Ohio citizens are concerned and hopeful as elections approach

By Laura A. Bischoff – Dayton Daily News

Shape it with your voice!

Would you like to express your opinion on the upcoming elections and the issues that interest you? Your Voice Ohio and Sidney Daily News are coming to work out to sponsor a series of online conversations so you can help organize the Ohio presidential election. Volunteer to contribute to this effort by visiting this online page: www.yourvoiceohio.org/election2020. Participants will decide on the volunteer list to constitute ohio demographics and will get a $125 stipend for their participation in a session.

Just a few months before Election Day, Ohio’s electorate is worried and hopeful.

They don’t know who to accept as true in the media and government. They are involved in economic security for themselves and their fellow citizens. They don’t know how elections will be conducted during a pandemic. They need righteous leaders to offer more answers to serious problems.

But at the same time, they expect protests to open their eyes to systemic racism, the need for reform, and the next generation of leaders. The fact that the demonstrations take place in black and white, young and old is considered a sign of unity at a very conflicting time in the country. And they are relieved to see small acts of kindness in the pandemic: neighbors who help strangers.

Your Voice Ohio, a collaborative journalism task involving about 50 news organizations, held several two-hour online conversations in early July with the electorate across the state to learn more about their considerations in the run-up to the presidential election and how the media can raise coverage of supply. Participants, some of whom needed to use their names because they shared non-public stories, included single mothers, young, personal and retired parents, homosexuals and heterosexuals, blacks and whites, men and women, young and old.

The conversations revealed that despite the diversity of Ohio, there are many points in common, even in times of intense party and department spirit in our country.

Ohions more of his government and its political leaders. They’d like to see fewer non-public attacks and more honesty.

“My big challenge is honesty. If you can’t know what comes out of their mouths, it doesn’t matter,” said one Licking County woman. Alah Jackson of Columbus agreed, raising fairness and honesty as priorities for her.

They also need leaders who will unite the counterattack. Nick Schroeder, a retired accounting professor at Bowling Green, said: “I’m literally interested in what unites us. How many other people and applicants are going to visit us to meet us, instead of “here’s my point of view, which is much bigger than your point of view.”

When asked how leaders can close political divisions in the United States today, Jonathan Chu of the suburbs of Columbus said, “I don’t think any aspect is interested in saving divisions. They need to make a bigger hole and a bigger piece.” .

There is a mistrust in government.

“I don’t think postal voting is a smart concept because I don’t accept people as true, especially many members of government right now,” said Brhiannon Riddle, a 25-year-old single mother living in a small town. north of Dayton

A Cincinnati-area voter said religion and acceptance as true in the electoral formula are paramount and he doesn’t appreciate the rhetoric that undermines this.

Jo’el Jones, a Dayton woman who ran as a state representative at number one Democrat, said the final polls for the number one vote on the user at the last minute and the extended absentee vote the pandemic was chaotic and led many others. lose the chance to vote. She is involved in Ohio not being in November, especially if the pandemic continues.

“I don’t know. It’s a mess,” she says.

Roger Davis of Cambridge, a longtime election agent, said he feared that county election councils would be defeated through a large build-up in mail order applications this fall and would have problems with election officials. “I’m involved in that for sure.

“I’m of media bias”

And ohioning other people need more journalists. They crave more fact and story verification, less political bias, the inclusion of varied voices in stories, more accurate titles, and fewer typographical and spelling errors.

The first voter Reghan Buie of Youngstown said he had been searching for local reports on applicants at his number one election for hours, but that he had discovered very few. “There will be more data on local races because they are important.”

Others have gone further and said they don’t care that their local media is covering the presidential election; can get that policy from the national media. Instead, they will focus on national and local stories and problems, they said.

And many Ohions are media skeptics.

“I’m tired of media prejudices. I want to hear all the facts. I think you can be fooled by communicating the facts, but not all of them and also taking things out of context. Where’s Walter Cronkite when you want it? used to break the news and make a decision. Today is a massacre there,” said a pensioner from the Toledo region.

Later in the conversation, the same woman added: “I think the media is our biggest challenge right now and I think there are many reasons for that. There’s not much cash to be a journalist. It turns out that locally, if you just give someone a press release, they use it without understanding the whole situation. They cover so many things and have little time that they are no longer research researchers at any level.”

While everyone knew that the pandemic was a priority, participants knew the economy, fitness care, the environment, education and equality as their key problems for the 2020 election season.

Michelle Anderson, of Wooster, said the temptation to a major challenge ignores the fact that so many challenges are interconnected. “All those things go hand in hand and can get advantages for all of us. Health care desires are linked to job desires, and jobs and minimum wages are linked to educational opportunities and, where we can live, to big schools. We do a lot of small things and we have to take a look at all those things as a whole.

Fred Camden, of Springfield, argues that President Trump has created well-paying tasks in the country. Camden retired after 40 years as a postman, a task that was once a price ticket for the middle class. “There’s a smart task if you need it,” he says.

Riddle, however, said it wasn’t that easy. She participated in a government-funded vocational education program to get a task in visitor service that will pay $13 per hour.

“However, at 40 hours a week, $13 per hour, I’m at the point where I’m stuck in the middle. Welfare will no longer help me because I earn enough to exceed (the eligibility threshold) However, I can’t live off the rest either,” said Riddle, a single mother. He still works part-time on his old hotel assignment and earns $9 an hour.

Carol Lynn, a mother of two in Dayton, said her mother worked at General Motors and could with her family, but carmakers’ jobs have long since disappeared. She said the government wants to provide vocational education systems to push staff to better-paid jobs.

A Hamilton County man, son of immigrants, said his parents were a business and sacrificed to get opportunities for his children.

“Sometimes I think the government has society and I make sure those opportunities are available. At other times, I think the government wants to separate and let other people do their best,” he said.

Pandemic of all Ohio residents

Almost all of them are affected by the coronavirus pandemic, or in.

“The COVID-19 changed my life backwards and backwards. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster at Cedar Point,” Indya Elie said from northeast Ohio.

In March, when the governor closed Ohio, Elijah and his two sons switched to e-learning. She had symptoms of COVID but was unable to take a check at the time. “I have to be on my deathbed to have my check,” she says. However, he succeeded, recovered, finished his semester, helped his children examine online and implemented unemployment benefits, he said.

Another woman from central Ohio said she left her school campus in March and did not return. He graduated in May, watching the rite on YouTube in his living room and limited his departures to his health. “It absolutely replaced the way I interact with the world.”

While some Ohio citizens are reluctant to dress in masks, others see the price of doing so for public health.

Schroeder, from Bowling Green, said, “People without masks scare me.” The challenge with the coronavirus mask led him to write a letter to his local councillor, requesting quick action on a mask capture order, he said.

“In fact, I think other people who don’t wear a mask or yell at other people who tell them to put on their mask are ridiculous,” said Josh Culling, a father of two kids in the Toledo area. “I think all this communicates about the freedom and tyranny of being forced to wear a mask is ridiculous. I also think it’s ridiculous that we have to close schools until we have a vaccine.”

Another resident of Toledo’s domain said: “I don’t feel like other people are so angry about the situation. It’s a mask and I don’t want to minimize it. It’s awkward. Think of Anne Frank, World War II and what happened through. What we want to do this pandemic is nothing”.

COVID has raised the curtain on disparities in fitness care for the public, which Adrienne Zurub of Cleveland has long noticed as a registered nurse. Zurub stated that for many blacks, there were six degrees of separation to meet a deceased COVID-19 user.

“It affects the house and, back, exposes the disparity in physical care that we have experienced in physical care since we touched those shores,” said Zurub, who is retired. «… Everyone thinks we have the most productive fitness care formula in the world. We don’t when you tell the nurses and front-line staff to put on a handkerchief, shawl and garbage bag, pass out and sacrifice basically, that deserves to mean something. “

Protests raise racial justice issues

Recent protests opposed to police brutality have raised the racial injustice factor for many Ohio residents.

Jo’el Jones said oppressive public policies have long been her top priority. She worries about raising two Black sons and what might happen to them when they get their driver’s licenses or go out for a run.

Mykell Rose, a birracial gay man from Hamilton County, said equality issues had a more sensible precedence for him.

And Carol Lynn of Dayton, the mother of a black son, said the video of the Murder of George Floyd put the racial justice factor at the forefront.

It’s not just black people in Ohio who care about Black Lives Matters.

“I’ve learned a lot over the last few months and I’ve been learning for myself. I raised my children. I think we want a more formal education with our history and not so much the bleached story I had as a child,” said Stacy Dodson, a white woman in Wheelersburg. “My eyes opened to what was happening in the world and my center broke.”

Rick Phelps, a retired EMT and law enforcement man who lives in southeast Ohio, said he was involved in the outcome of the November election. “I would never have dreamed four or five months ago, we would communicate about cutting back the police funds. It’s unsonable to me,” he said, adding: “I just can’t know where one component is and the other. We are destined for paintings in combination here. We’re not African-Americans, we’re not Asian Americans. We’re mainly American.”

Despite the demanding protests and pandemic situations, both are hopeful for ohios.

Carol Lynn of Dayton said she encouraged her to see blacks, whites, young people and old people protesting against racism and injustice. “It’s a united front that fights these upheavals and that other young people are taking the lead,” he said.

Jo’el Jones of Dayton hopes the protests will bring genuine reform. “The ugliness of racism and concern is exposed and, as it is exposed, there is absolute anger. And from all this, leaders will emerge. The look, communication and even politics will be very different. I think in all this I will have this brave leader to whom I ask you to come soon.”

Michelle Anderson, of Wooster, said she appreciated the fact that Ohions, and business owners, are beginning to oppose the Confederate flag demonstration. She sees it as a popularity of pain across the flag. “It gives me hope.”

Others say they are relieved to see acts of kindness: other people who deliver meals, artisans who make homemade masks, donors who contribute to food banks, the pandemic.

“The pandemic has brought the most productive in many ways. I think we’ve all noticed this with the other people who are the neighbors,” said a woman from the Toledo area.

And Reghan Buie said the idea that the next generation was in a position to act and lead. “We come for the Senate, we come for the House. We come for everything. We need this nation.”

Although there is a massive department in the United States, Ohions recognizes the price of listening to those with other opinions.

Josh Culling said he returned to his Toledo in component due to his diversity. He celebrates that inside a bar in Toledo, he can locate hourly workers, professionals, Muslims, Christians, Republicans, Democrats sitting together. He described it as a chance to venture “out of my little bubble.”

Roger Davis, a Cambridge guy who works for a nonprofit, said he consumes media stories, but would like to hear more voices in those reports from other people with other political opinions.

“Sometimes it’s smart to be challenged in your ideas. I don’t like to hear what I think I already know. Sometimes I like to see the other point of view, even if I don’t agree with it, now I like other friends to be heard,” he said.

By Laura A. Bischoff

Dayton Daily News

Shape it with your voice!

Your Voice Ohio is the largest supported media collaboration in the country. Launched about five years ago, more than 60 media outlets participated in a unique, network-based policy of elections, addictions, racial equity, economics and housing. Nearly 1,300 Ohions have committed to more than a hundred journalists in dozens of urban, rural and suburban communities across the state. Time and again, Ohions has helped hounds perceive their perspectives and reports while sharing concepts with their local communities and the state. Doug Oplinger, formerly of the Akron Beacon Journal, leads the media collaboration. The Democracy Fund, the John S. Foundation and James L. Knight foundation and Facebook are the principal funders of Your Voice Ohio. The Jefferson Center for New Democratic Practices, a nonprofit participation study organization, designs and facilitates Your Voice Ohio network conversations.

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