City of Cleveland Heights
Council Office
40 Severance Circle
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
June 10, 2025
The Honorable Bernie Moreno
SR-284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Jon Husted
SR-304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Shontel Brown
2455 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Rob McColley
1 Capitol Square, Second Floor 201
Columbus, OH 43215
The Honorable Matt Huffman
77 South high Street 14th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
CC:
Mayor Kahlil Seren, City of Cleveland Heights
Director of Law William R. Hanna, City of Cleveland Heights
Dear Senators Moreno and Husted, Representative Brown, President McColley, and Speaker Huffman:
On behalf of the Cleveland Heights City Council, I am writing to share a summary of the 12th Annual “Democracy Day” Public Hearing, held on June 5, 2025, in Council Chambers.
This public hearing is required by a 2013 citizen-initiated ordinance titled “Calling on Congress to Amend the U.S. Constitution to Establish That Corporations Are Not People and Money Is Not Speech.” Passed by 77% of Cleveland Heights voters, the ordinance mandates an annual public hearing to examine “the political influence by corporations and big money in connection with the most recent election.” It also requires the City Council to notify elected officials of the hearing and to reaffirm the will of the voters, who in November 2013 called for a constitutional amendment declaring:
- Only human beings, not corporations, are legal persons with constitutional rights; and
- Money is not equivalent to speech, and therefore, regulating political contributions and spending does not equate to limiting political speech
At the June 5 hearing, eight individuals provided oral testimony, and one submitted written remarks. Topics included:
- An update on the We the People Amendment (HJR54); the influence of corporate and billionaire donations to the 2024 Trump campaign; and the limiting effects of Supreme Court rulings equating corporations with people and money with speech.
- The role of corporate media in shaping political narratives, fueled by campaign contributions.
- The increasing use of corporate surveillance technologies—such as those from Axon Enterprises, Flock Safety, and Motorola—by local governments.
- The suppression of climate urgency due to the outsized influence of corporate money.
- The impact of dark and “illuminated” money in elections, including funding from figures such as Elon Musk, and its contribution to a broader constitutional crisis.
- The political pressure applied by wealthy donors, including the Haslam family, in advocating for state funding for a new Cleveland Browns stadium.
- The influence of the cryptocurrency industry, including the pardon of BitMEX and its implications for corporate legal accountability.
- The perceived connection between political inaction on global human rights crises and the influence of political contributions.
- The economic threat posed to small, local businesses by the expansion of big-box retailers.
Attached are the full texts of the presented and submitted testimonies for your review.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Please do not hesitate to contact our office if you have any questions or would like additional information.
Sincerely,
Addie Balester
Clerk of Council
City of Cleveland Heights
_________________________________________________________________
Testimony Presented at Cleveland Heights Democracy Day Public Hearing
Cleveland Heights City Hall | June 5, 2025
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Testimony of Greg Coleridge
Co-Director, National Move to Amend Coalition
Cleveland Heights Democracy Day Public Hearing | June 5
Happy Democracy Day, Cleveland Heights
The Move to Amend movement to abolish all corporate constitutional rights and money as free speech continues to expand
- Over 520,000 signatures on our petition
- 803 organizational endorsers
- 8 states have passed either municipal resolutions or ballot initiatives
- 725 municipalities have done the same – including CH’s 2013 ballot initiative, with 77% of the vote.
The 2024 election is Exhibit #, I don’t know, somewhere in the hundreds of thousands, why the judge-made doctrines of “money as speech” and “a corporation is a person” are so democratically destructive.
Corporate interests and mega billionaires backed Trump in 2024. They are now cashing in on their political investments: If the Trump regime gets its way, corporate entities will benefit from DOGE-led obliterations of environmental, financial, food safety and scores of other corporate regulations. Government will significantly be dismantled to usher in privatization/corporatization – transforming public services into private/corporate mega power, control and profit. Billionaires and corporations will profit from $3.7 trillion in tax cuts – paid for by Medicaid and SNAP cuts and a ballooning federal debt.
Crypto corporations have already received a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve And United States Digital Asset Stockpile. And, finally, while serving as a Special Government Employee and head of DOGE, Elon Musk, according to a report by Sen Elizabeth Warren, saw his net worth increase by over $100 billion due to numerous decisions and actions. Musk invested $288 million to the Trump campaign. A $100 billion increase in net worth comes to a return on investment of, ready for this, 34,622%.
A majority of this can be blamed on this…a box
This empty box is a symbol. It represents the space within what we can do and can’t do. We need better elected officials, better laws and better regulations. But there’s only so much we can do if the overarching rules limit our abilities to make change. This box is our Constitution. The small size of this box represents the small space we have to maneuver. The small space is due to anti-democratic provisions of the original Constitution, Amendments and Supreme Court decisions. Among those decisions are those that have declared that “money equals free speech” and “a corporation is a person.”
We will never have true justice in all of its forms, a livable world and democracy so long as we are constrained by this box. The We the People Amendment enlarges the democratic space that will allow our elected representatives and We, the People directly to self-rule. It’s why Move to Amend is dedicated to seeing it enacted.
So what can be done? We all can do something
Everyone can…
- Go to our website. movetoamend.org. Study up on WTP Amendment. movetoamend.org/amendment. Bone up on CCR. https://www.movetoamend.org/corporate-constitutional-rights Share our website postings on email
- Like us on FB, Twitter, Blue Sky, Instragram, Tik Tok
For public officials
- Sign our Pledge to Amend https://www.movetoamend.org/pledge
- Encourage other communities to - at least - pass a resolution
- Help us get this passed at Cuyahoga County Council
For those here or watching
- Sign our petition – movetoamend.org/motion
- Share our petition - join us at No Kings Day protests on June 14
Thank you
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Consequences of Media Dominance by Corporations
Madelon Watts
In a recent discussion Angelo Carusone, President of Media Matters, a non-profit media watchdog, (and currently under investigation by the White House), addressed the absolute media dominance/stranglehold of right-wing media.(1)
He observed it is now a right-winged media where real information power exists. Right-wing media has narrative dominance and is organized to control power. As a result, our information landscape is incredibly and deeply lopsided. Carusone said looking at the top news sources, social media, tv, radio, Facebook, Twitter, you name it,-- the top 500 or so news sources--the places people subscribe to and where they get information--for 82% of the audience--they turn to right-winged media for their source of information! That's a 4 to 1 advantage for right-wing media! Is it any wonder we are so uninformed and misinformed about truth and news facts?
Any message by Democrats or Independents has to be understood and in order to understand, it first has to be heard. Even when the left has a good, solid message--that message has to be distributed and spread and heard and connected and that is the real challenge. The question is can a factual message be distributed and grasped by audiences in a landscape that is so incredibly uneven?
Carusone says, time and time again, the right-winged media does what he calls the "Rumpelstiltskin thing"--taking the bad effects and the harm, and the consequences and spinning it into something positive that gets people to believe it is a benefit to them.
Currently there are three large media corporations that lean right-wing: Sinclair Broadcast Group, iHeartMedia and Salem Communications. I am going to focus on one example of the long-term danger and threat to fact-based journalism the Sinclair Broadcast corporation poses.
This right-winged corporation owns an enormous share of stations and media networks across the country and has spent years acquiring local news stations and turning them into mini Fox News outlets. As of this year, Sinclair has 294 television stations in 89 markets. That is nearly one-quarter of all local stations in America--many in swing states. In Ohio, Sinclair has media networks in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Steubenville, and Toledo.(2)
Sinclair includes talk radio, YouTube channels, Facebook pages and entire websites promoting wildly inaccurate and dangerous information. Sinclair requires its local stations to air editorials and slanted commentary. What makes Sinclair so dangerous is it hides behind the face of trusted local news anchors and reporters. Corporate Sinclair is feeding Americans slanted political propaganda. And most people do not realize it is happening.
In case you are wondering about the Cleveland area, we have no Sinclair affiliates. Instead, Northeast Ohio has a sympathetic right-wing media in iHeartMedia. Across the nation iHeartMedia owns more than 870 radio stations making it the country's largest owner of radio stations as well as numerous other media outlets and digital networks in the U.S.(3)
But, the most concerning issue, is not that right-wing media pushes lies, but that “mainstream” media is backing down from truth and caving in out of fear. One current example. Recently, Paramount—the corporation that owns CBS offered $15 million to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview. The Trump administration demanded $25+ million and a “formal” apology. At the same time, Paramount was seeking an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media corporation and needed the cooperation of the White House. Rather than defend 60 Minutes, Paramount, hoping to make a business deal, gave in. The fallout includes the resignation of CBS News President and the executive producer of 60 Minutes who opposed caving in.
In Trump’s America corporate media is not defending the First Amendment. Instead corporate media writes checks protecting the bottom line, corporate interests. Information is not about truth or facts anymore. Media bias has capitulated and morphed into a blight and decay that has spread from Sinclair into CBS, ABC and other mainstream media.
While journalists technically are still protected by the First Amendment. honest and factual journalism is dying from a lack of courage not a lack of facts.
This is one example of Corporation Personhood illegally usurping our Constitutional rights as citizens. If this is a concern of yours, read the article "How Did Corporations Get Constitutional Rights" found on the on your chair and or go to movetoamend.org
Thank you.
REFERENCES
- May 22, 2025 MSNBC, 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
- https://www.facebook.com/share/19JMt4DgsY/?mibextid=wwXIfr and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHeartMedia
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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS DEMOCRACY DAY
JUNE 5, 2025
Carla Rautenberg, Cleveland Heights
REJECT PACKAGED POLICE SURVEILLANCE
For this testimony, I have relied upon information published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is warning local governments not to let their police departments become dependent on one technology vendor.
Companies that once sold a single technology, such as Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) or Gunshot Detection Sensors (GDS) are buying up other tech firms and law enforcement data brokers in order to become one-stop shops for police surveillance needs.
As such, surprise, surprise, these vendors are pushing police to buy more than they need – if some surveillance is good, more surveillance must be better! If a police department already buys body-worn cameras (BWCs) from a company, the department likely will also be offered a free trial of the newest equipment or software that the vendor is currently hawking. These companies often help police access special funding to help them buy whatever suite of services the firm is pushing.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns cities and towns to “beware the bundle.” Bundling results in police departments paying for technology gimmicks they perhaps should not and maybe never will, use. And, it’s anti-competitive. Bundling keeps prices high and rising while capturing as customers police who soon discover they have as much choice about tech vendors as Cleveland Heights citizens do in choosing between Spectrum or AT&T. Not much!
EFF identifies some of the big players preparing themselves to follow our movements, analyze our actions, store all the data, and make us – the taxpayers – pay for a whole bundle of privacy invasions. They include:
Axon Enterprises, which started with the Taser, an electric stun gun, then moved into the body-cam market, of which it now controls about 85%. From there, Axon’s Evidence.com platform became one of the most frequently used police records management systems. Axon also offers cloud storage, drones, connected private cameras, virtual reality training, and more.
Flock Safety’s first products were automated license plate readers (ALPRs) which use a camera to collect the make, model, location and other information that Flock can use for what it calls “Vehicle Fingerprinting.” Flock’s database stores and shares data on how, where, and when everyone is driving and parking their vehicles. Axon recently announced that it will be selling a competing product.
Motorola Solutions offers its so-called “Ecosystem” of products and services. SoundThinking began as ShotSpotter, but soon developed the strategy it calls “upsell-slash-cross-sell” that relies on “data integration” and artificial intelligence to create their “Smart Safety Platform.”
I will close with a quote from our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation – and they are friends to democracy-loving citizens everywhere:
“The next time you come across [body-worn-cameras] BWC’s or another piece of tech on your city council’s agenda or police department’s budget, take a closer look to see what other strings and surveillance tools might be attached. You are not just looking at one line item on a sheet – it’s probably an ongoing subscription to a whole package of equipment designed to challenge your privacy, and no sort of discount makes that a price worth paying.”
Thank you.
Republished from the Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF’s Deeplinks blog.
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Cleveland Heights Democracy Day
June 5, 2025
Anne Caruso
Money is Drowning Out the Clarity of our Climate Emergency
This year the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2024 was the warmest year on record, with a global average surface temperature of 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels.
You may recall that the Paris Climate accords had a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels. Pre- industrial refers to the years 1850 to 1900. So we’ve hit the level of warming we should not exceed to avert catastrophic climate change. The first global warming climate study was done in 1990 and we have increased emissions by 60% since then. We have not reduced greenhouse gas emissions. In fact each year they have increased. Coincidentally, the oil and gas industry has substantially increased its political contributions in election cycles from about $12 million in 1990 to about $66 million in 2024 with the majority of their money going to the republicans.
The oil and gas industry is one of the top lobby groups in our country. Legislation reflects that in Ohio. Here are some examples. In recent years the Ohio Legislature has passed laws that put roadblocks in front of large scale wind and solar farms. Ohio has the country’s highest wind turbine set back law (which is the distance turbines can be placed from property lines). This limits the number of turbines that can be put on a property which of course limits its profitability. In Ohio a community can vote “no” at any stage of a large scale solar farm making such an investment extremely risky. Yet communities have no say whether to allow fracking wells in their communities or whether to allow injection wells used to dispose of toxic, radioactive fracking waste. Another example of laws that benefit oil and gas is passage of HB308 at the end of last year. This law increases from 6 years to 8 years the amount of time a company can frack under our state parks and other public lands. How popular can it be to pass fracking wells 400 feet from the state park you are visiting in order to experience the beauty and solace of nature? As a last example, the Natural Resources Committee of the Ohio House is considering HB170, a bill that spells out how and where carbon capture and storage will be implemented in Ohio. Climate scientists say trillions of tons of carbon must be taken out of the atmosphere because we have failed to decrease what we put in. But there’s no evidence that CCS can do that on a scale large enough to make a difference. It does, however, keep money flowing into the oil and gas industry which uses the captured carbon to wring out the last drops of oil from old wells.
Kevin Anderson, a climate professor at the University of Manchester, is on a mission to explain that we are in a frightening situation with climate change and that our efforts are not reflecting the emergency we’re facing. He points out there just isn’t enough clarity in the media and even with many climate experts about how dire our situation is. He says people everywhere need to speak up about the crisis we’re in and speak to other people, speak to the mass media, and speak to government officials to make this a common topic and concern. In America especially, money talks and it is drowning out the clear reality that we must transition away from fossil fuels or subject our children, grandchildren, and generations after them to a difficult, painful existence on a planet whose climate disruption will wreak havoc with food production, safe shelter, and most every other aspect of life on Earth.
References:
Largest Lobbying Industries
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries.
Lobby spending of oil & gas companies in the United States during election cycles from 1990 to 2024, by receiving political party
https://www.statista.com/statistics/788056/us-oil-and-gas-lobbying-spend-by-party/.
Kevin Anderson “Being Frank and Honest about Climate Change with Climate Scientist, Kevin Anderson” https://www.youtube.com/live/l8Q8RQ4fbcQ?si=Ez53Cj4LAVFaTpML.
Petroleum - 238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It by Justin Noble. Karret Press, Hudson, NY, 2024.
HB308 passed December, 2024
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/12/senate-passes-bills-to-expand-fracking-in-state-parks-slow-down-citizens-ballot-issues.html?outputType=amp
Follow Ohio HB170 at:
https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb170.
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Wendy Deuring
Chair, Heights Chapter of the Greater Cleveland League of Women Voters
To my fellow citizens – our system of democracy is in trouble – serious trouble.
On April 17 th the League of Women Voters issued the following declaration: “It has now been 87 days since the start of President Trump’s administration. From the flagrant disregard for congressional authority and governmental checks and balances to defying our fundamental protections of the rule of law, one thing is abundantly clear: our country is in a constitutional crisis.
We the people must fight back.
The foundational principles that have sustained our democracy — checks and balances, the rule of law, free and fair elections — are under direct and sustained threat. In this extraordinary moment, we cannot proceed with business as usual. All Americans — no matter who you voted for in 2024 — need to come together, stand united, and fight back to save our democracy. We cannot afford to fail the generations to come.”
- And the danger isn’t just at the federal level – our state of Ohio is also at great risk. We in the League watched in horror last year as a citizen-led initiative to change the way we draw districts was inadvertently voted down by the people thanks to the great power of deception and misdirection by our state’s leaders, following their blatant disregard of the rulings by the Ohio Supreme Court to, in fact, draw fair districts. Thanks to our heavily skewed districts many people see little point in voting anymore.
- And what is the bottom line at both the federal and state levels of government – the corrupting power of dark, and frankly now fully illuminated money. We’ve all heard that Elon Musk openly donated some $280 million dollars to President Trump’s campaign.
- And we are watching the president and his family enrich themselves by selling their own bitcoins and granting personal access to the highest bidders. And the money is flowing at the state level as well, from lobbyists and corporations and wealthy outsiders. How else to explain the great wealth accumulated by people who work as elected officials at very modest salaries? We are still dealing with the debacle that was SB6, and the latest crime is the funneling of state dollars to private and religious schools away from public schools because, well, who owns those private schools?
- We have known since the passage of Citizens United that money would become an ever more corrupting force, and now we are seeing it on full display.
-But we, the people, are not powerless though it may feel that way at the moment. We must continue to advocate, to mobilize, to educate our fellow citizens. We must stand together as communities, supporting each other and continuing to fight for what is right.
DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!
Wendy S Deuring
Chair, Heights Chapter
League of Women Voters
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Dean Sieck
I’m announcing a new organization. It’s called SOB, an acronym for Sick of Billionaires. Its mission is to expose and protest the influence of billionaires in government. The guilty names that come to mind like Zuckerberg, Bezos, Thiel, and Musk are national figures.
But the governmental influence of the hyper-wealthy can also be found right here at home. A “local” billionaire has usurped the power of the state of Ohio as he pursues his plan, contrary to the will of elected leaders and the populace, to build a $2.4 billion sports complex for his lackluster team outside of municipal Cleveland.
In response, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb used the word “scheme, “saying to fans, “it will raise your taxes, make it more expensive for you to attend games, and steal events away from downtown Cleveland to pay for their stadium,”
Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne called the proposal a “boondoggle” and said Haslam’s overly optimistic financial projections are based on unrealistic assumptions. Moreover, a move to Brook Park would weaken the city’s downtown area and harm local businesses. Any such project should be funded entirely by private investment, he said.
Even Republican Governor Mike Dewine opposed Haslam’s plan, saying “Ohio doesn’t have the money for such a project, “We can’t really afford to continue to put money in sports stadiums out of a general fund.
In polling, a clear majority of voters — 61%— opposed the Browns’ move, including 51% strongly opposed. Only 28% supported the move. That opposition even shows up in the public’s attitude toward the team itself. The Guardians and Cavaliers were viewed favorably by 90% of respondents while the Browns rated only 49% approval, with 50% unfavorable, and some said the Browns were "divisive."
But billionaires and their boosters don’t really care what elected officials or mere citizens think. They can buy whatever they want, including legislators in the Ohio Gerrymander Assembly. When County Exec Ronayne said that the Brook Park project should be funded with private money, that was something Haslam could easily do. His personal wealth totals 8.5 billion of the total family wealth of 14.4 billion. But why should he buy an expensive sports complex when he can buy himself a legislature for a much smaller investment and then get the people’s money for his project? Call it “a public/private partnership”—one of those deals that offer socialism for the wealthy developer until it gets built and capitalism for the owner after it gets built. In this case of course, the developer and the owner are both the same: Jimmy Haslam.
Since 2020, the Haslam family has given at least $1,145,000 to Ohio legislators and ballot issues, 94% to Republicans, who hold the power, and to ensure those investments, $100,000 to oppose Issue 1 to keep gerrymandered districts safely in GOP hands. In particular, House Speaker Matt Huffman received significantly more from the Haslams than any other Ohio politician, almost $110,000 since 2020, including $61,000, in 2024 alone, when Huffman ran unopposed. Two other influential legislators, Senators McColley, and Cirino received significant donations when they were not up for reelection either. Maybe more gift than “contribution”?
For his part, Huffman said, “There is no donor or group, no matter what they do or how much money they give, that can really affect the outcome of legislation.” He said that with a straight face, but he has had a lot of practice.
At this point, it looks like any stadium may be financed with money from the unclaimed funds pot of some 4.3 billion, a scheme designed to mitigate the unseemly appearance of using general funds. But even then, as Ronayne notes, this is the people’s money that would be used for private gain.
So, if you want to join my club, SOB, it’s pretty easy. All you have to do is find a billionaire and expose his or her grifting underbelly. It’s not hard. These days there are lots to choose from.
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Steve Norris
Cleveland Move to Amend
Good evening, I'm Steve Norris. In 2025 corporations are still gaining new rights that used to be reserved for human beings, this time pardons. Too often fines for breaking the law are treated as just a cost of doing business. Corporations combine their Constitutional rights with huge amounts of money that communities and everyday Americans just can't match.
HDR Global Trading, the owner of crypto exchange BitMEX, was pardoned by Trump. The company and the four employees, including Bitcoin booster Arthur Hayes, pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires companies to have an anti-money laundering program. The pardon wiped away $100 million in fines. This is the first time a corporation has received a full pardon.
The pardon is consistent with the Trump administration's pro-corporate agenda. Over 100 investigations or actions have been stopped in the first two months according to Public Citizen. Included in this are cryptocurrency corporations which were big political donors. Trump and family members also benefit from various crypto schemes.
Pardons are fast and only require only the stroke of a sharpie to free a corporation from accountability. This contrasts with the courts which can take years to prosecute. Corporations can defend themselves with their Supreme Court granted rights, and delay judgements for years as cases wind through appeals.
Rick Claypool of Public Citizen said "Putting corporate pardons on the table strengthens Trump's corrupt and authoritarian power over corporations. This has the potential to trigger a lobbying frenzy for any corporation that has faced federal enforcement." He added
"If you’re a corporation in a favored industry, you can break the law. You can get caught. You can be prosecuted and sentenced with a $100 million fine, and it doesn't matter."
The pardons are part of a larger retreat from corporate crime enforcement, with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act frozen.
Beyond fines, convicted corporations face being barred from federal contracts. HDR Global Trading is incorporated in the Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean labelled a tax haven by the Tax Justice Network.
In addition to pardoning BitMEX, Trump commuted the probation and fines of Ozy Media that collapsed under fraud allegations.
There is hope to hold corporations accountable and move from oligarchy to a republic. The We the People Amendment HJR 54 will break the power of corporations to treat money as speech and reserve Constitutional rights to human beings. It's time for a government that answers to We the People!
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Statement for Democracy Day, Cleveland Heights City Hall, June 5, 2025
Francis Chiappa, Cleveland Peace Action Board Member and a Cleveland Heights resident
Genocide, Politics, and Money
In the wake of Hamas’ barbarous attacks and hostage-taking on October 7, 2023, Israel’s strong response could be expected. But the disproportionate magnitude of that response became clearer over time. Hamas sites and personnel were targeted but with seemingly little concern for non-combatant casualties. Whole neighborhoods were reduced to rubble. Hospitals, schools, and vital infrastructure gone. Food supplies were blocked.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (1) offers these estimates of Palestinian casualties as of May 14, 2025. Imagine if anything of this magnitude had happened in Cleveland Hts.
Deaths: 52,928; Women, 8,304; Children, 15,613
- Injured: 119,846
- Food insecurity has afflicted 100% of the population
- 88.8 % of schools in Gaza have been destroyed
- 69% of all structures are damaged
- 81% of the road network is damaged or destroyed
Genocide is defined in the Genocide Convention of 1951 as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Israel’s withholding food and medicine, along with the numbers above, suggest genocide. Furthermore, the Trump plan, embraced by PM Netanyahu, to remove Gazans and build a new city is brazen settler colonialism and should certainly qualify as genocide. It’s hard not to see Israel’s actions over the last 18 months as an “intent to destroy” Gaza.
According to an AP report in October 2024 (2):
- Israel “is the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid in history, getting $251.2 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1959.”
- “The $17.9 billion spent since Oct. 7, 2023, in inflation-adjusted dollars, is by far the most military aid sent to Israel in one year.”
- “Much of the U.S. weapons delivered in the year were munitions, from artillery shells to 2,000-pound bunker-busters and precision-guided bombs.”
- The defense industry, the bomb-makers, profit handsomely whenever there is armed conflict and this time is no different. Bob Dylan condemned those “who build all the bombs,” as the “Masters of War.” The lyrics are harsh, but corporate leaders must bear some responsibility for what’s happening in Gaza.
After the Holocaust and the extermination of 6 million Jews, it seemed fitting that a traumatized people should have their own country. An unquestioned and unquestioning allegiance between the U.S. and Israel began. Since 1948, Israel has been taking Palestinian land, continuously, and often by force. Palestinians are also deeply traumatized and Israel is the cause. But in the U.S., it’s taboo to talk about this. Advocacy for Palestine can be labeled as antisemitic. Candidates criticizing Israel can draw big money opposition in the next election.
At the Academy Awards this year, a film called “No Other Land” won Best Documentary (3). It’s about Palestinian life in the West Bank and how much more dangerous it has become since October 2023. It’s an important story that is well told. But No Other Land has not found a U.S. distributor. You can’t see it in a theater and you can’t stream it. Any other Oscar winner would have a distributor. But this one documents the dark side of Israel.
How do we escape this cycle of hatred and violence, and stop the genocide in Gaza? How do we begin to see the situation from both sides? Don’t count on our leaders. They’re too afraid, bound by money, power, and influence. We the people can start by speaking about it. Let’s talk to each other. Let’s hear ALL the stories.
No Other Land will be screened this Sunday, June 8th, 2:30 PM at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2592 West 14th St. Cleveland, 44113
This is a fundraiser for the communities of Masafer Yatta.
Organized by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, CPAC, JVP/CLE, SJP, DSA, AMP, PSL, IRTF, Cleveland Peace Action, Nonviolence International.
(1) https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-14-may-2025
(2) https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-U.S.-military-spending- 8e6e5033f7a1334bf6e35f86e7040e14
(3) No Other Land, Cleveland screening, June 8, 2025 - https://conta.cc/3HpH2Bf
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Submitted testimony from Suzanne DeGaetano
I am writing from Mac's Backs-Books on Coventry. We are an independent bookstore that has been in business since 1978.
Indie bookstores have operated when big box stores saturated the marketplace and during the domination of Amazon.
Our survival is due to readers and customers resisting corporate structures and electing to support small retail and neighborhood stores.
If you look around our neighborhoods you will see empty storefronts and that's due to the gutting of retail by entities like Amazon. Lower prices for consumer goods lead to higher prices in the long run—blight and the cost that incurs, missing city sales tax revenues, and the decline of vibrant, healthy communities. Predatory pricing leads to billionaire owners who sustain themselves at the cost of our neighborhoods.
Indie bookstores and our customers are part of an active resistance to online monopolies.
Suzanne DeGaetano
