Public Servant versus Public Steward

I am a public servant, a unique one.

I beg for justice and mercy for the poor in the Poverty Capital of America as my father did before he died of a liquor-soaked, broken heart.  I am a lawyer paid insufficiently by the county to represent the interests of people charged with crimes.  I work for the government on behalf of individual citizens AGAINST that same government.  I am overworked, underpaid, and provided paltry resources to assist me in preserving and protecting the Constitutional rights of poor people in Cleveland.

Cleveland is in the midst of the largest public corruption investigation our nation has ever known.  Hundreds of FBI agents raided dozens of locations two years ago.  The initial investigation seemed to target public contracts and bribes involving county commissioners, but it quickly evolved into a labyrinthine mess involving multiple jurisdictions and dozens of public officials and their associates engaged in a variety of self-dealing schemes. The hive for these activities was the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, which also had it's offices raided.

In the Venn diagram of public service, public stewards are those in the small circle within the larger one: an elite group of public servants actually selected to preserve the public trust.  They may be elected, they may be appointed, they may be hired by those elected or appointed, but a public steward has a higher duty to the people.  In many cases they take an oath -- swear to their God -- that they will serve the public with honor an integrity: a personal promise to serve the people.

In Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party has, for decades, determined who ascends to the echelon of public stewardship in county offices and municipal offices within the county.  The public consciousness has only recently awakened to what I've known my entire professional life:  the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party has been run by crooked, self-serving, frauds who ignore their oaths and obligations to the people. Criminals masquerading as public stewards.

As I look out for the least among us in this town, those who swore to look out for the people piss on them, instead.  I know because their briny streams hit me, too.  My agency, the Cuyahoga County Public Defenders Office relies, in no small part, on county government for resources.  My salary has been cut, I share a single support staffer with a dozen other lawyers (which means I am entitled to one-twelfth of her time, I suppose) I stand in packed courtrooms expected to effectively represent dozens of people each day, my intake lobby is crowded each afternoon with 40 to 60 people looking for legal assistance and three or four lawyers are expected to advise them all.  It's pathetic. It's shameful. There is nothing democratic about a county democratic party that pisses on the poor and their constitutional rights.

So, it's public servant versus public steward, now.  We will purge you from our midst and start again without you.    We will never forget you: you'll be remembered long after you're gone as self-serving frauds who pissed upon the people you promised to serve.  I'll make sure people remember.  I'll consider it my proudest achievement in a lifetime of public service.

Welcome to the Bloomsday Device.