May 4th is the National Day of Reason in 2024 and into the future. One of the ways we have wanted to mark the occassion is to have the city council issue a resolution marking the day in the city. We weren’t prepared for how hard it really is to get it done. That’s why we started a petition.
Back in 2019, SHoWLE reached out to the Mayor of Toledo about issuing a proclamation but his office declined and then the pandemic happened and our efforts fell by the wayside.
This year we decided to focus on the city council since they have issued resolutions for a whole host of issues with the most recent being demanding a cease fire in Gaza. So how hard could it be?
There is no written formal process but in talking to a long time community activist, they suggested emailing the council president with the request. We did that and heard nothing back. Not even a thank you for sending this email. After reaching out again, the president responded back that our request had been missed and she declined to sponsor a resolution from us.
A resolution has to be sponsored by a member of council and this being a resolution from a non-religious group to mark a day about reason, there were not many council members to approach who would welcome our request. We identified another council member known for their progressive stances on the issues and advocacy for social justice and reached out to them. Never heard back. Again not even an acknowledgement they got the message.
In consulting our community activist friend again, he mentioned that council is innudated with requests like ours all the time, they have no formal office or staff at city hall, and most times they won’t act on anything unless they know citizens are requesting it and will back their efforts.
That’s where our petition comes into the picture.
We’ve started a petition with the goal to ask the Toledo City council to adopt a Day of Reason resolution. The National Day of Reason is May 4th. so it is most likely too late this year to get a resolution adopted but we will share the petition with the council for next year’s Day of Reason. Won’t you help us out?
*Note* We would really like to limit the signers to people who live in the city of Toledo but if you don’t you can still help us out by making a donation to SHoWLE.
