In 2024 and into 2025, Ohio has a lot of wrongs that need to be made right.
In July, the Waynesville village council refused to seat a gay man because of his sexual orientation and support for diversity. The council wasn’t shy about its bigotry, putting into the record that it wouldn’t support him because he’s a founding member of the Rainbow Alliance ERG, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.
There was initial outrage, as there should have been. The last piece of news occurred in October involved. when the ACLU letter to the council accused it of discrimination.
Heading into 2025, we should ask: What’s the result of that letter? Might the ACLU sue the village? How is David Nation, the man the council rejected, being received in the community? How is Chris Colvin, the council member who forcefully spoke out against Nation, being looked upon in the small village? There are several more questions and possible angles to a story that shows how elected officials can use their narrow-mindedness to scar a town. Just because the noise has died down doesn’t mean voters will forget how the council’s disgraceful action.
The western Montgomery County village of New Lebanon has been in turmoil since a new council wrested control in the last election. Name-calling, nastiness, and dismissiveness have been the calling card of a village leadership drunk on power. But there’s no dedicated media there, so it’s hard to track everything happening. In the latest development, village employees issued a letter of no confidence in leadership and want to see new administrators.
Going into the New Year, how will the council and administration react to the turmoil? Are village residents just tired of what’s going on, or is there some movement to make change? The dogged pursuit of the truth produces stories that highlight problems and result in positive improvements. In the meantime, New Lebanon keeps swallowing itself whole, and most don’t see it happening because there’s no deeper reporting.
In another example, Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski is an avid Trump supporter, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But he crossed a line — a very thick line — when, on a Facebook post, he asked county residents to give him the addresses of people with Kamala Harris signs in their front yard. He said he wanted to know where to send illegal immigrants. After an outcry, he took the post down. This case demands additional scrutiny on the character of a man who thinks it’s OK to support one group of residents while denigrating another. Zuchowski won reelection in November by less than 2,000 votes, far fewer than his 2020 victory (10,000 ballots). You would think the close win would make Zuchowski moderate his behavior, but instead, he posted a meme about his detractors kissing him where the sun doesn’t shine (he wasn’t that polite). How will he perform his duties and respond to community members with whom he disagrees?
These are just three examples. We all know about Springfield and how the Haitian population has been demonized with vicious pet-eating lies and has now suffered another indignity. Authorities reported that city crime has increased slightly — but it’s not the Haitian’s fault. Our intolerance has reached such depths that officials feel compelled to tell citizens that hard-working people aren’t committing crimes.
Heading into 2025, those are just a few stories of intolerance and small community power-grabbing that require additional attention, either through new stories or columns like this one. Just because you may not hear about the issues doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
They do. And they’re not going away.
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.
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