Action Alerts
Saturday, January 11 from 7-8pm
On Zoom to discuss:
Organizing for the challenges of 2025
From despair to active resistance! - Housing First!
Speakers on local social justice issues including housing.
Kate Curry-Da-Souza, former longtime Near East Area Commissioner and Columbus City Council District #7 candidate
and
Ben Colburn, working with Maryhaven and active with encampments
More TBA.
Co-sponsored by Simply Living
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88981714025?pwd=ON50ZHvqYpQ1WckVxFbgSmQELOWqa…
Meeting ID: 889 8171 4025
Passcode: 006908
For info: colsfreepress@gmail.com
In the final hours of last year’s legislative session, Ohio’s legislature passed HB 8—a dangerous bill modeled after Florida’s harmful “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law. This legislation forces schools to notify parents or caregivers if a student requests to use a different name or pronouns, even when that disclosure could put the student at risk of harm.
HB 8 endangers the lives of LGBTQ+ youth in Ohio. Transgender and nonbinary students deserve to trust their educators without fear of being outed to unsupportive families, and educators deserve a workplace where they do not have to fear retribution for supporting a student.
Governor DeWine has the power to halt this harmful legislation, but he needs to hear from you. Call or email Governor DeWine now and demand he veto HB 8. Regardless of the outcome, your message in support of our precious youth will resound loud and clear.
Every call and every email counts in the fight to protect Ohio’s children. Through our collective action, our children will see what side of history we are on, and right now, that could save a life. Together, we can send a strong message that discrimination has no place in our state.
Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 6pm
A presentation and discussion on unions and the state of the labor movement in Ohio.
Join us in person at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (30 W Woodruff Ave, Columbus, OH 43210) or online at tinyurl.com/CORSmeeting.
Tuesday, January 7th at 6:00pm
Buckeye Environmental Network will be holding an informational webinar for the community and media to learn more about the ARCH2 project and its implications. Presenters include: eastern Ohio-based environmental scientist and retired chemistry teacher Dr. Randi Pokladnik, who will be presenting the health and environmental impacts, and Sean O’Leary, a researcher with the Ohio River Valley Institute, who will discuss the economic impacts of hydrogen and how the region has already suffered economically from fracking.
Register for the webinar at the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vduyqrzsrHt0C6ZX8B9f5CQDFQBv605Ya#/registration
With the genocide in Gaza far advanced, and having lost the recent election when supporting peace might have won it, the Biden administration -- on its way out the door -- has told Congress it wants to send yet more weapons to Israel, the majority of which it would take a year or several years to deliver.
The incoming Trump administration plans to continue the slaughter and destruction.
Is this last-minute proposal from Biden part of a competition for greatest support of mass killing? Or is it a move to demonstrate bipartisanship before the storm, by doing something that most of both parties' elected officials support?
Either way, this is a time to make clear to everyone in Washington that the demand for peace and compliance with laws and basic human decency has not gone away, that -- on the contrary -- it is growing.
Sundays, January 5, 12, 26 and Feb 2, 2025, 3:00 - 4:30 PM
The Israeli war on Gaza – widely considered genocide – did not begin on October 7, 2023. This series will look at the background of Zionism and colonialism that laid the foundation for ongoing wars and today's violence in the Middle East. Palestinian dispossession, we will see, began more than a century ago.
Jan 5: CONQUEST AND COLONIALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST DURING THE 20TH CENTURY: The roots of the contemporary Middle East go back to the First World War and its aftermath; the birth of Zionism as a political movement.
Jan 12: MANDATES AND REPRESSION IN PALESTINE AND BEYOND: The failure of the British colonial attempt to shape Palestine in conformance with the Balfour Declaration; Palestinian resistance and the first proposals for partition; Zionist terror; British, French colonialism in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Jan 26: ISRAELI INDEPENDENCE AND “NAKBA”: The UN proposed partition of Palestine, Israeli declaration of independence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from 1947 to the present; Arab and Palestinian resistance.
Ohio’s electricity demand may be surging, as a growing number of massive data centers operated by tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft commit to Ohio. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) will hold a public hearing 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 3 to gather input on how AEP will collect the costs of serving these data centers.
Here is a statement from Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis, Agency Director of the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel:
“While business growth in Ohio is welcome, these data centers, along with cryptocurrency mining operations, consume vast amounts of energy while contributing relatively few local jobs. Residential utility customers, who already pay steep transmission and distribution costs, shouldn’t have to subsidize these investments to benefit corporate giants.”
The five PUCO Commissioners will have to decide on the course to take: to protect Ohio consumers from shouldering these additional costs or to prioritize the interests of global tech giants.
OCC is encouraging AEP consumers to attend the hearing or submit comments online. See details below.
In person:
“First Day at Old First,” hosted by Old First Presbyterian Church
Wednesday, January 1, 12noon-3pm, Old First Presbyterian Church, 1101 Bryden Rd.
Come hear what’s happening with Old First as a community and arts gathering space, a Third Place. Share hopes and ideas with neighbors, artists and community. New Year’s Day brunch from 12noon to 3pm. Donations appreciated. Live music and art!
Hosted by Old First Presbyterian Church
Tuesday, December 31, 12:30-2:30pm
Can’t Believe It’s Vegan, 584 W. Schrock Rd., Westerville, Ohio
Finish off 2024 with lunch at Can’t Believe it’s Vegan in Westerville.
The Westerville Chamber recognized Can’t Believe It’s Vegan as Small Business of the Year!
Voted best vegan restaurant in town!
Indulge your taste buds and visit with friends, on the last day of the year.
Here is Can’t Believe it’s Vegan website: CBIV.
Those first-timers attending this event will receive a free copy of The 30-Day Vegan Challenge by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau!
We look forward to spending some time with you before we enter into 2025.
Hosted by Columbus Vegan Meetup.
Sunday, December 29, 5:30-6:30pm
Old First Presbyterian Church, 1101 Bryden Rd., Enter the church via the rear door.
A twenty-to-thirty-minute silent meditation will be followed by discussion and refreshments. The benefits of meditation are innumerable. These include greater mental clarity, a reduction in stress, improved emotional balance, and increased spiritual development. Meditation benefits everyone. Different meditation practices will be presented, throughout the year, by practitioners of those traditions. This group will meet each Sunday, 5:30-6:30pm.
For more information, call or text 614-619-0784.
Hosted by Old First Presbyterian Church.