The jury may have found her guilty but the tribulations of this trial may be with us for a long time to come. The jurors, who did an admirable job, and the majority of the citizens of this community were stunned by the sense of entitlement and abuses of power and privilege shown by the Mayor. She was as good as any Mayor we have ever had. Her passion for kids and her comfort with the public was real. Her Achilles heal was her passion for stuff and her sense of entitlement that she deserve anything she desired.
Politically, most people were affronted by her taking gift cards from developers that do business with the city. She needs to apologize, talk with the citizens and we need to build real transparency in government.
Even some of her most ardent supporters were stunned that she actually took gift cards meant for needy children. It was, at best, unseemly.
I am of two minds here. I think this whole process was a partisan war on a Democratic official by a Republican prosecutor who wasted millions of dollars of our money to convict a Mayor of a misdemeanor. I also think Mayor Dixon was guilty of an unseemly act of using gift cards meant for poor children. It was the perfect storm of the partisan politics and the arrogance of power that has taken us away from the real issues we should be confronting.
The real story here is the power that developers and financial institutions wield in local politics. They are to local and state government what the health insurance industry and defense contractors are to the federal government.
Now, we may be in for more angst and strum over whether she will resign or do a Kwame Kilpatrick circling of the wagons. Will she apologize and resign or fight on? Will the State Prosecutor go for a retrial and continue with the second trial?
Judge Sweeney pass sentence quickly, so the Mayor can resign and to the State Prosecutor, let it go, so we can all move on and deal with the real pressing issues that face this city.
Filed in: City Hall.
Marc Steiner is host of the Marc Steiner Show on WEAA and Peabody Award winning Executive Producer of the Center for Emerging Media. He has been a public radio host since 1993 before that he was a teacher, actor, therapist and community organizer. Lives in the country with Valerie, his daughter and a bunch of animals.
Mark, clearly conservatives dislike many forms of tax but does that also have to include syntax?
Marc,
A progressive decrying the very government-corporate collusion progressives set up. The irong is as they say delicious.