For many people, The Enquirer’s version of Christopher Smitherman’s reputation precedes him:  you probably know him as divisive, and maybe even as anti-white.  (Maybe you even heard that he hates Catholics, too.  Has anyone ever asked him what church he attends?) In any event, I find it remarkable that an allegedly divisive and anti-white figure could lead a broad coalition—featuring citizens of different races, classes, and political persuasions—to bring our community together in a wildly successful petition drive.  Today’s figures have the total number of signatures at 56,941.

Some may think it too early to call the drive “successful”—after all, we won’t know if enough signatures get validated for a few weeks—but for an all-volunteer coalition to gather that many signatures on a time frame is quite the accomplishment.  It shows that lots of citizens were dedicated and mobilized behind a shared cause.

Sure, different factions may have had different motivations driving their participation in the petition drive—and in many ways that is a good thing.  Focusing on a shared outcome, despite differing ideologies, Cincinnati NAACP President Christopher Smitherman led an effective citizen initiative. 

The effort has been shortchanged by The Enquirer the entire time.  A couple weeks back, we captured them using two different headlines on the same story (each with a negative spin).  That’s not the first time they have played such games with Smitherman.  During his first term on Council, they sent one headline to the West-side of town, another to the East—depicting Smitherman as more divisive on the papers delivered to the West.  And Kevin Osborne’s recent blog post at CityBeat further confirms these allegations.

But reality is hard to deny, and the bottom line is that Christopher Smitherman united our community in leading a broad coalition across political parties, and the number of signatures gathered in itself speaks volumes.

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