City, schools enter mediation - Receive the Entire Key West Citizen ...

4A THE KEY WEST CITIZEN ◆ THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011EDITORIAL BOARDPAUL A. CLARIN/PUBLISHERTOM TUELL/EDITORRALPH MORROW/SPORTS EDITOROPINIONED BLOCKCHARLIE BRADFORDKEN DOMANSKISHIRLEY FREEMANTODD GERMANDodgers in disarray;could the Mets be next?What to make of thedecision by the commissionerof MajorLeague Baseball to take awaycontrol of the Los AngelesDodgers from owner FrankMcCourt?After all, the Dodgers franchiseisn’t exactly choppedliver — as they might have saidin Brooklyn, the team’s originalhome.Far from it. The Dodgersare one of baseball’s storiedfranchises, a brand name, witha lovable, frustrating, triumphant,star-studded, historicbackground — the latter dueto it being the team that integratedthe sport and later ledits westward expansion.Indeed, the move fromBrooklyn to Los Angelescreated a revenue streamunlike anything the sporthad ever seen (that is, untilthe Steinbrenner Yankeesratcheted up the dollar signs tothe stratosphere).So what does it say aboutMajor League Baseball as aninstitution that the Dodgersappear to be in such financialand operational disarray thatthe commissioner had to stepin?Only, it seems, thatCommissioner Bud Seligand Co. made a big mistakeapproving the sale of the teamto McCourt in 2004.There were yellow warningflags in some corners rightfrom the get-go.And when McCourt enteredinto nasty — and still unresolved— divorce proceedingswith his wife, Jamie, the team’sfinancial plight eventuallybecame so perilous that itrecently had to borrow $30million from Fox Sports (whichtelevises its games) to meetpayroll.McCourt says nothing isGOVERNMENT WEBSITES:Monroe Countyhttp://www.monroecounty-fl.govCity of Key Westhttp://www.keywestcity.comCity of Marathonhttp://www.ci.marathon.fl.usVillage of Islamoradahttp://www.islamorada.fl.usCity of Key Colony Beachhttp://www.keycolonybeach.netMonroe County Sheriff’s Officehttp://www.keysso.netWASHINGTON — Aprilis the cruelest monthfor Chrissy Lee Polis.The 22-year-old stoppedby the Rosedale, Md.,McDonald’s, just east ofBaltimore, last week.Two patrons, an 18-yearoldwoman named TeonnaMonae Brown and a 14-yearoldgirl, seemed to come outof nowhere and began ferallyassaulting Polis.The savage pair may havebeen disturbed at the prospectthat Polis was transgender.“They said, ‘That’s a dude.That’s a dude. And she’s in thefemale bathroom,’” Polis toldThe Baltimore Sun.The attackers spit on her,threw her on the floor, kickedher in the face and back,punched her in the nose,ripped her earrings out of herearlobes, dragged her by herhair across the restaurant andonly stopped when she beganto have an epileptic seizureEditorialamiss: “Major League Baseballsets strict financial guidelineswhich all 30 teams mustfollow. The Dodgers are incompliance with these guidelines,”he said. “On this basis,it is hard to understand theCommissioner’s action.” A lawsuitis expected.“I have taken this actionbecause of my deep concernsregarding the finances andoperations of the Dodgers andto protect the best interests ofthe club,” said the commissioner.“My office will continue itsthorough investigation intothe operations and finances ofthe Dodgers and related entitiesduring the period of Mr.McCourt’s ownership. ... TheDodgers have been one of themost prestigious franchisesin all of sports, and we owe itto their legion of loyal fans toensure that this club is beingoperated properly now andwill be guided appropriately inthe future.”“It’s hard to imagine it wouldhappen somewhere like theDodgers, but there’s crazy stuffgoing on everywhere. You’reseeing monster major banksgoing down, so obviously itcan happen,” said Dodgers’manager Don Mattingly.Which begs the question,are the New York Mets next,given their owners’ allegedconnection to the BernardMadoff case.Indeed, the Mets’ FredWilpon and Saul Katz last yearhad to borrow $25 millionfrom Major League Baseball.A mess by any measurement.Say it ain’t so.— The Kingston (N.Y.)Daily FreemanMonroe County School Districthttp://www.keysschools.comMonroe County Clerkhttp://www.clerk-of-the-court.comMonroe County Property Appraiserhttp://www.mcpafl.orgMonroe County Tax Collectorhttp://www.monroetaxcollector.com/index.htmlMonroe Co. Supervisor of Electionshttp://www.keys-elections.organd an older woman in a whitetrack suit intervened.A McDonald’s employee,who captured it all on hiscellphone, was fired after hisvideo went viral onYouTube.“They all sat thereand watched,” Polistold The Sun in apoignant video interview.“I think it’s ashame that people ofmy preference, I don’tcare if you dress like aguy or a girl or anything, I feellike people should not haveto be afraid to go out theirhouse.”With long brown hair, a slenderframe, a feminine mannerand a Baltimore accent,Polis said her family had toldher that she did not need toexplain herself, that she should“be who you are and go as youare.”But people at parties sometimeswant to fight her.“I have been raped before,too, because of who I am,” shesaid, adding: “It’s bringing meCorporations shouldpay their tax bills, tooLetters to the editorOn April 18, I participatedin a demonstration on FlaglerAvenue in our fair city of KeyWest. Our little band of 40were protesting big corporateavoidance of paying taxes toour federal government.There are a couple of thingsgoing on here: One, manyüber-wealthy, ginormous profit-makingcompanies are payinglittle to zero in taxes to thefederal government. The othercomponent in this theater ofthe absurd is the mantra thatthe federal government is bad,if not downright evil.Say something loud enoughand often enough and peoplestart to believe it.In this Orwellian atmosphere,it is good that the richdon’t pay taxes; the middleclass, elderly, children and thepoor are responsible for oureconomic woes; and all willbe well as soon as the federalgovernment is in ruins.Of course I exaggerate, butwhat else could explain thesilence from our “representatives”on this morally criminalbehavior by our friends at certainForbes 500 corporations,when they contribute nothing,get fat and actually sometimesreceive tax dollars in the formof subsidies?Dare I say, if these corporatedeadbeats paid their fair share,it would go a long way to keepSocial Security and Medicaresolvent.These same mute lawmakerssuddenly find their voices andscream bloody murder whenfunding for National PublicRadio or Planned Parenthoodor some other drop-in-thetax-dollar-budget-bucketredherring issue comes up.May I humbly submit,Americans have ideologicaldifferences, yes, but we alsohave a healthy sense of fairplay. This — I’ll say it again— morally criminal behaviorhas been painted with the“Republican” brush, but if weare honest and put aside theideology, we know in our blueand red hearts it is wrong,wrong, wrong. I pay taxes,you pay taxes. We may not likewhat some of our tax dollarspay for, but we pay them. Let’stell our lawmakers we are notfools and we want everyone topay what is fair.Alex SymingtonKey WestDon’t waste money bytearing down schoolI’m currently a student inseventh grade, and I attendHorace O’Bryant MiddleSchool. I may not be the beststudent, but I realize thereis a problem with this issuethat everyone is addressing. Isee the problem some housesnear the school face with theschool’s height, and that somewish to tear it down, but thefact of the matter is that weneed a new school. The schoolwe have currently is brokendown and termite-infested.There are a few solutions Ibelieve we can take in ordernot to cost our school systemand district thousands of dollarsin destruction. I believe ifyou rent or buy a house nearthe school’s perimeters, youare sure to face kids screaming/yelling/throwingor theshadow of the school. Theseare responsibilities you haveto handle if you wish to livenear our school, and it may notbe the best. But you have todeal with it if you bought yourproperty.Our state (Florida) doesn’thave the best educationalaccomplishments and system.In fact we are one of the worst.Yet Monroe County spendsthousands of dollars on propertyand retail stores. I think weshould take a step in our state’seducation, because we needto step up — the kids in ourschools will be soon leadingthe city, and even the world.I may be moving away fromMonroe County and Key West,but I still know that what’sbeing talked about is wrong,.You’re wasting thousands ofdollars that the school fundedto make our lives and educationbetter. If we will somedaybe leading the world, I believethat we should have a decentchance of earning an educationof good quality while weare young.Daniel R. SutherlandKey WestLETTERS POLICY: The Key West Citizen welcomes your letters to the editor, and asks that readers follow these guidelines for letter submission. • Only original lettersaddressed to The Citizen will be published; open letters are not accepted. • Letters must include the writer’s name, address and a daytime telephone number. Pseudonyms arenot knowingly accepted. • Maximum length for letters is 350 words. • We do not publish poetry, letters anonymously written, third-party letters, political endorsement lettersor letters praising or criticizing a local business. • Letters of thanks to individuals will be considered; but not letters recognizing sponsors or supporters of organizations or theirevents. • Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks. • Letters can be submitted via e-mail at editor@keysnews.com, by fax at 305-295-8005, or by mail addressed to:Letters to the editor, Key West Citizen, P.O. Box 1800, Key West, FL 33041. • The publisher has final authority on publication of submitted material.Between torment and happiness — the pain of being who you areBY MAUREEN DOWDNew York Timesdown, slowly but surely down.”The suspects have beencharged with assault, andthe Baltimore County State’sAttorney Office is determiningwhether it classifiesas a hate crime.A week before theattack, Maryland’sSenate shelved ameasure extendinganti-discriminationprotections to peoplewho openly changetheir gender identityeven though, as The Sun editorialized,“It would have sent apowerful signal that transgenderpeople are not fair gamefor bigots.”A rally against transgenderviolence at the RosedaleMcDonald’s on Mondaynight featured Polis’ mother,grandmother and a crowdof 300, singing “We ShallOvercome.” Chrissy, no doubtafraid, stayed home. Hermother, Renee Carr, told TheWashington Blade, a gay newspaper,that she supported herdaughter “100 percent” and “Ieven carried her pocketbookon the way to the bus stop asa kid.”Renee Richards’ father nevertalked to her about her sexchange, but he did once chaseafter her in his car to bring hera purse she’d forgotten.An early icon for the transgendercommunity, Richardsis the subject of Eric Drath’sESPN documentary playing atthe Tribeca Film Festival.“Renee” recounts the painfultransformation of Dr. RichardRaskind, a Yale-educatedophthalmologist who marrieda beautiful model and had ason, to Renee Richards, a competitoron the women’s professionaltennis circuit.In the mid-1970s, when Icovered tennis, Renee Richardswas a supremely strange phenomenonas the pro tennisand legal worlds hotly debatedthe fairness of a “he/she”competing against the likesof Chris Evert and MartinaNavratilova.(Richards later coachedNavratilova, helping with acouple of her Wimbledonchampionships.)As John McEnroe notes inthe film: “I was weirded outjust watching her from a distance.”David Israel, a sports columniston The WashingtonStar with me, wrote mordantlyat the time: “Renee Richardsproves that in sports the legsdon’t always go first.”The tall and muscular yetgirly Richards — she oncewrote that she swaggered andjiggled — won her fight tocompete. But because she wasin her 40s and softened withestrogen, she did not mowdown all the younger competition.Now 76, still practicing atthe Manhattan Eye, Ear andThroat Hospital and living inCarmel in upstate New York,Richards has traded tennis forgolf because it’s easier on hercreaky knees.The wraithlike doctor nowsurprisingly contends that it’snot fair for transsexuals to playprofessional sports “becauseit’s not a level playing field.”“Maybe in the last analysis,”she said, “maybe not even Ishould have been allowed toplay on the women’s tour.”(She also told The Times’Joyce Wadler in 2007 thatmarriage should be betweena man and a woman, noting:“It’s like a female plug and anelectrical outlet.”)In the documentary, herscarred son Nick describesRichards, who found greatloves with women as a manbut not men as a woman,being “at a place in betweentorment and happiness.”As Richards herself describesher melancholy odysseythrough limbo: “I wanted tobe a man or I wanted to be awoman. I didn’t want to be atrans in the middle of something,a third sex or somethingthat’s crazy and freakish andnot real.”Maureen Dowd is a syndicatedcolumnist with TheNew York Times. Her columnappears in The Citizen onThursdays.