Spirit of '76 speaker series to bring varying perspectives to Lorain County

ELYRIA — The Lorain County Civic Engagement Coalition will host a speaker series through July to celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Speakers range from former Gov. John Kasich to Yale professor of divinity Bishop William Barber II. Jeanine Donaldson, Elyria YWCA executive director, said the speaker series is similar to the events hosted by the City Club of Cleveland, an effort to bring myriad viewpoints and topics to Lorain County. The Lorain County Civic Engagement Coalition started in 2024 with organizations like El Centro de Servicios Sociales Inc., Lorain County Urban League, Lorain Public Library System and the YWCA coming together as a nonpartisan group to support voter registration and participation in the upcoming election. El Centro Executive Director Victor Leandry originally thought the coalition would support voter engagement for the presidential election, but did not expect it to continue much beyond that November. Instead, the group, which is open to any person or organization in the county, felt it needed to create a strategic plan and continue to move forward with mobilizing people to vote and getting them involved in their communities outside the ballot box. The goal of the speakers series is to bring varying viewpoints together for civil conversations, Leandry said. "We are in agreement we have to have these kinds of conversations, that we have to bring everybody from the community, from different points of view and have these conversations. … Let's try to understand our county and understand our neighbors," he said. Leandry recognized it may be difficult to bring people together, but felt it was necessary in the county. The speaker series schedule is: Former Gov. John Kasich and his topic, "It's up to us," will be moderated by Chronicle-Telegram Opinion Editor Brad Dicken at 6 p.m. Jan. 20 at Lorain County Community College's Stocker Arts Center. Alex Nowrasteh, immigration policy analyst for the Cato Institute and his topic, "Open immigration: Yea or Nay," at 6 p.m. Feb. 23 at Lorain County Community College's Stocker Arts Center. Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America and her topic, "New tools to end hunger," at 7 p.m. March 18 at the Elyria High School Performing Arts Center. Simon Kornblith, a Lorain County native, technical team member at Anthropic and creator of Claude AI and his topic, "artificial intelligence: Do no harm," at 6 p.m. April 9 at Lake Ridge Academy's Bettcher Convocation Center. Bishop William Barber II, Yale University professor of divinity and founder of Moral Mondays and his topic "Public theology and public policy" at a date, time and location to be determined in May. Majora Carter, a MacArthur Fellow and Founder of Green for All and her topic "It's up to us part two" at a date, time and location to be determined in June. For Leandry, the speaker series' goal is to create a space to have challenging, thought-provoking conversations throughout the county and regain respect for different perspectives. "I'm not sure we're all going to leave (each session) every time thinking 'Oh, we solved this,' or 'We're in the same place now,' but at least we will understand different points of view," he said. As a member of several organizations, including the Elyria Rotary and her local church, Donaldson recognized that groups are pushing for positive change in the county, but there is an opportunity to do better. "We all want a better community, but we're going about it in different ways," Donaldson said. "Because of where we are in society in terms of the silos and being isolated, it's not giving us an opportunity to live up to who we are. We can do better, and we believe this might be an opportunity for that." Speaker series sponsors include The Chronicle-Telegram, League of Women Voters of Lorain County, Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 431, Marty and Bill McFadden, EMC Precision, Main Street Lorain, Nord Family Foundation, Community Foundation of Lorain County, Lorain and Elyria, Kendal of Oberlin, the Lorain County Commissioners and Chef For Seniors. For sponsorship information, contact the YWCA at jpd@elyriaywca.org. Events are free and open to the public. Registration is required at loraincounty.com/e/spiritof76. For more information, call (440) 322-6300. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.