Feature

June 24-26 ComFest will fill Goodale Park once again with local music, art, food, crafts, workshops, and revelry. The festival has lots of diverse offerings, so guests are sure to find something for everyone.

This being an important election year, people can expect speakers and panels to express and explain progressive viewpoints on topics as far-ranging as economic justice, environmental crises, and voting rights. There will be workshops about gender identity and sexism, new trends and development in Columbus, local control of environment and resources, big money in local politics and how residents are represented in city council – the ward system or at large. Guest speakers will make remarks in support of labor and Planned Parenthood and other issues. And ComFest is one way to make sure you are registered correctly to vote, and learn how to defend your right to have your vote counted.

Calling itself Columbus’ Green Renaissance Network, Saturday April 23, marked the “Earth Day BirthDay” of Columbus’ newest Low Power FM Radio station, WGRN-LP 94.1. Victoria Parks, volunteer programmer for WGRN, answered some questions for the Free Press giving us the skinny on WGRN:
FP: Where can our community tune-in to WGRN-LP and what is Low Power FM radio?

Calling itself Columbus’ Green Renaissance Network, Saturday April 23, marked the “Earth Day BirthDay” of Columbus’ newest Low Power FM Radio station, WGRN-LP 94.1. Victoria Parks, volunteer programmer for WGRN, answered some questions for the Free Press giving us the skinny on WGRN:

FP: Where can our community tune-in to WGRN-LP and what is Low Power FM radio?

Rally for Climate Action at the Ohio Statehouse

Join the Central Ohio Climate Action Coalition on Wednesday, April 20 from 11am to 1pm at the Ohio Statehouse west side steps facing High Street, to show the world that Ohio wants climate justice, a transition to 100 percent renewable energy and a sustainable future. This will be an "Earth Week" demonstration planned by the Central Ohio Climate Action Coalition. Ohio Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) is taking the lead by coordinating numerous faith-based organizations and arranging bus transportation to the rally from several Ohio cities. A Lobby Day after the noon-time rally is being organized by both IPL and Sierra Club. Small groups will meet with our state legislators after the rally to discuss the reality of climate change and the moral duty to act. Specifically, our representatives will be asked to "end the freeze" on the Renewable Energy and Efficiency Portfolio Standards and reinstate the law that was passed with near unanimous support in 2008 to speed the transition to clean energy.

My wonderful, wonderful mother died on November 30, 2013, after a long battle with leukemia. One of the things I miss the most is her voice, which was melodious and cheerful. I had purchased a recordable book a year before her death, but I kept putting off having her read it. In my mind I always thought “Maybe she’ll feel better tomorrow.” That never came and I will kick myself the rest of my days.  Steel tells a similar story about the loss of her paternal grandmother in 1994. She has, however, found a way to fill the void in her heart and mind by photographing and recording women of her grandmother’s generation in her adopted state of Mississippi. She calls these women Delta Jewels.

As someone who has a doctorate in American history, it always makes me nervous to hear people declaim that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion. It is all I can do to hold my tongue when folks say that the Constitution guarantees the separation of Church and state, and when they start talking about a Constitutional amendment requiring prayer in the public schools–as long as I’m a professor, students will be praying in school!–well then, Katie bar the door! The first assertion is an oversimplified story about Pilgrims, Puritans and the Mayflower Compact, written in 1620. The second statement is flat out wrong, and the third one, well whatareyagonnado?

It is truly banal to say that we have never seen a First Lady like Michelle Obama; she is, as they say in the fashion world, a one off. Historically, the role of the president’s spouse has always been ill defined. First Ladies–Jacqueline Kennedy hated the term because it sounded like the name of a saddle horse–have no constitutional authority and do not answer to the electorate. However, just by virtue of being the president’s wife, they have tremendous influence. Consequently, American people project their expectations about many things such as gender roles and family values onto America’s Queen Consorts, and the public can be quite fickle when those expectations are not met. No more has this been the case than with Michelle Robinson Obama.

Many years ago I dated a man who made lists for virtually everything. He even had the five- and ten-year plans all the business books of the era were touting. I jokingly called him List Man, and thought it was kind of quaint. Now in 2016 he’s well off and I’m not, and I’m beginning to think there was something to all his list making after all!

What we learn from Lists of Note is that people have been making lists for eons. The extremely varied lists show us that human beings have long tried to make sense of and order in the world and their lives. Most psychologists and psychiatrists agree that list making, unless it is compulsive, has a number of positive benefits.  Lists can clarify goals, organize time, tame chaos, and provide a road map for where we need to go. The act of making lists represents hope and possibility, and there is great satisfaction checking items off our lists.