Monday Night Football in Cleveland!

(click any photo to enlarge)
My brother Chris and I went to see the Monday Night Football game last night in Cleveland between the Browns and the Giants. It was a perfect early Fall night, in the mid-70s throughout the game, and whadyaknow, the Browns pulled off a HUGE upset by defeating the defending Super Bowl champion Giants! In fact, it was a total drubbing. We had a blast. Here we are...
Here are some die-hard fans, faces painted and all, before the game started:
My brother and I have season tickets in the 4th row, at the 45 yard line, right behind the Browns bench. You are so close that when my brother gets obnoxious and yells at the players, they can hear him:
Here is one of the dejected Giants fans that sat in the row behind us after the Browns put the game away in the 4th quarter (those 16 beers he had didn't help, either):
Unfortunately, I mysteriously broke my camera lens at the beginning of the game, so I didn't really get many decent photos, other than the one of the stadium above and the Giants fan. The color/focus is off on all the others and the one of my brother and I was taken with my phone. Oh, well. The Brownies won and that was worth a broken camera lens, I suppose. For one night, there was joy in Mudville!

The Missed Opportunity Debate

Following the Cleveland debate the other night, the media bobble-heads are a-twitter about the Farrakhan question, Hillary's blame game, Russert's inane hypotheticals, health care mandates, etc. I would submit that these stories miss the real tragedy of that final debate. Here is the deal:

I grew up in Cleveland and am a proud Clevelander. Cleveland is in my blood. That written, Cleveland is one of the poorest cities in the country. A full one-third of the population lives in poverty. The sub-prime loan crisis has hit Cleveland's poor communities and communities of color harder than any other city in the nation. In fact, Cleveland has a a proud and distinguished black middle class community... but it has been ravaged by predatory corporate lenders who purposefully targeted communities of color and working-class communities for quick profits. Foreclosures in Cleveland have sky-rocketed. The American dream has turned into a nightmare for thousands of good, decent, hardworking residents. In short, what I am saying is that the debate in Cleveland could have been, and should have been, a show-case discussion of the ongoing urban crisis in America. Cleveland is ground zero for that crisis and it is the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about. We get distracted in cities like Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere, by new ballparks and flashy downtown condos and restaurants, and forget that massive inequalities remain in each of those places. Instead of the same old questions that have been hashed and rehashed at 20 (yes, 20!) debates, instead of stupid gotcha questions, why not actually raise some vital and substantive new issues that speak to one of the biggest crises facing the nation? Why not ask the candidates to address the predatory subprime crisis? Why not ask them what they will do to revitalize communities like Cleveland where industry has left and one-third of the population is poor? Why not ask them what they will do about a public education system that is segregated? Why not ask what they might do to address police brutality in poor communities of color? Why not ask them ANYTHING about this crisis!!!???!!!??

This is, I think, the great failing of the debate the other night. More than Hillary's shrill tone. More than Russert's ridiculous hypotheticals. More than Obama's "Farrakhan problem." Shame on all of them for not speaking up while sitting at the epicenter of urban decay. This reveals something terrible about ourselves and our society... that we are willing to tolerate this urban crisis and the wide-spread human destruction that is its product.

This makes my heart very heavy... I love Cleveland, but it is dying.

"The Economic Rape of Cleveland"

If you aren't aware, there is an economic meltdown underway in America, particularly in our urban centers. There is a rot at the core of the system that preys upon poor neighborhoods and communities of color. The most recent sign of this meltdown is the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Sadly, my hometown, Cleveland, Ohio, is being ravaged more than any other in the nation.

Harry C. Alford from the Washington Informer recently wrote an interesting essay on the impact of this economic crisis in Cleveland. The article, "The Economic Rape of Cleveland," briefly explains how the sub-prime scheme worked:

This game broke all of the rules. It exaggerated housing appraisals to boost lending amounts. It eased credit rules to allow people who did not qualify for mortgages to get them anyway and pay the consequences later. Hedge fund investors fell into the same trick that made Enron famous. They fronted asset investments that were really poorly collateralized loans that would soon default and leave the investors holding the “bag.” Middle men brokers and package dealers ran these schemes for quick fees and cash. In the end, the investors and new mortgage owners would take the big hit.

He goes on to look at Cleveland as

a typical Chocolate City in regards to this matter. Cleveland, Ohio seems to be a perfect example. It’s a hardworking town with a strong history of neighborhoods producing some of the greatest American citizens. A black middle class was formed decades ago and is indeed an institution in this population center. Maybe this is why the subprime hustlers targeted Cleveland. It had plenty of established black property owners who could be exploited while the activity remained under the “radar” for a while.

In a devastating conclusion that should outrage us all, Alford writes:

There is one particular zip code in Cleveland that has over 1,000 present foreclosures. The neighborhoods in this part of Cleveland have become slums overnight and the blacks living there didn’t see it coming. It was fast and there appears nothing they can do. This city has been violated in every economic sense of the term. Their virtue has been quite lessened and the repair is not even imaginable. The elected officials, community leaders, chambers of commerce, etc. are lost in trying to find a solution to this devastation. All they can do now is stop the hustlers so that the present state can be termed the “bottom." But even doing this doesn’t mean that “which way is up” can be visualized anytime soon.

And then, plaintively:

Yes, the lovely city of Cleveland has been ripped off. There are other cities, counties and rural communities around the nation facing the same crisis. Greed and hustle coupled with bad policy and weak laws have hurt us miserably. Our children will pay the price and all we can do is start over once again. It hurts. t hurts real bad and will have a very long-term effect. Cleveland was raped. She was not alone. Lord, help us please!

This is the cost of conservative economics, people! These are real live human beings, devoured by large economic interests and then cast off in a seedy profit scheme that counted on their vulnerability... and relative invisibility to the rest of the nation. These white-collar criminals assumed no one would care in the end about these poor neighborhoods, about these communities of color. They believed no one would raise alarm or protest.

Well, now is the opportunity to prove them wrong... or right.

Is this the world you want to live in?
Is this the kind of economy we should countenance?

What will you do?
What will we, as a society, do?

Sign of the Times: Darwinism vs. Creationism in Ohio

During my Sunday scan of the mainstream and alternative press, I noticed a strange opposition in my home state of Ohio:
Apparently, people are flocking to Cincinnati's fundamentalist-backed "Creation Museum," which opened not too long ago. The museum features dinosaurs alongside Adam & Eve. According to an article posted at Commondreams.org, "there is no shortage of references to Darwin [at the museum]... But the clear purpose is to demolish not celebrate them." Here is the full article:

"Americans are Flocking to a Hi-Tech Creation Museum Where Man and Dinosaurs Frolick Happily Together"

Meanwhile, over at Cleveland.com, an article announces that Case Western Reserve University plans a year-long celebration of Darwin to "make clear the enduring soundness and profound impact of Darwin's concept." That article can be found here:

"Case to Honor, Celebrate Darwin in 2008-2009"

Is it the 1920s all over again? The Scopes "Monkey" Trial? Anyone seen Clarence Darrow? William Jennings Bryan? It is true, Cincinnati has always been a more culturally conservative city than Cleveland, but I found this juxtaposition interesting, nonetheless...

Any thoughts?

Baby Got Book!

Well, as a native Clevelander and someone interested in spiritual matters, what better first spiritual post than this rappin' preacher from my hometown! Whatever reaches the flock, right? Dag. People are so strange...

Baby Got Book!