There are several reasons I am starting an irregular personal newsletter. I am starting it now, because I am shifting to a new period in my writing life. I am just about done with my second book on environmental activism, organizing, and social movements locally and regionally.

The first book was Democratizing Cleveland: The rise and fall of community organizing in Cleveland, Ohio 1975-1985. This has become a minor classic of Cleveland history writing. It is especially popular with the left-wing activist tribe of Cleveland ― a tribe I am an emeritus member of. I have taken a great deal of satisfaction from how popular it has been among the new generation of activists who us oldsters have passed the torch to.

The second book is in preparation for publication and should be out in May or June. Where We Live: Environmental Activists’ Fight to Save Their Communities takes up where Democratizing Cleveland left off. Whereas Democratizing focused on campaigns and issues, Where We Live concentrates on the activists themselves. What motivates them, how activism shapes their lives, the opposition they face, and the frustrations they experience confronting the powers that be.

I wanted to give Democratizing some company on local bookshelves. As far as book writing is concerned, that’s it. If you have never written a book, you have no idea of how much work it is. Each of my books has taken anywhere from twelve to fifteen years to write, and I doubt if I have another twelve to fifteen years ahead of me. I get Christmas cards from Metro’s ER. I am at that stage in life where memorial services have replaced brunches as social events.

The next and final stage of my writing life will focus on where I started. Essay writing. If a piece is over twelve hundred words, it will not be written by me. Randy’s Rants will focus on op-eds and commentaries. My public has always liked my letters to the editor and op-eds, for their abbreviated ferocity. I have called them “literary drive by shootings”.

Finally, why do I call this Randy’s Rants? It is in honor of the anabaptist sect called the Ranters in the English Civil War, who would chain themselves to the carriages of the nobility, and denounce them by ranting at them, denouncing their greed, depravity, and oppression of the common people. A tradition I intend to continue.

Randy’s Rants is a Cleveland newsletter featuring the type of essays, commentaries, and opinion pieces that Randy Cunningham has become both noted and infamous for over the years. Responses, denunciations, and compliments may be sent to randino49@gmail.com. If you wish to share these rants, do so with my blessing, just give me credit.