Writing in Cleveland 2

Ten days and I have written everyday.  I wrote some letters and for the blog to keep in practice.  I looked for writing jobs, but could not find any honest work.  I got about 2 dozen hits on the blog, but no comments.  I don't think I made my goal of three readers to things that I have written yet.  Work in progress.  I am looking for something to keep me active, but not in a leadership role.  I do not want the weight of the world on my backs and I do not want to be the person to keep the doors open.  I did that for 20 years while trying to push a social justice message on the world.  I don't think one person can piss off the leadership of many in the community at the same time as that person begs for money to continue to do the work.  Both are valuable, but need to be done by two different people.  "I hear you that you are angry with my tone in my social media post, Mr. United Way.  I know that I metaphorically blew the doors off your office with my rhetoric calling attention to your hypocrisy in funding decisions, Mr. United Way, but I was wondering if you could spare a couple of thousand dollars to relocate some angry homeless people into housing?"

I took myself out of the social justice struggle two days after a narcissist, misogynist, grifter, and racist won the Presidency of the United States.  I think I finally realized we lost, and we were not going to see a civil rights type of change in our society for the next in my lifetime..  I had spent the previous 23 years of fighting complacency and input-free decision making in Cuyahoga County, but saw that the times they were a changin'.  I had to fight those in power who felt that they knew better than those on the bottom of the economic prosperity ladder.  I had to battle some of the biggest "do-gooders" in our community who I saw were keeping people poor, isolated and docile.  Once I realized that poor people were never going to take power from the current leaders, I tried to get those at the top to at least listen before they allocated money or made policy decisions over the management of poverty.  I failed.  I saw the number of deaths increasing while the number of shelter beds decreasing locally.  I saw civil rights and justice rotting on the tree of liberty.  Things have gotten worse over the last 2 years culminating in an awful state election in Ohio for 2018.  While progressives made great strides in much of the country, deeply red Ohio went backwards.  It is unlikely there will be the flood of money coming to Ohio in 2020 to get out the vote since we will no longer be perceived as a battleground state.

We can boast of high infant mortality and a huge brain drain in Ohio.  Residents are getting older and far less likely to embrace change.  In our pitch to attract new residents, Ohio can champion a high local tax rate, while paradoxically features a poor public educational system for the majority.  We do not have very good public transportation, and a shrinking population and thus a shrinking tax base.  We have a large number of people who would like to take us back to the 1950s including our position on diversity.  All of these issues and we keep voting against our own interests by electing Republicans.   A majority of Ohioans elect people who boast of hating the government that they want to run.  It is like hiring Rep. Steve King selected to head La Raza, the Hispanic empowerment movement.   If you do not want to solve problems and make it better for "we the people" then stay in the private sector selling cars or farm equipment. I have given up on Ohio and see good ideas and progress exclusively on the West Coast. The best Ohio will do is manage the crisis after people have died.  Ohio is East Indiana or North West Virginia.

Onward.

Brian Davis