Ohio, And America, Deserve Better than J. D. Vance

Today I am angry.

Yesterday, I tried to lay out the origins of the racist conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants are eating cats in Springfield, Ohio.

Today, we got to see what happens in Ohio when a presidential candidate and his running mate spread such conspiracy theories. I already reported on how the parents of young Aiden Clark, who was accidentally killed by a Haitian immigrant, are suffering horrendous trauma because racist Republican politicians have used their son’s name as an excuse to incite anti-immigrant hatred, which the Clarks do not support in any way. Now, even more citizens and residents of Ohio have become victims of harassment and worse.

It has been reported that Haitian immigrants– and I want to stress again that these are LEGAL, documented immigrants who are living in Springfield, Ohio, because they were hired to work there by American companies– are afraid to send their children to school.  Many are receiving threats on social media. A Haitian business owner has reported she’s being threatened with eviction. Another has had her car vandalized.  One man reports his coworkers have been asking him if he eats cats.

The Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, himself a Republican, had to publicly state that the rumors about Haitians eating cats are not true at all.

Yet the Republican vice presidential candidate, Ohio’s Senator J. D. Vance, is still doubling down on his lies.

Catholic Charities Southwest Ohio, a charity that works with immigrants in Springfield, has also been inundated with harassment and threats by angry racists who don’t seem to understand that Catholic Charities is not responsible for moving the Haitians into Ohio; they only offered them basic help and services after they got here. The Catholic Archbishop Thomas Wenski, whose Archdiocese of Miami has a very large Haitian population, has expressed his dismay at this situation, and that’s good. But I’m still waiting for a press release from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati where Springfield is located– especially since an enormous number of these Haitians are practicing Roman Catholics and therefore Archbishop Schnurr of Cincinnati’s flock. Not to mention that Vance, a recent Catholic Convert, whose public sin of calumny is the cause of this chaos, is also a resident of the Cincinnati Archdiocese.  I trust there’ll be a full-throated statement before long.

And then matters got worse. According to the mayor of Springfield and the Chief of Police, somebody made a bomb threat against several buildings in Springfield, including City Hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and an elementary school. And the threats were laced with the exact racist and anti-Haitian sentiment you’d expect.  City Hall and other buildings had to be closed for the day and thoroughly searched. The elementary school children were evacuated and spent the day in the high school as their school was searched. Thankfully, no bombs have been found and no one was hurt.

Citizens of the State of Ohio, and legal immigrants living peacefully here, had to evacuate their schools and government buildings due to a lie which is deliberately being spread by Ohio’s Senator.

J. D. Vance is supposed to represent Ohio’s interests in the United States Senate. That’s his job, entrusted to him by Ohio’s voters. He works for us.

Vance’s single claim to fame before his election was writing a patronizing book that portrayed Ohio’s working class as fat lazy yokels. In his time as a senator, Vance has not sponsored or co-sponsored any legislation whatsoever. He’s been skipping votes all summer because he’s too busy terrifying treat shop employees as he runs for vice president. He was in Arizona for a photo opp on the very day that the Senate was voting on expanding the Child Tax credit, a position he’s claimed to support. He has accomplished nothing– mercifully, as most of his ideas are horrendous. And he just was responsible for amplifying a racist and xenophobic urban myth that should have died out weeks ago. He fanned the flames. Now his constituents, Ohio citizens, and no doubt some of his own voters and supporters, had their government and school buildings evacuated due to a bomb threat.

There are no words for what a disgrace Vance has been for the state of Ohio– and for what mischief he might get the whole country into if he’s allowed to become our vice president.

Ohio, and America, deserve much better than J. D. Vance.

Let’s make sure he knows how we feel in November.