I'm salty that the local "newspaper", The Cincinnati Enquirer, is trying to start some drama over O'Dell Owens. Dr. Owens is the Coroner of Hamilton County, and was recently selected to be the President of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (here's a link to his bio). According to the article, he's currently serving on both capacities until after Election Day. What's newsworthy about that? Why aren't you covering some other news? And why are all these folks throwing shade in the comments section of the at Cincinnati.com???
I personally have admiration for Dr. Owens. That man has come up from humble beginnings in the West End, to getting a medical degree from Yale, and a job at Harvard, to coming back to Cincinnati and making his mark here. Whereas most intelligent, talented people leave this area, this man came back and is out here trying to make a difference. As coroner, he goes around to school and community groups to encourage and empower everyone in the Cincinnati community, especially youth. He uses his position as coroner to promote life and abundant life in a community where people seem to be anti-life at times, physically, mentally, and spiritually.
I feel that The Cincinnati Enquirer put this article out to try to create a scandal around Dr. Owens. He's been one of the few elected officials in the area that hasn't had any scandal/controversy about them. There are many people that have two jobs, and if he's getting two checks for two jobs, then so be it. So what they're both "government" jobs? He's doing two jobs, so he's supposed to get two checks! Most of those ding-a-lings on city council get two checks for two jobs, as being on city council is considered a part-time job and many of them hold positions with private companies (wish I could have a part-time job that pays $66k+ with benefits...). NO ONE is complaining about that situation, but folk want to throw shade over Dr. Owens getting two checks for two jobs??? It's political - Owens is the Democratic Hamiton County Coroner, and the conservative paper (and it's conservative readers) want to throw shade.
However, I don't think it's wise for Dr. Owens to have assumed the responsibilities of those two particular positions simultaneously. I'm wondering how much time he gets to spend on sleep and family, as I'm assuming that each of those positions - Hamilton County Coroner and College President - are VERY time consuming. Even though it's only for a season, it probably would've been wiser to hold off on accepting the Cincinnati State position until he felt comfortable in leaving the Coroner position.
The main reason this article caught my attention is because, with all that's going on in Cincinnati (being the 3rd poorest city in the nation, for example - blog on this is forthcoming), we need to be appreciative of positive people who are willing to use their time and talents to uplift the people and make Cincinnati a better place. Dr. Owens could've probably built a wonderful life for himself in New England, or in any other part of the country, and he would've been celebrated. But he comes back to Cincinnati and has great success in the medical field and in public service, and people want to hate on him.
I'm tired of the miserable people chasing away wonderful people from Cincinnati because of stupid reasons (political affiliation, economics, unwillingness to consider different ideas). I pray that Dr. Owens continue to work hard and not let the Enquirer and others that would like to use his situation to show out dissuade him from continued success.
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