My Compass
Henry Church Junior
From 2012 - 2015, I joined the community of voices that had been trying to get the name “Squaw Rock” changed to Henry Church Jr. We demanded that the discriminatory language be removed and replaced. In 2017, it happened.
After graduating from Vermont Law School in 2019, as an Environmental Lawyer and Historian, I came back to look at the research I had done with the Chagrin Falls Historical Society. It was then that I realized that this Sculpture is a Compass on the Underground Railroad night and day. Compass in hand, I could see that she is pointing precisely West!
The historic articles and legends of Henry Church Junior walking at night down to his masterpiece to work on it by the light of a lantern was code for: We are helping people to freedom tonight be on alert. I am so grateful that I have had this historical compass to find peace and direction in my life.
I now rent a small cottage at Lake Erie, honoring the place where Henry Church Junior would tell people escaping slavery they needed to go. County Line Road between Lake and Ashtabula County was safe passage, a place of freedom. Arcola Creek Park was a Ship Building Community at Lake Erie next to County Line Road. Unionville Tavern was the last stop where they could find food and shelter before arriving at Lake Erie and sailing to Canada.
I am so grateful to have an election to speak of our history and what we are honoring and protecting this election. Our State Parks preserve and protect our History. I am like many of you that spend time in nature to reset our compass, find respite, and recharge our energy. A majority of us go to Nature to do that important work. The Restoration of Lake Erie in my lifetime is proof that we care about our natural resources.
Moving back to Lake Erie in 2022, I fulfilled a promise I had made when I was a child, when my family moved from Geneva to Chagrin Falls. I am grateful to be here representing our love of nature as the only Environmental Lawyer, running for State Senate with a history of honoring our environment and civil rights movement. We need to Save Ohio Parks this election.
We in Lake County have a history of electing women into public office. In 1921, the public of Lake County elected two women into office one year after they got the right to vote. Mayor Amy Kaukonin who was 30 years old and the local doctor of Fairport Harbor and Councilwoman Cora Gaines Carrel who was a school teacher in Willoughby, Ohio. I hope I have earned your vote and trust this election. It would be an honor to join the historic names of women voted into public office in Ohio.
Ohio Republicans have had a majority rule in our state Legislature and they have had Republicans as Governor since 2011. They decided to use their time in public office to open our state parks and public lands to fracking. We have to Stop this Abuse of Power this Election.
