Editorial

I’m a 75-year-old steelworker, with real mobility problems from decades of hard work, especially as a steelworker. I’m living on a good, United Steel Workers (USW) negotiated pension, like thousands of my fellow steelworkers, thanks to Sherrod Brown. 

I worked at Lorain Works, USX, in Lorain, Ohio and, like thousands of my fellow steelworkers, looked forward to the day that I finally could retire, take it easy, and enjoy a decent life supported by a good Union (USW) Steelworker pension. 

Hiring, then retirements, go in large waves in steel mills as the company puts on or takes off whole “turns” of workers.” So, when I prepared to retire when I hit my 30-year anniversary in 2002, I was part of a big wave of retirements. 

It was at this time that USX mgt. decided to change their top group, change their name and challenge our union contract. Their first move was to deny their pension liability to 3,000 Republic steelworkers and their families. 

I’ve watched the developing protests around our nation, here in Columbus,
with a feeling that some things just haven't changed.

Fifty-four years ago I’d gotten off work, was at the Neil Avenue entrance to OSU,
watching a small, peaceful, student protest develop. Someone for a Black
Student Union had just called for Black Studies to be part of basic education at OSU, and a
young student started saying something about Vietnam. A fearsome looking line
of troopers in riot gear were just off the campus line.

Suddenly, a cartoonish looking guy with an obvious Woolworth’s wig
stepped from behind the police line, and closed the street gate to the campus.
A young student with a crude armband quickly reopened it.

This was repeated 3-4 times, when the police line surged forward, using
their batons on protestors. That got the expected reaction, bottle/rock, they
were quickly reinforced, escalated and began grabbing, arresting protesters.

That was the start of the so-called “student riots!” Peaceful protests had
been going on there for weeks. Within a few days, similar actions cost four young

We constantly hear the media and officials refer to the OSU student encampment as “pro-Palestinian.” We counter by suggesting it should be called a peace movement by students simply asking that, as stakeholders in the university, their tuition money is not spent to kill innocent civilians. Their message is consistent – demanding the college divest from Israel because the money is funding the war in Gaza and the West Bank. National news repeat the phrase “pro-Palestinian” when referring to encampment sites at other universities all over the country.

As activists on the street protesting US involvement in the first Gulf War in 1992 and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, we have no recollection that any media or officials assumed we were fans of Saddam or the Taliban. No one called our rallies “pro-Iraqi” protests.

Our sloganeering Mayor Andy Ginther had been spouting off about how Columbus is “America’s Opportunity City” as far back as 2015 when he stated, his "Columbus will be America’s Opportunity City.” In 2018 Ginther told the inaugural cohort of the New American Leadership Academy, “We are a top city with immigrants. We are proud of that.” In his 2019 State of the City Address he claimed, “In my previous State of the City addresses, I committed to make Columbus America’s opportunity city, to tackling our most pressing challenges and making tangible, long-lasting changes to lift up Columbus neighborhoods and move our city forward together. We have. And we are.”

During Ginther’s 2023 mayoral campaign he wrote he would, “Ensure anyone who works in America's Opportunity City can afford to live in the neighborhood of their choice” and “Every family in every neighborhood should be able to share in the success story that is Columbus. But what makes Columbus truly special is how we respond to opportunity.” Ginther has been full of more empty campaign promises.

Our sloganeering Mayor Andy Ginther had been spouting off about how Columbus is “America’s Opportunity City” as far back as 2015 when he stated, his "Columbus will be America’s Opportunity City.” In 2018 Ginther told the inaugural cohort of the New American Leadership Academy, “We are a top city with immigrants. We are proud of that.” In his 2019 State of the City Address he claimed, “In my previous State of the City addresses, I committed to make Columbus America’s opportunity city, to tackling our most pressing challenges and making tangible, long-lasting changes to lift up Columbus neighborhoods and move our city forward together. We have. And we are.”

During Ginther’s 2023 mayoral campaign he wrote he would, “Ensure anyone who works in America's Opportunity City can afford to live in the neighborhood of their choice” and “Every family in every neighborhood should be able to share in the success story that is Columbus. But what makes Columbus truly special is how we respond to opportunity.” Ginther has been full of more empty campaign promises.

As a longtime community leader and 2023 Columbus mayoral candidate, I find it appalling that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars are being spent to falsely sway public opinion regarding Andy Ginther and Columbus City Council’s city-wide tax abatement and zoning policy changes.

A recent Columbus Dispatch story“As Columbus pushes massive zoning overhaul, PR firm enlisted to bolster public support” gives an in depth look at how Columbus-based Paul Werth Marketing and PR Agency is utilizing taxpayer dollars to deceptively demonstrate support for the City’s recent city-wide tax abatement policy and proposed “massive zoning overhaul.” Paul Werth Senior Vice-President Dan Williamson, who is the former Deputy Chief of Staff of Communications of Mayor Michael Coleman, is leading the team assigned to the City’s marketing project.

In 2016, an unlikely candidate defeated the incumbent Franklin County Treasurer, Ed Leonard in the primary. As an incumbent with the backing of the Democratic Party, Leonard ran a reserved campaign for what he thought would be an easy win. His opponent had a lack of resources and participated in none of the meddlesome activities associated with running a hopeful political campaign: no door-knocking, fundraising, speeches, or media interviews were conducted. 

Israel fooled everyone and Dublin fooled me. First, Israel claimed with zero evidence that Hamas has beheaded 40 babies and raped hundreds of women on October 7 and even got President Biden to claim he saw it! When the world heard the news, American, European, and Latin American mercenaries were recruited and rushed to Israel to fight its dirty war. That was precisely the reason why Airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire. Because of the feeling of shame and guilt of knowing that his fellow soldiers were secretly on the ground in Gaza participating in the genocide. 

Then comes the city of Dublin's publicity stunt. It began on this month on March 8 when I received this email from  Brother Imran Malik, local Muslim leader that says in part, "The city of Dublin will light the Dublin Link as Green and White to welcome the holy month of Ramadan for the Muslim community of Central Ohio on Sunday March 10th, 2024, at Sunset. Please join us at the Dublin Link Bridge around 7 pm for a celebrating this communal joy together."

The twin slaughters in Gaza and Ukraine spew from the ghastly evil of four awful men focused on destroying democracy itself---Netanyahu, Sinwar, Putin and Trump.

Ending those wars demands naming and ousting the perpetrators.

Putin’s monstrous mass murder in Ukraine has been punctuated by the awful execution of Alexi Navalny, the beloved activist he imprisoned, tortured and left for dead.  Putin has followed by arresting those who merely leave flowers at Navalny’s memorial site, or who dare show the slightest opposition to the Ukrainian carnage.  His homophobia extends to arresting anyone who display rainbows on flags, clothing, art, or even earrings. 

Putin has made clear he’ll tolerate nothing resembling freedom or democracy, even when sham “votes” are under his thumb.  A brutal Tsar in Russia’s worst totalitarian traditions, he is regularly serviced by useful American idiots like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson.

City of Columbus officials are now doing what they should have done in early 2023 to prevent their repeated blunders and resulting harms concerning the Greyhound/Barons bus depot on North Wilson Road.

A March 1, 2024 email from city attorney Section Chief Steve Dunbar states: “Next week’s Greyhound hearing is being continued. City, Barons and Greyhound are doing a search for alternative sites. I’ll let you know as soon as we get a new date. It will be about sixty days out.”

If a new trial date is not set for another two months, it will be nearly a year that this bus terminal disaster began to play out.  

Barons officials had reached out to city officials requesting assistance in early 2023 to find a new location for their bus terminal after they could not come to terms with COTA on renewing their lease at the West Spring Street COTA location. The city refused to help Barons find a suitable location.