We elect stupid people.
In the latest tiff over who can get the most publicity for a non-issue, Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer should win a prize for the stupidest statement by a local politician:
Plummer said he signed the letter out of concern that taxpayer resources are at stake and that some of the children could join gangs here and get involved in the heroin trade.
“Is anyone vetting these kids? Is anybody doing background checks on these kids?” Plummer asked.“We need to take care of our own first. That’s not a selfish point of view. Everybody says the federal government is going to pay for this, but it is still our tax dollars.”
via Immigrant friendly but mired in controversy | www.mydaytondailynews.com.
How exactly do you do a background check on a kid from a dirt poor country?
I do agree we could try to take care of our own first- with one in five kids living in an environment where there are questions about where their next meal is coming from. Where we have an educational system where an 80% graduation rate from high school is considered OK and even those “graduates” aren’t really ready for college.
We have children here living in conditions that we would send money to a third world country to rectify, yet, Mayor Whaley is offering up the Naval Reserve training facility on Gettysburg to kids from Honduras- while I’ve been talking to people about turning it into a charter boarding school- to provide a safe place for kids to live while their parents or guardians are going through tough times. Yes, we could be taking care of our own first- but, that doesn’t make headlines.
Leave it to the two Dayton Mayors with the biggest egos to have a knock-down drag-out in the media over a non-issue and the dumbest of our local pols to join in. The Beavercreek council- yes, those who fought the RTA from bringing “those people” from Dayton to their mecca of retailing stepped up to say no to immigrant children, as did Plummer and State Rep. Mike Henne who joined Turner in a photo session for the paper.
You can expect to see all of them- out working with our own kids, you know, doing things like making sure our basketball courts have rims and nets on them- and no vegetation growing through the cracks in the pavement?
And while Montgomery County’s latest brilliant solution to the scourge of the “heroin trade” is to put up badly designed billboards that say “heroin kills”- where are the programs for youth recreation?
I drove by the Gateway Sports complex yesterday and Kettering fields by the river- and saw empty baseball diamonds in the middle of summer on a Saturday afternoon. Contrast that with driving by Delco park almost any day, where you see hundreds of kids playing soccer- with adult supervision.
I’m not saying that sports are an answer to keeping kids off drugs- but, it’s a good start. Where are programs like that in Dayton, Mayor Whaley? And, going back a few years- Mayor Turner?
Last week I went by Mary Queen of Peace on Gramont. I stopped and talked to a guy who lives across the street from the playground and asked what happened to the basketball court rims? He told me the church took them down- and locked the gates.
a personal note-
I just stopped into Tuffy Brooks on Friday and saw my friend Jim. He’s ordering my fourth box of 100 nets. This will clean out my net money. I’m out of stickers to put on the poles to give kids my number to call for a net. I’ll be needing more zip ties- and the chain nets I bought- don’t attach to the rusted “chain” rims I run into at places like Gettysburg park- so I need to buy some type of S hook to put these nets up because zip ties aren’t the answer. If you can spare some money to donate to our own kids, it will go a long way toward my efforts to keep our kids on playgrounds instead of into other stuff.
I’m including a few photos:
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- Kids behind the Dayton Boys Prep academy
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- This backboard has been missing a rim at Virginia McNeal park- right next to UD Arena
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- Nets I’ve taken down- most of them, with green on the bottom (mine)
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- While the leaning tower of Pisa may be an attraction, this backboard at Gettysburg park isn’t.
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- This is the type of S hook I need to source to hang chain nets on these rusted rims
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- I would be happier if my nets didn’t appear in the paper as background for a crime scene
I’ve been reporting issues non-stop with our courts with the Dayton Delivers mobile app. The backboard without a rim at Virginia O’Neal Park- or Welcome Park- depending on which sign you read- was reported resolved a few days after I turned it in. I went back to the park- and the rim was still missing – and I reopened the case. If you have a smart phone- download the app- report potholes, unpainted speed bumps, tall grass in parks, street lights out- instead of grandstanding, lets start seeing our commission get a report each week about the number of issues opened- and resolved in Dayton each week- instead of the focus on Guatemalan kids. Our kids deserve better than this.
And as a side note, I sent a proposal to the Dayton Public schools to ask them to pay $5 per net I hang at their schools and was turned down. The only reason I asked, was because I was called into the office and scolded for placing my “Elect Esrati” stickers on school property with the number to call for a net. Considering buying nets onesy twosy is a $5 proposition- and doesn’t include the labor- I figure I average about 20 minutes per net- including driving time, ladder time, etc.- it was a steal of an offer. I was turned down by the Superintendent. I’m still hanging nets on their properties.
Also note- the only guaranteed maintenance to our parks by our Mayor and her minions- every single one of my stickers on a basketball pole has been scraped off. No nets hung by the city.
of course you are not being 100% honest and accurate with your post but understand where your political leanings are. First, you are actin like “these kids are infants”, not true.. young adults and some type of parent or guardian. Keep up the disinformation Dave, you are only helping Nan get what she wants and adding more crime to our region. Honestly, this statement qualifies for the the stupidest statement “How exactly do you do a background check on a kid from a dirt poor country? – “. Don’t let facts get in the way of you blasting republican and giving a free pass to the democrats on this one. Thought you had more sense than this.
It makes sense for the democrat party to bring more non white voters into the city and county to make sure the republicans can never win there. The crappy brown kids will go to government, labor union run and 97% democrat teacher run unusable schools and learn how to never work and spend your entire life on welfare like the majority of the black population does in the city. They will fit nicely into the “I hate white people” mentality of brown and black people in the democrat party and vote to get more free stuff from the government via responsible white people. Maybe someday soon esrati will get beat up by shitty brown kids downtown in addition to the beating hit got from the black community!
Ironic, Esrati cares more about basketball nets than he does the murder rate, the heroin OD, the potential influx of more illegals. As long as he gets his nets up and nobody screws with them. No wonder this city is in melt down and the clowns are running rampant. Thankfully nobody elected Esrati or we would really be in trouble. Look what happened with a clone and the last Mayor.. two idiots is a pod.
What people fail to realize is that all these other programs – whether it be new basketball nets, whether it be a new education initative, or whatever… all of this will eventually fail unless the underlying problems are solved. Hanging new nets are cool until Esrati stops doing it, because nobody else is willing to step up and maintain them.
The true long term solution is jobs, jobs, jobs. Jobs mean money, and reduced financial stress means less breakdown of the families, since it’s proven that financial issues are a big reason divorce rates are so high. Money also means tax revenue, which means you don’t have to watch the circus over at City Hall when Nan tries to divide up an ever-shrinking pie… watching Nan say that the sky will fall if Issue 6 isn’t passed, but if it is, it will “renew Dayton”.
Of course, 6 passed by a mile, and all those suburban workers get to pay city tax… right? Wrong, unfortunately, Dayton’s shortsighted policies are fueling the growth of Austin Landing, because if you’re an office worker or professional there, no city tax. Sounds like an easy business decision to me.
Truth is, the only long term solution is to bring jobs back to the area… the first step is getting Nan out of office.
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As to housing illegal immigrants in Dayton… I suppose Nan’s tune would change quickly if the federal government decided to dump them in Five Oaks.
Maybe we should ask the Whale to offer up her home as a safe habitat and how ’bout Democratic HQ Downtown to house the rest & then feed them from the food pantry–perfect!
My personal opinion is that Nan was jumping on the opportunity to be quoted in the media without really thinking about the headline. What she and Mike Turner don’t see is that they are being played by the DDN to generate sales for Cox Media. This story has gone back and forth for a week and each day there is another “He said” or ” She said” quote. The reality is that this is not an issue for Dayton at this moment in time. Should it become an issue then you make a fair and calculated decision on how to deal with the issue. The DDN called me about this story. I obviously didn’t give them anything worth quoting because when they asked me about whether Dayton could handle an influx of these teenagers I said something like ” If five make it this far then I think we could handle it. If 500 come here there will be a lot of angry people.” Right now the media is playing Republicans and Democrats against each other over speculation. The media has made this an issue and will milk it as long as it generates sales. When I was mayor, had a reporter called me about this (BTW I never had a cell phone because reporters would have called all the time to catch me off guard), I would receive a message on my answering machine at home or my aide would have come into the office to tell me a reporter was on the line. I would generally think clearly about the message I wanted to convey and would usually call back with a quote. Sometimes I wouldn’t call because the story was irrelevant to Dayton or I deemed it to be not worthy to be affiliated with. After my run in with Don Hammond (http://daytonmayor.blogspot.com/2011/12/does-media-hype-homicides.html) my aide would use his smart phone to record the televised interviews so we had the entire interview to post on YouTube should the media chose not to show any of the badgering tactics used and produce a story that attacked me or my… Read more »
Ya know I remember (when I lived in Dayton in the late 90s) then-Mayor Mike Turner when he behaved truly reprehensibly in respects to a proposal by then Commissioner Wiseman to prevent discrimination against gays. He burned through every straw man and fear-mongering half-truth in the book and half truth in successfully squelching the ordinance before a feckless City Commission. See this YouTube for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMNGEGjWAQ
I think he’s playing the same divide-and-conquer game here, railing against “illegals” who will increase crime, violence, cost the taxpayer…blah, blah blah. I only wonder if these kids where white Irish kids showing up on our border if the vitriolic reaction would be the same.