#inaug09 #dctrip09 Ohio to Baltimore

It's cold in Yellow Springs, Ohio. But not as cold as it was when we left Chicago. Yellow Springs is a self-described small town, liberal bastion near Dayton, Ohio. It is famously known as the home of Antioch College, a liberal arts college founded in the 1860s, whose famous alumni include Coretta Scott King, Steven Gould and Rod Steiger.

We'll be driving with teenagers to Baltimore, Md. It will take about eight hours. There we'll stay with Baltimore's famous Wheeler family who opened their wonderful home to us.

Looked on Twitter and saw lots of posts of people getting to D.C. or going to D.C. I'm hoping to get to the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow a.m. for the mega-concert and invocation by Eugene Robinson. Once my 13-year-old heard Josh Groban was performing she was ready to wait 10 hours in the cold.

This is perhaps one of the wildest things our family has done.

Ohio goes for Obama - with a huge assist from labor

When I saw Ohio called for Obama this evening, I called my friend Bruce Bostick, a longtime steelworker and union activist, and frequent contributer of great stories to the PWW, to congratulate him. This is a huge victory for Ohio's working class, and its union movement.

In our paper Bruce reported on Ohio AFL-CIO leader Joe Rugola's walk across his state last month, stopping at towns and cities ravaged by plant closings and corporate greed, to rally Ohio workers to vote for Obama.

At a stop in Barberton, IBEW leader and newly elected mayor Bob Genet said,

“There were 1,800 good manufacturing jobs here,” said Genet. “That’s 1,800 families that have lost jobs and a huge blow to our local tax base. But it’s more than that. That is where all of our fathers worked. They used to hire family members. It was a good union shop, part of our family here. Now it’s just an old rusty building, thanks to the policies of this administration.”

Writing from Cleveland, Rick Nagin reported on the challenge issued early on by Cleveland area labor leader Loree Suggs, who told union delegates they needed to unite behind Barack Obama. “Go back to your locals. Now is the time to unite. We cannot let any bias or racial thoughts get in the way,” Suggs declared.

Nagin reported:

In case there was any doubt, Soggs said, the building trades had learned that their longtime opponent, the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), had endorsed Republican John McCain, citing his opposition to every key issue protecting unions and working conditions including project labor agreements, the Employee Free Choice Act, the Davis-Bacon Act and occupational safety and health regulations.
“If your members have a problem with racial bias, tell them to get over it,” Soggs said. “Get over it for all time, but especially now for this election, get over it. We must put Barack Obama in the White House and, if we don’t, we are in deep trouble.”

It's clear that Ohio's far-sighted labor movement has made a huge contribution to moving our country forward.

Congratulations, Buckeye Staters.

‘Just your average Joe’

‘Just your average Joe’
Joe Biden pays visit to the Ohio State University-Newark

By Jonny Lippincott

NEWARK, Ohio—Democratic vice- presidential candidate Joe Biden paid a visit to this working class town Oct. 15. Biden delivered a speech to a packed house at the Ohio State University and Central Ohio Technical College Adena Hall.

Newark, Ohio is a small community located about 40 miles east of Columbus. The town has been suffering economic hardships from foreclosed homes, loss of small businesses to layoffs from major manufacturers such as Owens Corning, Diebold and Holophane lighting solutions. Newark has also experienced massive job outsourcing due to jobs being pushed out of town and forcing many residence to commute to major cities for employment.

Thus, a visit from the self proclaimed "poorest senator" seemed like a ray of hope to a near dying community. Among the people attending the rally were everyone from the old to the young and many representatives of the working class including steelworkers, fire and policemen, medical workers, small business owners and so forth. It was with out a doubt that the majority of the crowd was young people thirsty for change from the direction our country is headed in.

The overall atmosphere of the event seemed more like a rock concert or a major sporting event then a political rally. To start things off, Ohio State Treasurer and Attorney General candidate Richard Cordray and Gov. Ted Strickland got the crowd fired up talking about how important of a role the state of Ohio will play in this most important presidential election.

When Biden began his speech, he began talking about his hometown in Delaware and the similarities to Newark. He said, "The American people feel it all over, people are sitting at their kitchen tables and having a conversation as ordinary and as profound as 'Will we have a job next month?'"

Biden also touched on the fact that America's progress will not be measured by the stock market or by the salaries of big business CEOs but by parents’ ability to tell their children everything will be fine in the end.

It seemed the people of Newark felt relieved when the labor issues of the times were mentioned and that someone is willing to solve the problem instead of cower from the true war being waged against the American people, the war of job loss, outsourcing, foreclosure, predatory lending, and the decline of small business.