reading, writing and arithmetic in public office

I am reading the PD this morning and came across this article which points up two basic issues regarding our elected officials here in Cleveland. We all seem to know that the Cleveland schools have had a tough time educating students -- it's  a complex problem to solve, but modeling the behavior can go a long way toward giving students something to which they can aspire. Remember the "3 Rs" [1]?

In this article, Cuyahoga County forecloses on property owned by recorder Patrick O'Malley [2] we have two examples of a potential problem in our local government. We have County Recorder, Patrick O'Malley [3] who may be having trouble with "rithmetic" (I mean when he decided to buy the Aragon Ballroom), and we have former council person, Nelson Cintron who can't remember the language part of his education as evidenced here, "I don't have no dealing with the Aragon - never have." -- Cintron. Perhaps the PD could help with this education issue by inserting (sic) in the quote to help us all understand that what Cintron said needed a bit of help from an English teacher.

sic -- so; thus: usually written parenthetically to denote that a word, phrase, passage, etc., that may appear strange or incorrect has been written intentionally or has been quoted verbatim: He signed his name as e. e. cummings (sic).

It just goes to show that one does not have to be well educated to rise to elected office in Cleveland. Yeah baby, drop out of high school or barely slip though that bachelor's degree. No worry, there will be a place for you in office if you have the chutzpah to run for it. Could it be that we don't got no standards (sic) here in Cleveland? Why should students aspire to solid communication skills and informed decision making when our leadership models the opposite behavior? No wonder America is falling behind other nations in education, innovation and economic development. Indeed, Cleveland is a holler. Someone please provide a copy of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage and some financial literacy course work to our elected officials. As my late brother used to say, “The higher climbs the ape, the more he shows his bum”. Could we please see some well educated folk running for elected office?

And in another PD report today [4] we may soon see the Cleveland Clinic in an old school hospital gown designed for ease of examination, in this case, of their financial records or as they refer to them “trade secrets”. (I burst out laughing to read this again.) What is not at all secret is that the CCF simply doesn’t want to pay taxes, and as long as the nonprofit can claim that their financials are trade secrets, they won’t have to do so.  Apparently the 990 from 2004 [5] is not enough detail for the Beachwood School District or the other districts that will follow suit. With their tax bill [6] currently at $10,762,209.14, is it any wonder inquiring minds want to know?