The Lima Voter Guide to the November 2017 elections is now available online. AHEAD, working with other community organizations, has sponsored this voter guide to progressive candidates in Lima-area races.

Links to share:

• Link to the Lima Voter Guide
• Link to AHEAD’s public Facebook post about the guide to easily share on social media

Per the guide’s website:
“This voter guide has information about how to vote and about candidates endorsed by local groups: the Black Ministerial Alliance, labor unions,Concerned Citizens for More Progressive Lima and Allen and Hardin for Election Action and Democracy (AHEAD). Please use it as you go to the polls. Your vote matters more than ever.”

Please share — and vote on November 7th!

Please join us on Monday, October 16th from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. for the monthly AHEAD meeting. The October meeting will be held in room 107 of Ohio Northern University’s Meyer Hall of Science. The street address for Meyer is 515 W. Lincoln Avenue in Ada. We will have signs to help direct you to room 107, and parking is open in the evening.

The October meeting will include a potluck dinner and group updates.

We will also have:

• three wonderful people speaking about what it’s like to run for office or manage a campaign. They are Mary Drzycimski-Finn (candidate for Ada Village Council), Benjamin Stahl (candidate for Bluffton Village Council) and Kerry Bush (manager for Carla Thompson’s Lima City Council campaign).
• a presentation on Issue 2, from ONU Pharmacy Professor Ben Aronson.

This meeting will be co-hosted with Blanchard Valley Young Dems and ONU College Dems.

Progressive candidates locally would value your help with their campaigns — and your vote in November.

AHEAD lists local candidates here: Support Local Candidates

Contact information for the various candidates and campaigns is listed on the link above. If contact information is unavailable or a local candidate isn’t listed that you feel should be, please reach out to us at ahead.oh@gmail.com.

Whether you’re in Bluffton, Ada, Lima or beyond, you’ll see people trying to make your community and region better.

AHEAD members are encouraged to join the Findlay Civil Rights Alliance in standing up “to all forms of racism from violent white supremacist rallies to smaller microaggressions in our communities” today at the Riverside Park band shelter in Findlay starting at 4 p.m. 

Per the Findlay Civil Rights Alliance event description, “Appropriate signs include: Black Lives Matter, white supremacy is terrorism, white silence is violence, acknowledge your complicity, and similar language.”

Article in The Courier about the Findlay Civil Rights Alliance’s decision to plan the rally: Group organizes city rally against white supremacy

Event page: Findlay Against White Supremacy

Emily and Sophie, both members of the AHEAD Leadership Team, recently attended the Mobilize 88 Summit. The event’s goal was to organize and prepare progressive grassroots leadership in all 88 counties of Ohio. It was hosted by the Ohio Progressive Alliance (OPA). Emily and Sophie have written up insights from the event, reporting on:

• A session given by the Single-Payer Action Network Ohio (SPAN Ohio) that explains differences between the types of single-payer healthcare systems that exists as well as benefits of this type of system.
• Guidance on the steps a candidate needs to take in order to prepare themselves to run a good race in the current political climate
• A keynote address by former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner “that captivated, inspired, and pulled on the heartstrings of everyone in the room.”

You can read Sophie’s and Emily’s inspirational and educational briefing by following this link. They’ve also shared a guide to running for office from the Mobilize 88 Summit event.

AHEAD is working in collaboration with Lima nightspot Somewhere to bring you a series of fundraising nights benefiting local and national LGBT+ organizations and groups. These fundraising opportunities are an opportunity to keep a light on LGBT+ issues nationally and in our own communities.

Somewhere is at 804 W. North St., Lima. Tuesday gatherings are 7 pm -12 am, and the cover charge is $3.

Each week’s event will feature entertainment, hors d’oeuvres, and drink specials. Last week’s entertainment spotlighted a local musician, and this week we tested our own vocal chords with a karaoke night. If you would like to support both local and national LGBT+ organizations, or if you know someone who has been personally affected by the Trump administration’s stances on LGBT+ rights, then you should be ‘Somewhere’!

As part of AHEAD’s philosophy of nonviolent action, please be mindful of Somewhere’s status as a safe space for the LGBT+ community. If you have any questions about these fundraisers, questions regarding Somewhere, or questions regarding LGBT+ issues, please contact Emily or Sophie.

In response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, AHEAD is joining rallies nationwide to support tolerance. Come to Lima’s Town Square at 7 p.m. tonight and stand with AHEAD for peace and tolerance, and against hate and violence.

Please no political signs – we are remembering the victims of Charlottesville and declaring publicly our support for those who stand up against racism and violence.

The event page for tonight’s rally can be found here: Vigil: Standing in Solidarity with Charlottesville

In addition, Indivisible has compiled a new resource for us to use to make sure that our MoCs are doing everything they can to respond to Charlottesville and to oppose white supremacy: Are Your Members of Congress Doing Enough to Respond to the Charlottesville Terrorist Attack?

 

Date TBD: Protest IF Trump fires special counsel Robert Mueller

Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference into the 2016 election. If he’s fired: AHEAD is joining up with Indivisible groups across the country, as well as Moveon.org and the March for Truth, to plan coordinated protests all across the country, should they become necessary.

Here in Lima, we’ll be protesting in Lima’s Town Square.

• If Mueller is fired before 2 p.m., the protests will happen that same day at 5 p.m.
• If he’s fired after 2 p.m. the protests will happen at noon the next day.

Join us in rallying for health care this Saturday, July 29th, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. at the Lima Public Square. We need to get the word out to Congress and say, “Health care is a human right, and we won’t forget your votes!” Please bring signs, stories, and songs, and join us in standing up for what we believe in.

To share the event or RSVP, please visit the event page here: Lima Rally for Health Care

There will also be a rally at a future (TBD) date in support of the transgender and larger LGBT+ community, so check back for more information about the organization of this event.

 

AHEAD leadership team member Kerry Bush shares her own personal life-changing/life-saving experience with Obamacare.

I have Asperger’s Syndrome, which (as you may know) is a mild form of autism. Due to this, I have extreme mood swings, and have been on a very expensive prescription mood stabilizer since I was in my teens. I am convinced that medication has saved my life more than once by preventing me from getting so manic depressive that I wanted to kill myself. The one time I ended up in the hospital for attempted suicide, I had missed my mood stabilizer for several days.

When I turned 26 last summer, I was kicked off my parents’ insurance, which meant that either I had to pay for the necessary medication out of pocket (well over $1000/month) or find insurance. I wasn’t working full-time quite yet, so since I obviously couldn’t afford to pay for the meds myself, the Affordable Care Act was my only viable option.

Thanks to the ACA, I was able to pay for my suicide-preventing medication at a cost I could afford while I searched for a full-time job. I am immeasurably grateful to the Affordable Care Act because without it I’m certain wouldn’t be alive today.

Kerry Bush
AHEAD Leadership