The political scientist Richard Fenno, after
following Cleveland’s legendary Lou Stokes around our town, noted with
astonishment the red-carpet treatment and near hero worship the retired
Congressman received from his former constituents. Fenno, considered the dean
of Congressional scholars, remarked that he had never seen anything like it.
There is no doubt that Lou Stokes is a
walking, breathing political giant in our midst. Still, it does not detract one
whit from his stature to wonder whether the adulation he — and to a lesser
degree, his beloved successor, the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones — continues to
receive, says as much or more about the peculiar makeup of identity politics in
Cleveland than it does about him.
In any event, it remains our good fortune to
have his continued presence on the scene. Today, he appears as the special
guest on “It’s About Justice”, the public affairs radio show hosted by retired
Cleveland educator and activist Meryl Johnson.
Stokes was an outstanding trial attorney who
won landmark cases before the US Supreme Court before beginning his thirty-year
political career in the late 1960s. He likely will share his legal and
political perspective on this week’s decisions regarding the Court’s savaging
of the Voting Rights Act as well as its latest decision on affirmative action. I hope
Meryl finds time to ask him about the Court’s DOMA decision as well.
“It’s About Justice” airs on WRUW-FM/91.1
Saturday afternoons from 1:30-2:30PM. You can hear it online at wruw.org/.
• • •
Justice will remain the theme of the week on
Mansfield Frazier’s radio show, “The Forum”, which airs tomorrow night from
7-10PM on WTAM-AM/1100. The show will be dealing with addiction and
our country’s phony but devastating “war on drugs”.
Guests will include Cleveland Municipal
Court judges Anita Laster Mays and Marilyn B. Cassidy; Debora A. Rodriguez,
president and CEO of Recovery Resources;
and Peter Christ, co-founder of LEAP [Law Enforcement Against Prohibition].
LEAP’s website says the nonprofit organization is comprised of “criminal
justice professionals who bear personal witness to the wasteful futility and
harms of our current drug policies.”
“The Forum”, known colloquially to wags as
“Negro Night on WTAM”, is a call-in show, so listeners can interact with the
show’s host and guests.
The program is also streamed at http://www.wtam.com/main.html.
Finally, in keeping with our justice theme,
I came across this compelling
audio recording of George Zimmerman’s interrogation by the police after he was
brought in for questioning following his killing of Trayvon Martin. His
attitude is chilling, and begs the question of why it took a national campaign
to arrest this menace to society.
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