Labor Day Parade In Toledo...

We often hear Toledo is a pro-union town but I don't think you get the full impact of that feeling until you attend the Labor Day Parade. The number of unions and their members who participated today while huge was only a percentage of the people in this area that work and support Unions.

I started out not far from the start of the parade route across the street from Fort Industry Square, the first politician we ran into was Toledo City Councilperson Frank Szollosi and he agreed to pose for a picture with Aubrey. Next was candidate for City Council Joe McNamara as he was doing meet and greet with the crowds. Aubrey was wearing her Joe McNamara for City Council shirt and she was going to be doing her first official campaign activity today but more on that later. Jim Nusbaum, candidate for Judge of Lucas County Common Pleas Court was our next "Hi and Hug" moment. There is a new picture up at Jim's website of him and Ted Strickland. Then I met Bob Vasquez who is also a candidate for Toledo City Council formally for the first time. We later ventured down to where he and his supporters were just a bit farther down on Summit so I could take a picture of Bob and a few of his supporters. Before that Anita Lopez came our way as she was doing meeting and greeting. Bob had quite a few supporters with him and as you can see, they are waving HI! to you:



Right after that we ran into our third Toledo City Council candidate, Dave Schulz, who was out meeting people with a few of his supporters. He posed with Aubrey and then she took one of the two of us. After chatting for a brief bit and exchanging some hugs, Dave went on to do so more greeting and then to later attend a Mud Hen's game. I didn't see our other Toledo City Council candidate Lourdes Santiago, Aubrey told me later that she did, but there were quite a few Santiago signs among the various Unions that were there today. I know Mark Dansack was there as was Ben Konop and I'm sure there were many other politicians/candidates in attendance. I saw some Sarantou supporters and I spotted Judicial candidate Linda Jennings doing some meet and greeting when I moved over to near the end of the parade route.

I took lots of pictures - they are at the title link, and here, I'd suggest using the slideshow as that is the easiest and quickest way for the photos to be seen. I know I'm not as creative as Miguel is however I did my best so I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The overwhelming support for the Blade Unions was made very clear in today's parade, not just the signs or the t-shirts but even vocally. I didn't even realize that Ted Strickland was at the front of the parade with our Mayor and other local politicians including Teresa Fedor and Peter Ujvagi and Marcy Kaptur until I got home and uploaded the pictures and said "That looks like Ted Strickland", that got me a "Well duh" look from Aubrey who has become pretty good at recognizing local and state candidates.

The bands were great, the people were fantastic and in Toledo, even the Dogs are Union Supporters...



Most of you have visited before know my youngest daughter, Aubrey, accompanies me on quite a bit of the things I do around town. She has become more and more interested in politics in the past few months as well as getting to know some of our local politicians and candidates. She is a confirmed fan of Joe McNamara, a few people have given me flack over this or wrongly assumed that this was something I pushed. When she asked Joe if she could have one of his t-shirts weeks ago at the Democratic Unity picnic, he first asked me if it was okay with me, then told her that if she wanted one she'd have to earn it by helping at some of the campaign events like today. I appreciate the way Joe is handling this and I know this is important to her as well as a very good life lesson in how our political system works. So, she stood with Christine on the corner of Erie and Monroe for an hour holding up signs. When she was done, Joe asked her how she liked it and she said she loved doing that and loved politics. I think all of us were surprised that the thrill didn't wear off even though she was thirsty.



If you haven't stopped by Politics in Mudville, there is an excellent post on Labor Day and Auto-Lite that I highly recommend reading. I don't think we should ever forget what some of our great-grandparents and grandparents went thru to get what some of us now take for granted and what some are struggling to hold on to.

So, to the workers of Toledo, union and non-union alike...I thank you...