The Observation Deck

From our sister publication in Cleveland Heights, celebrating their 10th Anniversary.



Silence is not an option
by Susie Kaeser

What do you do when you don’t agree with the direction your elected officials are taking you? When you know their goal is to destroy something you value deeply, should you observe with disdain or act?

Is it sour grapes to disagree? Is it a violation of the principle of majority rule? Is it disloyal or unpatriotic or a waste of time?

Or is it the most important thing you can do as a citizen?

I’m taking the last option! Our voices are our most powerful political tools. You simply have to speak up if you disagree. When people are silent it implies indifference or consent, and it perpetuates compliance. Voicing your opposition encourages others to come forward and express theirs as well. This is how you build momentum and the power that comes with numbers.

Silence is the same as consent. Protest is moral and important and powerful. The First Amendment protects our right to speak up, assemble and petition our government. This right is meant to be used! It is patriotic to use it!

Read the rest of the article here: http://heightsobserver.org/read/2017/01 ... -an-option

Susie Kaeser is a longtime resident of Cleveland Heights and former director of Reaching Heights. She serves on the national board of Parents for Public Schools.

"not an option"? Are you kidding me? It's the #1 go to option!
Everybody's doing it.

Our Republican House watches Trump's buffoonery and stays silent.
Our Republican Senate watches Trump's buffoonery and stays silent.
Americans watch Neo Nazi hate crimes happen and most stay silent.
Americans see school shootings and stay silent.
Dan Gilbert tries to rob taxpayer money for his billion dollar business, and the PD stays silent.

So naturally we should expect our Monday Night Chairwarmers (aka City Council) to stay silent about City Hall's refusal to release public records.


As for the specifics of the Heights piece, I commend the author for her stance.
Public schools are under attack, and not just from Betsy DeVos and the GOP. Neoliberals like Corey Booker and The Lesser Cuomo are waist-deep in charter school donations. Rahm Emanuel is probably the guy that has killed the most schools....50 in Chicago.

Within ten years we will see Lakewood Schools under direct attack by privatizers. They will use the exact same formula that the Clinic did to destroy the hospital.
They will cite Common Core test scores as the reason for parents to move to charter schools.
Many will fall for it, just like they fell for the "Lakewood Hospital is failing" routine.
Think about it....ten years ago, would anyone have believed that Lakewood citizens would vote to close their hospital? It was a source of civic pride at the time.
So don't be shocked when the public turns against our schools... the privatizers are experts in marketing campaigns, and Lakewoodites have shown that they are an easy mark.

Silence is not an option. Just listened to an interview with Timothy Snyder, the author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. It seems a great guide for good citizenry in general and unfortunately not followed by many in Lakewood, though they protest Trump constantly.

Number 8, in the 20 lessons: "Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights."

http://www.openculture.com/2017/01/20-l ... anism.html

Resistance begins at home.

I would hope that a takeaway from my Kauffman Park saga is something like the now-cliched advice from the post 9-11 era: "If you see something, say something." It applies equally well to us in the current political environment in Lakewood.

Advice like that from the posters above has been around for over 2,000 years.

By way of example:
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."
James 1:22

Speaking out against injustice is not just an option, it is a fundamental duty to help your neighbors and community.

Bravo to Dan Alaimo on FKP and the rest for you for supporting your neighbors and the community moving "4ward"

Hey Brian, how do you like my new signature block? I’ve never set one up before.

Over the past couple of years, I have posted agencies, along with contact information, of places to contact for possible help.

1. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
2. The Attorney General of the State of Ohio
3. The Supreme Court of Ohio

There are a few more, but, these are the most important. Feel free to PM me if you need information on how to contact these organizations.

The best way to get the word out about the immoral council and Mr. Summers is to engage in conversations when you are out and about in Lakewood and even other cities also. Tell the story. Guide them to the Deck and make sure to tell them to go back about two years. Most persons I speak with seem to already know at least half of the story and they are not happy.

Make sure to tell them about all of our tax dollars they wasted to hire lawyers, studies,consultants, and to write and print the BS they sent out to the citizens of Lakewood, knowing all along that the devious plan to lie and cheat the citizens of Lakewood had already been written.

Shame, shame, shame!
+

Dan Alaimo wrote:I would hope that a takeaway from my Kauffman Park saga is something like the now-cliched advice from the post 9-11 era: "If you see something, say something." It applies equally well to us in the current political environment in Lakewood.

Dan

It is the heartbeat of this project. If you see something wrong, something you question, ask.

If you see something nice, post, beautiful grab a picture.

Back in the early days, it powered us. I am sure Tim Liston remembers the faux meeting set up to define and move the city forward. Seven meetings mediated with CSU people. Each of the first four meetings had Observers at them, and a majority of the room brought in by City Hall to work the charade. After each meeting, Observers would report what went on, and the last three meetings were canceled, as the plot discovered the ruse uncovered.

The biggest mistake I made in what has become The Hospital Debacle, is not going public in September 2014. Instead I trusted Mayor Summers who lied for three months, until it became embarrassing to hear it. My favorite is, "I don't know who is on the LHA Board but I call them and ask."

Yes in the earliest days, of forming the Observer we had learned after watching; Summers, Foran, Crampton, Powers, Strachen, Gibbons, Stern and the sycophants that surround them, getting the truth from City Hall, or Plain Dealer was NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. The best we could hope for is a way to collect rumors, facts, documents and vet them. This is why they need the Observer destroyed, we have every BS thing they tried to pull, and the crap that went with it.

The Lakewood Observer actually Essi, found the Stein Letter in a public document request that stated to paraphrase "We must not let the same thing happen to this that happened with the West End, we must not let the residents vote on this!" Well the only way to stop that is by harassing people saying it, and peer pressure to stop others from reading it. What happened, the thugs called "Build Lakewood" came in with their attacks on the Deck, the "Oh they are negative" on sites they control, while their founding convict eerr member sat being interviewed by the police after being found harassing voters, women, people that dared to open their mouths against the Mayor or the Hospital deal. A partnership that exists to this day, proving they were fully aware what was happening at the time, and now. Of course as happened often with this Mayor, he would make sure his crew was above the law, and would hide the stuff in the paperwork they hide from the courts now.

Here is a wild observation: What are the chances that they very people behind the failed WestEnd Debacle, 15 years later would be part of a secret effort to liquidate our largest, biggest, most important asset and largest employer for some money and land to develop and play with?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, all by accident? Nothing had anything to do with anything else?!

The most desperate to develop with our money, end up with our land, our $$$$$ and a blank slate.
All in the new "DowntowN" area the very same people created 10 years ago which has nothing to do with anything else. (This is how stupid they think Lakewoodites are)

WOW, now that is coincident!!!! Maybe they should try lottery tickets! At least it not the public's money.

Yeah reporting the little stuff, or as we say "The Observations" can make a city a democracy that thrives in the sun and whole again.

City Hall the courts have ordered you to turnover the documents. Stop the lies, stop the BS, do what you were elected to do.

.

Just my opinion, But, it appears that, even now, Mr. Summers makes his "calls", or whatever he does, to cover up certain postings on the Deck.
I believe right now, Mr. Summers is trying to silence the Deck posters who are trying to bring out the truth.
It appears that anything posted to make council and Summers look bad gets shoved way down.
Coincidence?

Jim O'Bryan wrote:

Dan Alaimo wrote:I would hope that a takeaway from my Kauffman Park saga is something like the now-cliched advice from the post 9-11 era: "If you see something, say something." It applies equally well to us in the current political environment in Lakewood.

Dan

It is the heartbeat of this project. If you see something wrong, something you question, ask.

If you see something nice, post, beautiful grab a picture.

Back in the early days, it powered us. I am sure Tim Liston remembers the faux meeting set up to define and move the city forward. Seven meetings mediated with CSU people. Each of the first four meetings had Observers at them, and a majority of the room brought in by City Hall to work the charade. After each meeting, Observers would report what went on, and the last three meetings were canceled, as the plot discovered the ruse uncovered.

The biggest mistake I made in what has become The Hospital Debacle, is not going public in September 2014. Instead I trusted Mayor Summers who lied for three months, until it became embarrassing to hear it. My favorite is, "I don't know who is on the LHA Board but I call them and ask."

Yes in the earliest days, of forming the Observer we had learned after watching; Summers, Foran, Crampton, Powers, Strachen, Gibbons, Stern and the sycophants that surround them, getting the truth from City Hall, or Plain Dealer was NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. The best we could hope for is a way to collect rumors, facts, documents and vet them. This is why they need the Observer destroyed, we have every BS thing they tried to pull, and the crap that went with it.

The Lakewood Observer actually Essi, found the Stein Letter in a public document request that stated to paraphrase "We must not let the same thing happen to this that happened with the West End, we must not let the residents vote on this!" Well the only way to stop that is by harassing people saying it, and peer pressure to stop others from reading it. What happened, the thugs called "Build Lakewood" came in with their attacks on the Deck, the "Oh they are negative" on sites they control, while their founding convict eerr member sat being interviewed by the police after being found harassing voters, women, people that dared to open their mouths against the Mayor or the Hospital deal. A partnership that exists to this day, proving they were fully aware what was happening at the time, and now. Of course as happened often with this Mayor, he would make sure his crew was above the law, and would hide the stuff in the paperwork they hide from the courts now.

Here is a wild observation: What are the chances that they very people behind the failed WestEnd Debacle, 15 years later would be part of a secret effort to liquidate our largest, biggest, most important asset and largest employer for some money and land to develop and play with?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, all by accident? Nothing had anything to do with anything else?!

The most desperate to develop with our money, end up with our land, our $$$$$ and a blank slate.
All in the new "DowntowN" area the very same people created 10 years ago which has nothing to do with anything else. (This is how stupid they think Lakewoodites are)

WOW, now that is coincident!!!! Maybe they should try lottery tickets! At least it not the public's money.

Yeah reporting the little stuff, or as we say "The Observations" can make a city a democracy that thrives in the sun and whole again.

City Hall the courts have ordered you to turnover the documents. Stop the lies, stop the BS, do what you were elected to do.

.

Lori

"Let's be honest they are not that smart, and things got out of hand." Deepthroat


.

Don't be fooled!

Tim Liston wrote:Hey Brian, how do you like my new signature block? I’ve never set one up before.

Two Thumbs Up!---on both of them.

Note: I took down my Albert Einstein quote in exchange for Colin McEwen's quote. McEwen in "Genius"!

Brian Essi wrote:

Tim Liston wrote:Hey Brian, how do you like my new signature block? I’ve never set one up before.

Two Thumbs Up!---on both of them.

Note: I took down my Albert Einstein quote in exchange for Colin McEwen's quote. McEwen in "Genius"!

I can't pass on this opportunity.

m buckley wrote:

Brian Essi wrote:

Tim Liston wrote:Hey Brian, how do you like my new signature block? I’ve never set one up before.

Two Thumbs Up!---on both of them.

Note: I took down my Albert Einstein quote in exchange for Colin McEwen's quote. McEwen in "Genius"!

I can't pass on this opportunity.

It is so nice to have people in the community with diverse views agree on something so beautiful and get along so well. A note of disclosure though-- a highly respected follow member of the press from outside Lakewood told me that quote by McEwen was "one of the most astonishing quotes" he had seen, so he inspired the signature block quote.

Colin McEwan.... Rod McKuen.... I get those guys mixed up sometimes. Sorry....