Monday, March 03, 2008

Smitherman:  Put people before zoo animals!

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Dear Membership and Community,

The Cincinnati Enquirer on Sunday, March 2, 2008 endorsed the zoo levy but encouraged voters to not vote for the school levy.  In November of 2007, the Cincinnati Enquirer endorsed a jail.  The Cincinnati Enquirer supports animals over children.  It will be a very sad day in Cincinnati to see a zoo levy pass while a school levy fails. 

Seventy percent of the children in Cincinnati Public Schools are African American.  There is also a large number of children in Cincinnati Public Schools who are White and African American that are below the poverty line.  The only way many of these children have access to education is through public education.  The alternative for many of these children is a life of crime.  The Enquirer in 2006 and in 2007 endorsed the building of a new jail.  This country has 2.3 million people in prisons.  We spend $50 billion dollars a year to support the prison system or $4 billion dollars a month.  It seems to me that it is cheaper to invest in educating our children on the front end than to incarcerate on the back end.

There is already a perception in the African American Community that the “status quo” places a greater value on animals than they do on human beings.  This endorsement of a zoo only reinforces that perception or reality that the “status quo” values the lives of dogs, cats, lions, tigers, and bears over the lives children.  This is really sad.

The round table of business leaders called the CBC gave $100,000 in campaign money to support the building of a jail 90 days ago.  Children’s Hospital gave $15,000 in campaign money to support a jail.  Children’s Hospital and the Cincinnati Zoo are in the process of tearing down homes in Avondale.  This is an African American Community. This effort is being led by Uptown Consortium.  I do not see development on the part of Children’s Hospital and the Cincinnati Zoo but I do see gentrification of an African American Community.  Margaret Buchanan publisher of the Cincinnati Enquirer is a member of the CBC and 3CDC.  This is a major conflict of interest.

It is my hope that we will unite as a community and dismiss the Cincinnati Enquirer and vote yes on Issue 10.  Our children deserve better!

Christopher Smitherman
President of the Cincinnati NAACP

Socializer!

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M G says:
03 Mar 2008  at  06:24 pm | #

Show your support for the animals by voting NO against the zoo levy.  The animals don’t get your money, their exploiters do. Zoos are almost as bad as circuses.  If you really must support the zoo, visit the zoo.. don’t force your fellow citizens to vote for a tax we don’t need.

What’s next, the art museum levy, the Beach water park levy, the King’s Island levy?

funnelcake says:
04 Mar 2008  at  12:51 am | #

This may be a moot point since we should expect a heavy Democrat turn out for this primary & a low Republican turn out since their presidential candidate has already pretty much been decided.

says:
04 Mar 2008  at  06:45 am | #

So Smitherman cares because most CPS students are Black?  Nice.

It seems to me that in this case The Enquirer endorses performance over failure.

Smitherman’s plea to support the children should be levied (no pun intended) at their parents instead of the taxpayers-cum-parentis-in-loco.

“Gentrification of an African American community.” I love it.  That part of Avondale has been laid waste by crime and dependency(remember the Membership of that Community picking the pockets of a dying shooting victim lying in the street on Burnet Avenue?) and the Zoo and Childrens have no where to expand but out.  As a “financial planner” Smitherman should have advised his clients to invest in properties bordering these institutions so they could cash out on the sale.

I’d be interested to know if the Avondale Community Council gives a rat’s rip about Smitherman’s opinion on their matters?

JFD says:
04 Mar 2008  at  09:14 am | #

CS: “Children’s Hospital and the Cincinnati Zoo are in the process of tearing down homes in Avondale. This is an African American Community. This effort is being led by Uptown Consortium.”

I always thought that Avondale was part of the Cincinnati community.  Is Smitherman advocating that it should be a segregated community?  If so, then maybe Avondale should secede from the City and start their own school system; although I don’t know what kind of funding mechanism they would find to pay for it.  Oh well, Chris is a smart man he’ll figure it out.

BTW, the Uptown Consortium is headed by Tony Brown, a black man; which might lead one to believe that, maybe not all blacks support Smithermans negative and racially divisive agenda.

Kevin LeMaster says:
05 Mar 2008  at  05:11 pm | #

He also fails to mention the Uptown Consortium’s plans for Gateway Center, a small business incubator meant to create jobs in the community that will become part of an Africentric business district, or the fact that the Cincinnati Herald is one of the major tenants of the development, or the fact that 60+ units of market-rate housing will be built on the site.

Anon says:
05 Mar 2008  at  09:08 pm | #

1. The zoo and the school levy passed, so I doubt the good voters saw this as an either/or proposition. I also doubt the Enquirer saw it as an either/or proposition too, but, then, what’s demagoguery without oversimplification and gross generalization?

2. What kind of a non-sequitur is it to include Children’s Hospital in this anti-enquirer rant? Children’s may have supported the jail issue, but if you worked in the Emergency Department, the Pediatric ICU, or the Mayerson Center, you’d see why the hospital has an interest in ensuring that bad people who do horrible, horrible things to children are detained and prosecuted fully.

3. As for tearing down the houses in the area, the people who own those houses are well compensated and never coerced; Children’s has never obtained property through eminent domain. Further, the most recent construction project in Avondale is a joint venture with the Cincinnati Herald. In fact, the Herald will be the landlord of one of the two office buildings and Children’s will actually rent from the Herald.

4. Smitherman doesn’t see development on the part of Children’s Hospital? Is he blind, or is this a lame rhetorical device whereby he ignores those two new buildings that are rising out of the ground on Burnet and the new research tower that just opened on Albert Sabin Way?

Children’s Hospital is an asset to this community, and the impact of the free and reduced fee care that they provide to the disadvantaged children this city—including Avondale—and the region, let alone the world-class care they provide for all range of illnesses far outweighs the impact of demolishing roughly a dozen houses over the past year or two. Children’s is investing heavily in the neighborhood because it is their neighborhood too.

White Male says:
21 Mar 2008  at  03:39 pm | #

M G says:
03 Mar 2008 at 06:24 pm | # Show your support for the animals by voting NO against the zoo levy.  The animals don’t get your money, their exploiters do. Zoos are almost as bad as circuses.  If you really must support the zoo, visit the zoo.. don’t force your fellow citizens to vote for a tax we don’t need.

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Their exploiters? ?

Check out the history of our Zoo. 

The Zoo serves as a learning center as many schools visit the zoo throughout the year and some classess are offered at the zoo (high school & college)

Our Zoo has a tremendous history, is the nation’s second oldest Zoo, began in 1875. 

I’m glad you got your school levey passed.  You Cincinnati residents can continue to throw money at something that continued to fail. 

BORGMAN had a cartoon recently where he had the kids living the Cincinnati Public Schools and going right to the Justice Center.

HOPE THE CINCINNATI KIDS ARE ENJOYING THEIR EASTER BREAK.