Editorial

Columbus elector Jonathan C. Beard today filed an elections Complaint seeking to end false campaign statements  being made by Columbus mayoral candidate Andrew Ginther and his surrogates.  My Complaint, filed with the Ohio Elections Commissions, alleges multiple violations of ORC 3517.21, which bars false statements to promote or oppose candidates in elections for public office.  I believe the state of Ohio has a compelling interest in enforcing honest political debate, and have asked for that result.

I attended the Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio (SDCO) meeting on April 7th in support of Columbus City Council candidate Will Petrik. I learned that the SDCO had recommended Petrik to be endorsed for Columbus City Council. I was impressed with this bold move. I had only been to one of their meetings before about 10 years ago or so. I remember leaving that meeting on my own as I was definitely one of the few People of Color in the room and there were very few women in attendance. I felt like an outsider. This time, I was excited about attending and anticipated some real progress with this organization.
  This excitement started to fade quickly as I walked into the small pack of mostly white (still) attendees and likely coming from the same social and economic demographic. Most people were friendly but many, including candidates, didn't even say hello. In my culture as I know it, a "saludo" (greeting/hello) is a must regardless of anything. There seemed to be many Andrew Ginther for Mayor supporters in attendance and it felt as though I was at a Ginther rally or meeting. It was obvious they had stacked the room, which is fair play in politics I suppose.

Once upon a time if you were stopped by the police, and for whatever reason, found yourself being the victim of police brutality, even with witnesses, you would lose in a court of law based on the “word” of the police officer(s) involved.
  If the police officer, after he shot a “suspect,” called in to the station to report “Man down, man shot, he took my Taser,” it would be assumed by the dispatcher that the officer needed back-up and shot the “suspect,” eight times, in self-defense. The news and media reports would tell the public that the “suspect” died as a result of the police officer using “necessary force” to protect himself. Although many of us who heard the police explanation and the news reports didn’t believe we were getting the truth, there wasn’t much we could do or say about it and eventually, like all of the other times, the story would fade away.

Back in early 2010 Ohio stood at the cusp of modern 21st century technological revolution.

<i>Gena Smith is a combat veteran of Iraq, and suffers from both PTSD and MST (Military Sexual Trauma). She’s a veteran advocate who volunteers for VETWOW, Veteran Women Organizing Women, which has over 3,000 members and nearly all are victims of MST. As the war on terror pushes through a second decade, it’s becoming tragically clear that for many veterans, the only way to deal with MST or combat PTSD is suicide.</i>

Gena Smith is a 30-something Army combat veteran of Iraq. She suffers from both PTSD and MST, a roller-coaster of pain and emotions you never want to ride. She’s currently a veteran advocate who pens the blog “Regular Fury.” She is sometimes asked, especially by the media, Why didn’t you turn in your rapist?

Greetings my friends, relatives and supporters:
I know that many of you have concerns about the status of my situation and have been wanting an
update about what is going on. A lot has been happening in the last few months and I am sorry I
have not written in a while. The deaths over this last year have been hard to accept, including the
recent loss of my Sister Vivian. I want to deeply thank everyone for your loving words, prayers
and also for helping my son Chauncey pay for her funeral expenses, I am humbled beyond what
my words can express.

We are coming up on 40 years of my being in prisons. Sometimes, I honestly cannot believe it,
sometimes I just don’t want to believe it. You have been here with me through many dark times. It
is not possible for me to respond to each of you personally, I sure wish I could.

The reality is that I am not getting any younger, I feel my body every day. My hip hurts, I cannot
see very well, my body aches and my diabetes makes me feel uneasy a lot of the time. I do not say
these things so you’ll feel sorry for me, I just want to share because I would like for you to

In the year 2014 Americans were forced, once again, to come face-to-face with the raw fact that African Americans, especially, African American males, remained disposable. In December 2014 after it was announced that the grand jury would not indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the killing of Eric Garner, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund posted tweets naming 76 men and women of color who were killed in police custody since 1999. This is only the reported cases of deaths from the hands of those paid to “serve and protect” not some but all citizens.

A “new” group and concept for marijuana legalization has crept into Ohio and onto the national stage. Activism, advocacy, lobbying and ballot initiatives once comprised the social change formulae that challenged government suppression of this beneficial plant, which has historically been off limits to almost all use. But the success of legalization in Colorado has spawned a whole new brand of opposition. Internal, not external. Wealthy, not impoverished. Influential, not marginal. Seemingly pro, but very con.
A new group calling themselves “Responsible Ohio” (RO) has emerged on the marijuana ballot scene, driven not by grassroots activism, but instead by a consortium of investors, LLCs and holding companies who seek to enforce market exclusivity by writing themselves into the Ohio Constitution. Yet, despite a Goliath-size budget and a board of the rich and famous, they have made a number of critical errors, causing most of Ohio’s major newspapers to editorialize a preemptive “vote no!” to their scheme, belying all of the muscle that RO’s six figure ad agencies can buy. Some of the more damning aspects of RO include:

Thirteen Class II injection wells in Central Ohio sit in the headwaters of the Olentangy River and threaten to contaminate Ohio’s drinking water, warned Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice, hydrogeologist and soil scientist. The key 2004 and 2010 laws that have allowed deregulated fracking injection wells in Ohio came from the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bankrolled by the controversial Koch brothers.

The Koch brothers, cited as the third and fourth wealthiest individuals in the United States, have made Ohio the worst state in the northeast for protecting the environment against the oil and gas industry.

“We’re the worst by far in our area of the country,” said Weatherington-Rice. “We’ve become the dumping ground, more than 60% of the fracking waste in Ohio is coming in from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Ohio is doing virtually nothing” in regards to regulating fracking.

“If you’ve got an old oil or gas well you can easily turn it into an injection well to take fracking waste,” she explained.