Top Ten Reasons Why I'm A Lunatic Who Doesn't Want Cleveland to Move Forward

I have just spent an entire week of 10 to 12 hour days collecting signatures for Put It On the Ballot.com at the Cuyahoga County Fair. Now that I have come back to "real life" and things like newspapers and other media, I have been shocked to learn that I (collectively with other people) am being described in some media and other political circles as a "Lunatic Who Doesn't Want Cleveland to Move Forward."



First of all, what possible motive could I, or anyone for that matter, have to prevent Cleveland from moving forward? Seriously folks, how could anyone honestly believe that I would not want Cleveland, where I have invested in a home, am raising my family, and where I have a small business (law practice), to move forward? Anyone who thinks that is much more of a lunatic that I ever was.



I submit to you that not one of the perpetrators of this smear campaign even live in Cleveland proper as I do. And I can assure you that they have no idea what is happening "on the ground" in Cleveland and in its neighborhoods and, furthermore, that they have not one iota of clue about what Cleveland really needs.



That being said, I would like to state for the record the top ten reasons that I think the perpetrators of this smear campaign think that I am a "Lunatic Who Doesn't Want Cleveland to Move Forward." Here they are, a la David Letterman, to whom I offer my profound apologies.



Top Ten Reasons I am Being Derided as a "Lunatic Who Doesn't Want Cleveland to Move Forward"



Number 10. Because I question the wisdom of a tax that finances a public-private partnership venture where the public is putting in $850+ Million over 20 years and the private entities have only proposed risking $2-3 Million of their own money.



Number 9. Because I think the medical mart and convention center are a good idea, but I think it is also a good idea to let the people who are going to pay the tax decide for themselves, by a vote, whether they want to pay more taxes and for what purposes.



Number 8. Because I am concerned that the possible negative impacts of more sales tax (i.e. job losses, population losses, impact on small businesses) haven't been considered and weighed against the positive impacts of a convention center with a medical mart.



Number 7. Because I know this tax was levied before any semblance of a commitment or memorandum of understanding was reached between the City of Cleveland, the County and the medical mart people.



Number 6. Because when Toby Cosgrove, M.D., Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic, who was the impetus for the medical mart idea in the first place, stated to Channel 3's Tom Beres in a television interview that the Cleveland Clinic would not be putting any money into the medical mart because the Clinic is a non-profit organization and the medical mart is a for-profit venture; I screamed back at the television "if the medical mart is a for-profit venture, then why the hell are the taxpayers being asked to fund it!?!??!?!?!?"



Number 5. Because I don't buy the scare tactics of Tim Hagan, Jimmy Dimora and others, including the complicit Plain Dealer, that if we don't pass this tax now, Cleveland is doomed forever; and not only do I not buy the scare tactics, I find them remarkably similar to the scare tactics rationale used by the Bush Administration to justify invading Iraq. But hey, that turned out pretty good.



Number 4. Because I am a critical thinker and reader and just because the Plain Dealer sounds the alarm that New York may get a medical mart in 2012 five years from now I don't fall for their trick and succumb to the scare tactics described in Number 5.



Number 3. Because I have read the Commissioners' resolutions imposing the sales and use tax increases and I know that under the language contained in the resolutions that the revenue from this tax increase is going into the general fund, where it will be untraceable, and we'll simply never know what the money was spent on.



Number 2. Because I have learned that Cuyahoga County's books are going to be audited by the Auditor of State soon, and that one possible alternative reason for this tax increase may be to shore up the financials because the books aren't looking too good.



And the Number 1 Reason why the perpetrators of this smear campaign think I am a "Lunatic Who Doesn't Want Cleveland to Move Forward" -- Because the only guarantee we have that this tax increase will even be used for a convention center and medical mart is the word of two politicians, Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora; and I don't trust them.



If, after reading this, you think the perpetrators of this smear campaign are the real lunatics, and/or you think you're just as much of a lunatic as I am; then go to Put It On The Ballot.com and do two things:



1) find where you can sign a petition; and



2) get a petition and circulate it yourself. It's easy, just carry it with you wherever you go. It's not a tough sell, trust me -- for every one person who didn't want to sign at the Fair, there were 25-30 people who were eager to sign and eager to get their family and friends to sign.



Thanks for reading.



CEP