Editorial

Columbus City Schools (CCS) are facing their greatest challenge in years. Not only does the district have a “D” rating for quality, but now must cut over 50 million dollars from their budget (thanks to the state Republicans and their hatred of public education).

As a former teacher (both public and private schools) I’ve been following the steps that CCS has, and has not, been taking. Most important:

I care about the future of Columbus and a strong CCS is vital for our success. Therefore, I took it upon myself to email every member of the CCS Board of Education; twice. Everyone, except one person ignored my questions.

So thank you to Jennifer Anne Adair for not only reading my email but even responding. Part of her reply included:

 I made five posts yesterday/today on my school board Facebook explaining how we got here, the choices, and impacts.  These are my personal statements, but reflect the facts.

What if this Venezuelan murdering scheme is more than just Trump being a bully with manhood issues? Of course, it could be about trying to steal their oil, which one of his supporters already admitted to. With a supposed drug justification when there is no evidence of that, and even if there were, murder is not the way to deal with it.

But at the same time the murderous Trump administration is trying to say it if because of concern about drugs, he pardoned a known drug trafficker, Juan Orlando Hernandez. A White House official and Hernandez's attorney, Renato Stabile, confirmed December 2 that the pardon has been issued. Stabile said Hernandez was released early December 2 from a federal prison, where he was serving a 45-year sentence "for cocaine importation and related weapons offenses," according to the Justice Department.

Hernandez was convicted in March of 2024 after a three-week jury trial in New York City. He was "at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world," helping to bring more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S., the Justice Department said in a news release last year after his conviction.

Why the Planet Melts When We Break Natural Law

The planet isn’t melting because of politics, culture, or morality. It’s melting because humans are operating out of alignment with the physical laws that govern reality. The consequences we are living through are not random — they are structural.Enslavement, domination, and exploitation are not built into the structure of reality. They are human inventions. And whenever societies organize themselves around ideas that break natural balance, the results show up in the real world.The imbalance we are seeing today — the heat, the instability, the “melt” — is the earth responding to systems that violate natural law. 

I was attending my first meeting of the Columbus Democratic Socialists of America on November 22 when I heard an observation that resonated with me.

I had spoken to Columbus City Council in the past.

It’s intimidating – your first time standing in front of City Council all sitting in elevated seats far away from you. Sometimes they get out their cell phones when you’re speaking and never actually ask you any follow up questions. They also don’t tell you that there’s free parking next to City Hall if you’re scheduled to speak. Anyway…

Someone at the Columbus Democratic Socialists of America meeting complained that City Council turns off the online video during the public testimony part of the meeting. It’s happened to me as well.

They just choose to not broadcast or record it. Unfortunately, I’m a guy who loves to solve problems; that’s how I’m hard-wired.

The recent City Council tax dollars giveaway to the Fury Women’s Volleyball team is another ugly example of how decisions are produced inside the secret walls of City Hall.

Your gerrymandered City Council voted 5-4 to approve $500,000 to the for-profit professional sports team – all while the thousands of homeless are living in tents around the city. The most important priority is to support women’s sports and not their actual lives. This was a stupid and selfish decision by your City Council. 

What made it all the more sinister was how your gerrymandered City Council voted: 5-4. They want your reaction to be, “Wow! That was a close decision! It could have gone either way!”

Wrong. Dead wrong.

The 5-4 decision was an example of “political theater” designed to give us the appearance that decisions are not already made before each and every vote.

It’s cooked to recipe by people who are most concerned with their next campaign donation and photo opportunity.

In addition to approving $500,000 for a women’s volleyball team (owned by a rich millionaire) and also raising the rates for water your Columbus City Council was also the scene of an emotional apology by Councilmember Emanuel Remy.

Fantastic. He admitted what everyone already knew. He is a loud and aggressive bully, but has been taking a management class (paid for by your taxes) that will likely not change his core problem that he has no empathy for other people.

This is the man hand-picked by City Council President Shannon Hardin to represent his constituents’ needs and solve their problems. All of this goes back to Hardin pushing aside a Black woman and community advocate just to get Remy into City Council. He’s there and there’s nothing that Hardin is going to do about it other than ignore him.

Republicans aren’t the only people who support private schools in Ohio.

The Columbus City Schools (CCS) Board of Education also wants to make private schools the best they can be. Need proof?

There are lots of cuts that the Board of Education are talking about to save money, but they keep ignoring the two most obvious. They ignore these two choices, because not to, would affect the administrators in the Central Office (over 250 full-time plus their support staff).

On December 8, 2019, the former superintendent got the paperwork approved for CCS to pay the retirement contribution for everyone in the Central Office. That means that every year since 2019 an additional 5-6 million dollars have gone into the pockets of the administrators in the Central Office instead of helping the students. Now with budget cuts on the horizon the entire Board of Education has suddenly forgotten this selfish decision.

Showing how selfish and greedy they are? That’s a great way to help promote Columbus private schools!

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Unless you’ve recently been abducted by ICE you already know about Columbus City Councilmember Emanuel Remy and the $84,700 paid to his staff member for his verbal abuse (our tax dollars mind you, not his). He has lost the trust of the people he is supposed to represent, but ran unopposed on November 4 thanks to the gerrymandered “At-Large” voting system where all competition is crushed without mercy… but you’re missing something.

One of the last independent journalists in Columbus, D.J. Byrnes AKA “The Rooster,” broke the story before the November 4 election. If you subscribe to his online news you would know about it (you should). Would that news have affected the Vogel vs. Ross District 7 race? Yes, it would have.

So what did all of the corporate-owned media outlets do about it? Didn’t they do their civic duty to inform the people of Columbus all about what a terrible person Emanuel Remy has been?

On behalf of the citizens of the City of Columbus I want to apologize to Ms. Averi Townsend for how she was treated by Emanuel Remy and our elected City Council. You deserve better. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and kindness by the people we elect. The politicians who sit above us in City Hall are not entitled to anything other than the opportunity to help us become better than we were yesterday. In this they failed miserably and you suffered for their shortcomings. And unfortunately, they will never admit that they were wrong.

City Council has forgotten that in addition to showing up to meetings, their part-time job must also include love. Love for themselves first and the love of helping other people second. They lack empathy and you were the target of how little they care about us. They have no motivation to change.

Without Hardin, Remy would never have been elected.

Local Columbus politics has officially “jumped the shark” and become a performance for the cameras. Like any blockbuster movie you need an endless budget (provided by the taxpayers), a script (distraction from mistakes and secrecy of purpose) and a master director: Shannon Hardin.

In any other sane world Emanuel Remy would have already stepped down from office, but the director wants to keep him in the cast to pretend to govern. Remy is just good enough to follow directions and not ask questions. The director will allow abusive behavior because he has unlimited money to pay off the victims and continue his reign. And that’s what it has all become. To Director Hardin we are just one of his movies.

Our local government is a stage performance riddled with dozens of positive and happy Facebook posts about how the Mayor and City Council love you. All cream and sugar; 24 hours a day paid for by your taxes.