Editorial
Bruce Hornsby was right: things will never change. The Republicans will continue to refuse to negotiate with anyone, and the Democrats will not change their MO of doing nothing. The far-right will keep on pushing legislation that aims to keep America in the Dark Ages. The ultimately pointless Russia investigation is going to grind on while billionaires maintain their grip on global power.
This week was the first of the year where we all knew what was going to happen. We sat waiting for the inevitable shutdown to begin. We were on tenterhooks over who would be the next to leave or be fired from the government. We soiled ourselves as the results of the president’s medical were released. It all sounds like enthusiastic anticipation, and it was. All of us living in Central Ohio do what we can to create a modicum of excitement.
The shutdown of the federal government overshadowed everything else this week. Otherwise noteworthy stories barely received any attention, and nothing else happened at the national level to generate news. That is no complaint; the reasons for the shutdown and the effects it will have over, at least, the next few days deserve to have the huge spotlight on them.
As the nation prepares to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – one of our greatest Americans – on Monday, President Donald Trump offers a stark contrast in leadership.
The best way to react to Mr. Trump’s latest decidedly non-Presidential outburst is not with anger at his incendiary, vulgar and racially-charged remarks this week about immigrants from “shithole countries.”
The best response is to do what Dr. King fought so hard for. It is to get registered to vote and then to cast ballots in massive and historic numbers. The 2018 midterm elections are just around the corner.
Now more than ever, we must continue Dr. King’s movement to “redeem the soul of America.”
Hours after the world-wide fire storm ignited by his vile words, Mr. Trump is denying saying them. But Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois was in the room where it happened and said today at Chicago’s 32rd annual breakfast celebrating the life of Dr. King that it is “exactly what [Mr. Trump] said and he said it repeatedly.”
When it comes to veracity, I’ll put my faith in the Senator from the Land of Lincoln.
It turns out that cannabis is not the evil wacky weed we were led to believe by criminals disguised as politicians, but instead, provides the pathway to better living and good health. How does cannabis work as a medicine and why are so many people demanding it? There happens to be a really good answer that lives within you.
We are all familiar with basic bodily systems, such as the circulatory or digestive systems, but did you know that within those systems lives another whole system that actually helps control and regulate those same systems? The Endocannabinoid system (ECS) lives within each and every one of us but this system wasn't discovered until 1964 when Dr. Rapheal Mechoulam isolated the THC molecule and soon thereafter the CBD molecule.
How do these play into our ECS system and what does that have to do with cannabis as a medicine? Both THC and CBD are cannabinoids and surprisingly enough they actually fit and bind, similar to a lock and key, into receptors endogenous to our bodies more understood systems. Cannabinoid receptors are embedded in cellular membranes and it is believed they are in greater numbers than other receptor systems.
Enough is enough. Especially when it comes to a name.
Many of you have undoubtedly faced a crisis or two about your own. It can come from anywhere, like changing (or NOT) your family name when getting married. Or dumping the curse of one you never liked.
Famous examples abound. The great Texas-born classical pianist Van Cliburn was in fact Harvey Lavan Cliburn. Lady Gaga is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Kirk Douglas was Issur Danielovitch. Marilyn Monroe came from Norma Jean Mortenson. Tony Curtis had been Bernard Schwartz. John Wayne was Marion Mitchell Morrison.
You get the picture.
When I was born in Boston 72 years ago this New Year’s Eve, my mom made my father promise not to name me “Harvey.” Dad’s father, who’d just passed away, was Herschel. So the “H” was unavoidable. But there were certainly better choices. She never forgave him. Me either.
My middle name is Franklin, as my parents were big FDR fans. As an historian, I like it for Ben.
Wasserman means “Aquarius” or Water Man in German. I’m good with that.
But “Harvey”?
The rabbit in the Jimmy Stewart movie was in fact a real-life “Pooka”, a Celtic spirit.
The tax bill advertised by Republicans as a Christmas gift to the American people is in fact a gift to the Global Corporate CEOs and other such executives on incentive compensation plans. The most favored of this group are the executives of the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) with Lockheed Martin at the top. Their gifts – to transition from multi-millionaires to billionaires.
The earlier 10% increase in military spending specially benefited MIC executives and their Carlyle Group directors. The cut in the corporate income tax rate will probably increase their compensation at a generous multiple of the percentage which that cut represents to the increase in corporate net income and rate of return on equity.
Achievement is a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage or skill. Attainment, realization, accomplishment, fulfilment, implementation, execution, performance. As I look back over the year 2017 I find myself thinking about what, if any, achievements have been accomplished and what makes these achievements successful and relevant to the American people and who has benefited from these achievements.
In November, Vice President Pence said President Trump was responsible for our economy being improved by 1.5 million new jobs. Pence and Trump himself have said and see the success of the stock market as an achievement for Americans. They both feel that Trump is responsible for the manufacturers “confidence” in producing goods here in America. Pence says, “we’re just getting started” in regards to the “accomplishments” of Trump. Pence and Trump both fail to acknowledge that another one of Trump’s achievements this year is to be deemed “historically unpopular” by the American people.
JVP Central Ohio stands with the public in demanding that City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien drop ALL charges against the four people who were arrested by Columbus Police officers at Columbus Pride 2017, especially Deandre Miles who faces an unjust felony charge for peacefully protesting.
Dr. Umar Johnson returned to Columbus this past October. Dr. Johnson is a doctor of clinical psychology and certified school psychologist. In his book, Psycho-Academic Holocaust: The special education and ADHD wars against Black Boys, he brings to the surface what is really going on within the city school systems in America when it comes to the continued discrimination and separation of Black children.
I feel that it is important that Dr. Johnson continue to tour America and bring his esteem, knowledge and experience to Americans, especially, Black Americans, so that they may be properly “schooled” on just how damaging it is for our children, all our children, to have someone as clearly unsympathetic as Elizabeth Prince DeVos, as the country’s Secretary of Education.
DAMNING QUOTE: Columbus City Council member and former Safety Director Mitchell Brown proclaimed at a candidate’s night that Columbus doesn’t need a civilian review board to monitor the police since the grand jury is a civilian review board. The Franklin County Prosecutor’s office admitted that they can’t remember any Columbus police officer ever being indicted by the grand jury. The grand jury is overwhelmingly white and under control of the Prosecutor’s office – not the citizens of Columbus – whose proceedings are secret, not transparent.
LAWSUIT #1: The Estate of Jaron Thomas filed a wrongful death lawsuit on October 12 against the Columbus Division of Police. In response to Thomas’ call for help on January 14, 2017, Officers Darren Stephens, Chase Pinkerman and Michael Alexander decided to handcuff him and punch, body slam, knee, choke-hold and hobble strap him into submission which caused him to lose consciousness and cause his death. The Columbus Division of Police authorized the use of excessive force and his death was deemed an accident.