Plain Dealer columnist's series on the thug culture named Pulitzer finalist

By Chad D. Baus

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported last week that the newspaper's metro columnist Regina Brett was one of three finalists for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary. After the death of a teen-aged armed robber who attacked a concealed handgun license (CHL)-holder, and in response to community outrage insanely focused against the robber's victim for protecting himself, Brett wrote a series of columns that explored inner-city violence, poverty and hopelessness among black teenagers and young men.

On May 8, 2007, I wrote a response to Brett's second column, and titled it "It's time for another Plain Dealer Pulitzer: Self-defense commentary continues". I am pleased to hear that Brett's excellent writing was indeed nominated for this journalistic prize.

While the initial Plain Dealer news coverage of an Ohio CHL-holder protecting himself with gun was everything we've come to expect from the anti-gun newspaper's coverage on gun issues - error-filled and biased, columnist Regina Brett quickly came to the news reporters' rescue.

In an April 25 article entitled "No sympathy for thug culture", Brett correctly put the focus on this incident where it belongs - on the criminal atacker, and the culture that enables him and those like him.

Brett's column struck home. Within 48 hours, the Cleveland NAACP President and Cleveland Councilman Zach Reed had spoken out against the thug culture, saying "the black community failed 15-year-old Arthur Buford."

But Brett wasn't finished. Her April 29 follow-up column - "Time to stand up to thug culture" - called out Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson as having been "AWOL" since the self-defense shooting.

Another shock wave ripped across the city - and one day later Mayor Jackson made his first public comments about the shooting. (Unfortunately, it appeared he agrees with the vandals who have trashed the robbery victim's home and force him to move. You see, Frank Jackson believes the armed robber is a "victim".)

Brett's May 6 column was entitled "Wells' story: One person, one action can change a life", and is yet another excellent commentary. Once again, Brett's commentary kept the focus where it should have been - not on the tools criminals use to commit their violent acts, but on how to fight the "cancer that has taken over the inner city".

(To view all of the series' prize-nominated columns, click here.)

From the Plain Dealer's Pulitzer-finalist story:

"Last year took me to the heart of [the inner city], and I realized that these kids need our voice more than anybody," Brett said.

"While journalists cannot right every wrong, champion every cause or fix every problem, they can - through the written word - lift someone's burden for a day, make some elderly woman on a bus smile or let them know they are noticed by someone.

"As much as the Pulitzer is the hallmark of journalism, I think what I love the most is when somebody says they took my column and it's in their wallet," Brett said. "I have had people open their wallet and show me a corner of a column."

Future columns will build on last year's themes, Brett said, urging a united front to step forward to address urban violence and poverty that no one person or organization can solve.

In 2004, ultra-liberal Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz (wife of Sherrod Brown, the recently-elected anti-gun U.S. Senator from Ohio) was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for commentary that, among other things, bashed Ohio CHL-holders as "Dirty Harry wannabe's":

It seems to me the ones who need protecting aren't the folks who tuck a Glock under their armpit every time they step out to walk the dog or buy a quart of milk. I hate to make assumptions here, but I can't help thinking that folks who carry concealed weapons aren't the ones quoting Gandhi. And if I'm in a store that's about to be robbed, the last place I want to be is between a robber and the Dirty Harry wannabe who's decided to take the perp down.

Schultz was notably mute about the self-defense incident about which Regina Brett's Pulitzer-finalist articles were written, which, ironically, involved an man who tucked a gun under his arm before he stepped out to walk to his neighborhood convenience store and was attacked by armed robbers in his yard upon his return. And thanks to Regina Brett's excellent articles, Ohio knows that no "Dirty Harry wannabe" was he.

Chad Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman and Northwest Ohio Chair.