REGINA BRETTColumnist for The Plain Dealer
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REGINA BRETT
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Regina Brett: It's still up to us to decide how we live our lives
by
Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Saturday November 15, 2008, 9:06 PM
The fake red brick wall next to the stage had sayings written all over it in cartoon quote bubbles:
Time is all we have
Dream big.
Live your dreams.
Anyone who had read the book "The Last Lecture" knew that the message of the brick wall spoke louder than the words posted on it.
As Randy Pausch taught, the brick walls of life are there for a reason. They're there for you to climb; they're there to stop those who don't want something badly enough.
My daughter took me to hear author Jeffrey Zaslow on Wednesday at the InterContinental Hotel & Conference Center Cleveland. Zaslow was writing columns for the Wall Street Journal last year when he heard the last lecture by Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Pausch had pancreatic cancer. Half of those diagnosed die within six months. The odds of surviving an airline crash are 24 percent; the odds of surviving pancreatic cancer are 4 percent.
You think your life is bad? It probably is with layoffs looming and foreclosure fears. But in the video of that last lecture that Zaslow put on the Internet, Pausch says, "I'm dying, and I'm having fun."
He had mere months to live when Zaslow shared Pausch's story with the world. Pausch died on July 25 at 47. He left behind a wife and three kids, ages 6, 3 and 2
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Regina Brett: A big thanks to you for open discovery vote
by
Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Thursday November 13, 2008, 9:19 PM
This one's for Joe.
Judges approve open discovery
That Plain Dealer headline on Thursday gave me chills. I'm sure Joe felt them, too.
Joe D'Ambrosio kept me fighting, kept me writing column after column about open discovery.
Every time open discovery took a stumble or a step forward, I'd hear from Father Neil Kookoothe, Joe's spiritual adviser.
"I talked to Joe today. He appreciates everything you're doing for open discovery," the priest would remind me. "Keep at it."
Joe just got moved to the Cuyahoga County Jail, where he is waiting for a new trial after 20 years on death row. A judge ruled that prosecutors in Cuyahoga County withheld 10 key pieces of evidence that would most likely have led to a not guilty verdict.
What does open discovery mean?
It means no more hiding evidence from defense attorneys.
No more leaving it up to prosecutors to decide what information a defense attorney needs to prepare for trial.
No more allowing prosecutors to read aloud police reports in court to defense attorneys who need to see all the facts for themselves.
No more making a mockery of your Constitutional rights to effective counsel and due process.
Regina Brett: Candy Circle makes its last batch after nearly a century
by
Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Tuesday November 11, 2008, 9:30 PM
Life will be a tad less sweet when the Candy Circle calls it quits this week.
For 95 years, the circle held fast, closer than family. They met for weeks at a time, moms and grandmothers who turned into dippers, molders and packers of the best hand-dipped chocolate around.
The circle will soon be broken as the last batch of volunteers finishes its last batch of candy. The women gathered at Plymouth Church this week in Shaker Heights to end a tradition that is older than the church it has helped support.
These women whose children were married here, whose babies were baptized here, spread newspapers on tables and rolled out wax paper one last time.
They melted chocolate and dipped each delicacy by hand. Rows upon rows of vanilla centers, chocolate centers, brown sugar nuts, crunches and caramels. Brazil nuts, pecans and almonds, all dipped in chocolate.
Lydene Rutter shows off a box of the assorted chocolates hand-made by volunteers at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. After decades, the Candy Circle, which includes Rutter and Bea Muller, right, is making its last batch of chocolates. In another room, women in flowered aprons sat at tables and swirled their fingers into pans of warm chocolate made from real cream, real butter, real vanilla.
Regina Brett: 104-year-old sees Obama's victory as her own
by
Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Saturday November 08, 2008, 9:30 PM
On election night, Ella Mae Johnson wouldn't let herself fall asleep.
At 104 years old, you're not sure you'll wake up, and she wasn't going to miss this, not even for the Lord.
Mrs. Johnson heard Barack Obama's victory speech, in which he mentioned a woman like her, born a generation past slavery when there were no cars, no planes and no chance to vote.
For many African-Americans, seeing a black man elected president was like seeing a man walk on the moon.
For Mrs. Johnson, it brought sweet relief that he lived through the campaign. She worries for Obama's safety. Her gray eyes have seen too much in 104 years. Police dogs. Fire hoses. Lynch mobs. Assassinations.
Those eyes can no longer see well, but they can imagine the vision ahead, the one Martin Luther King Jr. called the Promised Land.
Continue reading "Regina Brett: 104-year-old sees Obama's victory as her own" »Regina Brett: Obama's election makes it feel like a new America
by Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Thursday November 06, 2008, 8:30 PM
It feels like the new millennium just kicked in.
Election Night felt like New Year's Eve, all electric with a sparkling clean slate of possibility.
I gathered at my daughter's home with 50 others to watch the returns. When Ohio turned blue, we brought out the Obama victory cake that Sarah made with the red, white and blue frosting shaped into the Obama oval.
When the TV announced our new president, we popped the champagne corks and ripped the seals off the sparkling grape juice.
We filled glasses and raised them to the heavens. All of us in the room, a mix of black and white, Democrat and Republican, abled and differently abled, young and middle-aged gave a toast:
To the audacity of hope.
To the future our grandchildren will inherit.
To a true United States of America.
Continue reading "Regina Brett: Obama's election makes it feel like a new America" »Regina Brett: Historic election gives us pause to reflect
by Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Tuesday November 04, 2008, 10:45 PM
We did it.
We made history.
We did it with the help of all those people standing in line. We did it with the help of all those invisible people who urged us to be in that line.
By now, if the system worked, we know who won. But I wrote this on Election Day, before the votes were counted.
We either have our first black president or our first woman vice president. My prediction and my hope is that we have the first.
Either way, we made history. We have boys and girls who will finally see their race or gender reflected in the new duo set to lead the free world.
It gives me chills.
The world is watching. I hope today it is smiling, grinning from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, from all corners and curves of the Earth over this fresh start that democracy offers.
One person. One vote. Democracy is an amazing thing, isn't it?
On Tuesday, my daughter, who is 30, called and got all choked up. "Mom, I'm watching Obama vote. He's there with his two daughters." She called back a few minutes later, crying. "After he voted, everyone in the place applauded," she said.
We both remember well that day two decades ago when I called her into the living room to witness history. My little girl sat next to me as Jesse Jackson took the stage at the Democratic National Convention.
Now, every black child in America and every girl in America knows it isn't out of reach to call the White House home.
Regina Brett: 'Big Chuck' fan gets an inside look
by Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Saturday November 01, 2008, 9:00 PM
My mom owes Big Chuck a big thank you.
So does yours.
If you grew up in Northeast Ohio like me, chances are you spent every Friday night at a slumber party that started with these words:
"From the heart of Playhouse Square . . . in downtown Cleveland . . . high atop the Television 8 Building . . . it's 'The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show.' "
Think of all the money Chuck Schodowski saved our parents by baby-sitting us every weekend. It's probably more than he ever got paid for doing the show.
I never knew much about him until I read his new book, "Big Chuck! My Favorite Stories from 47 years on Cleveland TV." He wrote it with the help of Plain Dealer reporter Tom Feran and dedicated it to us: "All the wonderful people who watched and enjoyed what we did."
Kids from Parma to Ravenna. Kids who ran around in PJs pretending to shoot sausages like the Kielbasa Kid.
Kids who memorized the "Ben Crazy" intro: Man. Woman. Birth. Death. Infinity. Kids who quoted "Readings by Robert."
Kids who jumped from couch to couch like Guitarzan and ran through the living room in Underoos pretending to be streakers.
We grew up, but Big Chuck and Li'l John never did.
A long wait to vote early is well worth it: Regina Brett
by Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Thursday October 30, 2008, 9:45 PM
Voters wait at the polls at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland Thursday.I groaned when I saw the newspaper pictures of the long lines to vote.
It's not even Election Day, and people are clogging up the polls. In Akron, hundreds turned out early. Some waited 45 minutes. Should I go now and battle the crowds or wait and fight them on Tuesday?
Then it hit me: If this is a problem, this is a great problem to have.
What's a little wait?
It's a sign there's something valuable at the other end of the line.
Voting is free. There is no tax or fee. You don't have to pass a literacy test, a citizenship test or a sobriety test.
Instead of complaining about the crowds, I started thinking about how long I was willing to wait at the post office last Christmas. Or how long it takes to get a soda and nachos at a Browns game or a few seconds on the Blue Streak at Cedar Point.
Voting lasts longer than the pop, chips and the whoosh of a roller coaster.
Ever see those people parked outside the computer store for the new Game Boy, Wii or iPhone3G? Or maybe you were one of those camped outside Kmart to get that Cabbage Patch doll your daughter just had to have.
We've all got a concert story to tell, how we stood in line an eternity for New Kids on the Block tickets or snuggled all night in sleeping bags to get seats for the Rolling Stones.
Voting is surely worth the wait. So what will you do in line?
Open discovery saves time, money
by Regina Brett
Wednesday October 29, 2008, 5:59 AM
Score another victory for open discovery. And for you, the taxpayer.
On Monday, Lesleye Holliman pleaded guilty to murder.
Last October, 17-year-old Holliman stabbed 15-year-old Demesha Sharp. Talk about dysfunctional families, Holliman's cousin, mother and grandmother used assorted weapons - Mace, a knife and a stun gun - to keep onlookers from helping the victim.
Continue reading "Open discovery saves time, money" »Regina Brett: How 'open discovery' saved you money -- and brought justice
by Regina Brett
Wednesday October 29, 2008, 5:49 AM
Score another victory for open discovery.
And for you, the taxpayer.
On Monday, Lesleye Holliman pleaded guilty to murder.
Last October, 17-year-old Holliman stabbed 15-year-old Demesha Sharp. Talk about dysfunctional families, Holliman's cousin, mother and grandmother used assorted weapons -- Mace, a knife and a stun gun -- to keep onlookers from helping the victim.
In the months following her arrest, Holliman kept telling her attorneys, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it."
Her lawyers didn't have much evidence to show whether she did or didn't do it. A crowd had gathered that night. Was one gang making up claims against another?
The prosecutors had not turned over the file or shared the name of a witness who allegedly heard Holliman admit involvement. Defense attorneys saw no actual witness statements. Instead, the prosecutors read portions to them.
Continue reading "Regina Brett: How 'open discovery' saved you money -- and brought justice" »Regina Brett: Finally, some action on the racial injustice of Cuyahoga justice
by Regina Brett/Plain Dealer Columnist
Friday October 24, 2008, 3:55 AM
Lady Justice wears a blindfold for a reason.
Each person who comes to her courtrooms is to be treated the same, whether he or she is black or white, rich or poor, weak or powerful.
In the past week, The Plain Dealer, the Call & Post and Scene have collectively stripped away another blindfold. None of us can continue to remain blind to the racial disparities in the way felony drug cases are handled from our streets to our courtrooms.
No more claiming the discrepancies are merely anecdotal in nature. We have proof.
In Cuyahoga County, white people are more likely to have their felony drug charges reduced to misdemeanors -- or to get treatment as an alternative to any conviction -- than black people charged with the same crime. Black people are 12 times more likely to go to prison on drug charges than a white person.
The NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, Citizens for a Safe and Fair Cleveland and the United Pastors in Mission want action.
Continue reading "Regina Brett: Finally, some action on the racial injustice of Cuyahoga justice" »- TALK ABOUT IT
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