A) The importance of teaching job skills to inner city youths.
B) The importance of emphasizing education as the key to success for inner city youth.
C) The importance of promoting good role models for inner city youth.
D) The importance of focusing on Leslie Ghiz's opposition to using taxpayer-funded council time to honor Michael Jackson.
Yes, that's right. Chris Smitherman is righteously indignant that Leslie Ghiz thinks it's a stupid idea (my words, not hers) to honor Michael Jackson during a city council meeting. His reason: Cincinnati is 50% black, and-- please take a moment to relish the irony here-- Michael Jackson was also black. Therefore, city council should honor him, because to do otherwise would be a slap in the face to
Smitherman questioned why council would honor Marge Schott (who lived here, worked here and owned our baseball team) and not Michael Jackson (who never lived here, never worked here, never owned any local business and to my knowledge, never had a concert here).
What a fucking idiot. Seriously.
He said the NAACP plans to demand that council honor Michael Jackson. Actually, I'm for this because it backs up my view that the NAACP is totally irrelevant and does nothing for the people it supposedly represents. What better way to illustrate this than to put on a display of unwitting self-caricature that would be the envy of literature's great satirists? Go for it, Smitty!
I'm not a big Ghiz fan but to her credit she has evolved from a Republican robot to someone who actually thinks about issues. I guess having a child can do that. But she is 100% correct about this. There is no reason-- absolutely no reason-- why city council should spend one nanosecond honoring Michael Jackson. Such an action would serve no purpose other than placating Chris Smitherman's insatiable appetite for self-aggrandization.
Michael Jackson has already been honored by the people that matter: his fans and fellow musicians. Smitherman's politicization of Jackson's death to advance his own personal agenda does not honor Jackson's legacy, it fouls it. He should be ashamed.
(An even bigger bite over at the Phoney Coney)
6 comments:
Almost as evil as the Hamilton County Commissioners naming Cross County Highway after someone who wasn't from here, didn't work here, and didn't hold any political office here.
Audio of Smitherman's WDBZ program via the Beacon: http://tinyurl.com/l8wo66
I'm not a big Ghiz fan but to her credit she has evolved from a Republican robot to someone who actually thinks about issues. I guess having a child can do that.
Ouch! One does not have to procreate to actually think about the issues.
That said, the rest of your piece is on point. Smitherman wants to hitch his wagon to any argument/stance that will net him maximum publicity - even if he ends up looking more than daft in the process.
What's more alarming is his vehement opposition to the streetcar proposal and any other initiative that doesn't offer him a direct profit - political, financial or otherwise.
The Ghizy opposition is grandstanding just like the Smithy proposition. They should both be referred to the title of your previous post.
I'll say this: Christopher Smitherman makes me proud to be a Northern Kentuckian.
i am so super sick of michael jackson. and your point is completely on target - why in the hell should we honor someone who has absolutely zero to do with our city, other than sharing a race with 50% of the population. i'm white, can we have a day honoring farrah fawcett? how about ed mcmahon? i'm just saying.
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