Human Rights
Following is a statement from Lynn Tramonte, Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance
Cleveland Heights — Bless his heart. Somebody fire up the Facebook Live. The self-styled “Joe Arpaio of Ohio” is feeling left out of the immigrant demonization debate.
In 2023, the United States experienced a record number of weather-and climate-related disasters that each caused $1 billion or more in damages: 28 severe storms, floods, wildfires, winter storms, hurricanes, and droughts, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Since 1980 the United States has experienced 376 billion-dollar of these events, with 16,340 deaths and damages totaling $2.6 trillion.
The insurance industry stands on the front lines of this climate crisis. Every time a climate-related fire, flood, or storm damages or destroys an insured person’s home or business, they expect their insurance policy to help foot the bill for repairs and rebuilding.
Abandoning policy holders in a climate crisis…
How does one process the anger, the pain, the hopelessness, the disappointment and above all the feeling of disgust that has become the all-consuming reality of daily life for so many of us? What excuse does the world have for its decades’ long blindness to, and passive acceptance of the gross injustice which is now unraveling before our eyes in Palestine, naked in all its ugliness and brutality? What mental laziness and moral apathy allows us to swallow the self-serving, fabricated narrative propagated by those whom we consider the ultimate weavers of our political fabric?
Blood rushed through my veins, just as it floods the streets of Gaza every second of every day. My hands shook as I raised my hand to contend the droves of misinformation and hate speech being so passively thrown around in my journalism class.
“At least 8,000 children have died. The average age of civilians killed in Gaza is five years old. How could they have deserved that?” I asked, my shaking voice betraying my grief. A student in the back of the class straightened and looked at me, the gold of my Palestine pendant glimmering in his compassion-devoid irises.
“Every Palestinian is a terrorist, and they all deserve to die,” he said with a grin. My heart sank to the soles of my feet as I realized that in this class of future journalists and policymakers, I was completely and utterly alone.
What if you were forced to pack your belongings and leave your family, friends, career, home, and life behind? Could you say good-bye to everyone and everything you love, not knowing if you will see them again? That is what deportation is: permanent banishment from your home, family, friends, and job, from a life built over years. It is an extreme action that causes lasting harm to everyone it touches.
From 2022 to 2023, Maryam Sy, an organizer with the Ohio Immigrant Alliance (OHIA), spent hundreds of hours interviewing over 250 people who were deported to find out what they wanted the world to know.
“A lot of these people went through, I think, the hardest part of their life when they were deported,” she reflected. “Because it was like a broken hope, like the government broke their hope. They came to America to seek asylum for a better life.”
It would be the ultimate stoner irony and hypocrisy. But according to one police brutality activist, fully legal recreational marijuana could someday pay for Ohio’s “Cop City,” which may be built somewhere in Central Ohio.
“It’s very likely the AG [Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost] and Republicans will want to divert those funds for training. Representative Cindy Abrams, former law enforcement, introduced a bill to mandate funds be spent towards law enforcement officer training and equipment,” said Emily Cole, Executive Director of Ohio Families Unite for Political Action and Change (OFUPAC). This is the lobbyist arm of Ohio Families Unite Against Police Brutality, which was founded by Sabrina Jordan of Dayton who lost her son to police brutality in 2017. Jordan’s nonprofit represents 700 Ohio families who have also lost a loved one since the turn of the century to police violence.
It would be the ultimate stoner irony and hypocrisy. But according to one police brutality activist, fully legal recreational marijuana could someday pay for Ohio’s “Cop City,” which may be built somewhere in Central Ohio.
“It’s very likely the AG [Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost] and Republicans will want to divert those funds for training. Representative Cindy Abrams, former law enforcement, introduced a bill to mandate funds be spent towards law enforcement officer training and equipment,” said Emily Cole, Executive Director of Ohio Families Unite for Political Action and Change (OFUPAC). This is the lobbyist arm of Ohio Families Unite Against Police Brutality, which was founded by Sabrina Jordan of Dayton who lost her son to police brutality in 2017. Jordan’s nonprofit represents 700 Ohio families who have also lost a loved one since the turn of the century to police violence.
The January Free Press Second Saturday Salon was held on January 13 over Zoom.
Listen to the recording here.
Mark Stansbery of the Free Press Board, talked about the salon theme, ending militarism and building community. He introduced the first speaker, Rosan Eldadah. Rose relayed the tragic story of how she lost six family members, including small children, in Gaza during horrendous attacks by the IDF on civilians. Rose herself was harassed by the IDF prior to the current war and her family members detained and tortured.
The next speaker was Shayna Solomon, representing Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). She spoke about the work of JVP and their events in Columbus. Both Rose and Shayna emphasized the Israeli oppression and violence of Palestinians that had been going on long before the current situation and the importance of assuring that whatever changes may happen, the horror cannot continue past this war.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance (OHIA) released the first two products from an 18-month research project helmed by Nana Afua Y. Brantuo, PhD, about racism and other injustices Black migrants navigate in U.S. immigration courts.