Why this website exists
The Ohio Legislature’s “gifting” of $600 million to the billionaire owners of the Cleveland Browns is a moral outrage that has moved us to act with our tee shirt campaign. We use the term “moral outrage” for a number of reasons.
The first is that many in our society suffer a poverty that Irish poet Christy Brown says “withers the soul.” To give money that could have made their lives, especially children, a little less traumatic -- even for a short period of time -- to the already rich is a monstrous act.
It turns the parable of the loaves and fish in the four gospels on its head. Imagine Christ not being moved by compassion and feeding a crowd of 5,000 with five loaves and two fish but instead giving the food to one affluent person in the crowd. And later learning that he gave the food to a person who was paying for his travels around the country.
And, yes, we are saying that the donor class controls the political system at every level. Yes, we are saying trickle down economics is false propaganda offered by the uber rich to become even richer.
The second reason we got off our couches is the egregious propaganda politicians spew to justify giving taxpayer money back to the donor class. In 2023 a careful peer review of 130 stadium studies by three eminent economists in the field found the taxpayers inevitably on the losing side of the subsidies.
The last reason we were moved to action is our concern for loyal Browns’ fans who will be “rewarded” with higher ticket prices, higher parking fees and steeper prices at the concession stands. Ticket prices are projected to reach $800 at the end of the loan period.
Clearly, the owners of the Browns have no reciprocal love for their fans.
But as Tina Turner said: “What’s love go to do with it?” Instead, it is all about the greed of the uber rich donor class. Please ask your member of the Ohio legislature: When did greed -- one of the seven deadly sins --become a civic virtue?