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Sunday, July 12, 2009
What makes a council resolution “pointless”?
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Photo courtesy of here.
Leslie Ghiz is making news about how she won’t recognize Michael Jackson at an upcoming council meeting. No matter your stance on that, how frequently does Council take on such honorary stances? It can be hit-or-miss going through the Council archives, but we spent a few minutes trying to see what we can find. The truth is that council has a long history passing memorial resolutions or making proclamations that have nothing to do with Cincinnati in particular. So is Ghiz making a principled point, or is this another example of getting her name out there in time for campaign season? How different are the examples we found from the situation with Michael Jackson’s death?
1. Any thoughts about then-Mayor Qualls giving copies of a world peace declaration from Hiroshima to City Councilmembers? Does this fall under the scope of City Council?
2. How about a moment of silence to fight racial tensions? Does this do any good?
3. How significant is it to be silent during the second anniversary of 9/11?
4. Sending well-wishes for volleyball teams?
5. I’m sure Rabbi Eliezer Silver did great things—more than Michael Jackson—but what about remembering his death 40 years later? Ghiz voted “yes” for that one.
6. Remember when Crowley expressed concern about Bush wanting to ramp up troops in Iraq? Ghiz voted “No,” but I don’t remember this degree of “outrage.” Anyway, what’s it have to do with the “Finance Committee”?
7. Does acknowledging that black churches pray to cure AIDS mean anything? Whatever the case, Cole introduced it and Ghiz voted “Yes.”
8. In case you thought City Council wanted to give everyone in the City sub-standard education, you may be pleased to know that everyone voted to support giving them a “world class education.”
10. Dental Hygienist Cliff Jones?
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12 Jul 2009 at 03:22 pm | #
I think this quote misrepresents which side is pressing the issue. I happened to be listening to the radio and this is how I remember it developing. Ghiz was on Bill Cunningham’s show I think basically talking about ‘tweetergate’ on the day of Michael’s memorial and since at least half of Cunningham’s appeal is that some people find him funny he natually was attempting to make humorous comments on the excesses of the memorial. If you don’t find him funny, thats your right but many people do, including myself (even though I think he DOES often go over the line but so do many of our better comedian/broadcasters like Howard Stern, David Letterman, (concerning the Palin children), and Lincoln Ware).
I think Ms. Ghiz probably has too loose a tongue at times(see twittergate) but she was basically just going along with the jokes and IMHO was not sounding malicious about Michael. Cunningham asked if she would back a moment of silence for Michael (like the U.S. House did) and she rightly said he had no real connection to Cincy so it would be silly. Anyway, the man who seems to trying to become Cincinnati’s own Rev. Al Sharpton, Christopher Smitherman, must have been listening and he was on the phone with Lincoln Ware in a matter of minutes (I enjoy both Cunningham and Lincoln and switch back and forth)having a fit. He apparently regarded this as a horrible affront to black culture (or figured Leslie Ghiz got a certain percentage of black votes last time and here was a cheap way to get her out and get a new black councilman in)and used his political muscle to get Cecil Thomas to pledge to bring forward this stupidity.
This is juvenile identity politics at its worst and everyone knows it(well maybe everyone besides the 40-50 % of the voting public who have’nt any level of sophisticated understanding of the substantive issues and vote based on stupid stuff like this). And for all those worldy liberals who worry about how Cincinnati appears to the more sophisticated parts of the world, how will Cincinnati look if Ghiz doesn’t just quietly let this stupidity go and challenges the logic of it and a big debate ensues? Imagine what a field day some of the political satire shows like John Stewart would have if a semi-famous city like Cincinnati is caught debating the merits and demerits of Michael Jackson instead of doing such mundane things liking running the city. Don’t be confused, liberal demagoguery is responsible for this stupidity.
12 Jul 2009 at 04:14 pm | #
What do you think about the other ten examples in this article?
12 Jul 2009 at 04:15 pm | #
And did you just call the anti-transit Smitherman, who’s linked with the right-winged COAST, a “liberal”?
12 Jul 2009 at 05:18 pm | #
I’m not sure if any of the individuals you named above (like Rabbi Silver or Cliff Jones) have any connection to Cincy so I can’t say. I know Michael didn’t so thats why its silly. I think the world peace resolution was irrelevent (and forwarded by a lib) but 9-11 seemed OK to me. Look, I’m sure irrelevant resolutions were passed in the past but the thing about Michael is everyone knew him and know he has no real connection to Cincy. It ain’t no big deal if there is a resolution or not—-but its worth pointing out who is pushing this childish stuff and who isn’t.
Yes, I would say Smitherman is mostly a liberal (but like all people he isn’t completely pure) but more importantly he is an extreme demagogue. He’s smart and probably has some real concern for the constituency he speaks for but he very often appeals to the most simplistic, emotional feelings of his followers and seems to discourage them from thinking for themselves like demagogues do.
13 Jul 2009 at 12:13 am | #
So, these resolutions are irrelevant but okay, they’re not a big deal, but it’s worth pointing out who started it if that person is liberal, and Smitherman is a liberal demagogue with Cecil Thomas in his pocket while Ghiz was just playing along with the joke (which was supposed to find a moment of silence for Michael Jackson funny, while you rest in the minority of voters who “have’nt any level of sophisticated understanding of the substantive issues and vote based on stupid stuff like this”, which I’m assuming from the tone in your post does not include many black liberals?
Man you’re world must be an adventure everyday.
13 Jul 2009 at 07:46 am | #
I think I just threw up in my mouth.
Smitherman is a power hungry oppurtunist who will use anyone the NAACP or COAST ro further himself end of story.
13 Jul 2009 at 07:50 am | #
Why isn’t it worth pointing out when a “conservative” like Chris Monzel passes a meaningless resolution about providing a “world class education”?
Like the past part of your first paragraph, this doesn’t even make sense.
14 Jul 2009 at 12:52 am | #
Cliff Jones, use to be the manager of the City Dental clinics. He is a graduate of Central Michigan University Distance Learning program out of Wright Patterson AFB and has an MHA degree. He was responsible for the start up of 6 clinic locations and the contracting of 10 dentist for low and no income residents of the City. So…now that you know who Cliff Jones is and what he has done for the city.
The dumbest City of Cincinnati City Council Resolution…Was in 2005 and then again in 2006- Honoring the North College Hill High School Boys Basketball Team. First off- North College Hill, isn’t in the city of Cincinnati- they are an incorporated city called North College Hill. And the only reason why Cincinnati wanted in on the glory was OJ MAYO AND BILL WALKER!- And OJ MAYO Cost the USC basketball coach his job with his recruiting violations- which no one is really too sure what went down, but a coach is no longer coaching and he is out of the country this season! LOL!!!
But it was pretty funny to think that the city council of the City of Cincinnati had NCH DAY in the City of Cincinnati when NCH isn’t even in the City! WHY????? NCH ISN’T IN THE CITY OF CINCINNATI- WHY NOT HAVE A MOELLER HS BASEBALL DAY for their state championship? D’OH!!!