-- Editorial by John Fox (issue of Jan. 5)
There'll be luncheons, parties, parades and, of course, open to donors of $250,000 or more, the swearing-in. I'll be at home cursing. Carl Lindner, big wigs at Cinergy and muckety-mucks at American Financial Group will all be somewhere in that crush of the insanely wealthy in the good seats at the swearing-in and parade, a Bush luncheon and their choice of A-list parties.
I wonder if any of my winter bill money was in that pile of cash Cinergy sent to D.C. Probably not. I'm on the extended payment plan. Remind me to crank up my heat when I get home. Might as well burn up while the rich have a presidential play date like nothing's wrong.
-- Your Negro Tour Guide by Kathy Y.Wilson (Jan. 12)
I wish I could implore all the residents of Cincinnati suburbs to move back into your city and reconnect with your families, your freedom and your fulfillment. Issues like crime, poverty and racism have to be solved with qualities like courage, compassion and connection. You're the solution. Your presence is your greatest first step.
-- Letter by Rob Gilson of Over-the-Rhine (Jan. 19) regarding the cover story, "Knitting Us Together"
I'm a writer with as much responsibility to pursue authenticity and skill as a preacher, doctor or painter. I knew this column was a hindrance to that when the frequency increased of folks convulsing thinly veiled "How dare you's?" for fill in the blank. People unaccustomed to the truth get uncomfortable when others tell it.
-- Final installment of Your Negro Tour Guide by Kathy Y. Wilson (Jan. 26)
In the future please try and have all the correct facts before printing any articles on anyone.
-- Letter by Col. Mark Demeropolis (Feb. 9) regarding a story on controversies in his police department in Cleves for which he declined to be interviewed
Kaldi's Coffehouse and Bookstore has sold its liquor license, and even the bums are feeling the pinch. Last week, when the lights started going out by 9 p.m., guys like Ricardo, our friendly StreetVibes vendor, got left in the dark.
The perky little stained-glass coffee cups still dance on the transom above the door on the bar side, but lattes have replaced martinis for the time being. Kaldi's is on the wagon.
-- Column by Katie Laur (March 9) about troubles at Kaldi's, which ultimately closed in 2005 and then reopened late un the summer under new ownership
Heroism is self-sacrifice in service of a greater good. But what good can be said to have come of this war? We can't say Iraq is safer under the American regime; the number of civilian casualties has at least kept pace with the rate of killing under Hussein. We can't say Iraq is more free; only the Bush administration would claim that a national election held under a strict military occupation were somehow credible.
-- Editorial by Gregory Flannery (March 16) on the two-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq
Ultimately, I trust myself and my own morality more than I trust any priest, minister, rabbi, oman, politician or televangelist. And I trust God more than any human who claims to speak for Him.
The Lord is risen, indeed. I just hope He doesn't take a look around at the awfulness being perpetrated in His Name and strike us all down.
-- Editorial by John Fox (March 23) at Easter
History has proven that the youth who resisted our heightened involvement in Vietnam were right. It's proven that the youth who fought and sometimes died for civil rights were right. The youth who pushed for rights for women, the poor, the disabled and all those disenfranchised by the status quo culture prevalent in the '50s and early '60s were right.
And no amount of "yeah but's, covenient ignoring or revisionist history lessons can take away those accomplishments from the '60s generation. We owe them a debt of thanks, not our derision or dismissal.
-- Editorial by John Fox (May 4)
No one better understands the emotions tied to home ownership than home builders and developers. We only ask that Rockford homeowners not allow their emotions to override the facts as well as the very sincere efforts of the city and developers to resolve issues. Most of all, we are deeply disappointed with CityBeat's reporting.
-- Letter by Elda A. Marshall of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati (May 4) regarding a story about problems at the CiTiRAMA development Rockford Woods in Northside
There are too many snake charmers and moneychangers leading the Republican Party, and there are too many ordinary folks letting those fools use Jesus' name to justify hatred, dishonesty and greed.
When my lifelong Republican father votes for Sen. John Kerry -- the first Democrat he backed for president since Kennedy -- I know eyes are opening to what's going on.
-- Editorial by John Fox (May 18)
Giddy that a black someone could publicly (and not very articulately) say and do what they could only say and do behind closed doors for fear of being labeled racists, the Hamilton County Republican Party rode Sam Malone's black ass all the way to a Cincinnati City Council seat based on his willingness to lambaste poor blacks.
Now that Malone has been exposed for being the repressed, angry, violent little man he probably always was, his council colleagues are pleading prayerful fifths, afraid to publicly call a beat down a beat down.
-- Editorial by Kathy Y. Wilson (May 25) on the controversy around Sam Malone's arrest for allegedly beating his son
I must confess, I'm surprised they haven't reinstated the draft. But I still think it's coming, given all the publicity about unmet quotas of late. What's not surprising is that enlistment is down. I guess not that many people are willing to get their asses blown off for someone else's bottom line. Or for a lying president whom I personally don't think is worth the dust off a GI's boots much less an arm or a leg or a life.
-- Letter by James Byrnes of Hyde Park (June 8)
The way wealthy whites turn their sun-burned backs on the violence among themselves and the way mainstream media refuse to tag this violence as pathological the way they do in poor neighborhoods of color socialize all of us into criminalizing The Other, whomever that happens to be on your block. Where I live, it's the troubled white teen-aged boys who take out the secret rage of their angst on one of their own and then try washing it off in a public fountain on a beautiful summer afternoon.
-- Editorial by Kathy Y. Wilson (June 15) about a Hyde Park teenager's beating to death of his brother
As an African-American gay man born, raised and living in Cincinnati, I have experienced more racism in the gay community than I have in the community at large. With race relations between blacks and whites in Cincinnati not where they should be, suffice it to say this irony isn't lost on me.
-- Letter by Carl D. Jackson of Clifton (June 15) regarding the cover story "What's After Article 12?"
This is a classic example of environmental racism and classism. Bureaucrats, once again, are doing the least amount of work possible to consider alternative approaches to complex problems and instead seek the easy way out by screwing over the lower middle class and poor, especially minorities.
The West End, Camp Washington, Saint Bernard, Bond Hill, Carthage, Hartwell, Lockland and Lincoln Heights might as well bend over now. You've been used and discarded by The Man before, and it's about to happen again.
-- Editorial by John Fox (July 13) regarding proposals to widen I-75 through the city of Cincinnati
A light rail system would fix the current and looming problems with both I-75 and I-71. It would link the suburbs to the already dying metro area, and it might even bring people back to the city of Cincinnati. Unfortunately, this place ignores the obvious answers and instead throws them to the piles of various committees.
-- Letter by Mike Hasselbeck of Fairfield (July 20)
The sheer fact that we have a mainstream mayoral candidate who believes in exorcising demons and attacking people who are different shows how the Republican Party has moved away from its traditional advocacy of limited government to one which advocates a war on everything and everyone it finds indecent. In doing so, it has given a voice to extremist demagogues such Winburn, who stands up like a clown and makes proclamations that are downright childish and idiotic.
-- Letter by Stephen Block of Clifton (Aug. 3) regarding a story about Charles Winburn's campaign for Cincinnati mayor
The foundation of the U.S. war effort is a shambles, as the details that drove public opinion toward intervention in Iraq -- weapons of mass destruction, potential nuclear and biological threats, connections to 9/11 -- have been totally discredited. The house that sits on this crumbling foundation, the military occupation of Iraq, is a disaster in the making. While the house falls apart around us, President Bush and cronies assure us that we need to stay put. Don't mind the falling cross beams and chimney bricks. If you evacuate, it'll only mean the lousy homebuilders have won.
-- Editorial by John Fox (Aug. 17)
I come from what I believe was the last generation of broken families. That term and its implications have become an endangered species. Under the distinctly modern pressures of today's world, the "newkuler" family doesn't fracture so much as succumb to distress and emerge as a "dysfunctional" unit.
-- Column by tt clinkscales (Aug. 17)
The war between UC President Nancy Zimpher's and ex-basketball coach Bob Huggins' supporters is a classic Cincinnati three-way: his side, her other side and the truth. This is about beer-fuelled college sports fanatics and the Drunk Girls who love and support them, all of whom have missed the nuances of Zimpher's decision and the lack of Huggins' accountability for his own ousting. This is about how profoundly and embarrassingly misdirected college students really are and about the pushy, misdirected post-graduation alumni they'll become.
-- Editorial by Kathy Y. Wilson (Aug. 31)
The symbolism surrounding the Katrina disaster was heart-breaking. Entire books can be -- and will be -- written about the images of poor New Orleans residents stripped of what little they own begging for subsistence aid in the hallowed halls of America Inc.®, the Superdome (home to billionaire sports team owners and millionaire athletes) and the Convention Center (where Big Business meets to plan ways to make more money). And the people were left behind. Literally, figuratively, mythically, biblically, they were left.
-- Editorial by John Fox (Sept. 14)
Yes indeed, there are two Americas, and one is better than the other. Which America do you want to be a part of?
-- Letter by Don Gilligan of Rossmoyne (Sept. 21) reacting to media coverage of Hurricane Katrina survivors
Our stories define us. They can be either heroic and inspiring or flat and shameful, but they place us in context and provide the rich topsoil for our moral fiber.
-- Column by Katie Laur (Oct. 5) on Hurricane Katrina
Don't underestimate Mark Mallory's ability to relate to both corporate CEOs and neighborhood activists, his track record of working with statehouse Republi-cans, his family's dedication to service and his experiences growing up an African-American male in this city. These traits make Mallory a likeable, approachable, professional politician who would elevate the manner and substance of what gets done at City Hall.
-- Endorsement of Mark Mallory for Cincinnati mayor (Oct. 26)
There is a point in Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati's Permanent Collection when white folks outside the newly directed arts foundation are chanting "Art not race!" I was happy to hear that out loud and in public, because I think in Cincinnati the very same concept drives entirely too many quiet private discussions that greatly influence peoples' political and moral stances.
-- Letter by Gavin Leonard of Over-the-Rhine (Nov. 9)
As the bus approached 13th and Vine, her mother pulled the chain for the bus to stop. As Kristina got off my lap, her mother looked at me and smiled. "Thank you for talking to Kristina, mister. That sure was nice of you."
"A total pleasure," I said as I waved goodbye to her and the children.
Before Kristina got off, she ran back and gave me a hug. For the next few minutes, before my stop six blocks up the road, my eyes became moist as I fought back tears.
-- Column by Larry Gross (Nov. 9) describing a bus ride when gunshots were heard outside, scaring children on the bus
This moderate Roman Catholic knows that it's not "for me or against me," "black or white," "my way or the highway." The College Republicans (the know-nothing right) and the Young Socialists or whatever (the know-it-all left) can both kiss my white Irish ass. We can thank our armed forces, mainly young people, without tacitly approving the politicians who put them in harm's way.
-- Letter by Kenneth Jordan of Clifton Heights (Nov. 30)
When conservative corporate giant Wal-Mart starts wishing you "Happy holidays," they're not looking to make a political statement. They just want to sell lots of things to lots of people, and that's their way of adjusting to the prevailing marketplace. It's called capitalism.
-- Editorial by John Fox (Dec. 7)
My gut was telling me to approach the man and tell him to stop, but was any of it my business? I had some doubt, so like the rest of the customers who witnessed this I closed my mouth and continued on my way, pretended like everything was alright.
The reality is, I'm getting used to seeing this. Watching parents hit their kids in public is becoming pretty commonplace.
-- Column by Larry Gross (Dec. 14)
I recently initiated an e-mail exchange with a Cincinnatian living in New York. In her remarks about Cincinnati, I heard the same push-pull that echoes loudly in my remembrances of my hometown, Asheville, N.C.
The desire to leave was terribly strong while she was here, but in her life abroad -- yes, that's a fitting term when considering the cultural and political gulf between regions across the country -- she and others from Cincinnati living in the Big Apple maintain a strong affiliation and hometown pride. They keep an eye on local news and the political landscape, cheer the Bengals and long for a taste of Skyline.
-- Column by tt clinkscales (Dec. 21)
