Glass houses and stones.....

I was reading Frank Szollosi's blog tonight, and while I do respect Frank and realize he feels a very strong loyalty to Mayor Jack Ford, at times I wonder about the whole game of politics.

Remember Karyn McConnell Hancock? It's been pretty quiet as far as comments concerning her whole "I am above the law" parking incident. Wouldn't you if you did really care about ethics demand a high standard of ethics from your own "team"?

Now I have not read Frank stating anything about supporting her, however she has been endorsed by the splinter Lucas County Dem organization. I haven't read anything about him not supporting her either. But he did tonight comment on Carty's lack of proper citing from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Here is a man with no shame, he's got no business being in a race for public office." His comment made me start thinking, which is worse? Not citing a source in a speech then immediately taking responsibility for it or demonstrating you have no respect for not only our Police Officers but our laws? Not caring that your irresponsible behavior caused a handicapped woman to have to struggle to get around your illegally parked car or not giving the Cleveland Plain dealer proper credit? Sitting in your car making police officers waste valuable time as you talked on your cellphone and flipped thru a magazine or immediately upon being told of your mistake taking responsibility for it? I think that should be obvious which is worse. Carty made an error in speech writing; it appears it was an honest mistake, sloppy? Yes, and he should be more careful in the future. We can't say the same for Karyn McConnell Hancock. By her own admission she has done this before, the only difference is this time she was caught.

I understand the whole aspect of politics where you ignore the bad behavior of your own group yet make the opposing sides an issue. The problem with that is we see all of it. It's really hard to have alot of faith in the system when it's pretty obvious no one seems to have the courage to call their own out on their unacceptable behavior. I am not trying to pick on Frank in regard to this. There are other City Council members who have not said anything, the Mayor has not said anything with the exception of his first statement that I agreed with that no one is above the law. The Toledo Blade has not made this an issue either. Yes, they reported what happened, but the only calls for resignation I've seen have been in a few Letters to the Editor. Same with the other local media sources, the Toledo Free Press had an op-ed piece by Bob Frantz and there was some television coverage on the initial incident and the release of the police dash cam but now it's all faded away as if we are supposed to just forget about it. I believe George Sarantou did make a statement that Karyn McConnell Hancock's attempt at an apology during a City Council session wasn't appropriate, yet if there was some type of action in City Council demanding she at least step down from president pro tem as well as her chair position, I missed it.

So here is a suggestion to all politicans, if you want us to believe you and have faith in your words, then demand the same behavior from everyone. Even those who are on "your" side.

Also, since he doesn't seem to be getting alot of media coverage, there is an additional candidate for at-large Toledo City Council, John “Mitch” Balonek, he's running as an Independent/Green Party. He's got some interesting ideas and as most of you know, I support the idea of more involvement by Independent candidates. I don't agree with him on some of what he states on Charter Schools, but no candidate can be perfect......

http://www.nwohiogreens.org/elections/