Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
Back in my hometown of Findlay Ohio, voters, this November, will be asked to pass a renewal of a 0.25 percent income tax that was passed three years ago as a result of the great recession of 2008. The battle for the passage of the tax highlights how wrong Republicans are about taxes and economics in general. It mirrors the failures of trickle down economics on the national level.
On Friday June 29th our area experienced a severe storm with 80 mph winds that knocked out power for over 600,000 American Electric Power (AEP) customers in Ohio and it took a week or more to get the power back on. AEP claimed the storm was more than their system could handle with the amount of damage not seen since the remnant of Hurricane Ike passed through in 2008. There might be another explanation as to why restoration is taking so long in recent years. Power companies seem to be more interested in profits over service and they want you to pay for their cost cutting.
The storm that blew on June 29th is called a derecho:
I was watching Columbus’ Red White and Boom from my house the other night and it got me thinking of the fireworks my family would go to when I was a kid back in Findlay. It was sponsored by the late great Hill’s Department Store. Compared to the professional show at Red White and Boom!, the firework shows of my youth were less impressive.
We would pile into the car and drive out to Hill’s on Tiffin Ave and park in the lot facing east. Where they would shoot the fireworks off is where the Kroger store is now. We had pillows, popcorn, and a cooler with pop and the wait for the show was sooooooo long in my short attention span childhood years.
I visited my hometown last week as some big events took place to celebrate the city’s 200th birthday. One event I went to was the parade. Here is a slide show of some selected snaps I took that day. Enjoy!
As we celebrate Memorial Day in the US and it is an election year, we need to be reminded that the people who died in service of this country must not have died in vain. No matter your political party, we must work harder not to have more of our young people buried in military cemeteries. This post is my plea for us to work together to stop all war – both current and future.