She’s got a contagious smile, her grin revealing braces like many of her peers.
She’s spent half of her 17 years of life in America, and it’s hard to detect any of the accent brought with her from Palestine when her family immigrated nine years ago.
But Sondos Mishal of Stow is different than her friends in one significant and unsettling way. As a Muslim in a religiously divided country, she said she remains ever vigilant of her surroundings, is anxious about being in parking lots alone, and when she leaves a cafe in the evening after a study session, “it’s always in the back of my mind, that someone could be coming for me.”
On Monday, Mishal was the first of several Akron-area residents that the Summit County Progressive Democrats (SCPD) made available to media covering the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where the party is expected to name Donald Trump as its nominee on Thursday.
From a conference room off Public Square, the SCPD this week is organizing interviews with activists on topics ranging from gun control and women’s rights to environmental regulations and charter schools.
For Mishal, who attends Akron Early College High School and hopes to enroll at the University of Akron or Kent State University after she graduates next year, one issue is deeply personal.
“I want people to understand that Muslims are just ordinary citizens and how Trump’s views are affecting other people. He’s legitimizing other people’s attitudes about Muslims and that’s affecting their daily lives,” she said. “The attitude always existed but it wasn’t as strong as before because there’s a presidential candidate that’s strong in his views about this.”
Bob Gippin, president of the 10-year-old SCPD, said the organization’s goal in Cleveland “is to make it clear that folks shouldn’t vote for Trump” and to do it by bringing those reasons close to home.
“We identify issues that are important to us, and then tell the stories of local people affected by them,” he said.
On Tuesday, the group will present two female Ohio state legislators who say it’s harder to fight for women’s rights in a Republican-led state legislature, and a teacher and union official who will speak out against charter schools.
On Wednesday, the organization will offer to media an attorney, state legislator and a homeless advocate who have been fighting attempts to suppress some voters, and a family physician who became an environmental activist after seeing the impact of poor environmental regulation on the health of his patients.
In addition to meeting Mishal on Monday, media were invited to interview Robert Grow, a minister who has led gun-control demonstrations during gun shows at the Summit County Fairgrounds.
“I am a chaplain who in a five-year span of my career … has had to minister to seven families whose children were killed with guns,” he said. “And that’s the reason I took up this cause.”
To learn more about the SCPD, visit http://summitprogdems.org.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.