I've always loved sunflowers, but the bright, sunny blooms glowing in our front yard this Summer are special. The seeds were from the work of art below, in the "To Masumi" memorial exhibition, held last October, in celebration of the everlasting, peaceful, sunny spirit of Masumi Hayashi, the great photographer killed a year earlier, in Cleveland, with other great Cleveland artist John Jackson. The Masumi Sunflower seeds distributed in Tremont may have been planted anywhere on Earth, and I wonder where else such Masumi Sunflowers are growing today, from this one showing of love for love and art received and lost.

Today 8/3/2008, Chris Ronayne gets a front page editorial on the Forum page of the Plain Dealer.  Chris lives in Cleveland and drives to work every day.  I know his commute, because I made a similar commute when I worked at Metrohealth Hospital in the eighties.*  My drive time?  Ten minutes from University Circle to Metrohealth Hospital. Sure, sometimes, it was 15-20 minutes, if traffic held me up, or, if it took forever to get out of the parking lot, but I literally made the commute every day with my eyes closed.  It scared me so much to realize that I was driving in a trance, that I committed myself to public transportation. 

No matter the uproar in Cuyahoga County, in Cleveland Metroparks, at least, it's politics as usual.  Or as unusual -  as the renaming of Rocky River Nature Center is proceeding over the loud objections of the public.

Jessica, Aladeen, Mohammad and Mustafa rode their bikes to see the kids perform in Lincoln Park under the stars! 

Reading all the connections coming out in the coverage of the County investigation gets a mind-numbing after a little while.

A group of us are turning to social network software to draw maps of the relationships. The patterns become more clear with a network map. We can start to connect different people and projects". The Juvenile Justice Center, Ameritrust, Med Mart, to name a few.

Green Patriotism Bus Ads Prompts Americans to Address Climate Change

Back in April I wrote an item here about the necessity for newspapers.

As I wrote then, “Talk all you want about weekly alternatives, bloggers and citizen activists – and we need them badly as prods and sometimes even more – but newspapers have the heft, expertise and man/womanpower to go in depth on issues.”

Northeast Ohio has some of the dirtiest water and beaches in the world, because we have some of the dirtiest leadership in the world, and that is very poor for Cleveland's image and economy. Fortunately, it seems the region is now positioned to clean up at least one of our messes.

Let’s not get carried away with the FBI & IRS raids on some politicians and a few business people who will likely get off for “cooperating.”

As a fitting end to Lead Awareness Week, the FBI and IRS provide an exciting, high profile demonstration that lead poisoning doesn't only impact poor inner city kids living in old, rotten housing, but impacts white, suburban baby boomers poisoned throughout their longer lives, as well. Though not yet reported in the mainstream media, REALNEO members have documented for years the failures of our growing population of aging and so mentally-declining industry-tainted and functionally defective business and government leadership, and the impact of lead poisoning on the people of all ages of the region. The combination of toxins - especially lead - and an aging population is the explanation for America's failing competitiveness, especially in historically polluted heavy industrial and old, dense urban areas, like Cleveland.

Is lead linked to mental decline?

Some experts say long-ago exposure to the toxin adversely affects the brain later in life, but more study is necessary.

Malcolm Ritter | The Associated Press June 15, 2008

County Commisioner Jimmy Dimora   (photo: www.coolcleveland.com)

(This photo was taken in Berea)

A fellow librarian sent this article link Source: www.nytimes.com:

Vivian Goodman reported recently on the 40th anniversary of the Glenville Shoot-out on WKSU. She provides links to interviews with some people who gave remembrances of violent clash between Black Nationalists and Cleveland Police. For a look at a piece of Cleveland history, you can find her reports, including interviews, here: http://www.wksu.org/news/features/glenville/index.php

I had so much fun at the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in East Cleveland, leading up to the March primary, meeting people and feeling part of something important, that I was excited by news the Shaker Heights campaign office was opening, July 24, 2008... hope to see one in EC soon. Sudhir and I stopped by to enjoy the good vibe. Cool to see a group line dancing to the energy. As we left, Sudhir said he'd like to go to a McCain event, just to see how it compares... I suggested he go to church or a gun show in Central Ohio...

What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?

My colleague at work suggested that we show movies that matter to the kids this fall.  So, a discussion ensued.  What visuals really made a dent in your life?  We could go on and on about songs that affected us, but films come back to haunt our dreams.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Glenville shootout that devastated Cleveland. I see no reference in the Plain Dealer to this historic time in Cleveland.

It’s a time that should be remembered because it remains a significant part of our past, particularly our history of race relations and why Cleveland has had so many problems in the last 40 years.

We forget that we are what we were.

The mistakes of the past give birth to the errors of the future and even today as the city struggles with the horrors of shootings and killings that seem so senseless I see reflections of 1968.  Yet, the outcomes are predictable because we haven’t worked to cure the basic causes of poverty and ignorance.

I would ask you to look – even make a copy – of the review article about 1968 that I wrote a short time ago. Part of it deals with the Glenville shootout and that period of racial conflict.

My feeling is that we are headed into a period that may reflect 1968 but with somewhat different disturbing and violent behavior.

It can be found here.

Another article examining the 1968 Cleveland eruption is available in the Nation magazine at this link with ability to download article:

Today I received an email with the message below, and I've received several like this recently, inquiring for text-link ads. I've seen those popping up on many sites, and I bet they work pretty well, for a while. But I can only imagine where such text-links may lead... and wonder what are the best ways to commercialize content via REALNEO. Is it this...?:

Even though I've known City Fresh farmer Maurice Small for years, and plan to be one of his "Fresh Stops", I hadn't been to one, so decided to stop by my neighborhood Fresh Stop, at Huron Road Hospital, to see what the excitement is about. It seems to be simple... it's the food. But it is more... it's the connections of neighbors with their place and with fresh local food.

It's good to be back in Cleveland. I rode in on the redline from the airport and got off the greenline at Southington to be welcomed by friends an easy walk away. Stories were told and beer, cheese, etc. shared. A couple days home and I have spoken to a few of you, corresponded with others and spent time with a handful of my Cleveland homeys. I have been trying to catch up on the news, but it is deep here. Lead awareness week, convention centers overshooting their budgets, bank stock prices plummeting, PBS in the hood with Bill Moyers' Journal... wow! All old news though…

I have been busy in the sleepy hamlet of Apalachicola with family mourning the loss of two immediate family members. My Cleveland family - please stay put. I have had enough...

It wasn’t what you might call “my summer vacation”, but it was a trip. Here’s what I saw.

Maybe they can leave the roof off and forget about the foundation.

Then maybe Fred Nance, Tim Hagan and Sam Miller can bring that sucker in under a half billion tax dollars.

That, of course, doesn’t include interest in about the same amount, plus generous overruns for contractor friends. Oh, and don’t forget the little items they aren’t talking about subsidizing – parking garages and a new luxury hotel, built, of course, on Sam’s land.

The most important message communicated at today's press conference kicking-off Lead Awareness Week was that our government leadership at the state, county and municipal level stand united to eradicate lead poisoning in Northeast Ohio by 2010. Publicly expressing their concern about lead poisoning here, and their commitment to its rapid elimination, East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones added important voices to the chorus of public health and social service champions of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council... a unique, world-class collaboration of around 85 organizations.