dealer that says that Jeff was let go for any other reason than the contribution.  Jill backs this assertion with her post.

So we are back to Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech. The Plain Dealer has bowed to pressure as they have done time and time again. We have seen this more and more as the year has progressed.  First, there was the Breuer Tower, then there was the Medical Mart, and then, there was the County Sales Tax issue.  Now, we see  hints of what we all knew prior to the October 1st Tax increase, but the PD continues to tiptoe around major opportunities for investigative reporting.  Pulitzers for Investigative Reporting must not be in the game plan.

I doubt if Congressman LaTourette will sit down with Meet The Bloggers for an interview. An in depth conversation about this issue as well as the others facing us here in Northeast Ohio would be more beneficial than too many column inches being taken by who contributes to who and why therefore those people should be put in their place.  Bloggers being who they are on a regular basis contribute to political campaigns, so  I feel that he would decline based on that issue alone.  His challenger, Bill O’Neill,  who has Met the Bloggers  had a motto  during his recent Ohio Supreme Court race which was “No Money From Nobody”. For his congressional bid, he realizes that he needs money. He firmly believes that the way we elect judges needs to be reconsidered.  I would ask Mr. LaTourette his feelings on that issue as well.  Probably, he believes that “no money for nobody” should be the motto of all campaigns.

The voters who will make the final decision on these two men next year need to watch this race closely.  They need to attend town forums, fundraisers, anywhere they can find these two gentlemen and ask the questions relevant to each and every one of them.  It is their decision which will lead us in the Fourteenth District.  I would hope that they ask about Freedom of the Press and Speech and based on the answers they make the decision that they feel is right for all of us. We are only as strong as our weakest link and we need every strong link that we can muster in Northeast Ohio to lead us in Congress. 

I hope that Ms. Goldberg realizes that continuing to listen to the same advisors that Doug Clifton and Alex Macheskee used may be expedient but not prudent. The Plain Dealer faces a huge credibility gap in this region and others.  If she truly wants to make this newspaper a stellar publication,  she needs to widen her scope of whom she talks to in this town. She needs to include some new voices and not rely completely on the usual.  In fact, she has a few on staff that would be good candidates.  And if she sat down for a Meet The Bloggers conversation, my question to her would be why have advertisers and “leaders” of the community taken precedence over your readership?  And if they haven’t how can  you begin to convey that to the public so that your readership will be maintained and grow?

And in closing, the four bloggers that suddenly find themselves “unemployed” are not.  They never did it for the money.  They did it out of passion for what they believe.  The belief that blogs and bloggers can add a dimension to journalism that is missing-the indepth behind the scene story.  All four of them had the credibility and integrity to only enhance the Plain Dealer, but the Plain Dealer in its nervousness of trying anything new caved to the pressure of the tried and true and pulled the plug on Wide Open.  The four bloggers, still have their original blogs and will continue to do what they did prior to “the experiment”. Because they are doing it for the right reason for the love of it.  The only loser in all of this is The Plain Dealer.