Over the July 18 weekend, several members of Free Ohio Now (FON) went to Columbus to meet up with 100’s of enthusiastic, like-minded Ohioans to push back against the mask mandate and to exercise our rights to protest! What brought us all together at the Ohio Statehouse were two separate rallies: ‘Anti-Mask Civil Disobedience Rally’, which was immediately followed by the ‘Stand for America Against Terrorists and Tyrants’ rally and was sponsored by the Ohio Patriot Action Network.
During the Civil Disobedience rally, Dave D., one of our FON county leaders, to center stage to lead the crowd in chants and to talk about and reinforce how our Constitutional rights are being violated by the mask mandate. Dave also handed his megaphone over to many others in the
crowd so they, too, could talk about important issues to those in attendance. Through Dave’s efforts, the rally was a success!
The ‘Stand for America Against Terrorists and Tyrants’ rally was well attended and many people spoke about their personal experience with the shutdown and issues wearing masks. Several candidates for political office, regular Ohioans and at least one medical professional spoke at the event. Tom Hach, FON, spoke to the rally about the importance of being able to communicate with one another in the future to push back against the mandate, fight all mail-in ballots and other things and he invited them to register with FON, and happily MANY of them did just that!
About halfway through the ‘Stand for America’ rally, a significant group of Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters approached the rally on a nearby street bordering the Statehouse. Columbus police and State Highway Patrol kept the groups separated, so there were no actual physical mixing of the groups during the rally itself. If you have any question about what will happen in America if the supporters of BLM get control of the White House and Congress, see the attached picture with a BLM supporter holding a sign with a quote from Leon Trotsky, USSR, Tyrant and Killer.
After the rally, several members of FON, including Core Members and County Leaders, attended an informal ice breaker event with other leaders from around the state. For the FON team members, it was great to finally meet each other in person for the first time after working together for over two and half months!
As we look toward the fall, FON has several events and strategies planned to push back against the mask mandates, the potential of having an all mail-in election in November and working with those who support the reelection of President Trump. MORE TO COME!
Photo courtesy of Tom Hach. It was taken in Columbus near the Ohio Statehouse on July 18, 2020.