This opinion piece by Thomas Suddes of Cleveland.com was published, January 26th, 2019.
Wherever they are, Theodore Roosevelt and his allies at Ohio’s 1912 constitutional convention must have smiled Wednesday. That’s when the state Supreme Court refused to yank from Toledo’s ballot a voter-initiated city charter amendment creating a Lake Erie Bill of Rights. It’ll be on the city’s Feb. 26 special election ballot.
The Ohio Constitution guarantees Ohioans’ right to propose (“initiate”) amendments to city and village charters. If Toledo’s voters approve the Bill of Rights, it may – not next month, maybe not this year, but sooner, not later – protect Lake Erie, Ohio’s greatest single natural resource. That’s good, because the General Assembly, corporate agriculture’s best friend, won’t.
Someone might care to remind Ohio’s House (61-38 Republican) and Senate (24-9 Republican) of a couple things the GOP’s Teddy Roosevelt said at the Statehouse in 1912:
“This country, as Lincoln said, belongs to the people. So do the natural resources which make it rich,” TR said. He also said this: “I believe in the initiative and the referendum, which should be used not to destroy representative government, but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresentative.” MORE…