Feature
A new freely downloadable book
I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the reasons why we urgently need immediate and drastic climate action The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link:
Use of fossil fuels must stop!
The IPCC Report
The 4,000-page report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was not due to be released until February, 2022, but a copy was leaked to Agence France-Presse. The report calls for a total transformation of our way of life if we wish to avoid catastrophe. The window of opportunity is closing rapidly. Urgent action must be taken within less than a decade.
The Report states that “We need transformational change operating on processes and behavior at all levels: individual, communities, business, institutions and governments. We must redefine our way of life and consumption.”
Featured speakers for Gift To Be Simple include:
As a retired Ohio State University professor and 17-year homeowner in Columbus’ University District, I have encountered the steadily increasing numbers of undergraduate and graduate student renters for years. This year, my wife and I interact with our student neighbors and other students (especially those walking their friendly pandemic dogs) we encounter on our regular evening walks. When we wear our matching “Octo-Hug” T-shirts, many students express their enthusiasm and compliments! These interactions create powerful impressions.
I read that on July 4, 1977, the Imperial Wizard, Dale R. Reusch of Lodi, Ohio led a Klan rally on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse. There were protestors and a fight broke out. I’d like to talk to one of the men arrested. He knows what I know, that the Ku Klux Klan was alive and well in Columbus in the 1970s. I met Klan members that night. I saw how many white men gather to express their hate, to show the city how strong they are. It was like a movie I accidentally walked into.
One of the last sprawling undeveloped areas inside I-270 is being transformed into Franklin County’s newest metro park – and at the same time into a $650 million mixed-use development packed with retail, offices and residential. Both should be open in some capacity by next year.
Apparently, this is the future of parks nationwide. Trails, woodland and lakes integrated with retail, offices and expensive housing. The “Columbus Way” has embraced it, and Quarry Trails Metro Park along with “Project QT,” the mixed-used area, is their first attempt at getting it right.
“We’ve become more intentional about it,” as told to Columbus Business Firstby Kenny McDonald, CEO of One Columbus, formerly Columbus 2020, which is working hand-in-hand with the Columbus Partnership. “There’s emerging ideas around the country to take parks and make them not just green spaces but places where we convene.”
Weren’t “we” already doing that at the metro parks?
The Ohio State University is Columbus’s most well-known landmark. Its national prominence stems primarily from its major, largely male sports teams, with Wexner Medical Center a distant second. Beyond the sports news, one of the nation’s half-dozen largest public universities attracts little attention.
The Dr. Richard Strauss sexual abuse scandal and alleged misuse of endowment funds at Moritz College of Law – and OSU’s responses – begin to shed light on the unusually opaque institution. This essay is a call for much-needed scrutiny and transparency. After all, OSU is a public university.
Athletics – and the unbridled quest for championships – dominate all other aspects of OSU, despite its declining revenues. It does not benefit the academic domain. Regardless of financial strains, salaries and perks of the athletic director and head football and basketball coaches only grow, outpacing faculty and staff rates of increase. Passionate Buckeye fans have little interest in OSU as a teaching and research center.
At around this time in the universe, we are approaching the end of the Piscean Age and about to enter the Aquarian Age.
The 2000-year Piscean age is characterized by the birth of Christ and the creation of the church. Humans found a deeper connection to the divine and matters of the soul. At the same time, the concepts of heaven and hell, good and evil, sin and sacrifice characterized the prevailing beliefs about reality.
The conflicts on the planet today are countless: nation against nation and brother against brother. Everyone seems to be in opposition to something. It is said that at this time there will be a thousand wars and the tensions will build like a festering boil! That comes as no surprise to anyone, I’m sure. We can all feel and testify to the hostility in the air.
But…the story goes that when the boil bursts, as it must, and all the pus has drained and clear blood is present, that the Age of Aquarius has been born. Out of the chaos and suffering, a thousand years of peace is foretold.
The Free Press has written before that a short drive past I-270 might as well be driving to Mars when it comes to political beliefs and ideology.
London, Ohio in neighboring Madison County – just 15-minutes past Columbus – is one of those planets, er, towns.
The decline of small town Ohio is well-documented. Good paying jobs have vanished, drug addiction has sent too many kids into foster care, and the obsession for MAGA refuses to wane.
London is a community of roughly 10,000, but because it is so close to Columbus small numbers from the big city are moving there seeking affordable housing. The locals can be friendly, but simmering below the surface is rural Ohio’s anger towards the lefty oasis that is Columbus. Trump in 2020 won 70 percent of the vote in Madison County while Columbus went 65 percent for Biden, and with hundreds of thousands more votes.
New bill, new ballot measure, new federal legislation. Signature “time machine” and Sativex for Brain Cancer? Welcome to selected bites of fresh cannabis news sliced from the headlines, with a sweet Ohio twist. Sources are linked.
Three out of every ten workers in Ohio perform essential jobs that literally keep us alive and our communities functioning. And if anyone needs reminding, food and agriculture workers – the people who literally put food on our tables – are paid less than a poverty wage.
According to a new report from Policy Matters Ohio and Essential Ohio, essential workers’ median pay is 12.9% less than that of workers in nonessential jobs. Meanwhile, essential workers’ risk of contracting COVID and bringing it home is far greater.