Perhaps you can expand your empathy and reconsider.

An open letter to Clinton County, Ohio, Board of Commissioners: Mike McCarty, Kerry Steed, and Brenda Wood

Dear Clinton County Commissioners,

Happy Tuesday. Thank you for your public service. Pro-empathy freedom voters in and out of office strengthen democracy, nurturing families, ethical businesses, and increase our chances at climate survival. However, we are challenged by a national empathy deficit. Suppose one doesn’t care about anyone but themselves. Why would they then care about protecting our democracy or donations to people in need in and out of one’s community? Empathy Surplus Network USA launched the Humanitarian Empathy for Ukraine and Ohio fundraiser¹ in April as a way to cultivate local empathy. Recurring donors could send 90% to Ukraine and 10% for Empathy Surplus or 50% to Ukraine, 40% for favorite local 501[c]c, and 10% for Empathy Surplus.

Humanitarian Empathy for Ukraine and Ohio Fundraiser

Consequently, I was saddened that your limited empathy² did not extend to the people of Clinton County and Wilmington’s Ukraine Sister City, for whom Empathy Surplus Network USA is cultivating empathy and raising money. I thought promoting the Humanitarian Empathy for Ukraine and Ohio fundraiser³ with stickers on the doors of county buildings would have been a no-brainer. Chester Township, Ohio, didn’t bat an eye.

Perhaps you can expand your empathy and reconsider. Remember 911? Within minutes after terrorists committed their crimes, there were hundreds of boats in the Hudson River on their way to Manhatten to help people they didn’t know. Why not be like them and exercise unlimited empathy? Who do you care about if it’s not for the people of Clinton County, served by local 501(c)3s and Wilmington’s war-torn Sister City of Merefa, Ukraine?

Ukraine Sister City 4th of July Appeal

Dmytro Mykysha, Merefa, Ukraine, elected representative to Ukraine Government, posted a video request for aid to rebuild their local school. Click the photo to see the video on FB.

Please Expand Empathy and Reconsider

I think you can expand your empathy, the soul of democracy, local and Ukrainian nurturing families, ethical businesses, and the key to climate survival. But it will take re-commitment to mutual responsibility to build trust in the civic task of protecting and empowering each other, which you took an oath to do. Limited empathy freedom is harmful and threatens our daily lives. Consider the “Unhealthy Air Quality” article in today’s Wilmington News Journal; ⁴the county still has no climate emergency declaration. 

In addition to asking for your promotion of the Humanitarian Empathy for Ukraine and Ohio fundraiser, I am also offering to serve on a county climate survival committee.

Cultivating empathy takes effort, which is why Empathy Surplus Network USA was founded. We are a 501(c)3 local human rights values education collective. We strive to be a progressive alternative to the limited empathy education collective known as A.L.E.C. Our next series of Zoom forums being September 5, 2023. Find enrollment information at https://proempathy.us/schedule. Best regards.

Pro-empathy freedom voters in and out of office are the solution,

Chuck Watts

1. https://proempathy.us/ukraine

2. Lakoff, George, Why is empathy central to democracy?, https://george-lakoff.com/2023/05/21/why-is-empathy-central-to-democracy/

3. Humanitarian Empathy for Ukraine and Ohio Fundraiser is a local human rights empathy public education initiative.

4. Associated Press, https://wilmingtonnewsjournal-oh.newsmemory.com?selDate=20230718&goTo=A001&artid=2