You Caught Us
Wow, for someone who writes “I fucking hate American Idol,” and “I’m pretty sure I’ve never made it through an entire episode of the show,” you sure know a lot about it [“Schlock This Way,” June 13]. Don’t worry man, your friends will still like you if you told them you like the show.
jwesley
Uh, Boss?
I admire your courage to publicly insult both a commercially successful rock band and a syndicated television show loved by millions. I hope you keep your job!
bogusband
Good Taste is Hard to Find, Unless You Read Scene
Wanted to thank you for the article you wrote in Scene magazine regarding the movie Intouchables…[“The Quad Couple,” June 6]. I can’t remember a time that I was so awestruck by a movie. We all just sat there watching the credits amazed by what we had just seen. Hoping your article inspired others as well…know why it was the highest grossing French film ever. Lynne Davies
Peanut Gallery Advice
Bobby [Womack] has some nice stuff on his new album [reviewed June 13]… (“Deep River,” “Nothing Is Gonna Save You,”) but the production and the mixing on the album is the PITS!
Bobby…forget the phony deep electronic base that makes the car speakers boom… you don’t have to appeal to 18-somethings…. you can’t and they won’t appreciate it.
Go back to your old school…”Woman Got to Have It,” “If You Think You Are Lonely Now”… play the blues and mix it clean. Sing it and play it raw…you don’t need top-40 remix DJ tricks to make it strike to the heart…just the opposite. Give us the Bobby Womack we know and love….that’s all we need. liber8tor
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2012.
Jackson’s Proposed School Levy – Home Owners Deserve Risk Management Overhaul
In November 2012, Mayor Frank G. Jackson and several public officials, law makers
community advocates are pushing for a Cleveland school levy on the November 2012 Ballot. The problem with this levy is three fold. First, it is clear and obvious that the way our schools are funded is unconstitutional. Home owners (alone) should not be responsible for educating Cleveland’s young people. A fair amount of Cleveland home owners do not have school age children. To target a population suffering from economic turmoil is a travesty. It is unbelievable to expect anyone to take this levy seriously. Home owners are barely able to pay their mortgages and to financially bully them into a local school taxed mandate is not a fiscal responsible practice. To date, it has not been explained why home owners should be responsible for a 16 million dollar deficit that was caused by
poor risk management, meager leadership and pitiable oversight. To issue Cleveland Municipal School District a bailout is irresponsible. It’s not about the children while lay-offs are still occurring within the district. Simultaneously, CMSD recently hired a Chief Academic Officer with an annual salary of $200,000. This is an apparent contradiction to the proposed financially strapped district and clearly exposes a need for best practices.
Secondly, risk management over haul is warranted. CMSD is a public entity. The District has performed poorly in this area. As such, the district has neglected to employ drill down methods to understand and publicly explain how spending spiraled aimlessly. The continue failure to manage and measure public funds should be internally investigated by an outside non political organization. The institution of claw backs ranging from raises, bonuses and promotions should be examined and established. Those that operated under the concept of rational ignorance and incompetence should be engaged in disruptive transformation. The effects of educational hiccups will aid the transformation with slight interruption. This will command new leadership, executive and mid-level management accountability, openness, compliance and transparency while assuring tax payers that real change is under way. Home owners need to know how the district will emerge from fiscal malfeasance and what will preclude future losses and poor performance?
Lastly, Mayor’s Jackson’s appointed school board should perform as advocates for the Mayor, tax payers and the community. Tough questions must be driven for real solutions and results. The appointed board must conduct themselves as fiduciary agents and Mayor Jackson must allow them to act as such. To do otherwise is a bully approach to continuous failure. A levy is not a determinate factor for fixing our school district. Throwing good money after bad financial decisions, amount to insurmountable financial losses, and public deception. To deceive the public by edging law makers to pass an education transformation bill that will less likely benefit the children of Cleveland is shameful. It would have been plausible to introduce new and inviting human capital (who live in the district) measures to talk about what really needs to be fixed before asking a targeted few for more money. It is a granted assumption that we will not produce smarter children with a levy passage, however we will see growth in political manipulation and a strong decline of public trust.
Tax Payers merit a workable model. Home owners deserve risk management preventative measures – a risk management overhaul.