To the lawmakers who would ban discussion of “controversial topics” in Ohio classrooms,

Ohioans see you. We see the unconstitutionality of HB327 and HB616 and how you are perfectly fine wasting money passing and later defending these restrictions on the freedom of speech. We see that you claim the banner of “pro-life” while you limit our children’s education, and you do this after loosening restrictions around guns, which are most definitely implements that often harm or take children’s lives.

To be clear, these laws do not just harm our children, though. Companies want an educated workforce, and these restrictions will do nothing to improve Ohio’s economy as companies look to invest in places with better school systems than we will have if these laws go into effect. Governor DeWine himself recognized the draw of progressive policies in attracting employers, to the tune of a $50 million dollar marketing campaign last year. Additionally, employees more and more are looking to relocate and raise their families in places that align with their values. More and more, the public values inclusion, opportunities for their children, and good education- all of which you are aiming to destroy in Ohio.

We also saw you as you tried to go against the will of Ohioans in redistricting to maintain your hold on power. We saw you ignore two separate constitutional amendments passed in 2015 and 2018, amendments whose aim was breaking up the hold on power Republicans gained from their 2011 antics as they drew an immensely misrepresentative map of the state we love. We saw you ignore court order after court order to draw representative maps. We saw you go wait until the last minute to even try and pretend like public input was important to you. We see you now calling for the impeachment of one of your own Supreme Court judges because she dared to rule with Ohioans and against you.

Which brings me to my final point- we see that you are losing. You have waged decades of culture wars against the idea of a pluralist society, and yet we have gotten closer to that ideal. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” You are not on the side of justice, and you are afraid. We get that, and we know how much it sucks to be afraid. The answer is not to fight it at all costs as you are doing. There is no love in fighting against justice. The love is in admitting you were wrong, and you want to do better now.

Lis Regula