Five Leaders: A Serving of Big Problems, Flavored with Optimism

Being a major leader means never having to say you’re pessimistic. President Jimmy Carter paid a big political price in the late 1970s when he said he thought there was a malaise affecting America. President Ronald Reagan made his optimistic outlook on the future – it’s morning in America – a key to both his political success and his legacy.

So say whatever you want about the specifics of what is going on, but look to the future with hope. It may well be a good approach to personal life. It’s just about a mandatory approach to political life.

That seems like a good perspective on one of the interesting exchanges at  “What Now, Milwaukee? A Forum on the Future of Wisconsin’s Largest City,” a discussion Wednesday at Eckstein Hall that brought together five power players in the city’s life. Mike Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, moderated the 90-minute session before a capacity audience of over 200. The session was co-sponsored by the Law School and the Milwaukee Press Club.

The conversation quickly focused on the need to change the overall low rate of educational success in Milwaukee. There was discussion of budget cuts, rising class sizes, the chronic fighting between advocates for different streams of schools, the inability of the community to come together, and the need to give parents information on every school. Not much light was shed on how to turn the trends in  more positive directions.

But when Gousha asked if educational quality will be better in Milwaukee five years from now, Tim Sheehy, the president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, answered, “Dramatically.” Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said yes. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett agreed. Milwaukee School Superintendent Gregory Thornton said, “Without question.” And Julia Taylor, president  of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, concurred.

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Tierney to Deliver Memorial Address

Milwaukee Bar AssociationI hope that many folks reading this post will elect to attend the Milwaukee Bar Association’s annual Memorial Service: it will be held this Friday, May 6, at 10:45 a.m., in the Ceremonial Courtroom (Room 500) of the Milwaukee County Courthouse. It is an event that a number of us have come rarely to miss—largely because we enjoy it, as I explained in a 2009 blog post noting the remembrance by Tom Cannon of his father, Judge Robert C. Cannon, L’41, and in a post last year anticipating Mike Brennan’s remembrance of his own father, James P. Brennan, L’60. The Memorial Service is an opportunity to remember attorneys who died with the past year, after serving the profession and thus the larger society: some names and careers will be familiar to a particular attendee, whereas others will be unknown to him or her—but in this context the latter are not much less meaningful. I see that this year’s Memorial Address will be delivered by Joseph E. Tierney, III, L’66. That is certainly a longstanding name in this region’s legal profession, as discussed previously in posts on this blog, including Gordon Hylton’s description of the legal education of the first Joseph E. Tierney, L’11 (that’s 1911), and my own account of Joe III’s remarks, at a law school event, concerning his late mother and father, Bernice Young Tierney and Joseph E. Tierney, Jr., L’41. I much look forward to Mr. Tierney’s remarks (no doubt remembering among others his late partner, Paul Meissner, who died within the past year) and to the rest of the special session of court, which is the form that the Memorial Service takes.

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Say It Ain’t So

We like to think that child abusers and child killers are monsters who are easily identifiable and, even more importantly, different from the rest of us “normal” people.  A recent news story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reminds us that the reality is more complicated. 

The alleged crime is sadly familiar: a young man was arrested in connection with the death of his girlfriend’s two-year-old son, Karmari J. Curtis, whom the suspect was babysitting.  The boyfriend brought the toddler’s body to the emergency room and claimed that the child had drowned accidentally while in the bath.  Since the lifeless child was reportedly dry and completely dressed, medical personnel and the police doubted the story, and the medical examiner’s report on the cause of death is currently sealed pending charges.  At the time of the toddler’s death, the suspect, Corey Benson, was out on bail awaiting trial on charges of physical abuse of a child and child neglect.  The previous charges stem from an incident in October when Benson admitted to playing tackle football with the same child and doing elbow and leg drops to him afterwards.  The toddler suffered life-threatening injuries, including a lacerated liver, as the result of that incident.  Benson was under a court order to have no contact with the boy after the October charges.

Everything about this tragic incident is ghastly, but here I want to focus on one particularly chilling aspect of this situation: the suspect, Corey Benson, is a young man of great potential who seemed to have beaten the odds against him. 

Continue ReadingSay It Ain’t So
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