Abstract
In this 2004 interview, Len Calabrese discusses his involvement in the City Club of Cleveland, Ohio. According to Calabrese, it is a place for community outreach, fostering community and diversity. He says, “I appreciate having a place where different viewpoints can be expressed.” A portion of the interview focuses on corporate and philanthropic contributions, membership and programming. During the interview, Calabrese also talks about memorable events and speakers. At the end of the interview, he offers thoughts on the future such as technological and possible format changes.
Loading...
Interviewee
Calabrese, Len (interviewee)
Interviewer
Humphrey, Tom (interviewer); Estrin, Rachel (interviewer)
Project
City Club - Civil Rights
Date
8-4-2004
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
65 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Len Calabrese Interview, 2004" (2004). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 807001.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/401
Transcript
Len Calabrese [00:00:00] And then when I was finishing up at Northwestern, I teach at the Evening College at Northwestern. And then many moons ago, a different lifetime.
Tom Humphrey [00:00:14] Let me start by saying more with Len Calabrese. I’m Tom Humphrey with Rachel Estrin. It’s August 4, 2004, and we’re talking with Len Calabrese about the City Club for, or as part of, the commemorative celebration of the City Club’s 100th anniversary, which is coming up in a few years. Not this year, but in a few years. Right?
Len Calabrese [00:00:36] That’s right. 2012, actually.
Tom Humphrey [00:00:39] Right. So eight years. So how long have you been a member of the Club, of the City Club?
Len Calabrese [00:00:48] Well, that’s a good question. It’s a straightforward question. It seems like it should be easy. Formally, I’ve been a member since 1987, when I became executive director of the Commission on Catholic Community Action. Alan Davis, who I had known before Alan, who then was executive director, said, gee, you know, really would like you to join. Hope you can join. And not only join, but be active, because you’ve been helpful already on getting, speaking and would like to tap into more of that. And I think, you know, you know, the City Club, you come to the City Club, and your family has been in the past involved in the City Club. So I joined myself in ’87. My memories of the City Club, though, go back to when the City Club was on Short Vincent. My father was managing a nightclub on Short Vincent across the street. There was a lot of back and forth right next to the Theatrical Grill. Yeah, he used to go there. And then when he became active in politics and became a state senator, he would go to the City Club. And one of his dear friends and a great role model for me was Pete Di Leone. In fact, Pete was my father’s lawyer for a while, for several years, actually. And Peter was the past president of City Club. Peter was also an Italian American. He was the first Italian American to be president of the City Club. And it was really because of Peter, and through Peter that I became aware of the City Club. And obviously the connection with my father. Peter also was the way I learned about the history of the City Club, which is very important to me, that at a time when many doors were closed, not only in this town, but across our country to African Americans, to Jews, to Catholics, to immigrants, the City Club admitted all of those people. Admission, membership was open to all. Took us a while to catch up, it is true, with half of the human race, with women. But when it came to race, ethnicity, religion, the City Club was a pioneer. And so those principles, not only of free speech, but of a place in the public and a marketplace of ideas where people from different backgrounds could come and debate, dialogue, discourse, was something I was aware of. And those- Those features were very attractive to me, and I valued them and even more after my, you know, my years of being active at the City Club and in some leadership positions. My brother then was also was a member and active for a number of years. So. And now not only, I mean, have I, you know, been fortunate to be active and involved and in leadership and be a president, but my. My son is a member and is active and involved and other members of the family as well.
Tom Humphrey [00:04:27] I’ve had the fortune of working, not so closely with your son, but I’ve been-
Len Calabrese [00:04:33] Oh, yeah, and he’s a good friend of Jen’s. She teaches at CSU.
Tom Humphrey [00:04:39] Yes, she does. She teaches graphic arts, actually. She’s how I got into the new leaders.
Len Calabrese [00:04:44] Good for you. Cool. Good.
Tom Humphrey [00:04:46] I think you only need a couple infectious people to kind of start bringing people in.
Len Calabrese [00:04:51] That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. I think that’s true, and I think that’s always been true. The best form of outreach, it’s good to have programs and mailings and all this, but it’s really people. I mean, I think that’s another thing I value even more about the City Club, that as we’ve gotten, in a sense, more impersonal as a society with technology. I think it is a place where you can come and see people who are from various viewpoints, trying to make a difference in our world. But it’s up close and personal and you can interact with them and also interact with other people from the community.
Tom Humphrey [00:05:41] So you moved away from Cleveland?
Len Calabrese [00:05:42] Yes, I was born here. I’m a native Clevelander, grew up on the east side, live on the east side. But we moved in ’70 when I went to Northwestern for graduate school in history. And then we moved back in 1976, which some use that to question my sanity, but no, I love Cleveland. And that’s another thing that I value about the City Club. That even though we are a national institution, institution, a national forum, national podium, that we are the City Club of Cleveland. And I think we express much that is unique to this community. Both the history that I mentioned, but also, I think, a certain lively, spirited, feisty, public quality.
Tom Humphrey [00:06:43] So when you first started going to the City Club, the club was over in Short Vincent?
Len Calabrese [00:06:48] Yeah.
Tom Humphrey [00:06:49] So you remember the three tables that were set up, or the three tables [crosstalk] that get ensconced-
Len Calabrese [00:06:56] Vaguely. The Soviet table I remember because of Peter. [laughs] And also probably a kid, especially as a pretty dogmatic anticommunist kid, I was just like, wow, what the heck is that? It’s a red star.
Tom Humphrey [00:07:16] Right in the middle.
Len Calabrese [00:07:18] Yeah!
Tom Humphrey [00:07:19] Well, I like the table in part for what it’s got. It’s got the insignia and it’s got people’s names. But I also like what’s on the table, for what’s not there, or for what people have tried to remove from the table. You can see that- If you look at the table, you can see the black marks where the people have tried to cross out their names or black out their names.
Len Calabrese [00:07:43] Right, right! [laughs] [crosstalk] Yeah, that’s right. Probably after the McCarthy hearings. I mean, seriously, who knows? [laughs]
Tom Humphrey [00:07:56] I would- Yeah, actually.
Tom Humphrey [00:07:57] That’s a good- Boy, that’s a PhD dissertation right there, isn’t it?
Len Calabrese [00:08:00] There you go. And I think that, I mean, you know, it’s interesting. I deal with issues every day and with controversial, challenging, difficult issues in our community and our society. So I also appreciate having a place where, again, different viewpoints can be expressed in a civil context. And I think, again, appreciate that more and more about the City Club of Cleveland, because, I mean, maybe I just gave a speech on this election year and polarization, and I think it’s worse than I have ever seen. And it’s fine to be spirited, you know, but I think when you have people questioning the fundamental patriotism and values of people with whom they disagree, it’s a difficult situation and I’m not sure it’s altogether healthy situation. So I just, I value a place like this where there have always been spirited debates. But I think people could still be friends, you know, I mean, they could have a drink, you know? [laughs] It wasn’t, you know, like, you know, you were risking being sent to the Gulag or, you know, to some horrible, horrible place. And I’m not sure there aren’t a lot of people right now who, if they could, wouldn’t be doing that. [laughs]
Tom Humphrey [00:09:40] That’s- Yeah, I would agree with that in that respect. On the Soviet table tells us a lot about what was and what is.
Len Calabrese [00:09:49] Yeah, yeah. I mean, and the other thing, because I do think as strong as those people were in their opinions, their views, their values, I mean, there also was a bonhomie, a spirit of fellowship, so they could be shouting at each other and then go out and drink, you know, or in those days, I suppose, being less politically correct, go to the Roxy or something [laughs], which was right down the street. Yeah. But I do worry about that in terms of where we’re at in the public square.
Tom Humphrey [00:10:35] Do you- This is jumping ahead a little bit. And I’m sorry about jumping back and forth.
Len Calabrese [00:10:41] I do. Free association. [crosstalk] Too much stream of consciousness. It’s James Joyce. Yeah.
Tom Humphrey [00:10:51] Yeah. I never seem to do it quite that well, though. The City Club- The funding of the City Club, the financial backing of the City Club, has become more institutionalized, more corporate, more corporatized, although some continued private funding. Do you think that there’s been a kind of, I don’t want to say an erosion but maybe-
Len Calabrese [00:11:21] A dampening?
Tom Humphrey [00:11:23] A dampening of the bonhomie that you talked about?
Len Calabrese [00:11:25] Yeah, I frankly don’t- I mean, I’ve thought about that and we’ve talked about that. I don’t think so. I mean, I really don’t. I think- For one thing, and I don’t know the exact percentages, and obviously Jim Foster has that info, but I think it is still the case that the largest single source of support for the City Club are the members. We do rely more on. On philanthropic grants, and we do rely more on corporate contributions. I think- Well, I think there’s several things to be said about that. One, I think, frankly, when you compare what we’re doing now as an organization with what we were doing even 10 years ago, and again, it’s not, you know, it’s just being descriptive, not unfairly criticizing anything that went on in the past. But we are, I think, much more organized. We are better organized. We are better staffed. We have more of a staff. We have more programs that are serving actually a broader reach of people, from students to young adults to emerging new leaders. You know, through the range of membership, we’re having more special programs than we ever did. I mean, there are more activities at the City Club now more than ever. I mean, to the extent that those of us who have been on the board or still go to board meetings get concerned about stretching a small staff too much, stretching them taut to the breaking point, I think we are much more ensconced, if you will, in the civic fabric of this region. So I think more institutions, and it’s not just corporations. There are more institutions, hospitals, even religious institutions, not for profits, that either our members are contributing. I think they see their support as a way to be involved in this and as a way to strengthen the civic fabric of the larger community. The reality is, too, as a not for profit, which the City Club is, and of course, City Club itself was never incorporated until, I forget the exact date, we were incorporated as a 501c3. The Forum Foundation, of course, predated that. So that was the way that contributions came in. That’s still the, you know, the endowment.
Tom Humphrey [00:14:31] Okay, so they set up the Forum Foundation for separate corporate schools. [crosstalk] That’s what Stanley Adelstein was talking about.
Len Calabrese [00:14:36] That’s right.
Tom Humphrey [00:14:36] And then the City Club itself is affiliated with-
Len Calabrese [00:14:40] Well, the City Club was sort of the named beneficiary of the Forum Foundation, but the Forum Foundation was separately incorporated and it could give its charitable contributions to who it deemed. Now, the City Club was the reason it came into being. So. Yeah. And Stanley, of course, did tremendous work in having those endowed forums. Those contributions went to the Forum Foundation. It’s only in the past- You’d have to check this. I want to say 10 years, maybe not. Certainly it doesn’t go back much before 1990, that the City Club is incorporated as a 501c3. So that goes back to the point all and I, you know, had a not for profit. We all both have tried to institutionalize support funding in the past decade and we’ve all struggled with that. It’s gotten harder. So I think that’s true for the City Club as well. So I think what’s gone on has been a recognition that City Club is a valuable resource in this region. Two, that it strengthens the civic fabric of the region. That’s good for all of us. And three, that if it’s going to survive, I mean, really survive, not just kind of, you know, be around in name, but if it’s really going to survive as a vibrant, vital place locally, regionally and nationally, it’s got to have more secure, stable funding. So then that leads to an outreach campaign for corporate support, of course, the best example of that. And it’s why I don’t think it’s had any dampening effect. The biggest form of support was for the capital improvement of the physical structure. And that has set the stage, I think, for much of this renewed strengthening of the organization and for expansion of the organization, the physical improvement and remodeling and renovation. I think we’re also in the process of trying to do that same kind of what really is major effort around technology. And again, if we’re going to last and endure into the future, we’ve got to be able to communicate in a variety of new ways that are consistent with new technology. That all costs money. But I don’t think, and I was chair of the program committee, I’m told, longer than anybody else has ever Been for. We think it’s close to six years, but I think probably from roughly 1992 to 1990, 1998, but maybe ’93 to ’99, I think. Let’s see. I was president 2001 to 2002. I was vice president from 2000 to 2001. So I would have gone right up to when I was vice president in those roughly six years of being chair of the Program Committee. I never once. I can say this. Absolutely. And have and would anywhere. I never had anybody who’s identified with a corporation or with a corporate. Can’t see the quotation marks, I guess. Yeah. I never had somebody call me or really say to me in any way, shape or form, what are you doing? We don’t want that person speaking there. We can’t have that person speaking there. Now, that doesn’t mean, especially when we come back around this, we didn’t have controversial speakers. And when I was president, I mean, one speaker, one whole event in particular stands out. But that was not an issue of corporate reaction. And I can say that quite, really, quite sincerely that I never saw any attempt to influence the agenda of the City Club, the programming of the City Club speakers of the City Club, by anybody giving money to the City Club. Not that it would have made a difference, frankly. At least not while I was program chair or president. But. But I think that says something about, again, the history that out of that history comes a certain reputation, certain integrity and some respect in the community. I think- I mean, we did have a flap and there were some problems. I think that was more a communication issue really, with the Citadel of Free Speech Award and with Justice Scalia. Was that last year? Yeah, but again, I don’t think that was not primarily wasn’t corporation people or leaders or institutions reacting either in the choice or in the format. And the issues were really around the format anyway. Yeah.
Tom Humphrey [00:20:25] Were you president of the City Club when the club gave him the Citadel speech? No, no, no.
Len Calabrese [00:20:33] That was a year after that was last. He was given that, I believe last year, 2003, I think. Yeah. And my term ended June 30, 2002. I was on the committee of the several years.
Tom Humphrey [00:20:47] When you were the chair of the Program Committee, who were some of the speakers that you just think, you know, when I’m much older than you are now, that’s the person I’m going to remember, or these are the people I’m going to remember?
Len Calabrese [00:21:02] Yeah. This is where I wish I had the introductions. I did a lot because I started doing introductions When I was program chair, and then I did it through my time as vice president. President, as well as when I was president. I’ve done them since. So I guess again, a few people have been around, like Dennis Dooley have probably introduced more people than, I don’t know. Poor Ben’s gone through all those introductions, huh? There are a few, I guess.
Rachel Estrin [00:21:36] There are a few. I’m trying to think of your most recent.
Len Calabrese [00:21:41] That was just Bob Bennett, chair of the Ohio Republican Party. It was last Friday, correct? Yeah. Well, let me see. I think there were some, I mean, ones that are really memorable that stand out. One was, this is terrible. Now, this is what happens when you get older and the proper nouns become a problem, especially when you’re overextended. The program on the anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel was very touching and moving to me, and I had the pleasure of moderating that and introducing. It was Daniel- It was Rabbi Silver’s book, Brother- I’m drawing a blank on his first name. I can remember Adele, who was Rabbi Silver’s widow, was there. The rabbi was Daniel- Daniel, I think, Jeremy Silver, his brother, who spoke. And you could find his name. His first name was a filmmaker. He made Hester Street and other well known films. Spoke very movingly about what it meant. His father. One of the reasons- One of the rationales for his speaking and for our invitation was that Rabbi Daniel Silver and his brother- His name will come to me probably when I’m driving home. His first name. That’s terrible. Their father was the only American to sign the Israeli declaration forming the state of Israel. And that was actually the first Rabbi Silver. Rabbi.
Rachel Estrin [00:23:44] Is that Abba?
Len Calabrese [00:23:45] Abba-
Rachel Estrin [00:23:48] Hillel Silver.
Len Calabrese [00:23:49] Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, who was a member of the City Club, an early member of the City Club, speaker at the City. I think he’s in the City Club hall of Fame.
Rachel Estrin [00:23:58] Yes, he is.
Len Calabrese [00:23:59] Abba Hillel Silver, colorful, great, amazing figure. But his son spoke and that was the connection. So that was very moving. Very moving. When we had. In the 90s, we had the Klan coming to Cleveland and there was a big controversy over that. I was proud of the City Club that we held a forum and we had as a speaker that was probably in the mid-’90s. [00:24:30] Again, I don’t remember the exact date, but we could find that we had. Remember him well as one of my heroes, Reverend C. T. Vivian. Reverend C. T. Vivian was one of the founding members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He in Nashville was a major figure in inspiring and training people like John Lewis, who became, of course, Congressman John Lewis, Jim Bevel, Diane Nash, people who became major leaders in Southern Christian Leadership Conference and in SNCC. Reverend Vivian stands out, especially in Halberstam’s book The Children, which is one of my favorite books. In fact, I had him sign the book for me. And that was just, I mean, a wonderful forum at a very tense time. I think we provided a very important service to the wider community, bringing people together, you know, in a time of tension, to remember why we were coming together, you know, and remember, you know, why this was such an important moment in the life of the city. And also remembering, I think, in the best of our tradition, that we don’t take stands or sides, but I think, reminding us of how best to respond to hate and to those who really want to silence people, you know. So that was biggie.
Rachel Estrin [00:26:25] On a smaller scale, you introduced someone in April, and I wasn’t around for it, but I did do the training transcript for it. And he was a gentleman of the church who talked about Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.
Len Calabrese [00:26:41] Oh, yes. And his name, Father George Smiga. S-M-I-G-A. Father George Smiga from St. Noel’s. Yes. That was Good Friday, actually, for us, right?
Rachel Estrin [00:26:51] It was Good Friday. And I read and listened.
Len Calabrese [00:26:54] For us who are Christians. Yeah, the program.
Rachel Estrin [00:26:57] And it was phenomenal. And you introduced him, and that must have been a wonderful program.
Len Calabrese [00:27:03] Yeah, and I felt good about that because we actually, we always struggle with what to do on religious holidays, whether it’s, you know, the high holy days, whether it’s a Good Friday. And I suppose because Good Friday obviously falls on Friday particular, an issue. What do you do with a forum? Sometimes we’ve canceled it, so I don’t know, Jim. Probably because of where I work and probably because of our relationship over the years, we always wind up talking about that. We tried a couple of other ways to go, and I was very pleased, I mean, not only to recommend George, but that we were able to get him. Yeah, we got very positive response, again, about his thoughtfulness, his insight, and again, helping people to make some sense of, again, what is a very, I think, tense and polarizing event. The movie which has caused not only a lot of conversation, but certainly a fair amount of hurt and division. I would say, briefly, the other ones that still stand out for me and probably more, I think these are probably more. When I was president, Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking, who we had, who spoke about capital punishment, was absolutely wonderful. I’ve been with her Several times and been on the program with her in many venues and have heard her speak. And she was very good that day. Her webcast, by the way, Gary Musselman keeps track of these things. It’s had the most hits of any webcast by far. This very amazing Southern nun who very down home, but communicates as well as anybody I have ever heard and is very courageous and I think very, very thoughtful. She stands out.
Tom Humphrey [00:29:17] She’s got kind of an inner power.
Len Calabrese [00:29:20] Yeah, I put my finger on what it is. And she really connects with, I think, with ordinary sort of folks, you know, and could share her journey in a way that brought. Brings them in. So it’s not like just talking to the choir, you know, those who already are knowledgeable and certainly with an issue like capital punishment, the choir’s not too big to begin with, of those who are against it. So the- Helen stands out. And I mean, I was glad, you know, to be able to, in conjunction with the board and program committee, to use some of our networks. And Helen was an example of that. The other one was an incredible moment, was we had invited, together with John Carroll, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who had the year before, I think this was 2002. So around 2001, Cardinal McCarrick had become the cardinal archbishop of Washington, D.C. we had invited him probably in the summer of 2001. Well, in the meantime, of course, the entire, you know, kind of sex abuse crisis in the Catholic church unfolded. Cardinal McCarrick was not only a visible spokesperson on that, but was really a point person for the American church in its discussions with the Vatican. And he came to the City Club directly from Rome, and he was just back from meeting with the Pope. There were media all over the place. I mean, it’s kind of ironic that with all the political figures we’ve had. I don’t myself remember, we’ve had a lot of media, but. But I mean, we were wall to wall with media. And he did a press conference at the City Club, I think, before. Either right before or right after the forum. And the cardinal is a very vigorous man, but he’s not a young man. You know, he’s in his 70s. And his pace was just amazing to me. But he gave. I thought he was supposed to speak originally on human rights because he’s been an internationally recognized spokesperson for human rights and religious freedom. So he wove that in to a speech about also his experience in Rome and his reflections on this unfolding crisis. It was just an amazing kind of moment. And that stood out as much as the talk, I think also people who aren’t, you know, probably as well known. Jeez. And I had to see that. The young man who put together this children’s organization when he was 16, he’s from Canada, we had around International Human Rights Day, so it would have been December of 2001. It’s not Kroningsberg, but he was just a very engaging and amazing speaker who’s traveled a lot to trying to empower young people to speak out about situations affecting other young people, especially in the Third World and developing countries. Lastly, one of the most challenging introductions for me was when I introduced my boss, Bishop Pillow, which was. And he’d spoken before at the City Club on issues about the role of the church in civic life. We had him. We’ve sort of started this tradition over the past few years, years of starting the New Year with someone reflecting kind of out of a faith tradition. And we did that with him in January of 2002.
Tom Humphrey [00:33:41] That’s quite a year you reflected on.
Len Calabrese [00:33:45] Yeah, that’s exactly right. Bill Clinton’s law, I remember that was interesting.
Tom Humphrey [00:33:57] Did he ever get down to defining what is is?
Len Calabrese [00:33:59] What is is. Actually, he wound up talking about Elian Gonzalez, because he was the lawyer in the Elian Gonzalez case as well. And there were some disappointing ones, too, I have to say, probably not politically correct. I was disappointed with. And in retrospect, it’s kind of interesting given some of the criticisms that have come up. I was rather disappointed with Louis Freeh. You know, I didn’t think he said much. He, of course, was not then head of the FBI. He was working. I think he’s still at MBNA. But I. I didn’t think it was a particularly compelling or thoughtful or speech. I thought it was a little defensive. And that was before, really. I think that. Was that before. Well, I don’t know, maybe. But it was reflecting maybe some of the concerns around 9 11. And of course, that whole period around 911 with very challenging.
Tom Humphrey [00:35:10] And what did the- You were the president of the club. What did the club do?
Len Calabrese [00:35:15] The Friday after 9/11 we had Tommy Thompson scheduled secretary, of course, of Health and Human Services. And needless to say, he had to cancel. And so we went around on that. Well, we had- First, we had a program scheduled for Wednesday, a special program, I think it was about. It was a program on the region.
Rachel Estrin [00:35:45] It was- Was that the Rebuilding?
Len Calabrese [00:35:50] Yeah, Rebuilding. Rebuilding Cleveland. Rebuilding the region. And we had spent a lot of time in planning this, and it took a lot of time to get it off the ground. And there’s another example of where we. We had some funding. I was one of the banks. I think there was a co-sponsor to help get that up and going and publicize it. We went around, I mean, in the early days, well, the early hours, really right after the horrible attack, and it was a close call. Do we go forward with that? Of course. People didn’t even know what’s going on and how widespread. We decided to do it. We decided that the best way to express our concern and sympathy for those who had been killed, as well as to honor the dead and those injured, was really to continue the program and that it was an expression of our core values as Americans and that it was a way to really, you know, say that we’re not going to be intimidated. You know, we’re not going to abandon who we are as a people. I think that would be the worst form of response. So we did that. And then when Thompson, of course, canceled, we then had the same sort of discussion about what do we do Friday. What we wound up doing was having a panel of leaders across our community, but also who were national leaders, responding to the aftermath in a variety of ways. So we had John Ryan from the AFL-CIO and talking about the role of labor, as well as working men and women who were involved in the rescue. We had the head of the Red Cross locally, and we had another. We had also a child psychologist, I think, Dr. Sylvia Rimm. And we had Reverend C. J. Matthews from Mount Sinai Baptist Church, who was talking about the religious community and also reinforcing that message about not, in a sense that not giving into our fears and not abandoning our values and who we are. So that was. Yeah, that was, I think, a very challenging time. Difficult time on the one hand, but also time when I really, you know, in retrospect, was just really very proud of what we did. And then, you know, there were programs, I know, after that, I think for quite a while, we kept coming back to, you know, sort of reflecting on what does this mean, the aftermath of this horizon, horrendous occurrence, and what does it mean in terms of our values and identity as Americans?
Tom Humphrey [00:39:10] Is there any reaction from some of the members that you remember.
Len Calabrese [00:39:28] About continuing programming?
Tom Humphrey [00:39:30] Well, maybe about continuing some programs. I know that you yourself were. You were involved in an incident with somebody from, I think, the Palestinian state.
Len Calabrese [00:39:39] Oh, yeah, talk about that. Right. We’ll get to that soon.
Tom Humphrey [00:39:45] I think it was after that.
Rachel Estrin [00:39:46] That was after September 11th, correct?
Len Calabrese [00:39:48] That was 2002, I think.
Tom Humphrey [00:39:52] Do you see that as a reaction to September 11, or maybe that was just a different kind of issue.
Len Calabrese [00:39:59] Yeah, I didn’t, you know, I really didn’t think of that. I mean, I didn’t see it that way. I think it was a different kind of issue that came out of the history. Yeah, that was April of 2002.
Tom Humphrey [00:40:19] Could you kind of set it up.
Len Calabrese [00:40:20] And talk us back that. Yeah, well, sure, sure. Just to finish the loop on the programming after 9/11/2001, one or two people expressed some discomfort. It wasn’t so much any kind of anger. It was more discomfort or disease. I know one panel member who was scheduled to be there on September 12, she just could not do it. But it was more in talking with her, it was more that she just felt it was too raw for her. But it wasn’t like she said, I don’t know how you could do that. So we didn’t get much of that. In fact, what we did get more of were people who said, well, you know, I was glad I had someplace to go to, in a sense, talk to other people to process all of these images and emotions. And I think that may have been some of the feeling, actually, with the situation with Hassan Abdel Rahman, who was the representative of the PLO in the United States. He was invited to speak, I should mention, after several speakers really throughout the year, who had spoken on the Palestinian Israeli conflict from the standpoint of the state of Israel. So he was invited to speak through a member of the City Club who thought that he both was a good speaker, had some things to say, was a speaker perspective that had been heard at City Club. We did talk about that in terms of the issue that came up was not so much free speech issue, but the issue. And it was posed graphically by a very active member of the City Club who had been very supportive of the City Club. City Club, a leader in the community who said in a letter addressed to me, are you not giving a platform to people who are not only using words but are using bombs? So essentially he said, this man is explaining away a program that is killing children in Israel. Children I know, and children I don’t know if he said I’m related to. But, you know, certainly very, very close. I think the direct question was, why should the City Club give voice to a terrorist organization? And also said that the City Club is legitimizing terror and murder. So that it was something we took seriously, I took seriously and thought about. And we also talked about at the City Club, talked about at the board as well as talked about the executive committee. My view was that in the society we’re in now, that Hassan Abdel Rahman doesn’t lack for venues to speak. You know, he’s on CNN, he’s on C-Span, he’s on the news regularly. In fact, right before he spoke at City Club, he was on a TV program. What I think is different was the fact that he was going to be asked questions. He was going to be subjected to questions. And knowing the City Club, I knew they would be thoughtful but tough questions. I also think, you know, that having someone speak I don’t think legitimizes a point of view. I did feel bad, and I said that in my response letter that. That any kind of programming would cause any member, let alone someone who I have respect for, to feel such anguish. I mean, that’s certainly not the intent, but at the same time, I thought that we needed. We needed not only to hear this point of view, but to subject it to tough, critical questioning. And that was consistent with our history. It was consistent with our tradition, even if. Even if unpleasant. And I was very. That was a memorable for him because significant security was the tightest we’ve ever had. We had metal detectors. We had it at the Sheridan. We all went through metal detectors. It was a very large crowd. I was pleased with the program because I was also very aware of the audience. And I should say I have done a lot of work with the Jewish Community Fund Federation. We have also done work with responsible leaders in the Muslim community and with Arab American leaders locally. So I was pleased when I walked up to the podium in that forum that as I looked out, I saw a very diverse audience. So I was glad that there were many viewpoints in many sectors of our community represented there. And I think that came out in the questions as well. So I thought, you know, there was some very tough. But I thought, you know, certainly fair and certainly civil questions. And I thought the dialogue was very good. The other thing that was amazing to me, and I don’t know that this has ever gotten any attention. One of the leaders, community leaders who was there, who I have great respect for and have worked with on several projects, was Bobby Goldberg, who’s at Ohio Savings and who has done, I think, some noteworthy things in trying to stimulate economic development in Israel as well as here. He met one of the local leaders of the Arab American community, who’s Palestinian, Sam Mohammed, I think it was. And out of that, I mean, they talked more and I think talked more as well with Hamas, Hassan Abdel Rahman, about what could be done to bring about more economic development in Israel and Palestine in a way that would benefit Israelis and Palestinians in a way that could lead to more joint ventures, that could lead to more common enterprises, that could hopefully lead to more peace. And that has since become an ongoing project. I think it’s. It’s even got a name. I don’t know if it’s Children of Abraham or Sons of Abraham, but. And I think that’s been ongoing. So I just think, you know, to me it confirmed my belief that, you know, when you get people to together in a kind of common ground with a framework and some kind of commitment to civil dialogue, you never know what’s going to happen. Now, we didn’t do that at a City Club, obviously. I mean, but I think, you know, and again, we’re kind of setting the stage, providing a context, have a framework. So. So that was, I think, a kind of very highly charged situation. I mean, I felt bad about the strong feelings that were engendered, but I think we were true to the core values of the City Club. And I think afterwards received some feedback again from diverse, not only persons, but diverse parts of our community.
Tom Humphrey [00:50:21] It sounds like it would. Well, it must have been at least as controversial as having, say, somebody from the white supremacist group speak.
Len Calabrese [00:50:32] Well, in fact, I know a few people compared it to when William Shockley spoke. Of course, I think that might have been what, in the ’80s, you know, had these views about the scientific inferiority of African Americans. And I mean, a really, you know, I think obnoxious and unsupportable viewpoint. But, you know, he spoke. So I do struggle, though, I have to say. I mean, I think that, you know, if you look at the creed, the creed of the City Club that goes back to Ralph Hayes and was adopted in 1916, we do have a commitment to freedom of speech. And it says there I have a forum as wholly uncensored as it is rigidly impartial. Freedom of speech is graven above my rostrum. I think a lot of folks forget the next few words, though, because it goes on to say, and beside it, besides the freedom of speech, which we certainly are committed to, beside it is fairness of speech. So I think fairness is extremely important. That’s why in my time as chair of the Program Committee, as well as when I was an officer and then president, balance was something that I just thought we had to be more rigorous about. And I think we did go through a period probably in the early ’80s, and I think it may have reflected our society maybe starting to get more, even more polarized when we did not always have the reputation of being even handed, fair, balanced, that we were perhaps seen as reflecting a bias that I think was the perception, whether it was reality or not. I mean, I don’t know, but that certainly was the perception. And I just thought even the perception was a problem, you know. You know, so as program committee chair, I mean we really try to address that issue of balance. And it’s an ongoing issue. And I think not only balance politically, not only between Republicans, Democrats, independents, but I think even more especially these days, balance and addressing social issues. And that’s a concern because I think there can be very subtle biases on social issues, especially among people who are very well educated. And sometimes, you know, I think that that can be the insidious thing with bias. We’re not aware of our own biases, especially, you know, a lot of people around us sort of share them. We think, well, that’s just what any, you know, thinking smart. Yeah. Educated person would think. Well, not necessarily.
Tom Humphrey [00:53:57] Well, one of the things that the new leaders did a while ago was a program on homelessness. And it was much debated about how do we bring some even handedness to this discussion. The response was, well, how do you go out and find somebody who’s pro homeless? Nobody’s pro homeless.
Len Calabrese [00:54:20] So.
Tom Humphrey [00:54:21] But it’s refreshing, I guess. Interesting to note that the executive committee or the programming committee kind of wrestles with those issues as well.
Len Calabrese [00:54:28] Yeah, yeah, very much. And I suppose, and I remember the first time we went around on it when we talked about abortion and I mean I just. We had had several programs, if you look through the historical record, with people who were involved on what I guess would be called the pro choice side. And I said, I just think in the interest of balance, we either need if we’re going to do programming and that’s fine. We shouldn’t. I’m not saying we shouldn’t stay away from programs, you know, topics. It’s how we address those topics. We either need to do a debate or we need to have somebody who we have not had at the city club, really who is going to address a pro life viewpoint on the subject. So I think we tried, I think we tried to get a debate that did not work. We could not get a pro choice speaker to agree to be on the platform with somebody on the pro life side. We did wind up having a person from a national organization called Feminists for Life who taught that on pro life side. And There was some muttering, as I recall, but that really came out and I think it was very clear to me and I think to the executive committee at the time because I think I might have been president by then and to Jim as executive director, that that happened not because of my own values or where I work, but it really happened because of a concern for balance and fairness. So I think that’s an ongoing issue that I know new leaders had. In fact, I think my son moderated that the program on. Well, they had the same sex marriage. No, no, I mean regionalism. That’s a sexy issue compared to all the dull stuff on same sex marriage. Sex marriage.
Tom Humphrey [00:56:53] Well, there’s even discussion about what do we call it.
Len Calabrese [00:56:56] Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And how do you, so how do you do it in a way, again, that’s even handed and sort of not be giving an impression that no matter what our own personal values are and commitments that I think as the City Club of Cleveland, we not only have to be nonpartisan at fair because we’re a 501c3, but I think it’s the right thing to do. It’s what we should be doing and we should be reflecting the cross section of opinions and viewpoints as diverse as this community is and as diverse as the society is.
Tom Humphrey [00:57:44] Mr. Where do you see the City Club going in the next five or 10 or 15 years? Where’s the City Club going to be-
Len Calabrese [00:57:57] When my grandson joins?
Tom Humphrey [00:58:00] Yeah, right, right.
Len Calabrese [00:58:03] And then my granddaughter who’s younger? Well, that’s a good question. I think it’s going to be around. I wasn’t so sure that when I joined the board, when I was elected to the board and I was elected to the board, I was one of the last ones, I think, who had a run and had competition. I think we’re going to be around. I think we’re going to be communicating through different media and what that looks like and what all of those are. We could talk about some, like satellite radio and more webcasts, but I think there’s others, you know, we can’t even project at this time. I think hopefully there will be more TV broadcasts as well as an expansion of the radio network. I think we could certainly look to formatting. I mean, the format, the current format, though, I’m comfortable with it and I like it because it is structured. And to me it’s one reason I have always enjoyed moderating, because to me it’s kind of something. I know it’s familiar, but we’re not wedded to that it’s not certainly something that’s come down from on high. You know, it was formulated at one point in time, it can be changed at another point in time. And. And indeed, we may need to look at that. There may need to be more participation from other people through some of those forms of media. I don’t know. I think, I hope we’ll continue to become more diverse and to reflect more of the community. I think we need to do that. I think we’ve been making a good faith effort of that. I think we’re seeing some of that in programming and in membership. I think we have a ways to go in terms of diversifying our regular Friday forum audience. So I think sometimes what’s seen on tv, especially on rebroadcasts of the City Club, is not always reflecting the full diversity of the City Club in membership. And I think that has to be addressed. I’m not sure. I think we have to continue to try to have a balance also in being a national podium and also being a regional and local forum in place. And I think also how we navigate becoming. Well, how we navigate that dimension is important. How we become more of a regional institution is also important without losing our history and our identity as the City Club of Cleveland. But I think reflecting that Cleveland itself is becoming a region, I think we can, we will have, and I think should have more collaboration, more partnerships with others. You started by, you know, talking about or raising the issue of corporate contributions, but I think, you know, we have had not only contributions from, from other entities, but we’ve done more in partnership with others, whether again, not for profits. What used to be the Federation for Community Planning, now the center for Community Solutions, whether Cleveland State, especially Levin School, whether faith institutions, whether Jewish Community Federation, Catholic Charities, I think doing more partnerships, doing more programming and collaboration, I think we’re going to see that. I think we should see that. I think finally, I think we got to figure out a better way and I think some new ways to engage the tremendous educational assets that exist across this region. You know, from Oberlin all the way to Lake Erie College, from Cleveland State, all the way to the University of Akron, all the private colleges. I just think we’re. We’re not tapping into that as well as we could. And I don’t think the educational instincts, institutions are tapping into us as well as they could. And I think we’re all the less for that. I think it would be in everybody’s best interest if we had more interaction, more collaboration. We’ve brought that up with NOCI you know, with the Consortium of Higher Education. But I think we need to really think about that, and we need to really do some convening about that and getting the right people. And I think some of that involves leadership and the presidents of the colleges, but I think we need to go beyond that as well. And so who else needs to be even in those discussions and in that planning? Yeah, that’s. But I think. I think we have real assets as the City Club of Cleveland. We probably are the only organization like this in the country that has its own space. I mean, all the other public affairs institutions are typically renting space. They’re at hotels or at other venues. And of course, I think it’s important for us to continue. As an old historian, I think history is worth something. And the fact that we are the oldest continuously running public affairs free speech forum in the country is worth noting and worth continuing. And I think we will.
Tom Humphrey [01:05:05] Good. Okay. Well, I think that’s. Do you have any questions? Questions?
Rachel Estrin [01:05:10] I’ve asked them already.
Tom Humphrey [01:05:11] Yeah, we’ve taken up your hour.
Len Calabrese [01:05:14] Yeah, well, thank. No.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
