I shall return....

I am fortunate to be posting today. Yesterday, I suffered an abominable collision with a taxi as I returned from a Cambridge Union Debate over austerity cuts. Neither my sisters who tried to destroy my bike with poor maintenance and corrosion nor the cab driver, armed with a motor vehicle, could destroy my Schwinn Expedition. As the cab pulled out from a string of cabs (out of order), the driver did not see me. As he veered into the opposing bike lane, we struck. I tumbled onto the curb, protected only by my helmet and a thin layer of padding in the shoulder of my best suit. My front wheel was jammed between the curb and the cab. It did not survive. My coat was torn and is irreparable, but my helmet is a survivor. My insulation from poor drivers is crushed, but I will ride again (as soon as the bike store realigns my tire). As I walked home, dressed in my suit, carrying my portfolio in one hand, and the remains of the "red raider" in the opposite hand, I could not help but think that fortune favors the bold. I am the cyclist who rides in either snow, or rain, or heat, or gloom of night, or with the winds of change, or a nation challenged, and will not be stayed from the swift completion of any ride. Even if, I have to walk home carrying my bicycle. After this experience, I feel quite at home with an English culture committed to bicycles, flat tires, and the occassional wreck.

Don't Give Away A Fish; Don't Teach Someone to Fish; But Rather Revolutionize the Fishing Industry

Last night, I attended the second installment of Beyond Profit, the aforementioned social entrepreneurship club, at Cambridge. One presenter, Christopher Dobbing, founder of Oxbridge Tours, described social entrepreneurship as: "the application of business discipline to social issues, pairing accountability with sustainability." This definition encompasses a broad swath of organizations and businesses. More importantly, it highlights the importance of social accountability, doing what is right for society and ensuring that it is sustainable. I particularly enjoyed the spin-off of the proverb of "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime." Social entrepreneurship requires individuals to find new and innovative solutions to common problems. It requires that the entrepreneur work to remedy age-old issues with new methodology and approaches.

Christopher Dobbing founded Oxbridge Tours in response to the increases in higher education costs. The company utilizes students at Oxford and Cambridge as tour guides for the booming tourist industry. The students are then paid for their service and subsequently are able to pay for their schooling. He encouraged the audience to start any venture by realizing that in social entrepreneurship people buy not how you do it, but why you do it. In his instance, his company started to provide students with a mechanism to overcome the highly contentious increases in higher education funding. As a larger example, he discussed the evolution of chain coffee shops in the UK. Cafe Normandy, a UK chain, prided itself on its quality and presentation; however, it lost its market share to Starbucks, which boasted fair trade coffee (Fair trade as opposed to free trade requires acceptable wages for workers/farmers and environmentally sustainable practices). While its products are 100% fair trade in the UK, only 20% of its U.S. coffee and tea is fair trade. Consequently, Starbucks lost market share to Café Direct who brands itself as a wholly fair trade company as well as a supporter of agricultural opportunity. Café Direct, unlike the global Starbucks trend, is grower centric: "We’re passionate about working with smallholder growers because we are passionate about taste and we believe in business being a force for good. Growers are not just suppliers, they are our partners and at the very heart of our business. We bypass the conventional market, sourcing our coffee, tea and cocoa directly and building long-term, personal relationships with smallholder growers." They pair their successful business model with the charity, CaféDirect Producers Foundation (CPF), a registered charity led by growers for growers that decides how Cafédirect’s profits should be reinvested in their communities. This type of business venture makes the Starbucks' model seem antiquated. Profit maximization may no longer be enough as consumers add ethics to their consumption preferences. Enter social entrepreneurship.

The Virtue of Technology

Since the 2011 Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference entitled "People, Power, and Politics in the Internet Age," I have been contemplating the value and virtue of technology and the opportunity cost associated with inter-connectivity. While I do not necessarily eat, breath, and sleep the conservatism of Robert Nisbet, his work, The Quest for Community, delivers a coherent argument about the dissolution of civil-society. He writes in the shadows of fascism and the nascent days of communist empowerment. His fears are indicative of his time, but they are also transcendental. He argues two crucial points: 1.) Man has and always will seek community as a means of me of attaining meaningful, spiritual fulfillment and 2.) In recent years, man has turned away from traditional civil-society and instead turned to the state for this fulfillment (communism/fascism). These observations are not so different from what we observe today.

Last week, I wrote a now well-circulated letter in support of a local library levy. Then, I waged a debate with a local reader defending my position on a newspapers message board. In both instances, I was working from thousands of miles from home. While theoretically disconnected from my community, I retain the ability to shape and mold perceptions and opinions from afar while empowering supporters. This capacity would not be available 10-15 years ago. Nisbet would consider this type of technological advance as a shock, which alters individual-society relations. He would caution that this type of evolution provides only shallow spiritual fulfillment, and I tend to concur. The internet and its "communities" provide a source of information, organization, and mobilization. However, they do not yield the type of interpersonal connections which people inherently desire. They are a "hollow" force. Interpersonal relations still matter, yet people turn not to the state, but to the internet and technology to interact. They tend to generate awareness rather than sustainable action. One can leave the community on the slightest whim. Fortunately, Nisbet likens the entire community-individual relationship as cyclic. The shallow and meaningless fulfillment of today gives life to the real community of tomorrow. While I admire technology as a tool, I reject it as the end-all be all of community. Civil-society must work to leverage this tool while simultaneously providing real human interaction and community esprit de corps.

The Debate Rages

After my letter to the editor was published in the Warren Tribune Chronicle on Sunday, I have been debating with a reader who is purely anti-tax/anti-levy. I find this position illogical. The following is the exchange which can be found here:

AFRET1:

Nice story, John, and I'm sure you're a stand-up guy. BUT, taxpayers are sick & tired of being asked for more, more, more. Off the top of my head I can't think of ANY levy I would vote for.

JDMILLER:

While I respect your stance, I stand to disagree. Local tax levies provide for basic, localized services and infrastructure. They provide essential functions with definitive returns. They are an investment, utilized for specific purposes. Local taxes are also transparent. Services are measurable and observable on an individualized level. Socially, they provide for both the present and the future. If roads, police, fire protection, schools, and libraries are not sound investments, then we as a society must be ready to decay.

AFRET1:

JD, I, too, respect your comments. My position as far as levies, i.e., taxes, are concerned is that at some point entities must learn to live within their means; otherwise, develop and employ practices and methods that will enhance their fiscal standing. I agree that everything you cited has merit. That said, as a homeowner I have had it with this levy and that levy. Schools are the most bothersome. (By the by, nice to have a civil discourse on this board.)

JDMILLER:

Local government provides opportunity. If one is displeased with either the spending or the levying of tax dollars, one can certainly run for public office with minimal barriers to entry. At the same time, it is difficult to win on a platform of cutting public services. The concept of developing and employing revenue generating schemes on a localized level is not feasible given resource constraints (personnel and capital). If you pair state funding cuts with moderate levels of inflation, local governments have been executing crucial functions within their means for sometime. In addition, the millage system is such that the revenue generated over time is reduced. The voted millage does not equate with the effective millage collected. Therefore, revenue decreases and local government must provide the same service with less. Taxpayers pay less for the same services over time.

To classify school levies as “bothersome” is maddening. Investment in the youth of our area cannot and should not be sacrificed. Schools are also facing significant funding cuts from the state. Teaching staffs are being reduced; programs are being cut; and students are already losing. Failure to support local school levies punishes our youth and ensures that they are less competitive than their peers from more affluent and civic minded areas. Perhaps, it is time that individuals live within their means and sacrifice for the collective good of this generation and the next.

The Mandate

The following is one of the many iterations of speeches that I gave to local Rotary Clubs before I departed Ohio:

Good Afternoon,

Dr. Patel’s introduction is truly humbling. I would like to take a moment and thank her for making this event possible. I would also like to thank the Rotary District Foundation and Governor Hayes for their flexibility and willingness to accept me as the 2011-2012 District 6650 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. I am grateful.

In one week, I will arrive at the University of Cambridge for what will be the newest chapter in my life. I look at my selection as the districts representative as a mandate. First, it is a mandate from my hometown of Kinsman to go forth and represent the club and the community at events such as this one. Second, it is a mandate from you, the members of the district, to go forth and represent the district and the values of Rotary, not only at Cambridge, but also throughout my journeys, now and in the future. I chose this map for its aged appearance. It represents to me the rich experiences and history of the world. If I was to characterize myself, I would not have a tan aged, hew, but rather some hew of green, indicative of my inexperience and malleability. Given this realization, I will speak on the world that I know today, and in one year, I will speak again on the world that I have found and explored and the people that I have met and friended.

I usually like to start with a quick survey of the audience:
How many of you have been to Kinsman?
You surely have outdone several other nameless clubs…..

Kinsman is a small agrarian community in northeastern Trumbull County. It is nestled along the Ohio-Pa border and is the main population center in the Joseph Badger Local School District. Its population hovers around 2000 people. Its most prominent resident was Clarence Darrow, who gained notoriety as a human rights and civil liberties advocate and litigator in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.In his second book, an autobiography, he wrote and I quote: “If I had chosen to be born I probably should not have selected Kinsman, Ohio, for that honor. Instead, I would have started in a hard and noisy city where the crowds surged back and forth as if they knew where they were going, and why.” In contrast, I would not have selected anywhere but Kinsman to grow up.

My experience in Kinsman was not suffocating as Darrow characterized it. We surely have our share of fields, but the town also has much more. It is a town committed to service whether to the community or to the nation. It is people committed to their neighbors. The town celebrate Darrow’s boyhood home on Main Street, known widely as the Octagon House, but I remember him less fondly than the little old lady, Mrs. Brown, who insisted that her home be open year round to strangers. Kinsman has more churches per capita than most towns in America, and it is these churches which help to instill and reinforce the broad sense of community.We also have a truly one of a kind Carnegie library, where I spent much of my youth reading, learning, and exploring the world beyond Kinsman. It is a library which embodies the vision of a community that aspired for something better in its future generations.

As an anecdote, when I was in second grade, I won tickets from the Kinsman Public Library to go to my first Indians game with my father. We settled into our seats and the gentleman next to us asked where I was from. I told him Kinsman and he responded that he understood how I read so many books: “There are only two things to do in Kinsman: Read books and watch the corn grow.” Today, I would take exception: There are soybeans behind the house.

Our library is paired with a school district which is stocked with superb educators like my mother. While Darrow was suffocated, I was empowered. We also have an excellent Dairi Oasis, but I digress.We are also a town committed to service. Some of my earliest memories take me back to the town square on Memorial Day where the local veterans from the American Legion Harry Lee’s Post 506 would render honors at the veteran’s memorial. The Legion is an organization like the Rotary that afforded me tremendous opportunities, but more importantly, it is an organization and an entity that guided me to service in the military. Like the Legion, Rotary also impacted my life and shaped the way in which I have pursued my greatest ambitions. My first experience with Rotary beyond the annual Chicken BBQ was with RYLA. At the time, RYLA took place in the depths of February at the Timberlanes of Salem. Beyond the wonderful pool at the Salem Community Center and the new acquaintances, the real value of RYLA came in a single exercise. We were told to write a life mission statement, which I carry in my wallet to this day:

“My life mission is to live a fulfilling life while maintaining my values of hard-work, service, and leadership by example in all that I do.”

This commitment matched favorably with the mission of the U.S. Naval Academy which strives to “graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.” Emulating the tradition of military service within my family and within my community, I accepted an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. I followed in the footsteps of my father, a U.S. Navy veteran and boiler technician. As you can imagine, I experienced a slight culture shock. My time at the Naval Academy was filled with failures, challenges, and triumphs.

The first year, or plebe year, dragged on for what seemed an eternity. An eternity captured in my disgruntled appearance. However, I was well prepared. My mother would often scold me for wearing shoes inside or not folding my laundry. Some things were just like home. During my 2nd summer, I went to sea for the first time aboard LSD-42, USS Germantown, a dock landing ship. I quickly fell in love with ocean as many romantics have done. At the conclusion of my second year, I signed my final commitment papers, agreeing to serve 5 years of active duty upon graduation. I had little reservation. I had committed long before that point.With the paperwork complete, I enjoyed the many aspects of Naval Academy life. These included everything from formal parades to Ring Dance, a formal ball, marking the day in which I could officially don my class ring. A ring inscribed with our class motto: Dom Respiramos Defendemus. “While We breathe, We Defend” My final summer in Annapolis found me traveling in Vietnam and Cambodia, operating on a submarine in the Western Pacific, and serving as an action officer at a Federal Advisory Committee to the Chief of Naval Operations. My senior year commenced and before I knew it. I reached my final Army-Navy football game and was home for Christmas.

In the interim, I received confirmation of not only the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship but also, the Nolan Scholarship, which will fund my 2-years of study at Cambridge. The fall was a period of reflection for me. For me my pursuit of scholarships served as an epiphany for me. I was fortunate to be selected as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. It was at this interview that I realized what I valued more than anything else: my community. During the interview, I made the best mistake of my life. When asked how I planned to impact the world and where I found my calling, I answered unequivocally: "I want to go back to Northeastern Ohio. I want to go back and mentor and guide. I want to go back and give voice to people. I want to make sure that we don’t have one student at the Naval Academy, but instead many. I want to make sure that we have multiple people interviewing for this scholarship. But at the end of the day, if I don’t get the scholarship, I still get to wake up Monday morning and put on my uniform and I am ok with that." Fortunately, the committee found me unworthy.

May and graduation arrived quite quickly. I had the honor of leading my class onto the field at graduation. I received my commission, my first salute, and celebrated the milestone with my wonderful, supportive family.While my time at the Naval Academy was constrained, I took the lessons of Kinsman and the commitment to service with me. These lessons of education, service, and community inspired me to action.

As mentioned earlier, I spent 4 weeks last summer in Vietnam and Cambodia as part of a U.S. Navy Language, Regional Expertise, and Cultural Immersion trip. It was my first trip outside of the U.S.

In Vietnam, and in particular, Quang Tri province, in Central Vietnam, we worked in an isolated rural village called Khe Luo. Here, the central state had built schools, but it provided no resources, a ploy to appease international criticism of the state’s discriminatory treatment of indigenous tribes. The school was actually being used as a chicken coup. We were to work with the locals to rebuild the trail to the school, to paint, and to clean, but this short term commitment became something more. Moved by the children who assisted us and their thirst for knowledge, we paired with Global Community Service Foundation to provide books to schools in the area.
This initiative started Bridges Through Education Corporation, a 501-C3 non-profit organization, intended to support educational opportunity in developing areas. While our initial shipments to Vietnam were not immensely successful, I and another Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from the Naval Academy intend to return to Vietnam in the coming year and revitalize our supply changes and connections.

Studying at Cambridge will afford me with such opportunity; it will also provide an opportunity to learn from a country not so dissimilar from the United States. For instance, Clare College, my assigned college, has an immense library like Kinsman. It also has a militant dining room like the one at the Naval Academy. Once I overcome the language barrier, I am told that I will adjust quickly.While in the UK, I would also like to explore the British approach to industrial regeneration and business incubation as part of my course in development studies. As we are all aware, our area from Kinsman to Canton is suffering from economic decline. I hope to take their approaches, programming, and lessons and juxtapose them against local development initiatives. While my impact will not be immediate, I plan to return to the area after the conclusion of my naval service and work to turn the tide of human capital flight out of our area. I want to work to end the pattern of escapism, which plagues my fellow youth and our communities today.

After Cambridge, I will report to the USS Fort McHenry, a dock landing ship, as a Surface Warfare Officer. The Fort McHenry is intended to support amphibious operations by providing a platform for airlift as well as a well deck which can launch smaller transport vehicles to coastal areas. Traditionally, this type of ship was utilized to land Marines on hostile shores, but today, it helps the U.S. Navy fulfill its core competency of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief in places like Haiti and around the world. As President John F. Kennedy said at Annapolis in 1963, “I can imagine no more rewarding career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think I can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.’”

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your service to your community and our world. At the same time, I want to issue a challenge. Engage your youth. Challenge them. Bring them into the fold. Show them that it is ok to stay that there is work to be done in District 6650. Demonstrate that they can make a difference through service. My generation merely needs a challenge to meet. Thank you.

At this time, I will open the floor for questions.

Escape reality. Read fiction.

The following is the letter that I sent to the Warren Tribune Chronicle and the Youngstown Vindicator:

Dear Editor,
When I share with people about my childhood in Kinsman, Ohio, I never fail to mention the Kinsman Public Library. It was an integral part of my childhood and my development. From my earliest years, I was taken to Story Hour and crafts in the basement. I participated in the Summer Reading Program. I grew to know the librarians, who knew me by name and who could always point me to the right shelf. I would read books by the hundreds. When I was finally old enough for my first library card, I was given a ticket, a ticket to an unexplored world and a ticket to academic success and personal growth. As a child, I spent hours reading, learning, analyzing, and developing a skill set which rivaled my peers from some of the best schools in the nation. Kinsman Library, despite critics of the town and school district, provides this opportunity for those who take it. In my experience, some of the brightest and well-read individuals that I have ever met call Kinsman home. We are not the stereotypical, ignorant, country “hicks.” The existence of the Kinsman Library and these observations are not coincidence. The library represents the community’s commitment to education, whether it is the education of its youth, its elderly, or everyone in the middle. Andrew Carnegie gave the community a shell, but it is the community that has filled this shell. The shell is now cracked, and if the levy fails, we will fail generations of residents who committed themselves to the organization and continued development of our community’s greatest institution. More importantly, we will fail the youth who will never be given a Kinsman Library card.

Opposition will come in three forms: 1.) Economic conditions in our area are such that I can't afford levies for non-essentials; 2.) The library only benefits a small group of people within the Joseph Badger Local School District; and 3.) The library has not been fiscally responsible in response to state-wide budget cuts.

In response to the first argument, I contend that the library provides an essential service to the community. First, it is a free source of knowledge, providing computer and internet access. Many people within the community cannot afford a Kindle, internet access, or let alone a computer. They depend on the library for books, magazines, and technology. The library is a central hub for all of these functions. Times are tough in our area, but in the toughest times education cannot take the hit. The library and the school are assets to the community and to the future of our area. They go hand-in-hand.

In response to the second argument, I argue that the library can support a much larger swath of the school district, but the decision to use the library is a personal one. Opponents will argue that they should not pay for a public good which they do not utilize. I believe that these arguments will come from areas of the Joseph Badger Local School District, which are "far" or "distant" from the library. For these people, I challenge you to cut two trips to the Eastwood Mall for dinner, a movie, and some shopping. Instead, go with your children to the Kinsman Library on a Friday or Saturday; check-out some books; select a movie; go to dinner in the community; and head home for a night together. The benefits are obvious. You spend more time with your family; you instill the values of literacy with your children; you support the local economy; and you get a "return" on your taxes. Eastwood Mall and the Kinsman Library are interestingly the same distance and the savings is actually greater if one takes the "challenge."

In response to the third argument, I submit that the library has already been tightening its belt for several years. Hours have been cut. Staff has been reduced. The core functions have remained. These core functions now face the chopping block: new books, periodicals, and technology upgrades. If you feel that staffing is the issue, I challenge you to volunteer your time to do the same work without pay or compensation. If the levy fails and state funding continually deteriorates, the library will only remain if you are prepared to operate the library yourself. These threats are not idle.

The 1.9 mill levy will cost $58 dollars per year for a house valued at $100,000 dollars. Given the devaluation of housing within the area, most households will pay significantly less. It is time for the community to come together and signal a re-commitment to the values of education and opportunity by voting “Yes” on the library levy. Whether you are from Orangeville, Farmdale, Gustavus, Burghill, Hartford, Vernon, or Kinsman, we are still a community. The library is an integral part of this community. Do not be the electorate that spells the end of its existence.

Sincerely,
John Miller
Kinsman, Ohio

Political Vice and Political Voice

    When I received the link for the fundraising campaign for Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown, a documentary chronicling the rise and fall of the Mahoning Valley's most recognizable political force, I was skeptical. As the Mahoning Valley works to change and rebrand itself, it might be better to let his tenure in Congress slip into oblivion. Traficant was coarse; he was tactless; and he was rude. Without a doubt, he took money from the mob and his affiliation with Lenny Strollo is not beyond reproach. His eventual conviction included charges of bribery, racketeering, and tax evasion. Whether he was unjustly targeted or not, he made the bed in which he would lay. However, I argue that even if Traficant and vice are synonymous that it was the voice that he gave the Mahoning Valley that mattered, whether a person was from his district or from another state. His ability to connect with the people as a stakeholder and to care about their plight and struggle made him different. He could empathize.

    The 2001 Congressional redistricting broke up Traficant's home field advantage. It split Trumbull County in half. It sent the northern tier of the county into the then new Ohio-14th Congressional District. It preserved the political/population center of the county (Warren-Niles-Cortland) as part of the new 17th District. While this may seem irrelevant, it had two major consequences. First, it accentuated the division between county and township government. The commissioners’ power base has and will remain in the South rather than the agrarian North of the county. It is difficult to have a voice and an ally in county government without impacting elections and generating revenues.  Second, it placed the northern tier of Trumbull County within the 14th Congressional District, whose power base lies in Chardon-Hudson-Mentor-Eastlake, four places that could not be more dissimilar from the northern tier in terms of socio-economic make-up and production. Thus, the redistricting isolated the Northern Tier of Trumbull County and silenced what little voice it ever had.

    What are the consequences of this division? My small town of Kinsman, Ohio, is under an EPA deadline to install sewers by 2013. Currently, small businesses are already under the threat of fine and are installing new septic tanks to avoid the death-sentence-like fines that are on their way. Ironically, a waste-treatment facility exists (an old Kraft plant, abandoned in the early 2000's) and a trunk line is already heading into town, but the project is frozen. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 should have been a god-send. The project was certainly "shovel-ready," but inaction and delays by the county and invisible representation in Congress subjugated Kinsman to the back burner. Kinsman is set to receive second-hand funding (the unused funds from projects elsewhere, which may or may not exist). As an anecdote, I attended a county meeting on sewers in Kinsman in Warren last April. I think the make-up of the meeting is telling. The following individuals attended the meeting:
     1 of 3 County Commissioners (Frank Fuda)
     1 Representative from the Office of Tim Ryan (OH-17th)
     0 Representatives from the Office of Steven LaTourette (OH-14th)
     1 Businessman/Farmer from Kinsman
     1 of 3 Trustees from Kinsman 
     1 Kinsman Township Clerk
     2 Representatives from the Ohio Department of Agriculture 

   First, the attendance of the commissioners was wanting. In terms of prioritization, it was clear that Kinsman had little relevance for the other two commissioners. One commissioner entered the County building as we departed. He had forgotten the meeting and Kinsman. Tim Ryan's office offered as much support as it could, but in the end, the representative said that Steven LaTourette’s office would need to take the lead (Of note: LaTourette voted against the stimulus package which would fund the project and staunchly opposes the use of federal earmarks for such infrastructure projects). Her words meant that Kinsman would not receive help on the congressional level. The lack of attendance by anyone from our own Congressman's office sent another signal: Your revenue generation is too small; your political contributions are too small; and your population is too small to provide me with the votes I need. My time and resources are better spent elsewhere. In terms of the township, the board of trustees was only informed second-hand that a meeting would actually occur. The Trustee in attendance was my mother, who took a day off from school in order to attend. The local businessman and farmer receives attention as a consequence of his affluence and centrality in terms of land-holdings in the Northern tier. The representatives from the Ohio Department of Agriculture were there to offer funding, which may or may not exist, but it is important to note that the lobbyist for this funding was a native-son of Gustavus, the neighboring township. He did not fail to remember where he came from or the people that made his success possible. Attendance does matter as it sends signals about the interests of key political and economic players.

    The connection between Traficant and this series of events should be quite evident. I come from a place without a voice. Jim Traficant, love or hate, provided a voice. I wish my town, my area, could have someone as dynamic and connected to real people and their struggles as Traficant once was. I would prefer that they told the truth, provided fair representation, built goodwill and trust across the diverse political and socio-economic spectrum, and worked to benefit everyone that they supposedly represent. Is it too much to ask that someone represents the interest of the little town, a town with per family income of $28,000 per year in its proposed sewer district? I think someone like Jim Traficant would. Perhaps that is why as we come to terms with the vice of the past, we should examine his impact more carefully and think of the voice which our area requires. As the redistricting from the 2010 Census is revealed, let us think of the consequences and the real impact that it has on people not just politics.

The 1991-2001 Congressional Map of Ohio (A County Together):

The 2001-2011 Ohio 17th Congressional District (A County Divided):

The  2001-2011 Ohio 14th Congressional District (A County Divided):