We received the following letter from Susan Alcorn who organizes the Sunday forums at First Unitarian Church in Shaker Heights. We wrote about the forum the church hosted on gerrymandering and redistricting in Ohio Sun 3/26. That forum, as Susan relates, drew a record crowd as bipartisan energy builds around the issue. To learn more about efforts to redistrict fairly in Ohio and end gerrymandering, go to fairdistrictsohio.org.
Hi, Tom.
I’m sure you understand the impact that your publication has in this community but I’d like to give kudos to Anastasia Pantsios for her piece on redistricting. She clearly explained gerrymandering, a complex subject, in a few carefully worded sentences. She’s an excellent writer.
The map identifying the location of our discussion at the Shaker Unitarian Church also helped. We had planned on a crowd of about 80, based on previous experience at our Sunday morning discussions. You can see from the picture below that we were more than surprised by the turnout. We had 275 people standing and sitting in chairs or on the floor. People are clearly ready to take action on important issues like this.
Other organizations promoted the gerrymandering discussion, but Cool Cleveland had an impact because I spoke to people afterwards who mentioned it.
I’d like to reminisce a bit. My late husband Bill Alcorn always enjoyed Cool Cleveland, attending Ingenuity Fest and sometimes reminisced about your days in the early 90’s when you organized unusual theatrical programs on the west side. It was engaging and fun. I have good memories indeed.
Please let others in your office know that I genuinely appreciate all the good work you, Anastasia and all of them do.
Sincerely,
Susan Alcorn
Shaker Heights, OH 44122