So
I woke up the other day, checked the headline news on my smartphone, and saw
that Ohio’s supine, reactionary, and corrupt legislative majority had voted to
cut taxes on the wealthy, raise the regressive sales tax, ban Medicaid
expansion, and continue the fight against modernity, history, and biology by
enacting more restrictive measures against women.
So
why would I be surprised that the US Supreme Court decided to cut the heart out
of the Voting Rights Act?
The
reality is the forces of money, power and privilege in America NEVER TAKE A DAY
OFF. That’s what capitalism means. The forces of democracy, liberty, and
justice, on the other hand, seem to think that winning a battle means winning
the war. If that were so, Ohio would still have the nation’s best set-aside
law, an updated Voting Rights Act would still be intact, and we would not have
this continued testosterone assault upon women’s reproductive rights.
You’ve
heard it before: eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Better instill that
piece of Founding Father wisdom in your soul before these Tea Party
legislatures rewrite local public school curricula to excise that bit of
Americana the same way they are working on whitewashing George Washington’s
slave-holding past from school books.
So
if you are upset about any of this, you should get busy at:
1. Keeping yourself
informed about what your elected officials are doing,
2. Informing your
friends, neighbors, and social media family about what your local officials are
doing, and
3. Getting involved on some level in fighting for what you say you believe
in.
And
if you are one of my Republican friends being courted by Ohio’s governor and
the chair of the Republican National Committee, you should seize every audience
and opportunity you have to challenge the whack social and fiscal policies
their brethren are systemically and systematically advancing across the nation.
It
would also help to study a little history so that you can respond with facts
when people use superficial labels to claim, for example, that the Republican
Party of 1854 is the same as the GOP of today or even the GOP of the 1960s.
• • •
On
to more pleasant matters. A couple of decades ago, before the World Wide Web
was actually worldwide, there was a print version of THE Real Deal. We tried to
cover civic, commercial and cultural affairs of relevance to Greater
Cleveland’s 350,000 African Americans and perforce to those astute enough to
know that what affected them should be of concern to the entire community.
One
of the pieces of which we were most proud was a cover story on an exhibit at
Cleveland’s Museum of Natural History written by our ace correspondent Evelyn
Castillo. The unforgettably spectacular exhibit was a display of Shona Stone
sculpture fashioned by artists from Zimbabwe. Some of the pieces were immense;
almost all were gorgeous.
What
brings this to mind was receipt of a notice from the Deuteronomy 8:3 Café
regarding a limited exhibit and sale of Shona Sculpture this coming weekend.
Starting tomorrow the café will host a brief display of Shona Stone sculpture
from the Zimbabwe Gallery collection in Philadelphia. Gallery owner Collin
Thompson will speak at tomorrow’s 7PM
opening reception.
The exhibit will close its brief run on Sunday
afternoon, June 30. Deuteronomy 8:3 Café is located at 1464 East 105 St,
Cleveland OH 44106 at the north end of University Circle. Exhibit hours this
weekend will be 11AM-6PM on Saturday and Sunday. For more info, call
216.376.9695 or visit Zimbabwe Gallery, visit www.shonasculpture.com.
Selected pieces for
purchase are priced between $100 and $1,000.
********
Learning from vacant lots
Today’s Plain Dealer carried a story on an
Ohio State University entomologist who has received a $900,000 grant to study
the management of biodiversity in vacant lots, which Cleveland has in abundance
thanks to the [unpunished] criminal behavior of those responsible for the
housing meltdown and the evaporation of 50% of the wealth of African Americans
who, as always, were disproportionately affected.
In any event, the PD headline and story led to
the grant from the National Science Foundation being heavily maligned by the
usual aggregation of numbskull trollers at www.cleveland.com.
The story does raise eyebrows of course, as
the environmental and caretaking cost of vacant lots is higher than one might
imagine. So if you want to understand why the grant was made, or just be more
knowledgeable about all the vacant lots around us, spend three minutes here.
• • •
Thoughts about Cavs’ draft tonight
The Cleveland Cavaliers have the first pick in
tonight’s NBA draft. There is likely no franchise player available so
the team needs to go for the surest bet of a frontline player. I would be
tempted to take Victor Oladipo of Indiana University. He’s smart, tough, and
tenacious, plays hard all the time, and is the kind of guy who will get better
and better over time. He would especially fit in with the team’s new emphasis
on defense.
I will be ok with the likely selection of
Georgetown’s Otto Porter Jr. Just don’t bring home Nerlins Noel, who is a foot
taller than I am but weighs less. And I’m not as out of shape as I thought I
was [I overhauled my five year old grandson in a race last week on a steamy Los
Angeles afternoon.].
I haven’t made up my mind between going over
to the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Center [3450 Lee Road, Shaker Heights
44120] at 7PM to meet John
Patrick Carney, a state representative who is probably going to run for State Auditor
next year, or to head over to Nighttown [12387 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights
44106] for a Society of Urban Professionals event featuring live music from
Cleveland native Mariama Whyte [5:30PM-9PM].
I’m sure Carney will be coming around again,
so …
