Tales of "We Are Ohio" civility

If you try to have a civil conversation with a "We Are Ohio" protester, be prepared to be screamed at with obscenities and derogatory insults.



Original photo courtesy THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH


That's what University of Toledo student body president Matthew Rubin found out on Thursday. Governor Kasich was in Toledo to speak at an event in support of Issue 2. While waiting to go inside, he noticed a former classmate of his in the crowd. The two had even worked on a group project together for a communications class at UT. Then they made eye contact and that's when things started getting ugly.

We made eye contact at the event and he started yelling at me, saying I was a disgrace. I thought he was joking around so I walked over to say hello. When I greeted him, I was surprised that he was serious and he didn't stop yelling at me. Instead, he got more intense and started swearing at me calling me an "***hole" and a "scumbag" without being provoked whatsoever. He continued to yell at me as I stood there confused and others joined in. The yelling got more intense and I cannot recall exactly what was said because it got pretty loud but as is seen in the video on foxtoledo.com, one guy was screaming to "get back inside!" and I heard things like "get the f*** out of here" "you're a f***ing moron" come flying from my former classmate and others. I tried to engage them in a non-threatening way and the crowd seemed to get bigger around me. I was not able to say much over the shouting, but I really just wanted to know why all of the sudden my group project partner from last spring hated me all of the sudden. Luckily the cameras started showing up and some backed off, but others kept screaming obscenities.

Joe Vardon of the Dispatch was also at the event, and corroborates that the crowd was vulgar and had to be asked to step back, as they were shouting obscenities to anybody who walked by to enter the venue.

The unions do not want to debate on this issue. They never have. As their misleading ads have shown, they don't want to talk honestly about what is contained in the bill. So they either lie about it, claim that they represent the entire middle class and outright try to shout you down.

For another classic example, see how they attack teachers who dare to have an independent thought and not tow the union line in Jason's earlier post, plus this great post over at GOHP Blog.

Ohians deserve a more civil debate over the issue than they are getting from "We Are Ohio".

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