This article first appeared here.
Ohio friends….I have good news and bad news.
Bad News: Ohio’s Republican Statehouse supermajority is trying to rush dozens of dangerous, unpopular bills through the legislative process before they go.
They are purposefully creating chaos with dozens of hearings and votes all happening at once. Their goal is to overwhelm you, so you feel frozen and don’t fight back against anything.
We can’t let that happen. If you’re anything like me, it helps to remind yourself that these evil %#$&s don’t deserve an easy time.
They don’t deserve to weaken our freedoms and hurt our communities without a freaking fight.
So here are some tools to help you keep calm and fight on:
Go to OhioBills.WTF for a big list of legislation moving this week. Click on any bill that interests you. It will take you lower down in the document to a series of action items (calls to make, testimony templates, etc.).
OhioBills.WTF is operated by an amazing organization I work with called Ohioans Against Extremism (OAE). If you find this resource valuable, please donate to OAE so our work can continue!
Good News: The Ohio legislature is expected to leave soon for a (potentially lengthy) holiday break!
Do you find OhioBills.WTF a bit overwhelming? That’s ok too!
Here are individual templates to help you testify against some of the worst bills moving through Ohio’s Statehouse this week:
SB 293 — Would punish absentee voters for the mail being slow: https://bit.ly/OhioSB293
HB 172 — We call it the “Child Abuser Protection Act”: https://bit.ly/OhioHB172
SB 34 — Ten Commandments in Public Schools: https://bit.ly/OhioSB34
HB 485 — Force schools to show an inaccurate, anti-abortion video every year: https://bit.ly/OhioBabyOlivia
HB 42 — Force schools to report their students’ data to the government https://bit.ly/OhioHB42
I’ll be building more templates throughout the weekend as well — so let me know which bills you most want to fight (or support)!
I know there’s way too much going on. But if every person picks one or two items to focus on, we can make a ton of noise on many different issues all at once.
And, perhaps even better, we can irritate the crap out of bad politicians.
