Local reporters focus on local election results
With so much attention on the presidential election results, it could be easy to overlook the thousands of other important decisions voters made last week.
So while journalists at The Dispatch, Thisweek Community News and our sister central Ohio newsrooms in Lancaster and Newark kept one eye on the big national race along with the rest of the country, they spent Election
Night mostly focused on local results.
As your local news source, we fan out across the many communities in central Ohio on Election Day to bring you results about what we know is important to you in the places where you live. These races and issues might seem inconsequential in the grand scheme, but they are fundamental examples of the beauty, power and importance of our democracy.
With these local votes, we pick our leaders, set standards and boundaries, and provide funding for public purposes. In short, we control our future and the quality of life in our communities.
Franklin County voters, for example, overwhelmingly approved a levy to help fund soaring demand for mental-health services and addiction treatment. The renewal of the existing five-year, 2.2mill levy supports the work of the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County, also known as ADAMH.
In Delaware, voters approved by 59% the renewal of a school levy that generates 27% of its operating budget from property taxes.
Voters in Granville approved a 0.75 mill, five-year operating levy to support the Granville Recreation District.
Grandview Heights residents voted to renew the city's property tax which generates an estimated $1.9 million a year to fund general operations. And voters in both Minerva Park and Riverlea approved tax issues.
Voters in precincts facing liquorsales questions approved many but not all of them. Voters in Columbus precinct 27-E, for example, were willing to approve weekday sales of alcohol at an East Side business by 12 votes but they apparently weren't willing to go so far as allowing sales on Sunday, rejecting that question by 25 votes.
Groveport voters approved two city charter amendments that amounted to bookkeeping changes but were clearly important to city officials and residents.
These are dark times, not just because winter looms and the grip of coronavirus grows. It is dark because we have lost the ability to agree to disagree. Too many of us have shrunk tighter into our own bubbles, unwilling to listen to other viewpoints and to allow our own thinking to be challenged in the process. We may even welcome the isolation forced on us to avoid COVID-19 infection because it also protects us from uncomfortable confrontations.
It is time to get about the business of healing, if only we knew where to start.
We might look to the wisdom in that staple of 12-step programs known as the Serenity Prayer, especially its first verse:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Certainly, not everyone got all they hoped for in election results, some of which will continue to be sorted out by elections officials in the coming weeks. Those who voted in record numbers did what they could to effect change. Some already refuse to accept the outcome and are trying to change it through the courts.
We hope that judges will have the wisdom to know the difference between unconscionable fraud and long-established functioning of the elections process.
We also should take heart in the institutions that consistently serve central Ohioans well, supporting their ability to work together as community builders, not dividers. Hundreds of organizations representing nonprofits, education, social services, performing arts, faith, health and business came together last weekend with an encouraging message of hope in full-page ads in The Dispatch.
Their message is worth remembering and embracing: “As civic organizations working to serve the common good, we are used to seeing people come together — some in need, and others in service — but all with a generosity of spirit. And, we see so many benefits when we do, particularly in the strengthening of the well-being of the people of our region.”
Signers concurring in that overture to post-election peace and kindness included the Columbus Foundation and Columbus Partnership, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, Charity Newsies and the Harmony Project, competing health care systems and both the YMCA and YWCA, Shadowbox Live and the Columbus Symphony. See the full list at cbusfdn.org/community.
Some have said for the last four years that Democrats never got over Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016. If Joe Biden prevails to inauguration on Jan. 20, there will be plenty of Donald Trump supporters willing to carry his message that the election was somehow stolen from him. If Trump is the winner, some supporting Biden are likely to say the same.
Staying in our corners won't get us where we need to be. Even heavyweight boxers meet in the middle of the ring before slugging it out. And youth sports leagues still teach kids to congratulate the other team after a loss, don't they?
To move toward unity, or at least dial down the acrimony, will not be easy or quick. But remaining mired in distrust and self-righteous conviction that the other side is wrong is not going to help anyone sleep better at night.
Nor are we likely to be rescued from our malaise by political leaders. Most of those who won on Tuesday are already laying plans to hold on to power, and losers are plotting their next moves.
Salvation lies within activities that force us to focus outward — putting the needs of others ahead of our own, even if just for a moment. Look again at the list of supporters for last weekend's open message to the community, with its emphasis on the last half of the word: unity. Participating with one of the dozens of nonprofits on that list is a potential pathway to being in community with others and seeing the world from a different perspective.
Getting to know others on a personal level — appreciating their aspirations and concerns — can help us become more open to at least understanding their views, even if we don't agree with them. The hard part is being brave enough to start a civil conversation, committing to listen and to withhold judgment.
We're out of practice in treating each other with respect and granting others the same deference that we would like to receive. It's time to follow the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Until we recapture our allegiance to the principle of one nation, grounded in the rule of law, we cannot pledge to be “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Healing the division starts with each of us, or it threatens all of us.