Go Inland, Young Progressives

[davidswanson]

Separating the Midwestern state of Ohio, where soda's called "pop" and workers are sometimes allowed to unionize, from my East Coast home state of Virginia, where a governor perched on a diseased branch of my own family tree gave the nation its first right-to-work-for-less law, is nothing other than the beautiful and brutal mountains of West Virginia. As you climb those mountains headed west two things plummet to the valleys below: the employment rate and the price of housing.

On a recent book tour of Ohio, I stayed with author, attorney, and activist Bob Fitrakis at his hundred-year-old mansion just down the street from the state capitol in Columbus. This house is large enough for gatherings of thousands of your closest allies and associates, and offices for dozens of them, and Bob bought it for about the price of a half a bathroom in San Francisco or a share of a one-room apartment in Queens. The mansions nearby are for sale too, some of them for less than the price of my own small house in rural Virginia.

Columbus has a terrific progressive activist community. Virginia is worse off politically than Ohio, and I'm tied to it in lots of ways. But here's what occurs to me. Progressive activists working online can, in many cases, work just about as well from anywhere that has high-speed internet. Rather than setting up offices in coastal cities, why not set them up in swing-states and overpowered early primary states like Iowa, boosting local activism there and investing most of the rent or mortgage funds into actual work instead? If the weapons makers can manufacture a single instrument of death in hundreds of congressional districts, why can't we inject life into some of them? Why are so many labor unions headquartered in Washington, D.C.? Are those high costs a good use of working people's money?

The national president of Veterans for Peace, Mike Ferner, another of the best authors and activists we have in the country, was also my host on the book tour. He lives in Toledo in the most beautiful spot I saw on my journey, and he paid for it perhaps the equivalent of six-months' rent on a parking place in a major coastal city. Veterans for Peace is headed to Pittsburgh later this month to protest the G-20 along with many other organizations, and the working (and no longer working) people of Ohio are going to be well represented.

Also in Toledo I had a chance to see Ben Davis, a professor at the University there who has been advocating the prosecution of torturers. When torture lawyer John Yoo recently spoke in Toledo and was booed and protested, Yoo exclaimed "What is this, Berkeley?" to which another citizen activist who came to my book event replied: "No! It's Toledo!" I also met a woman in Toledo named Peggy Daly Masternack, who along with many others recently persuaded the school board to stop administering military tests to students and to notify parents of the right to opt-out of having children's contact information provided to military recruiters. This was not an insignificant accomplishment in a context where a military job looks more and more preferable to other available possibilities.

There are engaged progressives in all corners of this country. Why not join them?

[Hannah Bell]

1. the peons are supposed to leave the coasts to the rich.

[Hekate]

2. What a terrific idea. How's the book tour going, btw?

:kick: and rec

[davidswanson]

8. great thanks

http://davidswanson.org

[create.peace]

3. just don't come into town like a truckload of turkeys

telling us what we 'need' to do....

[LeftyMom]

4. The most beautiful sight in Ohio

is the airport in Columbus, seen from above as one's plane turns westward toward home.

Thanks, but I'll stick with California. Outrageous rents and all.

[wutangfan85]

6. Yeah, Columbus is what we like to call

a small big city. It his the appearance of a big city but mentality of small town. It's pretty quiet compared to other major cities.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Lived in Peoria, IL, Vicksburgh, MS, Pittsburgh, PA, Denver, CO, Seattle, WA....

and a few others.

Seattle beats them all, hands down. Not even remotely close. (Though I'll always love Pittsburgh.)

Naturally, San Francisco beats Seattle hands down, but I can't afford that, unfortunately. One day....

[NutmegYankee]

7. Just head north - The stupid doesn't like the cold. n/t

[Delphinus]

9. Northern Indiana gets pretty cold

but we've got PLENTY of stupid. I'd love to outsource some!

Looks like it's Canada for me.

[NutmegYankee]

11. I was thinking New England, but I know what you mean.

[whathehell]

17. Oh I don't know...Michelle Bachman lives in Minnesota.

[Critters2]

19. +1 nt

[Bluenorthwest]

10. I visited Ohio during the ramp up to the 2004 elections

I liked it very much, Toledo in particular. I met great people, ate great food. A beautiful state.

[Edweird]

14. I have friends that live in the Toledo and Columbus areas.

They are of the heavily tattooed and pierced variety and are good people. So it can't be all bad if they mange to make it there.

[tabbycat31]

12. I went to school in Ohio for a year

and I have not had a desire to go back ever since. I'll stick to the northeast, where I fit in both culturally and politically.

[Edweird]

13. Because then they would lose the 'right' to haughtily and derisively mock and ridicule

all the lesser beings that reside in those places. They would no longer be 'superior'. They would suddenly have to call on the courage of their convictions (!) as they would no longer be 'preaching to the choir' and that equals WORK. And RISK. It's so much easier to just point and make 'witty' remarks about fencing off Texas or cutting Florida loose or 'allowing the south to secede' or cutting off Federal funding for states.

Ok, my venting aside (yeah - I'm a little bitter, does it show?), I think you are dead on.
Piling numerous activists in an area that is already strong blue doesn't accomplish anything. The only way to effect real change is to go where the problem is and get your hands dirty.

[KittyWampus]

15. I've suggested same and think of it as an alternative to the Quiverfull bunch

[Berry Cool]

16. There has always been more to us here in Ohio than met the eye of "flyover people,"

some of whom I see posting to this thread.

Me, I love it here, but could not tolerate the South. However, I understand the feelings of those who grew up there and still love living there despite feeling like the only progressives in an ocean of stupid.

I would dearly love it if I got the same respect. If you really think living on the coasts is so much better than living in Ohio, fine. For you. But other people have learned that coming here, or coming back here, has its advantages.

[insanity]

18. I'm too much of a Pacific Northwesterner to leave

If I'm not living in Oregon or Washington I'm living abroad. Besides, my family is from Ohio and listening to them talk about it makes me never really want to live there.

[scentopine]

20. Wasn't 50 states campaign sort of same idea? Seemed effective.

[scentopine]

21. Sorry - I was replying to OP and hit your post by mistake, Now

let's see - I can just click and drag it over to the right spot....

that would be nice.