Human Rights
We all want the same thing — to live in safety with our families and contribute to our communities. When government policies harm families, the policies should change. And when children are involved, our government should take the greatest care before doing something that changes their lives so irrevocably.
This week, people who were deported were SEEN and HEARD on Capitol Hill (pictured above), thanks to their loved ones and volunteers who blanketed the Hill with free ebook flyers and paperback copies of Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home. Read all about it and watch a video of our press conference here. The day was cosponsored by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance and Center for Law and Social Policy.
This article first appeared in the Buckeye Flame
An overflow crowd packed the city of Ashtabula’s council chambers on May 20, spilling out into the hallway.
Despite no official item on the council’s agenda regarding the northeastern Ohio city’s June 15 Pride Festival, residents showed up in large numbers to voice their opinions about the event.
Prior to the meeting, Ashtabula resident Kelly Lunneberg collected signatures in an attempt to ban anyone under the age of 18 from viewing drag performances, one of the elements of the Pride Festival.
Students for Justice in Palestine and Palestine Diaspora Movement came together for a statewide protest. May 15th was the 76th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, which means "catastrophe."
The 1948 founding of Israel was preceded and accompanied by a massive ethnic cleansing operation to remove as many of the Muslim and Christian inhabitants as possible. During Israel's "war of independence," over 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes, never to be allowed to return. Hundreds of towns were razed; villagers were massacred.
Tragically, Israel has violated human rights in a similar fashion and on an unprecedented scale over the past 7 months during its attacks on Gaza, drawing global condemnation and breaching international law.
Franklin County Treasurer Cheryl Brooks Sullivan wants the public to know that the county will never divest the $33 million it has invested in the state of Israel unless she is voted out of office or forced to divest by the voters through a ballot initiative.
At a public meeting of the Franklin County Investment Advisory Committee on Thursday April 18, Brooks Sullivan confirmed that the county had reinvested $1 million in Israel Bonds using funds from an earlier Israel Bonds purchase that had reached maturity on April 1. Defiant before members of the public who questioned further investment in the state of Israel in the midst of active genocide in Gaza, Brooks Sullivan denied the political nature of the bonds purchase.
I received an invite: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) organized a protest at the Supreme Court in defense of reproductive freedom. People could ride a bus from Ohio into DC for ACLU’s Supreme Court rally, 3-26-2024. The Supreme Court was taking arguments which would ban abortion pills….the case against abortion pills was weak. The case wouldn’t prove there was enough evidence to overrule the Food and Drug Administration’s approval. Sometimes the Supreme Court rejects underdeveloped arguments regardless of the Justices’ political bias.
While I believe Trump should be removed from the ballot because of his violating the insurrection clause…the Colorado case removing Trump from the ballot failed because the REPUBLICANS who presented removing Trump from the ballot didn’t have a conviction of Trump for insurrection.
We know Trump’s Supreme Court nominees overturned Roe V. Wade….I’m pro-choice.
As Bernie Moreno’s gloating victory speech droned on and on like a used car salesman can do, Ohio looked forward to not one significant MAGA race but two, and the US Senate could shift if Sherod Brown were to lose.
It can’t possibly get any worse, but wait until Moreno floods local media with hateful anti-immigration ads. In a 2022 GOP Senate primary which he lost, Moreno spent what he described as the most expensive political ad campaign ever for an Ohio primary.
“They’re changing our nation. Let’s stop them,” Moreno said during the commercials. “Build the wall and make English our official language.”
Demonizing hard working immigrants is MAGA’s only policy – if it can even be called as such. Sticking up for immigrants – as diverse as Franklin County has become – of course will be the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, which once again will call on all people of faith and good conscience to denounce these attacks.
“Immigrants make enormous contributions and keep Ohio industries like agriculture, protein processing, and manufacturing alive,” says Ohio Immigrant Alliance director Lynne Tramonte.
Call and write your U.S. Congressmember:
Vote to pass the House Version of S. 3853, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) has compensated people who were exposed to radioactivity from the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, along with some workers participating in atmospheric testing and uranium miners. Congress failed to reauthorize it last December, so it is slated to expire this July.
A new bill that would renew and expand RECA has passed the U.S. senate!
Senate Bill 3853 extends RECA for 6 years! A big bonus is that new sites have been added!
Sponsored by Senators Hawley (R-MO), Luján (D-NM), and Crapo (R-ID), S. 3853 would offer first-time compensation to communities impacted by the atomic bomb test in New Mexico, as well as residents of Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, and Guam. It also would cover areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona not currently covered by RECA and include additional uranium workers.
Introduction
One of the paradoxes of the U.S. political system is how an anti-democratic Trump can win the support of sections of the white male working class, despite Biden’s relatively strong economic policies in support of this class. The present post explores this paradox.
It may not make that much of a difference in the November presidential elections how these workers vote, but their vote totals are still significant because of the number of white male working class people. And it is worrisome that they are presently a major Trump constituency and have been influenced by his MAGA rhetoric, with its anti-immigrant, racist, anti-democratic, and pro-gun, rants as well as his strongman image. If the trends of the last few decades continue, whether Trump wins in November or not, their support of Trump appears, unfortunately, to be unwavering.
Biden’s State of the Union speech
Poor and low-wage people will join Ohio Poor People’s Campaign Tri-Chairs Clair Hochstetler and David Guran, and Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Bishop Tony Minor, Imam Horsed Noah, and Yvonka Hall, among many others, for a mass assembly at the Ohio statehouse to launch a 40-week effort to mobilize poor and low-wage voters in Ohio, and demand legislators take immediate action to end the crisis of death by poverty in the United States.
During Saturday’s mass assembly, a powerful fusion coalition, including impacted people, poor and low-wage voters, faith leaders, and social justice advocates, gathered to declare their votes are demands for living wages, voting rights and other policies to combat poverty and save lives. As part of the assembly, poor and low-wage voters shared testimony of how poverty has impacted their lives and why politicians need to champion the issues that matter most to poor and low-wealth individuals.