is what i do » live in Cincinnati

Ken Blackwell for RNC Chair

richard — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:28:47 +0000

Source: John Wellington Ennis: Ken Blackwell for RNC Chair

John Ennis knows Ken Blackwell; he’s made a feature-length documentary of our former Secretary of State’s devious (and successful) schemes to deliver Ohio to Dubya in 2004.

J. Kenneth Blackwell, the former Secretary of State of Ohio whose administration of the 2004 election made Katherine Harris look like Mary Tyler Moore, is aggressively pushing to become the next chair of the Republican National Committee when its 168 members convene in 2009 to figure out how to pull their party out of the deep, dank hole they have dug themselves into. And I for one support his selection wholeheartedly.

Ennis’s article details the many ways in which Ken exemplifies those qualities that sunk the GOP in November. He wishes Blackwell success in his drive to skipper that derelict vessel, and he concludes, “I think that most readers of Huffington Post will join me in supporting Ken Blackwell to lead the Republican Party to a dismal future. Indeed, his penchant for election fraud may be their only chance left.”

Spring Grove

richard — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:17:34 +0000

We went for a walk in Spring Grove Cemetary yesterday. The afternoon was a little chilly and overcast, and we probably missed the height of the Spring display by about a week, but it was still beautiful. As it turned out, we parked our car, very much by accident, by the grave of Nancy Shapiro, whom I met when we worked together on the Gene McCarthy campaign and who became a much loved friend. She died far too young, and we miss her still.

Here’s a selection of photos from our walk:

-- SimpleFlickr Content --
(Please visit the original post page to view the details.)

Spring

richard — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:56:18 +0000

Here are a few pix I’ve taken on my walk home from the Coffee Emporium the past few mornings. It’s been a particularly glorious Spring in Cincinnati. If you’d like one of these images for your desktop wallpaper, just click on it, and the image will load at original size from my Flickr site; you can then save it to your hard drive.

Happy Halloween

richard — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 02:37:29 +0000

Halloween traffic got off to a slow start this evening; it may have been the rain that had been going on most of the day. But the rain stopped late in the afternoon, and we wound up giving out all of our candy; there were probably 200-300 kids who came by. A lot of young kids this year, which is nice, and some fairly elaborate costumes. None of the costumes were really inventive, though, and almost all were store-bought. Lots of superheros, princesses, bunnies and birds for the littlest kids. I was surprised that there were not very many pirates; would have thought that was a natural.

We had a lot of comments on the pumpkins this year, way more than in years past. I was particularly pleased that the kids got into the pumpkins. I’m used to compliments from the parents, but this year I got a fair number from the kids; they took the time to look really close, and the commonest response was “awesome.” Awesome.

I felt kind of sorry for the kids across the street. They’re evangelicals, who don’t hold with devil worship. In past years, they’ve been gone on Halloween, but this year they were home. The porch lights were off, of course, and they weren’t giving candy, but I could see the kids looking out the door, watching the action and listening to the excited chatter. I can’t imagine what they make of it all, but I think that it can’t be very happy.

Ohio has been hacked!

richard — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:40:11 +0000

Source: Daily Kos: ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early.

This is a report from someone who attended a meeting of moderate Ohio Republicans, who were bemoaning the polls that showed a probable Democratic sweep of the state…

Then, one insider, probably an extremist, but certainly very close to Mr. Ken Mehlman abruptly stopped the conversation. He told table that it was impossible they would lose either house. He also predicts an Ohio GOP sweep.

He informed the group that over the last year, in four critical states the GOP needs to hold huge purges of the voter rolls have just been finished.

The insider did not say which four states, but did say Ohio was among them.

His claim was a new Diebold voter registry system had been installed over the last year. The last week of July and the first week of August a "test run" was made of the systems ability to purge ineligable voters. The purge generated names and test letters sent out to 1.2 million Ohio addresses with a focus on University’s, Apartment addresses with high turnover. He claims they made the letters seem just functionary, but they have an action component to avoid being purged from the rolls.

The Insider warmed and said that Blackwell was brilliant in how he did this. The letter went on for a long time about changes in Ohio voting and security and suggested people who might have any concerns about their voting status could come by county offices and confirm their continued voting eligability before election day.

He further added, that since it was conducted as a "test" they only sent letters to a limited number of suspect addresses and "I suspect Blackwell chose criteria very very favorable for us."

Further the insider stated that Blackwell had only purged the lists after a full 60 days was given for people to respond. Which means even if a voter was on the "termination" list, they would still have been eligable to vote in the primary.

He told they table they believe the purge has probably caught up "hundreds of thousands of students, activists and wanderers with no real job" would show up at the polls and have to vote provisionally.

He predicted to the table that tens of thousands of voters will show up on election day, and once the provisionals are used up will simply not be able to at all.

The person who received the report went on to test it, in Lorain and Wayne Counties, sending friends from those counties to the Board of Elections to either vote early or get absentee ballots. In both cases, they found long lines of people, all Democratic voters, who were being informed that they were ineligible to vote. They either hadn’t brought the proper ID, or their street addresses did not match the address on their driver’s license, or, in one case, a college student had moved to a different dorm.

This is not something that’s going to happen. It has happened. We have been hacked.

“Big Wheel Keeps A-Turnin’”

richard — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 00:30:51 +0000

(This article is cross-posted, in slightly different form, to The Dharma Study Group website; it is a discussion of the text that group will be discussing at our meeting next Saturday at the Cincinnati Buddhist Center in Northside.)

The Buddha delivered his first teaching after his Enlightenment to the five monks who had been his companions during his period of austerities. The setting was the Deer Park at Isipatana (the modern village of Sarnath), near Varanasi. This is the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta—the teaching that set in motion the Wheel of the Dhamma. It appears in Chapter 56 of the Samyutta Nikaya.

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is, to my mind, the single most important text in the history of mankind. I don’t know any other teaching that is so concise, so clear, so deep, so compelling, so complete, so coherent. Above all, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is original. The Buddha himself, in the sutta, claims that the truths he discovered were “in regard to things unheard before”, and I don’t know of any teachings, in any tradition I have studied, that would lead me to dispute that claim.

The basic message of the sutta is simple; it consists of four connected truths.

The first truth is that our lives are filled with stress, dissatisfaction, suffering—the constellation of negative experiences and emotions that are encompassed in the Pali word dukkha.
The second truth is that dukkha is caused by craving—wanting what we don’t have or can’t have, wanting things to be otherwise than the way they are.
The third truth is that if we can relinquish craving, eliminate it completely, with no residue left behind, then dukkha will end.
The fourth truth is that the way to eliminate craving is to follow an eight-fold path, which is composed of right point of view, right purpose, right action, right speech, right livelihood, right diligence, right alertness, and right concentration.

The path that the Buddha lays out is described as the Middle Way—the way between pursuit of sensual pleasures and personal gratification on the one hand and the practice of severe and painful austerities on the other. The Middle Way, which the Buddha has realized and thereby become the Tathagata (the one who has gone that way), “gives rise to vision, gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nibbana.” The four truths that comprise the Middle Way are described as “noble” truths—truths which enoble those who see them clearly; truths the possession of which separates those of noble character and attainment from the “uninstructed worldlings”, caught up in the pursuit of sensual pleasure and the satisfaction of ambition.

There are three “technical” terms in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, i.e. terms that have particular significance to Buddhism and that cannot be adequately translated by a single word or phrase in English. These are dukkha, nibbana, and dhamma itself.

The easiest, perhaps, is dukkha. Various translators have used the words “pain”, “suffering”, “stress”, “dissatisfaction” (and many others) to translate dukkha. What makes dukkha a little easier than the other two terms is that it means all those things. To grasp dukkha, all we have to do is grasp the essence that relates all of the terms that different people have used to translate it. Just by doing that, our understanding of the world has been deepened, and we have a new lens through which to view our lot as humans, as sentient beings.

Dhamma is a little more difficult, because it not only has many different translations, but it does, in fact, have several different meanings in Pali. On the one hand, it is the way of the world (of the universe); it is the underpinning of the causal relationships between one event and the next, whether the events involve the settling of a cooling planet into an orbit around a star, the emergence of a new species in a changing environment, or the serenity with which a good woman approaches the end of her individual life. Dhamma is also used, usually in the plural, to refer to those things which are constant across time and space—subatomic particles and energy quanta in the physical world, perhaps, or bits of information; and, in our human lives, the aggregates themselves: form, feeling, perceptions, concepts, consciousness. In that second sense, dhammanah are contrasted with samskaya—composite things, conditioned things, things which are impermanent and marked by dukkha. Finally, Dhamma refers to the Buddha’s teachings, a use which takes meaning from both its first and second usages and extends that meaning to refer to a system of understanding and practice founded on the four noble truths. Which is where we started.

And where we end, if we realize those truths with direct knowledge as the Buddha did, is with nibbana, which is the most difficult term to translate, the most difficult to conceptualize, and, when one has caught the barest glimpse of what it might refer to, the most difficult to come to terms with. The word derives from a very ancient phrase referring to the extinguishing of a flame, and that is the simile which is most frequently found in Buddhist commentary on nibbana. But nibbana is not, as Western commentators have often interpreted it to be, a nihilistic concept. When the fuel that feeds the fires of desire, anger, and hurt is used up, then those fires are in fact extinguished, and the condition into which one enters—the one in whom those fires have been extinguished—is nibbana. I don’t know what that state is—the Buddha himself said that it is ineffable. But whatever it is, it does not burn. And one entering nibbana, although that one is released from craving and its attendant dukkha, and is no longer burned by the blazing heat of passion, jealousy, and hate, does not thereby disappear into blank nothingness. The Buddha, recall, entered the state of nibbana when he was 35 and continued his teaching for another 45 years, to the enormous benefit of those of us fortunate enough to hear that teaching, albeit imperfectly, across thousands of years and thousands of miles and an infinite number of infinitely nuanced differences between the Buddha’s language and ours, the Buddha’s culture and ours.

The five monks to whom the Buddha delivered his first sermon spoke his language, lived in his world, and had spent many years working to clear their minds—meditating, practicing austerities, discussing the dhamma with one another in an attempt to unravel it. They were ready to receive the Buddha’s message, and one of them, the Venerable Kondañña, did, in fact, get it right away: “Whatever is subject to coming into being,” he exclaimed, “is subject to ceasing to be.” And with that transfer of the knowledge and vision that the Buddha had gained through his exertions to Kondañña, Kondañña became enlightened, he saw what the Buddha had unveiled, and the Wheel of the Dhamma was set in motion. And once set in motion, “it cannot be stopped by any brahmin or ascetic or god, neither by Mara nor by Brahma, nor by anyone at all anywhere in the universe.”

There are a number of translations of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta available on the web. There are three on the Access to Insight website, by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Piyadassi Thera, and Ñanamoli Thera.

And, on the Sutta Readings site, there is a fine recording of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation by Guy Armstrong, a guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society.

You can listen to Guy Armstrong’s reading by clicking on this link, or you can right-click to download the Mp3 file to your computer.

School Board Election

richard — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 22:42:29 +0000

My good friend Ellen Bierhorst sent this out to her Lloyd House Potluck Salon Group. I thought it was particularly thoughtful and convincing, and I offer it for your consideration.

FRIENDS,

I have just completed my research on the Bd. of Education election. On Tuesday, one of the important choices you will have to make is to select four Bd. of Ed. members. Below, my four picks, the lay of the land as I see it, and the background of recent developments in Cincinnati Public Schools.

The short version is: I like Rosa Blackwell as superintendent of CPS (even though I don’t like Ken), and I like Harriet Russel for re-election, and Cathy Ingram for re-election because they support Rosa. I also like Susan Cranley and Bill Haase, two non-incumbents.

Although the other two candidates, Melanie Bates and Eileen Cooper-Reed are people I like very much personally, I will not be voting for them because I see them as hostile to the aims and work of the Board in recent years, which h as been so productive (except for the most unfortunate two year tenancy of Alton Frailey, the previous superintendent.)

Background: The existing board, 7 people, includes three people who will sit for another two years (not up for re-election this year) who are: John Gilligan, Florence Newell, and Rick Williams. It also includes four people whose seats are to be determined in this election. One of these, Sally Warner, is not running again, having served diligently for 25 years as parent watchdog at the Board meetings, and for a number of years now, as Board member. . The others, who are running to be re-elected for 4 year terms, are Harriet Russel, Walnut Hills retired teacher much loved by good students, Cathy Ingram, and Melanie Bates.

So, the candidates running for the two seats of Bates and Warner are: Bates herself, Eileen Cooper-Reed, Bill Haase, and Susan Cranley.

History: Some years ago, in recognition of the dire straits of Cinti. Public Schools, then-Assistant Superintendent Rosa Blackwell collaborated with others in framing a plan for a New Day for CPS, including such things as teacher-quality pay incentives, a smorgasbord of tasty magnet high school programs, team teaching, and elimination of “tracking” where the “slow” students were segregated from the “bright” students. All of these things seem good to me. This plan was to prepare our kids for a new kind of society where the skilled blue collar jobs have evaporated. Whereas before that happened, we expected 20% of our students to go on to college, now we need to aim for 80% going to college where they will be prepared for highly skilled positions. This thunderous change is the result of automation and job outsourcing. By and large, the jobs today are either high-skill high-education jobs (medicine, law, science, technology, management …) or dishwasher. (Or penitentiary inmate, an ever growing career path thanks to the “war on drugs”– but don’t get me started.)

So “The Plan” was designed to increase the numbers of kids graduating from High School and going on to high-skill jobs or college. Now. Did you think that the track record for CPS recently was bad news? I sort of had that impression. Not so! Five years ago only 51% of our high school students were graduating. Each of these last years the numbers have jumped, and now are a whopping 76%! My impression was that in the 50′s nearly everyone graduated from high school. That is not correct. My impression was that sixty years ago most Americans were literate but now illiteracy is growing. Not correct either. Today we track these failures better and have more accurate data and care about it more. The 76% graduation rate is the highest we have ever had. Kids are staying in school and getting better skills.

We have had a massive restructuring of our high school program, thanks to the “plan” and the excellent leadership of Steve Adamowsky. We have many very tasty special high school programs and kids decide at the end of eighth grade where they want to go. In addition to the famous ones, Walnut Hills and Clark Montessori, there are:

At Withrow, the International Academy including International Baccalaureate Program, International Law Program, English as a Second Language program and others…
At Western Hills the Design Technology program with Chris Smitherman’s dad as principle (this is like engineering),
Informaton Technology at Taft, where students can get good jobs on graduation in programing and computer repair
At Hughes six programs: Teacher preparation, Communications, Health careers, Paidea, Math and Science, and the Zoo program.
And Three “University Schools” designed to help children of families who have never gone to college before, do so with special supports and encouragement in cahoots with XU and UC etc.

Having picked their high school program kids tend to stay in school much more and to graduate. This is great news.

Alton Frailey was the superintendent for two years, before Rosa Blackwell took over, and he was a disaster, dismantling some of the reforms. But Rosa is into going back to the Plan, and is for the most part doing a good job. One thing she has done that is not so great is to hire teachers for the Montessori programs who do not have certification in Montessori education. The Montessori parents are angry about that, and are sponsoring a special forum discussion of all the candidates this Thursday Nov 3, at XU, Alter Hall, Kelly Auditorium, at 7:00. (Go to the kiosk at the Dana Ave. Entry, just off Victory Parkway, and ask for directions.) A good turn-out for this forum would be a great support for the Montessori Parents group and let you see the candidates.

Why not Bates and Reed?

Two of the candidates, Melanie Bates and Eileen Cooper-Reed worked last year AGAINST the renewal levy, which passed nonetheless. They are supported in their campaign by the “CBC” or the “Cincinnati Business Committee”, the “Big White Boys Club” including the CEOs of the top 25 businesses in the city. OK, they do have ONE African American and ONE woman, but these are the movers and shakers in Cincinnati. I don’t trust ‘em. This is P&G, Toyota, U.C., 5/3 Bank, US Bank, etc. I tend to see local politics as “the people vs. the giant robots” and these guys are the tools of the giant robot corporations. They want increasing profits for next quarter, not prosperity next year, or prosperity in ten years, or what is good for the people. Giant robots be dumb. Make short sighted, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot decisions. And they are enormously powerful. Dollars. (So shoot me for reductionistic thinking.)

I know (slightly) Melanie Bates … a very peppy, charismatic, smart gal, her youngest child is in high school now. At a CPS school. I like her tremendously. Just saw her at the NAACP banquet. But I figure she isn’t going to support Rosa and the Plan, and it seemed strange that she did not support the levy renewal last year.

I also know (slightly) Eileen Cooper-Reed, a delightful, energetic African-American leader, former local head of the Children’s Defense Fund, until she was fired. I really enjoy her tremendously. I had hoped she would serve on the MLK Coalition, and she did come to one meeting in May, but then disappeared. I know of a public event that she helped to plan and lead that really wasn’t very well planned or led. This is slight evidence. However, my sources suggest to me that she is not going to support Rosa and the Plan. Her campaign is funded by the CBC.

Both Bates and Reed seem to be in cahoots with Board member Rick Williams, who has been in bed with the CBC and not helping Rosa Blackwell.

Bill Haase. He is a parent. He doesn’t know a helluva lot about the Board’s work. He is a Republican. However, he is smart about finances, and this would help. And we believe he would support Rosa and the Plan.

Susan Cranley is the mother of council member John Cranley. She has the Democratic Party endorsement. She is also partly funded by the CBC (giant robots). But she is very knowledgeable. She is librarian at one of the public schools. A bit strident in tone, (“The Board MUST do such and such…”) and possibly not a good “team player”, nevertheless she seems to be her own person and would support CPS and the Plan.

Hope this is helpful to you. Look for my City Council picks, to come.

Hugs,

Ellen

Feel Safe or Be Safe?

richard — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 11:16:52 +0000

My friend Suhith Wickrema sent me the following analysis of the position two leading candidates for Mayor of Cincinnati have taken regarding crime. His is a cogent analysis. I find it persuasive.

Cincinnati has a real battle for Mayor this election and the issue of public safety has dominated the political discussion. Three of the candidates have announced their Public Safety plans. Letâ€™s examine their proposals.

Mr. Pepper and Mr. Winburn tout the “broken window” theory popularized by John Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling who wrote, in 1982: “one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares and, breaking more windows costs nothing.”

When it comes to policing theory this translates to zero tolerance for “quality of life crimes.” This was the rational used by New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton in the 1990â€™s to start arresting minor lawbreakers such as “squeegee” men and panhandlers.

Mr. Pepper and Mr. Winburn would have us believe that if there are no squeegee men and panhandlers, dope peddlers will stop selling dope, gang-bangers will stop shooting each other and men will stop raping women. Even discredited theories take twenty years to come to Cincinnati!

Mr. Pepperâ€™s plan to decrease the violent crime rate in Cincinnati is to have zero tolerance for “quality of life concerns” such as “noise graffiti and litter.” He makes an obligatory mention of treatment, but no mention of increasing treatment slots. He claims that Cincinnati is “under staffed when it comes to its police force.”

Mr. Winburn promises to increase the Cincinnati Police Department by 200 officers at a cost of $8.5 million. He also promises to build a new jail. He does not say how he is going to find the money for these projects. Although Mr. Winburn claims that he will fight violent crime from “all directions and angles” he does not address treatment.

Mr. Pepper and Mr. Winburn cite New York City as a model in reducing crime â€“â€“ is it the best model? During the same period when New York City took this approach and coincidentally saw a reduction in crime rates, San Francisco took a different approach â€“â€“ alternative sentencing and community involvement â€“â€“ and saw a larger decrease in crime rates than in New York City. From 1995 to 1998 San Franciscoâ€™s violent crime rate went down 33%. NY Cityâ€™s violent crime rate went down only 26 % in the same time period.

While claiming that the CPD is understaffed, both candidates have omitted some interesting figures about the CPD compared to other cities: Cincinnati has 31 police officers per 10,000 residents while San Francisco has 29, Louisville has 27, Columbus has 25, and Lexington has 19. The salary of an entry-level officer in Cincinnati is $37,487, in Columbus itâ€™s $30,480, in Lexington $30,274, and in Louisville $27,689. (All figures are for the year 2000)

Mr. Mallory is pushing boot camps to fight crimes. Boot camps may satisfy the punitive instinct in most of us. Boot camps by themselves are purely punitive and have not shown to be effective. However, Mr. Mallory does include the after care component for boot camps that have shown to reduce crime.

Having a parent in prison is a strong predictor that their child will end up in prison. A policy that promises to lockup people will only increase the prison population. It will not reduce crime. It will not reduce the number of victims. The â€˜Lock them upâ€™ mentality makes most of us feel safe. It does not make us safe. So, think before you vote! It is time that we got smart on crime!

Thanks, Suhith!