Conscience is a play by Joe DiPietro focusing on the 1950s political clash between Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith and Senator Joseph McCarthy, highlighting Smith’s courageous “Declaration of Conscience” speech against McCarthy’s anti-communist witch hunts, exploring themes of political integrity, power, and truth in a divisive era. The play, first staged in 2020, examines McCarthy’s manipulative tactics and Smith’s stand as a beacon of moral courage, asking audiences to reflect on the relevance of such principles today.

 

LWVGC has reserved a block of tickets for this Saturday at 1:30 pm.  (There is a tour of the facility at 12:30 if you are interested.) $35.00 total cost.

Performance is at the Darl Center, 5437 Broadway here in Slavic Village. This is in a renovated Carnegie Library building.

• Register through the LWVGC website and pay a $5 reservation fee (retained by LWVGC to support our work). Go to LWVGreaterCleveland.org, log in by clicking on Member Login in the upper right corner, and then scroll down on the home page to the calendar entry for "Theater for Democracy" event.  Click on the event and then click on the red REGISTER NOW button on this page.
• On the day of the performance, your reserved tickets will be available for $30. Payment for tickets will be via card at the door.
• This opportunity is not limited to League members. All are welcome and encouraged to attend!

 

As many of you are aware, the Cleveland Heights Charter Review Commission recommended that the city change to Rank Choice Voting for elections, but council chose to postpone the decision on this one issue to allow further time for debate.  They have decided to proceed with information gathering, hosting two townhalls in March to teach the public more about how Rank Choice Voting works, and to collect feedback. There will be a third forum in April, yet to be scheduled.

 

We are a coalition partner in this effort as League has endorsed RCV as a positive option.  Feel free to attend one of the townhalls. If Council decides to go ahead and put Rank Choice Voting onto the November ballot for the residents of Cleveland Heights to vote on, we will then take on a more substantial role of educating people on how RCV works.   (Noting that if the voters do approve RCV it probably will not go into effect until 2030, giving the Board of Elections time to adjust their systems to handle the process.  Also noting that there is a current effort by the Ohio legislature to block RCV as it tends to weaken the influence of the political parties.)

 

The Resistance Fair returned last Saturday and it was a good day for conversations, and learning, and finding community.  The turnout was a bit lighter than last year but that meant we had more time for actual conversations, especially with young adults and teens.  We drew attention with our (very) large poster enumerating the many ways the Trump administration has violated the constitution thus far, which we also printed out as handouts.  In addition we had pocket constitutions, palm cards of The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, a plethora of informational cards from LWVO, a map showing the gerrymandering of Ohio, a list of what will be on the ballot in 2026, and details of the lawsuit recently filed by LWVO and CAIR, represented by the ACLU, challenging Ohio's SB293 violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Fourteenth Amendment.  AND we urged everyone to check their voter registration in March and September to ensure they had not been bumped (and to urge everyone they know to do likewise.

 

MAJOR thanks go out to Paula Goodwin, Annette Tucker Sutherland (of Shaker), and Monica Gordon-Pershey for assembling the list of violations, editing for clarity, and then compiling them into a well laid out poster.  And major thanks to members who came to work at the table: Amy Vegh, Annette Tucker Sutherland, Monica Gordon-Pershey, Kathy Flora, Jill Tatem, Linda Tobin Pepper, and our brand new member Kassandra Capretta. 

 

And thanks also to Penzey's Spices who agreed to donate their Vote and Resist spice packets for us to distribute.  And thanks to the Shaker Chapter for providing two easel stands for the poster, and coordinating the materials from LWVO. And finally, thanks to Robin Koslen for coming up with this whole idea for the Fair last year, and for persuading her young family members to come and help carry all the materials in from our cars.  

 

I am attaching below the constitutional violations handout, the gerrymander map, and what's on the ballot.  Feel free to share any and all.  We also have the poster which is available, and many many already printed handouts and cards.  I also have about 25 copies of the pocket constitution.  If you can use any of the print copies, let me know.  Heights@lwvgreatercleveland.org

 

Many of us gathered at Amy Vegh's lovely home last Sunday for a celebration of everyone who made all our forums possible last fall.  More than 30 of our members worked on the forums and the voter guides - a true team effort.  Everyone who helped with voter services received a red heart to wear, and messages were written on cards to Betsy, Blanche and Janice - the leaders of our voter service efforts.  Hand-painted hearts were given to Betsy who has stepped down from her longtime leadership role, and Blanche who has theoretically stepped down but keeps stepping up to help out.  

 

With major thanks to Amy for agreeing to host, to Joan for leading us to a caterer (oh my!), and to Paula for suggesting the idea for our February gathering (and bringing sparkling cider and coconut bars), and thanks to everyone who helped to eat the rhubarb cake.  Who knew so many were so eager to help eat the cake?

 

NEWLY ADDED: There is a monthly Zoom meeting with LWVO discussing voter services issues and opportunities.  They are on the 4th Tuesdays (so tonight) at 7:00.  We don't currently have anyone joining those calls and we are missing out on updates.  If you are interested in joining that call each month, at least until we have new Voter Service leadership but beyond if you are interested, let me know and I will send you the link next month (and apologies for not sending this out in time for tonight...)

 

We have begun our nominating committee process for the next League year (July to June).  If we have a phone number for you we will contact you to see what might interest you.  If you don't get a call feel free to email me (Heights@lwvgreatercleveland.org) with contact information.  I admit we are having some significant issues with the system we are using and we are currently only able to see some of the numbers.)  For starters we are looking for:

  - Voter Services

  - a few people to head up program planning - community forums and social events

  - someone to help Greater Cleveland and Ilene with membership records in the database

 

Future Heights is working on a community forum on school funding.  League has  done several forums on school funding in recent months so we wondered if anyone is interested in working with Future Heights on their forum?   We have knowledge on school funding and on forums.  Can we lend a hand to Future Heights?  Let me know if you're interested.  Heights@lwvgreatercleveland.org

 

- Democracies do not fail because of a single villain or a single event.  They weaken when citizens disengage, when exhaustion replaces participation, and when people forget that institutions are not self-sustaining machines.  They are collective agreements that require care.

 

- History is filled with examples of ordinary people altering the course of events without any guarantee of success.  The long fight for women's suffrage unfolded over generations, marked by ridicule, violence, and repeated defeats. Many who marched never lived to vote, yet their persistence reshaped democratic participation. The civil rights movement faced overwhelming force, internal doubt, and constant danger. Its victories were not inevitable. They were earned through sustained action by people who refused to wait for permission.

 

- The past is fixed, but the present is not.  The value of historical knowledge lies in recognizing familiar patterns while there is still room to choose differently.  Democracies erode slowly, but they are also rebuilt slowly, through participation that feels mundane rather than heroic.

 

Some of you are aware of the "Card Campaign" which was started last year to provide informational handouts to voters. They have just issued two new cards - on our Constitutional Amendment Rights and our Voting Rights.  These cards are designed to be printed out or shared in social media.

 

 

WE HAVE A NEW DIRECTORY!!! With thanks to Judith Beeler who offered to learn how to use Excel and take over this project, and with gratitude to Janice who just couldn't believe we didn't have a directory in the first place and figured out how to do the first one.

 

Going forward the directory will be updated quarterly and posted to our chapter's website at www.lwvgreatercleveland.org (and emailed to new members.)  The link will be included in the email and can be downloaded by members (which means you need to log in to the website.)

 

This remains a somewhat manual process since the switch to paying memberships through LWVUS, so please make sure you are included in this roster if you are a Heights member (the newsletter does go out to a few people who are not in our chapter), and please make sure the details are correct.  At this point we only have cellphone numbers so if you entered your phone number in the home phone box we can't see it currently.  If your phone number is not listed, and you would like it to be, please, click HERE and let me know what needs to be updated/added/deleted.

 

CHUH Chapter Leadership