Editorial

Newspapers were once the leaders in covering business news in their communities. The daily Columbus Dispatch just abdicated that title to Columbus Business First, a weekly. Both have active websites.

The Dispatch announced a few months that it no longer would have a free-standing business section on Mondays. Last week its editor-apologist Alan Miller announced it would no longer have a free-standing section on Tuesday through Saturday. Can the elimination of the Sunday business section be far behind?

Why? The obvious reasons appear to be that readership of business news in the Dispatch is on freefall and that advertising in the business section is disappearing rapidly. That is too bad because at one time the Dispatch had top-notch business reporters though I noticed recently that the paper was running more press releases from major Columbus companies under business reporters' bylines.

This column was first published in The Rooster.

I don’t know much about legal matters because I’ve tried avoiding them for most of my life, but one term I know thanks to watching Murder, She Wrote is “alibi.” It’s pretty straight forward –– if you weren’t at the scene of a crime when a crime happened, you probably didn’t commit that crime. Another axiom I’ve learned is “don’t mess with the FBI.” However, this was a new one –– what if someone who has been indicted by the FBI calls the cops on you for trespassing on their property while you’re in another state? Perhaps I should start from the beginning…

One year ago on July 21, 2020, I was in The Bahamas on what felt like the first vacation I’d been able to take since the global pandemic started, mainly because it was. It seemed like the world had made it to halftime with the coronavirus crisis and things were “kinda sorta” getting back to normal. After a day of swimming around the reefs off Andros Island, I returned to my cell phone in the afternoon to find what must have been dozens of texts from various political friends in Ohio. From a news cycle that had been constantly dominated by COVID-19 throughout most of 2020, a new combination of letters and numbers had emerged for Ohioans to understand –– HB 6.

There was a big hubbub a year ago when the Columbus Dispatch editorialized against set-aside contracts for Black businesses and the Black community went ballistic. Former Mayor Mike Coleman had to sweep in and rescue the Dispatch and save a shred of its credibility in the Black community of 300,000 or so potential readers.

All that dovetailed with the takeover by the Dispatch's parent GateHouse of the better-known Gannett Corp. This created an amalgam of 200-plus daily newspapers whose flagship was the national newspaper USA Today. The name Gannett was adopted for the combined company.

The old Gannett was a pioneer in prioritizing social and economic justice for minorities, women and LGBTQ. Its policies became the law of the land for all the newspapers in the combined enterprise, including the Dispatch.

There was a big hubbub a year ago when the Columbus Dispatch editorialized against set-aside contracts for Black businesses and the Black community went ballistic. Former Mayor Mike Coleman had to sweep in and rescue the Dispatch and save a shred of its credibility in the Black community of 300,000 or so potential readers.

All that dovetailed with the takeover by the Dispatch's parent GateHouse of the better-known Gannett Corp. This created an amalgam of 200-plus daily newspapers whose flagship was the national newspaper USA Today. The name Gannett was adopted for the combined company.

The old Gannett was a pioneer in prioritizing social and economic justice for minorities, women and LGBTQ. Its policies became the law of the land for all the newspapers in the combined enterprise, including the Dispatch.

For a while, I have been in favor of the United States lifting the embargo they and their allies placed on Cuba. I have felt that the policy was nothing more than an imperialistic desire to have Latin America run by those they prefer to have in power.

I feel that the United States should be concerned with what goes on in their own borders as opposed to dictating how other nations operate and so forth. If it is NOT within our borders, it most certainly is NOT our business to get involved and dictate how others should operate. The imposition of this policy has been the result of a bloody game of chess that the US and USSR were playing with one another during the Cold War period.

ITEM: A Cleveland-based masseuse admitted she gave some Ohio State University football players more than back rubs last year and was apparently forced to give up her license after an investigation by an OSU-hired law firm. She provided massages to a couple dozen OSU football players while wandering through an apartment complex populated by the players and reportedly had sex with a few. She later denied any wrongdoing. The OSU-paid-for report said no NCAA violations were done.

ITEM: A Cleveland-based masseuse admitted she gave some Ohio State University football players more than back rubs last year and was apparently forced to give up her license after an investigation by an OSU-hired law firm. She provided massages to a couple dozen OSU football players while wandering through an apartment complex populated by the players and reportedly had sex with a few. She later denied any wrongdoing. The OSU-paid-for report said no NCAA violations were done.

When I began writing this piece about fifteen months ago, think back yourself, I wanted to write a snarky piece but that time has passed. Reality plays hard!

Today, 365 days have passed since Geoge Floyd’s murder was videotaped; therefore, the people are here, physically and culturally.

Let me walk us through a social contract: The Great Society, several peoples’ revolutionary movements, and now, what does it take to be anti-colonialist/anti-racist?

Many authors express their perspectives, my thoughts follow, I caution all who follow to be careful there has been a pandemic and economic collapse.

I started writing the article two days after my father, Reverend Doctor Leslie E. Stansbery, passed on February 29, 2020, and nearly two years after my mother, Margaret Dorothy Stansbery (Van der Zee) passed on January 17, 2018. The Trump presidency killed my parents, but more importantly the Great Society is passing as we breathe.

Imagine this: Your parents were refugees from Vietnam in the 80s because of the Vietnam War. Your parents own a Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwich) shop in Washington DC’s Chinatown where you grew up in public housing with your parents and 3 other siblings in this two-bedroom one bathroom apartment together. They did not get you out of public housing until they opened this shop because finally, they had disposable income! You have been conditioned your whole life to make it as a doctor or else you have failed your family. So, you worked your butt off your entire life to go to college even though you cannot really afford it. Got into Georgetown but chose to go to University of Maryland and commute from the DC area since you lived with your parents and could not afford to pay for room and board. You got full ride and then some because your story is so compelling, and your family is so dirt poor that rich people who needed to make themselves feel better about themselves used you as a charity case to pay for your schooling.