CARES helped preserve cultural treasures
I started working at Ohio Humanities in November. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, I have met only three of my new co-workers in person.
As for many others, 2020 was a difficult year for me. Though I emerged with my head above water, my heart breaks for my fellow citizens who have not been as fortunate. When the pandemic hit Ohio, like many other businesses, Ohio’s cultural sites struggled to support their employees and programming.
This year, with funding through the National Endowment for the Humanities from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020, Ohio Humanities provided $765,326 in emergency funding to help small organizations retain their staff, pay their bills, and ensure our community’s cultural treasurers will be able to open their doors wide once again when it is safe. More than 140 organizations in 51 of our state’s 88 counties received grant funding from Ohio Humanities, including $329,415 distributed through our general grants programs.
2020 brought both new challenges and new opportunities for innovation in storytelling and creating communities and, although it is not yet clear what 2021 has in store for us, we look into the coming months with a sense of cautious hope that we will soon be together.
Kiley Kinnard, Columbus Communications Coordinator, Ohio Humanities
Let’s try to move nation to a better place
Theologian and philosopher Howard Thurman wrote, “The ‘growing edge’ is where we stand at the threshold between what we know and are familiar with (even if it is not particularly comfortable, healthy or life affirming) and the unknown and unfamiliar. It is where we are called upon to discover new strengths within us or possibly, learn new ways to act and react in our lives.”
I think many readers would agree that we are, in fact, at the threshold between what we know and are familiar with and the unknown and unfamiliar. It does not matter what political ideology you subscribe to or whether you agree or disagree with how we got here. The bottom line is that we are here, together at the growing edge. The question is, what are we going to choose moving forward?
I, for one, am tired of diatribe (one-way, competitive communication with a purpose to express emotion, browbeat or inspire). You can look to the goings on in the legislature (both state and federal) to get your fill of diatribe. I am hungry for sincere, honest, dialogue (two-way, cooperative communication with a purpose to exchange information and build relationships). I am tired of finger-pointing and blame. Enough. We must find new ways to act and react to one another.
I believe we can do this. We can discover new strengths within us to hold our tongues and listen, really listen, with the intention to understand and find common ground. We can find new ways to act and react that are nonviolent and builds up and affirms our common humanity. We can choose this for ourselves and we can demand it of our leaders.
Politicians, clergy and community leaders can and should be held accountable, to act responsibly by entering into dialogue and to not just heal but transform our communities, to tell the truth and have the integrity to keep their word.
We are all responsible for our actions. This missive is my attempt to narrow the distance between what could and should be and what currently is.
Linda Mccord, Sunbury