Smoke filled back rooms and the First Amendment
By Bob Robinson 

On June 24 I went to the Lighthouse Christian Center to see what the ruckus was about 
and made an interesting discovery… 

It was about nothing that had anything to do with Darke County. 

The topic was fracking. Fracking is a misnomer about how we get our oil and gas out 
of the ground, currently along the Utica Shale. It’s actually called horizontal fracturing. 
Nothing new. We’d been doing vertical fracturing for 150 years; now we can do it horizontally. 

It’s called technology. 

It means jobs in Eastern and Northeastern Ohio, and hopefully a little lower fuel costs for the rest of us. Hopefully. 

I was given a paper when I went into the event and told, “this will refute everything you hear tonight.” 

Okay. I listened and even glanced at the paper. I later read it in detail. 

The headline on the paper said “Slick Water” is being used. That sounded scary. So I asked, what’s slick water? 

“It’s another term for fracturing fluid.” Fracturing fluid is 90 percent water, 9.5 percent sand and a half percent six 
ingredients used in common household products, like table salt and cosmetics. 

It’s used to extract oil and gas; it replaces such “mundane” things as dynamite and nitroglycerin. Seems to me 
we should be celebrating it, not scaring everyone over it. 

Regardless, my interest was the impact on Darke County. The concern seemed to be injection of waste. 
Kind of like the CO2 Sequestration issue that was quashed a few years ago. 

Aside from the fact that injecting salt water seems to be far less ominous than injecting liquid “supercritical”
carbon dioxide, the wells using it are in Eastern Ohio. Why would a company move waste across the state 
when it’s cheaper to inject it at a site near the well? 

Making expensive decisions is what government does. Making economical decisions is what the private sector does. 

The speaker was challenged on several occasions – in one case I thought rudely – however, apologies were made. I respected that. 

What I don’t understand is the involvement of the Darke County League of Women Voters. The LWV is supposed 
to be totally non-partisan. It does a great job with local elections. So why present one side of any issue? 
Maybe because it had already presented the negative side? 

If I recall correctly they took some heat over that. And I took some heat for my story on this presentation… 

“If you wanted a balanced story, why didn’t you present both sides?” 

“Because the other side had already been presented.” 

I think you get the picture. 

If – and this is a BIG if – this was an issue logically addressed by a local League of Women Voters, why weren’t both 
sides presented at the same time? 

Another thing I don’t understand is why a Townhall meeting on an extremely important levy was scheduled in direct conflict
to the “positive presentation” on fracking? Fortunately the turnout at the levy event didn’t seem to be impacted, but I was 
embarrassed for two speakers who came halfway across the state to speak to 19 citizens. This did not put Darke County
in a good light. 

On the same day, a Paul Ackley cartoon appeared on County News Online that a few people didn’t like. I lost track of the 
number of times I heard about it. The most common comment? 

“I thought you supported the levy.” 

I do, but not everyone does. CNO, The Early Bird and Blue Bag Media have printed supportive articles consistently 
since the campaign started. All three have also printed negative comments. 

I believe it’s called the First Amendment. 

There’s an old movie, called “The Last Hurrah,” that involves smoke-filled back room politics while manipulating events
to quash first amendment rights of the opposition. 

I believe the setting was Boston. Imagine my surprise to be reminded of it in Darke County.