Supporting Democracy

The new pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tion has tak­en office and they are try­ing to accom­plish all the items they had in the Project 2025 book that vot­ers were warned about before the elec­tion. We know that the cur­rent pres­i­dent won only a plu­ral­i­ty and holds very thin majori­ties in the US House and Senate. There is some hope. We also have a need for direct action here in Ohio as the Republican major­i­ty insists on hurt­ing peo­ple rather than help­ing.

Our Humanist val­ues demand we take action in some way. From crit­i­cal think­ing to peace and social jus­tice there are many val­ues we hold that we see being tram­pled over.

Noted below are some resources and groups that can help you take action and try to defend not only our val­ues but democ­ra­cy itself.

If you want to sug­gest addi­tions to these resources, feel free to reach out.

Legislation Tracking

Ohio Legislature (tuto­r­i­al on using this tool)

GovTrack.us — for con­gres­sion­al track­ing (tuto­r­i­al on using this tool)

If you need help using these web­sites, click on the link next to the web­site links above.

A new tool cre­at­ed by Keith Comer makes it eas­i­er to see the changes in a bill as it makes its way through the Ohio Legislature:
https://ohiolegislature.dataisfun.io/

Groups

Toledo Troublemakers

Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/toledotroublemakers/

Email: toledotroublemakers@gmail.com

Equality Toledo

Toledo Persists

Agnes Reynolds Jackson Fund

Red Wine & blue 

Honesty for Ohio Education

Equality Ohio

TransOhio

Abortion Forward

Abortion Access Front

ACLUOhio

American Humanist Association

Freedom from Religion Foundation

American Atheists

News sources:

Erin Reed (on Substack) 

Buckeye Flame

Law Dork

Human Rights Campaign

BBC 

Reuters

The Guardian 

ProPublica

Media Matters for America

Crooks & Liars

Talking Points Memo

Snopes

*Note* On news sources, the main­stream US cor­po­rate media con­tin­ues to let us down in cov­er­age of what is going on in DC right now. They can’t real­ly be trust­ed. Our local media does a decent job in cov­er­ing the local view of events but we need to hold them account­able as well.

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The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie do not agree or sup­port any actions tak­en by the fed­er­al admin­is­tra­tion or the state leg­is­la­ture when the intent is to hurt peo­ple in the process. Trans peo­ple exist and no exec­u­tive order demand­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion will change that fact. 

SHoWLE sup­ports efforts to increase diver­si­ty, equal­i­ty, and inclu­sion to address his­tor­i­cal dis­crim­i­na­tion of mar­gin­al­ized groups. Those efforts do not dis­crim­i­nate against white peo­ple or reli­gious peo­ple — it is about build­ing a big­ger tent.

Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash