Editorial

I and many other people with diabetes want to know why the phase 1B rollout changed from including all people with type 1 diabetes (outlined here on January 14th, 2021) to including only those deemed by the state as "severe" (now specified here in Governor DeWine’s January 19th press release). This week I called the Ohio Department of Health coronavirus phone line to find answers; no one could illuminate any reason why I, as an immunocompromised person with type 1 diabetes, could not receive the vaccine during the phase 1B rollout.

Since the insurrection at the Capitol Building, I keep thinking about my Dad and wondering what he would have thought. Frank J. Pace, son of Italian immigrants, joined the National Guard at 19 and almost lost a leg during World War II. Then he volunteered to fight in Korea when his unit was called up.

He didn’t have to go; with two small children he was exempted. But Dad went because he loved his country and thought it was his duty. Left at home with two small sons, his wife Kathryn also sacrificed in service to that sense of duty.

My Dad was a Roosevelt Democrat. When Truman was elected against long odds, my Dad wept for joy. Later he would become a Reagan Democrat, in search of the patriotic unity he had experienced during the wars.

My Dad left the US Army Reserves as a Sergeant Major at mandatory retirement age. When he died suddenly soon afterwards, his army buddies made sure he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. His nation bestowed on him the same honors I had seen given to John Kennedy, a slain president. The ceremony was the same right down to the flag draped caisson and black riderless horse. 

“There’s class warfare alright. But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” – Warren Buffett

“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.” - Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page - Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens

“Total liberty for the wolves is death to the lambs.” – Isaiah Berlin

Revisiting the Great American Retro-Reset 1970-2020 –

Democracy Down the Tubes?

As the prospect of the World Economic Forum’s proposed ‘Great Reset’ as an international response to the current Covid crisis looms, it’s worth reminding ourselves that other ‘resets’ - i.e., radical transformative shifts in the socio-political-economic structure - have happened before, historically and recently, at both the international and national levels. 

How is it that the New York Times reported that, “In the moment before Casey Goodson Jr. was shot dead by a sheriff’s deputy at the entrance of his home, his lifelong neighbor heard a man shouting, as if he were arguing, and then a burst of gunfire.”

“The neighbor, Andrew Weeks, rushed to a window and saw three men outside, at least one holding a rifle. He called the police, unaware that the three men — all in plain clothes — were law enforcement officers.” “Before long, the block was lined with emergency vehicles, and Mr. Goodson was carried out on a stretcher, fatally wounded from several gunshot wounds.” I have never heard any of this from our local media.

Let’s talk about  Mindfulness. Mindfulness is one of the main components of yoga and one of it’s biggest benefits. Mindfulness is PRESENCE. It is what Ram Dass talked about in his 1974 book Be Here Now. Eckhart Tolle expounds about presence in The Power of Now. Really, when you think about it, there is ONLY NOW, the present moment.

You’ve heard the saying “The past is history, the future a mystery and the present is a gift.” You cannot breathe in the past or future moment, only this one and the next and the next until your body dies. The breath is a constant that only exists in the now.

Here’s a great practice:

4 times a day, say at 10, 2, 6, and 10, stop what you are doing and notice your breath. You have to set an alarm on your phone or you’ll forget. Trust me on this.

 So 4 x/day, stop and notice 3 the breathes. Don’t change it, just notice it. Just 3 breathes. You can build to 5.

When a podcast titled “Whites of the Roundtable” is focused mainly on Central Ohio’s most prestigious old-money suburb Upper Arlington (UA), by railing against any affordable housing moving in, this old-money suburb probably has a white supremacy problem.

But it’s no laughing matter when on an invite-only and unsearchable Facebook group called “UA Golden Pride,” veiled threats are made against a UA Ohio House of Representative Democrat.

Or when UA’s most vocal right-winger takes his explosive anger to Facebook as UA Golden Pride cheers him on.

The Free Press wants to be clear, UA is not the Republican stronghold it once was even though it still has the lowest percentage of Black residents in metro Columbus.

In 2016 it went Clinton by 15 points (3,300 votes), and while the Free Press was unable to obtain 2020 presidential vote totals, Ohio House of Rep. Catherine Allison Russo, of UA’s District 24, won her re-election over Republican Pat Manley by 15 points (12,000 votes).

UA is jammed with million-dollar homes and good people. For some of them it’s win-at-all-costs, an attitude reflective of Ohio State’s football program.

What's new with the Columbus Dispatch?

The news is old at the former "Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper." The late afternoon deadline imposed to accommodate the closing of the Columbus printing plant and its shift to Indianapolis means that much that happens on Tuesday gets in Thursday's paper.

The content of the print product is becoming more feature stories and

and less news coverage. We journalism professors define "news" as matters that readers need to know and that affect their lives and "features" as stuff to entertain and amuse.

The Dispatch is publishing more articles from its sister newspaper USA Today and labels them and locally generated content as from the "USA Today Network." If the paper is trying to cut its print circulation and push people to its digital product, it is succeeding in the former. An Oct. 1 legal advertisement showed print copies sold had dropped nearly one third in a year, from about 78,000 daily to about 504,000.

We are all grieving. We grieve the loss of our normal freedom to come and go; to hug a friend; to sit in “The Shoe” with 80,000 other people cheering the Buckeyes; to gather at our local watering hole and share an evening with friends old and new.

Yes, we are all grieving. Some of us have lost loved ones to COVID. For us, the grieving process will have to play out. We are all pissed of at “the stupid virus” as my 6-year-old grandson calls it. Many of us have moved past denial into acceptance. It sucks, but it is what it is.

We’ve become expert negotiators, bargaining for a better deal: “I’ll wear the mask in the grocery store but not in the park.” Of course, there IS no entity to bargain with, there’s only a very cagey virus that takes advantage of the ignorance of a few to wreak havoc on our country.

UPDATE DEC. 6: The Columbus City Council hearing on this issue has moved to December 14th, so letters are still needed!

The award-winning neighborhood institution, Kossuth Street Garden (KSG), is in grave danger.

A developer wants us to go away so he can build 10 expensive homes on 641 E Kossuth Street. But to succeed at this point, he needs changes approved by the City of Columbus for zoning and variances, based on advice of our South Side Area Commission.

The site of our majestic and beloved 12-year-old award-winning community garden was sold and the new developer now wants us out, as he will build 10 new "affordable homes" at $250,000 to $350,000 each and likely ask for tax abatements next spring. The land is zoned "commercial" and the developer needs a "residential" zoning change in order to build.

New owner Tracy Cohen, the Carroll, Ohio developer, offered to sell us the section where the garden/green space is on October 23 this year.

But then on November 10, he went back on his promise, as that would impact his bottom line and decrease his profits.

The Community Festival (ComFest) is seeking applications for its 2021 Community Grants program. Each year, ComFest invites grant applications to support and sustain innovative programming demonstrating a commitment to ComFest’s principles and mission which are rooted in community, social justice and progressive activism. 

ComFest established the grants program in the spirit of giving back to the community. Since 2006, over $320,000 has been awarded to local organizations.

To learn more about ComFest’s Grants program, application requirements, read about previous grant recipients and submit an application, please visit https://www.comfest.com/committees/grants.

The deadline for submitting applications is Tuesday, January 19, 2021. Applications received after the deadline cannot be considered.