A New Day

Sometimes the best way to get things done is to announce that you are going to do it. It raises the expectations of those around you, amps up the pressure, and forces you to take a stand.

For some time, in our grand scheme of things, we have planned on building a semi-eponymous web site — TheRealDealPress.com — and rolling it out with great fanfare and a full bore marketing effort, guerilla and otherwise.

For a host of reasons, including a near lifelong tendency to want to bite off more than we can chew, and a reluctance to ask for help, this hasn’t happened yet.

Over the years, I have tried to make a virtue of such shortfalls — I like to call it flexibility — so I have come to appreciate that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

All of which is perhaps unnecessary prelude to some significant news about our website and this blog, which I am sharing initially to our most faithful readers: those of you who have signed up as followers of this earnest efforts to inform and occasionally entertain. First, our website will launch before my next birthday, which is less than a fortnight away. It will be a fierce effort to become a broader, deeper and more consistent representation of the state of the black community in Greater Cleveland than has perhaps ever been done before. This has actually been a desire of mine for a few decades. I think the need has been there for far longer.

Since no one person can do this alone, we have begun to assemble a team of people to help with a variety of tasks — reporting, designing, content management, marketing, writing, etc. An important few have also stepped forward as financial investors.

Over the next few weeks, as we prepare to launch TheRealDealPress.com, new posts will appear here on at least a daily basis. Sometimes there will be multiple posts. And, as you will soon note, they will come from a variety of contributors.

You can help us in several ways. First, you can become more avid readers and commentators. Don’t just send us an email; post a comment for the world to see. We are open to op-eds. Stop back often, to build your Real Deal Press habit with us and to increase our page views, which in turn will help us gain the advertisers who in turn will help to fortify and sustain our efforts.

Also, if you are or know of talented individuals who might be candidates to join our team, get in touch with us here. We especially seek reporters and ad sales executives, part or full time.

Additionally, if you know of events or news that you believe would be of interest to our readers, send it to us here. We haven’t fully worked out our ideas about crowd-sourced news yet, but we are open to the idea.

Finally, we usually send emails announcing our posts to anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand people. That stops today. When the site is up, we will be using Constant Contact to handle that chore. Meanwhile, you can invite your friends to check us out here.

When we launch, we will make sure you and the world know.

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Our intent is to be your most dependable source of news, information, and events going on in the ever-evolving definition of community. Thanks for sticking with us thus far and let us here from you as we blaze a new path.

Living in the Wake and Being "Woke"

In case you don’t know, our local Public Television station, WVIZ, is broadcasting the new documentary series, The Vietnam War, by filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. It is a ten-part, 18-hour affair that, based on what I’ve seen the last two nights, is remarkable for its ability to evoke that era in all its turbulent excitement and energy, conflict and confusion, tragedy and heroism.

Insofar as possible, the story is being told thus far through the eyes of participants — draftees, enlisted men, officers, Viet Cong, diplomats and politicians on both sides, protesters, etc. To this point the story has been remarkably free of dogma. Assigning blame is not part of this story; rather the goal seems to be to one of seeking understanding what happened and how.

My best friend served in Vietnam as an enlisted man. I was an anti-war protester and conscientious objector. We have talked over the years about that era. While many families were divided and torn asunder by divergent views over the war, somehow the domestic strife of that conflict never affected our personal relationship. In fact, he asked me to edit his memoir of his service in that theater of war. [His account is a deeply personal story. I found it a compelling read, of course, and commend it to anyone interested in how an innocent young man from the ghetto was able to navigate his tour of duty and return with his spirit intact.]

I have another friend, more than a decade younger, who also grew up in Greater Cleveland. Little Italy was his touchstone. Unlike my infantryman buddy, this friend and I disagree vehemently on many political issues that are core to what I believe. I suspect it has much to do with our being brought up in different eras and different parts of town. I lived through experiences that he first heard about listening to adults in his community react to in ways that most likely were not sympathetic to me and mine.

First impressions often die hard, especially when they come from people we trust and love. I’d be a lot better off financially if my father had never spoken to me about money but my mother had taught me much more about it.

Each of us has an obligation to challenge the “truths” we inherited from our parents and their generation. Some of the lessons may hold. Others may need to be revised. Still others should be discarded.

That is one value of this Vietnam series. I suspect that when I finish watching it, I will have greater understanding and empathy for all who lived through any part of it, or suffered the consequences of their own or a loved one’s participation.

I called my writer friend last night. He has lived mostly in the Virgin Islands for the last 25 years. I wanted to see how he had negotiated Hurricane Irma and to see if he knew about the PBS series. Turns out that he had just returned to Ohio Monday night, was feeling great, and did not know about the series. Although he usually goes to bed before 10pm, and I was calling him just after that time, he signed off after a bit to go catch last night’s episode.

In my house, we are taping the entire series. [PBS will likely offer the series for sale next month in a nice boxed set for $199 or so; see me for a real deal!]

Tonight’s viewing may be interrupted for me. In a variation of life-meets-art, there is a nationwide telephone call tonight about Herman Bell, a victim of the Vietnam passions that are inextricably linked with the civil rights struggles and the COINTELPRO response of the U.S. Government [see here generally and here re Cleveland]. Bell’s story is gaining traction these days as people work to free him from what seems a miscarriage of justice. He has been imprisoned for more than 35 years, and nearing age 70, was allegedly beaten savagely by five corrections officers. I urge you to read his story here and here. If so moved, you can register here for a nationwide call on his behalf tonight at 8PM EST.

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Cleveland in dire need of a mayor with energy and fresh ideas; one candidate has both

Now is the time

Clevelanders will go the polls tomorrow to decide which two men will advance to the November election that will determine the city's next mayor.

Tomorrow's nonpartisan primary takes place in the most dynamic and fluid civic environment this city has seen since the election of Carl Stokes precisely one half-century ago.

In the eyes of some, the primary election will be a referendum on the twelve-year run of Frank Jackson and his administration. He is clearly running on his record, one that has many commendable and noteworthy accomplishments. He steered the city firmly through several tough years of the Great Recession that began in 2008. He has presided over what is slowly becoming a more vibrant downtown. He worked smartly with Republicans to bring their national convention here and helped create the conditions for its smooth execution.

Jackson is seeking an unprecedented fourth four-year term that would make him the longest-running mayor in Cleveland's 221-year-old history. When he announced he would again be a candidate, he said he was running because there was no one else who was both qualified and willing to run.

what qualities should our next mayor have, and who among the candidates has the best combination of those qualities?

That claim was untrue. The names on tomorrow's ballot would be very different had the mayor declared his intent to retire. The mayor's decision to run again was essentially a declaration that his leadership is indispensable.

It isn’t.

What's more, the voters know it.

After 12 years, Jackson fatigue is rampant throughout the electorate, and a major reason why he is apt to receive a small slice of tomorrow's vote.

The city's next administration must be characterized by energy and fresh ideas. 

If voters act on their anger and despair, which more than 20,000 of them did when they signed petitions protesting the giveaway of tax monies to expand Quicken Loans Arena, here's the real question they should ask before marking their ballots: what qualities should our next mayor have, and who among the candidates has the best combination of those qualities?

Cleveland has some glitzy bells and whistles. We’ve got a marvelous Playhouse Square, cool chandelier, captivating pro sports teams, a bevy of world-class institutions, and the incomparable University Circle.

But we are consistently mired at the bottom of every quality of life index, in large measure because we are bamboozled into offering public support for private gain and bragging about our charitable nature. We presume ourselves to be liberal because Democrats are everywhere in office, though liberal policies prevail nowhere. We are stuck in conservative trickle down bootstraps muck.

The city's next administration must be characterized by energy and fresh ideas. That energy comes, believe it or not, from the people. Citizen energy is what propelled Carl Stokes to victory fifty years ago.

Mayor Jackson waves at cars
along MLK Blvd. last month

Frank Jackson may still call the Central neighborhood home, but he has become a captive of downtown interests, isolated from the daily struggles of most citizens. His distance from the city is illustrated by the most iconic image of his campaign: the mayor standing detached at intersections in tailored clothing and waving at passing traffic.

Not by coincidence, Jackson detests the two candidates most identified with the people's energy: city councilmen Zack Reed and Jeff Johnson.

We like Zack. He's the hardest worker on city council, and along with the ageless Mike Polensek, the most impassioned. His report card on the failures of the Jackson administration is by far the most biting of all the candidates' critiques. But Reed's signature issue is safety, and student of government that he proclaims to be notwithstanding, he hasn't the foggiest idea how to pay for any of his proposals.

We like Jeff also. We believe in redemption and second chances. But, sadly, Jeff's time passed long ago. He followed Mike White into city council and then into the State Senate. He should have run to succeed White in 2001 but he was fresh out of federal prison. He got back on track but the train had left.

We think the fourth major candidate in this race is the under the radar Brandon Chrostowski. He's lucky in that his typical male indiscretion occurred early enough in life not to derail him. And he was smart enough to learn from it and find his passion in public service.

Four years ago Brandon started a series of nonprofit entities that most famously includes a French restaurant that offers fancy food with zealous service at high prices. It's become a multi-million dollar operation with impeccable accounting from which he extracts only a modest income.

Brandon Chrostowski at the 2d annual
Northeast Ohio Re-Entry Business Summit on April 21,
an event he founded to provide opportunities for returning citizens. 

But the most important product of his enterprise is not satisfied customers; it is redeemed lives. Edwin's Restaurant and Leadership Institute helps people reclaim their lives. It invests in people who have been convicted of felonies and sent to prison. They learn soft skills and marketable skills in the food service industry, find jobs, become productive members of society, and stay out of jail. Their recidivism rate is under 2%.

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We have attended several mayoral forums and listened carefully to all nine candidates. (Madalone skipped the ones we attended but we tracked him otherwise.) Chrostowski, a white guy, is one of the only two candidates we heard express actual belief in the potential of Cleveland citizens. This is huge in a city with a population that is largely black and brown, disproportionately under-employed, over-policed, poorly educated, ill-housed, malnourished, in bad health, trapped in dangerous environments, with diminished transportation options, and too often denied opportunities because of these circumstances or past conditions.

If you don't believe in the people you profess to be helping, then guess what: whether you are on a public, private or nonprofit payroll, whether you work in the ‘hood, in corporate, or in Congress, you are less than honest in what you do, and the people — be they addicted, infirm, or just stuck at the bottom of the ladder — know it.

A smart truck driver I know likes to remind me of a verse from the Gospel of Luke. It may be the only one he knows, but it should give comfort to those who may be see Brandon’s resume as slight:

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much..." [Luke 16:10].

Chrostowski's campaign has been ground level in message and method. He sensibly would fire Flask and McGrath, who epitomize the indifferent or hostile shadow of public safety in Cleveland lurking behind the police chief. He would establish a series of job training centers around town that would focus on making residents more employable. And his third priority is to address public school performance and to accelerate Cleveland's lagging pace towards becoming a universally savvy tech community.

Chrostowski is not an ordinary politician. He voted for neither Trump nor Clinton. But he has taken an old-fashioned approach to campaigning, crisscrossing the city with a dedicated team targeting likely voters. He tells me he's been in every ward knocking on doors.

Mike White used a similar approach in 1989 to finish a surprising second in the primary and launch his twelve-year mayoralty. It would be good for Cleveland if Chrostowski can follow that route and help to end one.

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Judge Jean Murrell Capers, 1913-2017

Jean Murrell Capers, born January 11, 1913, more than a year before the start of World War I, died peacefully this morning at Judson Manor in University Circle. She was 104.

Judge Capers, at Delta Sigma Theta event, Cleveland OH
[THE REAL DEAL PRESS, September, 2015]

Clear eyed and sharp until the end, Judge Capers will be remembered as a unforgettable blend of the assertive and the elegant, the meticulous manner and the feisty attitude, a gentle spirit with a sharp tongue, and perhaps most of all, for her indomitable will and spirit. She was a feminist and role model before either term had currency, a pioneer attorney, city councilwoman, and, ultimately, Cleveland Municipal Court judge.

She is survived by her sister, Alice Murrell Rose. A close family friend advises that that a memorial service will likely be announced in due course.