Famous Findlayians Updated

I can mark another pandemic project off my list. I have completely revamped and updated my Famous Findlayian page. I went through each entry and revised the text if needed – like if someone died since being listed – and added some new people from previous suggestions. The page is now inside my WordPress install so no more hand coding the page…. YAY!!!

I’m not really sure when I started this list. I know it was before 2010. The WayBack Machine has a page capture from February 2005! Wow! In fact I think that was when I still had a website on Geocities.

Why did I start it?

I’ve always been into history and I love learning about the history of my hometown. Then I knew of a few famous people had been from Findlay like Ben Rothlisberger, Tell Taylor, and Gavin Creel. Then one day I was searching through the Internet Movie Database and put in Findlay as a search term and one of the names that popped up was Mark Metcalf, the actor who played Doug Neidermeyer in the classic comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House. Of course I was a bit disappointed to learn he had only been born in Findlay and didn’t grow up there.

I started doing more internet searches like in Wikipedia and search engines like Google.

The initial criteria to be included was you had to be born or live in Findlay or Hancock county. I also insisted that the claim had to be verified by an online method.

I wanted to include a photo of the person so if I couldn’t find one to use online, I still included the person but put their listing further down the page after the ones with photos.

The first version had 16 people. With the update today, the page now includes 57 total individuals (54 with photos), 6 Medal of Honor Winners, and 5 additional people who served in Congress over the years. The listing includes two sets of siblings and while there is a heavy number of sports people, many vocations are represented.

I got many suggestions over the years and many of those were added in this update and I have several people needing more information to verify. For example, someone suggested a current TV actor but I couldn’t actually verify that they were born or lived in Hancock county. The person’s family did but I couldn’t find any information where they or some media report said they were born or lived in the area. For another person I did add, I found a transcript of a podcast they were a guest on where they talked about living in the “small town” of Findlay. If you have a suggestion or a corrections, feel free to send it my way.

Further updates will include adding more people, including more women and people of color. I also want to create a database of all the info I have so it can help in what info I still need and I can do a print out of the list should there me a point where I lose my website.

So, check out my updated Famous Findlayian page:

Famous Findlayians and others from Hancock County Ohio

The Economist Shines A Light On Blue-Collar Workers In Findlay

logo for the magazine The Economist

A columnist for the venerable European publication ‘The Economist’ visited Findlay before the recent Ohio election primary and did a good job highlighting the inconsistent views of a white blue collar electorate who tend to vote against their own best interests.

I’m sure some Findlay promoters would take exception to describing Findlay as “a frayed-at-the-edges town of 41,000 people” but the rest of the article seemed spot on.

A day before the Ohio primary Lexington travelled to Findlay, a frayed-at-the-edges town of 41,000 people which is home to one of Ohio’s larger tyre plants. The smell of cooking rubber hangs over its streets. Twice under Mr Obama, anti-dumping tariffs of up to 88% have been slapped on imported Chinese tyres at the prodding of the United Steelworkers union (USW), to protect jobs at plants including the Cooper Tire & Rubber factory in Findlay. Mr Obama cited the tariffs in his state-of-the-union message in 2012, declaring: “Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tyres.”

Such tariffs are rare, making Findlay’s tyre-builders an unusually well-protected minority. Their plant offers a glimpse of what might happen if a President Trump (or Sanders) fulfils his promise to use tariffs and taxes to keep manufacturing jobs in America. Economically trade barriers are a bad and harmful idea, but what Findlay offers is a case study in the politics of trade.

An evening shift-change saw lines of men leave the Cooper plant, lunch-boxes in hand. Most felt that tariffs on China had helped them: one called them a “game-changer” that had saved jobs and prompted extra shifts. But, strikingly, praise for the president was mostly dwarfed by anger at the state of the country. Some workers said they were Democrats but felt underwhelmed by Mr Obama. Others, Republicans, expressed suspicion verging on contempt for the president. Mr Obama is “the worst fucking piece of shit in this country, he should move to China”, spat a bearded worker in a camouflage hunting jacket who declined to give his name, turning back to add, pre-emptively: “And I’ve got black friends, so it isn’t that.” Another worker, Josh Wilkerson, a Trump supporter, said that anti-China tariffs were good, but he shared his colleague’s belief that, mostly, “Obama is for the people who don’t work.”

The view from the rustbelt

The sum of the viewpoint of some of the Cooper workers is “Obama helped us keep our jobs but he still sucks….”

I understand, and have said myself, that politics shouldn’t just be a one note tune. People should take the whole of a potential leader and decide if one should support them for office.

Some people have false ideas about a candidate. If their view of the whole is so distorted then how can one make an informed choice?

Republicans play into the misinformed electorate by hyping false narratives and by stoking fears of the “other”.

The Economist article pointed out that not all blue collar workers are raving bigots.

In dozens of interviews at the tyre plant, one person backed Mrs Clinton: Rod Nelson, president of the Cooper plant’s union branch, Local 207L of the United Steelworkers, and that was in the “realist” belief that she will be the Democratic nominee. At Lexington’s request, Mr Nelson gathered ten Cooper workers for a group interview. Asked to sum up Mr Obama, the men replied variously that he was a good man, a disappointment, a “great speech-giver”, a victim of Republican obstruction in Congress and a man who had failed to rein in the super-rich and their influence over politics. The president was praised for bailing out the car sector and other industries soon after taking office. He was thanked for tariffs on China, but his support for the TPP caused baffled dismay. Mr Nelson ventured that perhaps the president is using trade as “a diplomatic tool” to win allies.

Workers at a tire plant like Cooper aren’t all stupid or bigots but candidates need to address the issues these people care about like jobs and putting healthy food on the table for the family.

Fear-mongering rants, like building a wall to keep the Muslims out, are just a side show and doesn’t speak to the real issues people care about. I wish the mainstream media here in the US would get on the same page as The Economist.

Mayor Mihalik Says ‘Nothing To See Here’ Concerning Secret Business Tax Scheme

image of Findlay Ohio Mayor Lydia Mihalik
Findlay Ohio Mayor Lydia Mihalik

Findlay, Ohio Mayor Lydia Mihalik spoke to the Findlay Rotary Club this week. It was basically a state-of-the-city speech telling the business community how well we are doing economically. What caught my attention came at the end of the speech concerning a secret business tax deferment scheme causing some drama at city hall. The Mayor basically said there was nothing to see here and to move along. Why should we take her word for it?

To understand how this is worrisome, you need a short review on the secret scheme. Here is a news article from May:

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Hancock County Commissioners Delay Payment To Play Political Game On Recovery House Plan

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Hancock County Commissioner Mark D Gazarek

Somethings never seem to change in my hometown of Findlay, Ohio. The city and county is red-red Republican and irrational politics even seep into addiction recovery services. It caused the county commissioners to delay paying a contract so they could interfere in a local dust up over a recovery house location. They claimed the delay was not political but then explained why it was. Meanwhile people in real need of help get ignored.

Back in early January, there was an “uproar” when some Findlay citizens found out that the Hancock County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) bought a house in a “affluent” section of Findlay near an elementary school, a parochial school, and the Findlay Country Club.

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Findlay Ohio Tax Issue Highlights Bad Republican Ideas

image of Findlay Ohio Mayor Lydia Mihalik
Findlay Ohio Mayor Lydia Mihalik

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.

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