FitzGerald encourages grads to fight inequality
CLEVELAND — Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ed FitzGerald told graduates of the law school where he received his degree 21 years ago to “act on behalf of those who have not shared fully in the benefits of our society.”
“The stark reality is that every single day, Americans are losing their homes, their savings, their jobs, sometimes everything they’ve worked for, because they can’t afford someone like you to represent them,” FitzGerald said yesterday to the hundreds in attendance and the 156 graduates of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.
FitzGerald, 45, who currently serves as the Cuyahoga County executive, has based his campaign for governor on a message that only wealthy Ohioans are benefitting under the leadership of Republican Gov. John Kasich, which
“The doors to the courthouse are frequently closed to those with modest means.” — Ed FitzGerald, Democratic nominee
Kasich’s team routinely rejects. FitzGerald made no mention of the campaign, but the central theme of his speech to the law school from which he graduated in 1993 had similar arguments of inequality.
“The doors to the courthouse are frequently closed to those with modest means,” FitzGerald said, adding that inequalities in the justice system for “not just the poor, but (the) middle class” lead to “innocent people being locked up in cages.”
FitzGerald called on the public sector to fix those inequalities but added, “Given its all-too frequent dysfunction, I am not confident that it will.
“The private sector should,” he continued, “but given its all-toocommon focus on profits over principle, I am not confident that it will, so you must do your part.”
The Kasich campaign declined to comment on FitzGerald’s speech.
FitzGerald’s career includes stints as an assistant prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, time with private law firms and three years in the FBI.
The commencement speech was FitzGerald’s first since launching his candidacy in April 2013. Kasich has given two college graduation speeches and one highschool commencement address in that time. Giving addresses in an election year can help candidates in more ways than simply providing access to a microphone and an audience.
FitzGerald also received the ClevelandMarshall dean’s professional achievement award yesterday, allowing Dean Craig Boise to say FitzGerald’s role as county executive has “given residents of the county a restored sense of confidence in how our government functions.”
When Kasich gave the winter commencement speech at the University of Cincinnati last year, he received the president’s award for excellence and was showered with praise by President Santa J. Ono for having “pursued the creation of a jobs-friendly climate”; “closed an $8 billion budget deficit without a (state) tax increase” and “crafted a new highereducation funding formula that is a model for the nation and an envy of my colleagues as presidents across the country.”