A new form of segregation?

I meant to write this post last week, but what can I say life got in the way. I was truly intrigued last week when I read Thomas Ott's story "Shaker Heights may penalize landlords for tenants' crimes" in the Plain Dealer.
In the story Shaker officials indicate they are trying to deal with "quality of life" issues in one of this community's first integrated suburbs by proposing a law that would penalize landlords if tenants commit crimes within 1,000 feet of where they live. I read this and began scratching my head, and wondering what were these officials thinking. Landlords should be held accountable for the state of their property and for the actions - to some degree of their tenants if it truly becomes a nuisance property, but to tell me that I am responsible for the actions of someone away from their home is ludicrous.
The more I hear of laws like this I begin to wonder what country am I living in? We are becoming a society of knee-jerk reactionists and no one seems to want to look at the real problems that are causing some of these societal ills and taking the time to try and address the causes not the effects.
Now why would I ask is this a new form of segregation? I'm glad you asked because sadly I have a response. A few years ago, Shaker began to selectively tackle the problem of absentee landlords by aggressively citing residents for neglecting their property. The postcard for this neglect was a black grandmother who was in her late 60s or early 70s with a number of health issues and she was struggling to correct the problems at her property. What did this wonderful community do, they arrested her!
This case sparked my interest because I know several people who live or own property in Shaker and I have watched how they selectively cite certain areas of the city while you can drive through other sections and notice some of the same problems that just continue to persist. The areas they seem to concentrate on are heavily populated by blacks and happen to be closest to the border of the City of Cleveland.
Shaker Heights has always been a progressive city, but this level of progress appears to be more of a regression to times gone by, times many of us don't want to see revisited.
This article was also interesting because a slight comparison was made to the efforts of Bedford officials to hold parents accountable for the actions of their children if they were detained or arrested repeatedly. This is like comparing apples to oranges - there is no comparison. Parents are the first line of discipline in a child's life and if they shirk that duty they should be held accountable. If they find they cannot handle an unruly children they should be looking for sources to help deal with them, but if you claim ignorance to the behavior I'm sure a $250 fine will enlighten you!

Venting! I Can't Do People Today!

I haven't posted in a few days because my life has been so hectic! It started out as a good hectic, but over the last two days I have come to the conclusion I CAN'T DO PEOPLE! I am a regular lurker on several different blogs, some of which I have listed on the sidebar and others I don't but one of my favs is Radiogirl. One of her recent posts was on Positive Thinking and I really try to look for the bright spot in everything and everybody just to make life a little easier for me, but today I've had it and I'm done dealing with petty, egotistical and ultimately shallow people! I just can't take it anymore.
I know this sounds a bit like rambling and I apologize, but that is where I am at this particular moment in time. Later today I hope to have calmed down so that I can post aobut my Artist's Date over the weekend and Daddy's Little Girl.
Thanks for listening, reading if anyone is out there!

This Week's Hot Topics

Here are a few events over the past week that caught my attention:

Grammy's slam Bush!
Now I had heard all about the controversy with the Dixie Chicks - you know the ladies who were ashamed to say the Prez was from their home state. Well after making that off-color (to some) remark about our leader the ladies were booed, threatened and their records sales plummeted. That was two years ago. Fast forward and the ladies put together a nice little ditty "Not Ready to Make Nice" in response to the backlash they received and what do you know they ended up taking home five Grammy's including Record of the Year for the above referenced song!

Mary J shines at Grammy's
Mary J. Blige was also a big winner at the Grammy's and she offered up some powerful performances to boot! Go Mary!
She put her heart and soul into this performance!


What's Up with Hardaway?
If this was not putting the proverbial foot in one's mouth I don't know what is. Really! Was it necessary to rant about a situation that no longer affects you? Men and I believe black men especially can be so homophobic! Now Hardaway is loosing money because of hateful comments. One day people will learn to think what they want and speak lightly - there is no need to be so mean spirited particularly as an African American.
At the same time Amaechi needs to keep it real too! During an interview on the TJMS he purports that he was never excited or felt any stirrings for any of the players he worked with because he was at work. PUHLEEZE!! Give me a break. Everyone has experienced the hots or just looked at someone while on the job and thought "Uhm Uhm Uhm that's a fine specimen" be you male, female, hetro, homo or bisexual. That's just a fact of nature.
It is unfortunate that we as a people and country can not separate what someone does in the privacy of their homes and who that person is as an individual.

Valentine's Day at Roy's Place

What a week this has been! We had an official snowstorm Tuesday into Wednesday that left the City blanketed in snow that will not go anywhere soon because of frigid temperatures. Last night it was -4! Because of this storm Cupid had a difficult time delivering many Valentine's to his sweeties either because the delivery truck couldn't navigate the streets or Sweetie didn't make it into the office.
Well Cupid didn't have any problems finding me! I was treated to a romantice meal at Roy's Place! As you can see from the photo, my Cupid went all out! The most spectacular part of the evening was the fact that Mr. Wonderful prepared the meal himself (with a little help from a friend) and oh, was it scrumptious! The menu consisted of:

• Butternut Squash Soup with shrimp
• Three Greens salad w/raisins, bacon bits, cucumber & carrots (ugh!)
• Broiled Lobster Tail
• Steak

Now to truly understand the importance of this meal you need to learn a little more about Mr. Wonderful. First off, he doesn't cook, which has been a small sore spot in our relationship for the last seventeen years. I'm of the belief that any human being above the age of 8 who needs to eat should learn how to cook. Cooking is a survival tool!
Also, the last 10 or so months have been tenuous at best in our household and the need for some romance and WE time was overdue!
On the bright side, throughout the years Mr. Wonderful has usually been a true romantic. You don't have to remind him about anniversaries, birthdays because he is always trying to come up with something a little different and the element of surprise. The latter is usually difficult because he has a former reporter for a wife and I love to sniff out a good story - even if I'm the main character.
Valentine's Day is extra special for us because it marks the first date and the beginning of the journey leading us to today.
In summary for the second year in a row, Mr. Wonderful has come through with a great Valentine's/Anniversary gift. The cutie to the right is a "mini-me" of Mr. Wonderful and represents Valentine's 06.

I Can’t Be Sick without Big Brother Watching!

Ok, I’m sure some of you may have experienced this degradation already, but my first encounter was on Sunday. I went to the local Walgreen’s to get some OTC cold medicine to try and finally rid myself of this cold that has been lingering since January. After standing in front of the area marked COLD/FLU and having no luck finding Advil Cold & Sinus or something along those lines I march back to the Pharmacy only to see what I’m looking for on full display. There were a number of choices so I had to ask the clerk to hand them to me so that I could decide which package represented my symptoms.

Decision made, the Clerk now requests my photo identification and then begins to input my name, address and driver’s license number into the computer. I couldn’t believe it! I asked where the information was going and she said she didn’t know, but she would inquire. The Pharmacist came over to explain that it was input into an internal database because by law I can only purchase a certain amount of this OTC per day, week etc.

I thanked her for her response, but left the store fuming – the Drug Addicts have now prevented me from being ill in private! This is ridiculous, nothing is sacred anymore! I truly believe that there is some list down state listing how many times you purchase these medications; it is not just housed in Walgreen’s database. What will they monitor next?

Crafting at it's Best

I want to send some love to radiogirl! My good friend, who a little over a year ago knew nothing much about this whole world of blogging, has become the blog Queen! She's got three sites now, but I'd like to send you all over to her Card spot! She has some great cards on the site and wonderful ideas for those of you into Card crafting. Stop over and give her a holler, I'm sure you'll like what you see!

My Artist's Date

This past weekend I took my Artist on a Date as part of the 12-week "The Artist's Way~A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity," as outlined in Julia Cameron's book of the same title.
The focus of the program is to rejuvenate your creative spirit through a number of excersizes including the Artist Date. On the Artist Date you take your Artist on a date and partake in activities that you might not normally do or those that you have neglected because you have been focusing on everything except your Artist.
One of my new hobbies has been Cardmaking, but I have not created a card - good or otherwise in a number of months and I have not visited my local craft store either, so last Saturday I took a class on Valentine Cards and it was a blast!
It was great to see Rochelle, the lovely proprietor of The Rubber Stamp Studio and her able assistant Jenny as well as to spend a couple of hours with ladies utilizing their creative talents.
I had been doing really well with the Artist's Way program until this week when I really, really, really slipped as far as my Morning Pages are concerned, but I do find that my inner creative spirit is attempting to flourish - just not exactly as Julia Cameron had hoped.
I think she would be happy to know that it has begun to flourish even if I haven't kept strictly to the plan. I'll work harder at that over the next week.