CLEVELAND, Ohio – “It is what it is.”
The mere mention of the phrase, out of context, with no name attached, will still bring a smile of recognition to many Greater Clevelanders, or a roll of their eyes. For they know of whom you speak, Cleveland’s longest serving mayor, Frank G. Jackson.
You see, Jackson has uttered those words so often over the years, in so many circumstances, that the phrase has become a subject of good-humored joking among his admirers and a target of ridicule for his critics. Perhaps for those reasons, Jackson had successfully weaned himself from using the phrase.
That is, until this week.
On Thursday, after an hour-long briefing on his 2021 budget proposal, Jackson let an “it is what it is” slip into his closing comments to the editorial board for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
And then, with a sly smile, he let us know that the joke has been on us for failing to understand him.
It turns out that “it is what it is” is not some meaningless, throwaway line. Rather, it’s a slightly cryptic summation of a thoughtful philosophy on governing from a man whom we believed we knew so well after his 30 years in public office.
Jackson said some people mistakenly believe he uses the phrase as words of surrender to seemingly intractable problems. “People always say that when the mayor says, ‘It is what it is,’ what he means is that there’s nothing he can do about it.”
Not so. He explained that he instead uses the phrase as a shorthand declaration that he is guided by reality, that he takes a pragmatic approach to problem solving and decision-making. “What it means is I have to accept reality, no matter how painful it is.”
The alternative, he said, would be to govern based on “wishful thinking,” to make decisions based on an illusory vision of the world around him.
“If I live in an illusion, which most elected officials tend to do sometimes, and even business people …,” he said, “then I would make decisions in an illusion, thinking I’m impacting a reality, which would make the reality even worse.”
Staying attuned to reality, he said, “gives me an opportunity to grapple with that reality in a way that I can change it … into something better for this city and for the people of this city.”
That reality-based approach costs him points with people looking for utopian solutions, he said.
“Now in that, I won’t get an amen,” he said, still smiling.
In other words: “It is what it is.”
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January 31, 2021 at 05:30PM
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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s ‘It is what it is’ isn’t what you might think - cleveland.com
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