The American Way

I usually get a quick dose of what's going on in the world of Cleveland on Cleveland.com in the morning and sometimes a peak or two during the day. Most of the comments on the stories are in typical Cleveland fashion, complaining about Cleveland. While it seems like most people here will defend Cleveland to the bitter end, they also love to complain in a this-place-is-broken-and-I-have-a-bunch-of-genius-ideas-of-how-to-fix-it-but-instead-of-doing-something-I'll-just-bitch-on-Cleveland.com-and-leave-it-up-to-everyone-else-while-I-sit-around-and-get-fat(er) sort of way. People mock and complain about the politicians, murders, college students, construction, etc. I even saw complaining about how dumb the Cleveland marathon is. Really? People exercising and bringing money into the town is bad? Idiots.

Anyway, today I'm on Cleveland.com for voting information. Reading about the candidates and issues so I can at least vote with a purpose. There were the neutral (generally) sort of stories as well as editorials. And there were some sensible comments from the peanut gallery too.

Now, I know Americans aren't real big on voting, but I personally find it difficult to complain about how things are going if I didn't vote. Don't like the mayor? Tough shit, but really tough shit if you didn't vote. That said, I would think with all of the complaining and local political insight that everyone has in the comment sections all year, they'd be all over the political/voting info articles on election day. An election day with big issues like casinos and new local government structures and tax shifts. Not to mention a nasty rapist/murder situation. But come on, that's back burner stuff. Sports are where it's at, no?

Good work, Cleveland.

Sports are the important thing, you're right! I bet if the Browns won the Super Bowl unemployment would be a thing of the past.

Priorities, Cleveland. Priorities.

Left: the current list of stories on Cleveland.com with the most comments -- all Browns related (click for larger view).