Who's Your Daddy?

Henry Clay (1777-1862), a U.S. senator from Kentucky, once said, “I’d rather be right than be president.” We soon might be hearing a similar sentiment from a local, modern-day politician.

In spite of the media clamoring for a change of direction in regards to how we address our crime problem Mayor Frank Jackson’s shifting of police officers from the airport to the streets should not be taken out of context. Scribes and talking heads will take credit for “forcing the mayor to take action,” when the mayor was pointed in characterizing the move as part of an overall, continuing plan. Jackson is not about to cave into media pressure. You really have to know the man like I’ve come to know him over the last few decades...

The simple fact is, Frank Jackson cares about Cleveland deeply and knows as much about public policy as any politician I’ve ever interviewed — and a quite a bit more than most of them.

My own knowledge on a wide-ranging array of subjects is as vast as the ocean ... but only about one inch deep; but on any subject I’ve ever raised with him, Jackson’s knowledge is in-depth, detailed minutiae, background information, long and short-term-impacts, and, most of all, potential sound solutions. And for those who think he doesn’t like to talk, just get him warmed up on a public policy subject; it’s hard to shut him up. He flat out thrives on this stuff, but he’s much better in one-on-one conversations than in front of groups. What he doesn’t thrive on, however, is dog and pony shows— and that seems to be what the public has a taste for right now.

Jackson is that rare politician that’s probably too honest for his own good. In a public meeting in Hough (right after he became mayor), when a resident disagreed with him about a decision he was about to make on an issue, Jackson’s answer was simple and straightforward: “If you’re that upset by my decision, then don’t vote for me next time,” he said, with a genuinely friendly smile on his face. The mayor wasn’t mad, he wasn’t giving the man a smart-assed answer — he just thought this was a reasonable and fair solution to the man’s dilemma. How many politicians do you know that have the guts ... or the nuts ....to say something like that?

Last week I saw a t-shirt that read, “I’ve given up on reality, and now am looking for a good fantasy to believe in.” That’s where we are now at in Cleveland. Reality has become too brutal, too crushing. We’re looking for a superhero, for a John Wayne to ride into Dodge City and clean out the bad guys. We want Dirty Harry to tell the thugs, “Go ahead, make my day.” We want someone to take names and kick ass. Oh — and we want it done today, right now, not tomorrow, and certainly not next week. Never mind that the societal problems we’re facing have been over 50 years in the making — 50 years of benign neglect — we want instant solutions.

But the fact is, Jackson is too busy working on real solutions; the kind that take time to implement — the kind that make systemic change but don’t make headlines; the kind that don’t call for a press conference to be held every 20 minutes to update the media — which has this voracious, insatiable appetite for vacuous sound bites and just loves to feast on verbal junk food and empty calorie videos — and then let out a loud belch and asks for seconds, and even thirds.

According to the Web site Wikipedia: Bread and circuses’ — “... a derogatory phrase that ...criticizes government policies [put in place] to pacify the citizenry ... shallow, low-cost, low-quality ... commonly used to refer to short-term government palliatives offered in place of a solution for significant, long-term problems.”

While homicides are up slightly this year, other major crimes are down, it’s more the high profile nature of the crimes — coupled with that media hysteria — that has the citizenry up in arms. And more police on the streets won’t automatically mean less crime; police really don’t “prevent” crime (except in high concentrations like when they are stationed at an airport or in Times Square) they just catch the thugs after the crime has been committed. Any legitimate criminologist (not some armchair “expert” at the corner bar on a Saturday night) will quickly tell you that poverty and a lack of employment are the biggest causes of crime and we won’t see a real improvement until we solve those systemic problems. It’s not about catching thugs, or preventing them from committing crimes, it’s about not allowing the thugs to be created in the first place. Real problems require real solutions — not PR.

Jane Campbell was run out of office for — supposedly, according to the media — doing too much PR; attending too many ribbon cuttings; standing on too many soapboxes and spouting empty rhetoric. Now we’re saying Jackson is not doing enough of what we ran Campbell out of office for doing. Duh?

The mayor before Campbell — remember him? — used to make sure the TV cameras caught him all duded up in a bulletproof vest, walkie-talkie in hand, barking orders while leading police on raids of drug houses (probably after the houses were secure and empty, but the camera wouldn’t dare show that, not good for ratings). So what we really want is for Frank to be like Mike.

But, alas, Frank Jackson is who he is. What you see is what you get; and, in this era — where politicians have made an art form out of blowing smoke up our collective butt until it’s coming out of our ears — like him or not, Jackson’s candor can be refreshing. He actually did ride with the police on a prostitution sweep early on in his tenure, and probably was thinking all the while, “Why am I out here engaged in the photo-op BS when I could be actually doing some real work?” I don’t recall him ever mounting up to ride out with the posse again.

However, the fact remains, if Mayor Jackson doesn’t begin engaging in some cheap histrionics, if he doesn’t feed some red meat to the media beast, if he doesn’t give the public “bread and circuses,” he just might not get reelected. When he first considered running for the job he no doubt should have taken into account the fact that he has a low-key style and an unwillingness to bend to the public or media sentiment du jour. He evidently thought that people were ready for some real solutions, not more empty proclamations, and, just as evidently, he is mistaken.

During his mayoral campaign Jackson once (and probably more than once) said that he really didn’t want to be mayor; he just couldn’t sit idly by and continue watching Campbell — whom he thought was making a mess of things. But the truth be known, Jackson is one of the most reluctant politicians to ever hold office. If his good friend Lonnie Burten had not suddenly died he probably never would have been a councilman; his neighbors literally begged him to run. Same thing with the presidency of City Council, his collogues approached him to accept the post, he didn’t lobby for it. And so too with running for mayor, a lot of folks (many of whom are nowhere in sight now) twisted his arm until he said “yes” to running. So my point is, don’t expect him to lose any sleep over whether or not he gets to keep the job. The perks of being mayor mean very little to Jackson; the ability to bring about real systemic change means everything to him, and he just might decide that he can be more effective in accomplishing real changes after leaving office.

If the media thinks it can bully him into doing the job the way they think it should be done ... they’re in for a big, big disappointment. Did I mention how obstinate Frank Jackson is? And if the citizens don’t like what he’s doing ... well, just remember that guy in Hough. I can guarantee you this: His feelings won’t be hurt. He’d by far rather be right than be mayor.

Let’s be honest: We don’t really want a problem solver for mayor, we want a mayor that will check under the bed for the boogie man when he tucks us in at night, and then tells us a nice, comforting fairy tale (about how all of the thugs were either killed or locked up by a man writing nasty letters to them) as we drift soundly off to sleep. We want someone who’ll bring us cookies and a glass of warm milk if we wake up in the middle of the night scared that some big ‘ol mean predatory lender is going to take our bed and set it out on the curb before morning. We want a mayor who can reach into his pocket and pull out a big, fat wad of cash and buy us a shiny new medical mart/convention center (and a roof for the Browns Stadium while he’s at it) without any increase in taxes. We want someone who’ll beat up Jay Leno and the other late-night comics and make them quit telling derogatory “Cleveland” jokes that hurt our little feelings. We want a mayor that will put a Band-Aid® on our wound of neglect and tell us none of the city’s problems are caused by our lack of civic engagement. We want someone who’ll pat us on the head and tell us we have no moral responsibility to speak out when some sick son-of-a-bitch scrawls racist graffiti on homes — and then puts the torch to them. What we want is not a mayor — what we really want is a daddy.

But, sorry, Frank Jackson ain’t our daddy, so we might as well get over it and, while we’re at it, grow up and take back our community. Not for nothing is our form of government called a “participatory” democracy ... it works best when we all participate.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
(:divend:)