Technology Blog

From Let the Lady Speak:

Organized labor is falling apart, and the breakdown will be televised. In my humble opinion NOW is NOT the time to be having a good old fashioned family fight in the AFL-CIO. Right now, Republicans are sitting back and licking their chops, watching as one of the largest organizing forces working on behalf of their opposition squabble amongst themselves in the Beltway sandbox. Like it or not, labor has the money and the bodies. Yes, the progressive grassroots folks are building, but the simple truth is there would be no Democratic victories without labor’s support. There are serious issues in the American labor movement, and Lord knows there needs to be a change, but hashing it out publicly during the reign of the most ANTI-worker administration this country has ever seen is NOT going to solve these problems. Quite frankly, I do not think this new partnership is the answer either, because it too refuses to visit the root of the real problem plaguing the American labor movement.

And the problem, in my humble opinion, is this: leadership. Period. The national leadership of organized labor reminds me of a troupe of old burlesque dancers doing the can-can up on a stage, and NOBODY can get them off to make way for something fresh…

The Lady is incredibly support of unions, but not their leadership. Sound familiar? If the unions leadership reflected their membership, how different would they be?

Comments?

This post was written by George, source: Union Tough Love lecture

Anyone care to comment on some of these questions from The Cleveland Free Times article Summer of Our Discontent:

Attorney and long-time civil rights activist Stanley Tolliver — who has dealt with almost every African-American elected official and community leader of the past 40 years — agrees that there has been a failure by the current black leadership to build on the work done in the ’60s. But he holds the rest of the community accountable as well.

“How many citizens put pressure on black leadership for abandoning the struggle and fleeing to the suburbs?” Tolliver asks. “How many parents are teaching their kids about black history and instilling them with pride? Why do some black churches hire whites to park cars when our young people need work? Why is there such a gap between our established black leaders and younger activists? And why don’t these questions translate into action? As a leader, I have to take some responsibility for that.”

“We have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some very hard questions,” says Ojo. “We have more leadership rising out of the black community than we’ve ever had before, and look at the mess we have. People who are trapped in this situation have no political capital or skills to raise up and galvanize the masses to say, ‘These are our demands.’ We lack the kind of leadership that can carry this message to the powers-that-be. We need to ask ourselves, How did it get this way and how long will we excuse incompetence?”

While Larry Durstin focuses on African-American leaders in the community, would it be safe to say that all of us are suffering from a lack of new ideas from people who can empower others? What can we do about it?

This post was written by George, source: Asking better questions

Brad or Jim writes at The Full Cleveland blog:

He suggests that rather than Cleveland trying to be all things to all people, he asks that it be a specialist so that it’s meaningful to somebody. This would allow the region to focus resources in much the same way, rather than doing a little of everything and achieving nothing.

I’ve got a couple of questions. One, an individual can focus, and you might be able to “focus” an organization, but a region? How does one focus a region? Especially one that’s incredibly urban on one hand, and 30 minutes outside of downtown, is totally rural? The other, isn’t looking at the situation with a lens of scarcity? Would we approach this the same way if we had more than enough resources that everyone could do whatever they wanted?

This post was written by George, source: Focusing the region?

MaryBeth Matthews relates her ACTION Cleveland experience at the education breakout:

The questions from the audience were predictable. “How can we fix the problems in the Cleveland public schools?” The answers were also predictable. “We don’t know.”

I was beginning to seethe. Why would anyone set up a panel of “experts’ who couldn’t answer the questions? Most of them didn’t even understand the problems. Only one had ever worked in a Cleveland school. No wonder things are such a mess. If the people who have the ability (influence, money, connections) to effect change don’t consider the folks working on the front lines as the experts, they will never discover the real roots of the problems.

I walked out…

Frank walked into the discussion room and asked the moderator to take questions from the floor. As I stood up to speak, I could see my friend Ed Morrison, sitting in the back of the room, shaking his head. He has seen that look on my face before.

I didn’t speak to the panel, I spoke to the audience.
I began to tell them about the problems we face daily as teachers, and the steps we need to start taking to address them. I concluded saying,
“If you want to fix the problems in the schools, ask the teachers. Ask us what we need to do our jobs better. We will tell you.”
Mr. Moore was sitting in the audience. He turned to me and asked,
“What do you need?”
“Besides money for basic supplies, we need good leadership. Teachers need administrative support. The principals of a building set the tone… Oh yeah, and more security.”

When the discussion group concluded Mr Moore approached me. “Building administrative leadership will be a topic we will ask the mayoral candates to address this year in their campaigns. The schools need top-notch principals. It makes sense. We follow that model in business. When a division or a department fails you fire the manager.”

I’m glad Frank stepped in. I’m glad MB spoke out.

I’m not sure how I feel about Dan’s response. Is firing the manager the answer? Let’s take a look at a baseball analogy (I know. A bit out of character for me. Full attribution to Chas Rich). Where are you getting a manager or principal that’s any different? They’re all trained in the same system. And guess what. The good ones all have jobs. The winning coaches stay with the winning teams.

Going back to “a topic we will ask the mayoral candates to address this year in their campaigns”, what are the chances of that? Unless you’re a candidate, or a PAC funding candidates, why would mayoral candidates take up your issue? Why would they campaign on someone else’s platform? Even more important, why would they operate their government on your policies?

Comments?

This post was written by George, source: OK, but how?

Jack Ricchiuto writes:

In a talk I heard today at a regional economic development conference, I heard that biological evidence points to the fact that we’re hardwired for crisis-driven, competitive, hierarchical organizations and communities…

If anyone’s good at fostering dialog, it’s Jack.

This post was written by George, source: Hardwired for hierarchy

I posted the full version over @ No Cleveland Walmart:

Are you concerned about our city’s direction? You can be part of the solution!

You are invited to ACTION Cleveland, an extraordinary event on June 4 that will bring together Cleveland residents, community activists, experts and others to discuss the challenges facing our city and their potential solutions. This is the culmination of a number of neighborhood forums that were held over the last several months. The goal is to engage the audience in a meaningful, constructive dialogue that helps shape the debate in the upcoming mayoral race…

This post was written by George, source: ACTION Cleveland

From my friend Niko Angelis, a link to the Political Compass:

There’s abundant evidence for the need of it. The old one-dimensional categories of ‘right’ and ‘left’ , established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today’s complex political landscape. For example, who are the ‘conservatives’ in today’s Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ?
On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It’s not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can’t explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as ‘right-wingers’, yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook…

FYI, I’m Economic Left/Right: -4.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.69

This post was written by George, source: The political compass

Sandy Piderit and Tim Russo think that race is not a topic of discussion, though Bill Callahan thinks it is. Tim comments:

Cleveland is about to experience yet another election year in which it is very likely that white voters will vote for a white candidate, and black voters will vote for a black candidate. No one ever asks why. No candidate ever discusses what effect racial politics has had on Cleveland’s economy, our ‘quiet crisis’, or how race divides us on so many levels.

Mayoral candidates tip toe through the minefield of Cleveland’s racial politics like Pollyannas who hope it doesn’t really exist, but still making damn certain they don’t take that one wrong step. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to actually have a real debate on race in Cleveland for once?

Sandy writes:

Here’s my assertion, to open up our debate on race: those with college degrees in Cuyahoga county experience Cleveland in a different way than those without. To reject the experience of the majority of county residents just because it doesn’t match with my own would be unwise, because it treats people who have not compled college as less worthy than those who had an opportunity to do so. Until we can ensure that racial minorities have the same likelihood of graduating from college, we are not going to heal the racial divide in Cleveland.

Neither one of them have very many comments. Go to anyone of their sites and add your opinion, please!

This post was written by George, source: The Democracy Guy and the Management Professor

Hmmm. The editorial we linked to on SBC seems to have disappeared. Has it been two weeks?

Good thing there’s Google’s cache of it.

This post was written by George, source: The disappearing editoral

Since I’ve been exposing myself to Dan Wismar’s blog, and Matt Naugle’s, and The Buckeye Institute, I’m struggling with their spin on things. In the link above, Dan talks about the Institute’s core values. How does this post reflect those values?

Cleveland, Dayton, and the other Ohio cities that are considering or in the process of implementing municipal telecom programs should take a word of caution from a nearby city weighing the same option:

A public-private committee charged with exploring the Wi-Fi issue and making recommendations on how the city can keep up with ever-changing communications technologies sees little hope for Pittsburgh following in Philadelphia’s footsteps…

On their website, the Buckeye Institute says “Solutions NOT platitudes or empty rhetoric

We believe in offering tangible policy prescriptions that will improve the lives of all Ohioans.”

I’ve looked at their policy papers and read their blog. I’m not seeing “tangible policy prescriptions that will improve the lives of all Ohioans.” I’m seeing parochial advice from a bunch of academics who’ve probably never ran a business or paid taxes on anything more then the salary the draw from state supported universities.

What do you see?

This post was written by George, source: Buckeye Institute Issues

Read the Zen of Corporate Responsibility for a free agent.

This post was written by George, source: Manifesto Jack

Since Matt Naugle has linked to them, I’ve been subscribing to the Buckeye Institute’s blog. There’s two post there that are somehow related, though I’m not thinking to hard Sunday morning on how - Wall Street Journal highlights Ohio’s impressive tax revenues and Ernst & Young: Ohio businesses bear majority of recent tax increases.

Does the tax burden discourage entrepreneurs? Does it encourage established businesses to leave the state for places with a lower tax burden?

This post was written by George, source: Two from the Buckeye Institute

I read this post that pointed to this article. It sounds more like a whine about community leadership, than a call for it. Would that Michael Heaton used his column to inspire that sort of change. Do you think the newspaper would allow it?

This post was written by George, source: The minister of culture calling for leadership?