We need a New Deal for Ohio and Appalachia.   We Ohioans like to take care of our own. As citizens, community organizations, and public officials we do what we can. But the problems we face are bigger than we can solve with only local resources, and unmet community needs have only grown during the pandemic. Our communities need safe daycare and recreational options for our children, affordable housing, broadband access,  accessible clean energy infrastructure, living wage jobs, drug treatment programs, and more. Listen to Session One - Topic: A New Deal that Works for Us  Oct 3, 2020. Access Passcode: 4Hmfj%Re   Continue reading

In order to vote, we need to know the issues. Sometimes the issues are a matter of life and death. With 170,000 dead from Covid 19 and the economy reeling, three proposals have emerged to address the problem. Meanwhile people are running out of money, unemployment claims are surging, and evictions are beginning to mount. Continue reading

When I hear our elected officials say we must open up and put our children in school in the fall regardless of the seriousness of the virus, I cringe and feel the vomit rise in my throat. We all know our children need to go to school. We all know that the social distancing is not good for them or anyone for that matter. We all know we must work hard and make tough decisions. None of this is shocking to anyone. What is shocking, disgusting and ridiculous is having someone who does not know these struggles try to decide what we as a community need. Continue reading

I wear a mask every day, not near as long as some but longer than others.  I sweat more, I get annoyed sometimes. I think damn, why am I doing something that brings me no pleasure and is uncomfortable as hell? Then I look up at the sky, and I look around at people just trying to live another day, and I remember it is not just me that I am trying to keep safe by wearing this thing across my lips and over my nose.   Continue reading

This is the first of a series of very short essays focused on important terms and concepts in the history of social change. Future essays will focus on words like “socialism,” “incrementalism,” “labor power,” “single-issue politics,” “slow violence,” “social death,” and “the 99%.”  Our hope is that these pieces will help to clarify a number of recent political issues as well as provide a common basis for understanding and action. As always, we welcome your feedback. Continue reading

Let's get smarter, if only for our children's sake. A poem by Donna Gibson.  Continue reading

The GSP is a proposed piece of legislation to create a massive federal investment in millions of new jobs with job training and new infrastructure that will address the crisis of global warming which will negatively and permanently change our planet in the next few years. Continue reading