A new state slogan for Ohio

          I live in Ohio, the southern-most northern state, the northern edge of the Appalachians, the eastern-most midwestern state and the western reach of the east, a state that is everywhere and nowhere all at once.   

Specifically, I live in the north-east corner of Ohio, a.k.a. the Western Reserve. We were once a branch office of Connecticut. Scattered about our region are white-spired churches and village greens that would make you swear you’re in New England.

          But you’re not. You’re in Ohio, “the heart of it all.” Somebody told me that’s no longer our state slogan. I hadn’t heard, but if we need a new one, I’m suggesting, “Ohio: a mostly disaster-free zone.”

We get winds high enough to knock down some trees and take the power out for a bit, but we never have hurricanes. No tsunamis, either, and rarely a tornado like the one that chewed up and spit out Joplin, Missouri. Downstate may get a twister from time to time but this definitely isn’t Kansas, Toto.

 Hundreds of acres along the Mississippi were flooded out this spring. Yes, we had some high water and a few folks ended up with mud in their basements – no fun, I’ll admit - but we’ve yet to lose a whole town.

A Lake Erie wind farm may be in our future but as far as I know, there’s no oil to be drilled or spilled, just salt being quietly mined far beneath the water.

California has wildfires and mudslides, neither of which plague beautiful Ohio. We get a baby tremor now and again, but a full-grown Big Daddy earthquake could drop Los Angeles into the ocean at any moment. (This would not necessarily be all bad; I’ve been to Los Angeles.)

Right this minute, huge wildfires are burning in eastern Arizona. Earlier this spring, wildfire took as many as 40 homes around Fort Davis, Texas. That’s a lot for grief for a community of 1050 souls in a county of just 2200 residents.

No hurricanes, no mudslides. No tsunamis or wildfires. No major flooding, no oil spills. Rarely a big tornado and almost never an earthquake. So, how’s this for a state slogan? “Ohio: nothing much happens here, and that’s a good thing.”