Human Rights
What will happen if disabled veterans lose everything? What happens when they can no longer access mental health care? I have lived this fear every day since the inauguration.
For longer than two decades, between 2008 and 2022, twenty-two veterans a day committed suicide. The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) annual report on the suicide epidemic in veteran population has shown a decrease in these numbers since 2022, the number dropping from 22 to 18. Even so, veteran suicides remain heartbreaking and will again spike for years to come if DOGE has its way by planning to cut 70,000 VA staffers.
Veterans have had major upheaval and chaos since draft-dodging Trump announced the “Department of Government Efficiency” – which is run and staffed by those who would never have the courage to pick up a weapon and fight for their lavish way of life. As a young adult, I had the courage to fight, and then fellow soldiers raped me while I served in Iraq in 2004 as an intelligence specialist. I dodged bullets and improvised explosives, but my life was forever altered by Americans.
Greenpeace is well known around the world as an activist environmental organization over the last more than fifty years. Internationally, it’s based in the Netherlands, but has huge branches in many countries. To say the organization is high-profile is almost an understatement. Its ships have tried to stop nuclear testing, been fired on by the
French, been in one mess after another with Japan and other whaling countries, and more. It’s resilience and activism has won it huge support from individual donors along with a very effective door-to-door canvass, which has allowed Greenpeace to maintain its independence, fueled by zany, media grabbing tactics.
“We affirm that migration is a basic act of being human.” So begins a letter to state and local officials, signed by 80 institutions and 2,500 Ohioans from 69 counties. “Our state is made better, stronger and more vibrant by the countless contributions of immigrants and refugees.” List of counties is at the end of this press release.
The federal government has unleashed an assault on people who came to Ohio to contribute and take care of their families. Ohioans expect elected officials to lead from a place of compassion and common sense, instead. The petition lays out the actions they want Ohio city and county officials to take:
Let me start by saying that I am not a doctor. I have more experience than many in this particular area, but my words are based on real life experience and not science. My trainings are long behind me. I do check in for new thoughts and techniques, but i have yet to lose anyone and quite a few were flatlined when I started.
The opioid epidemic, as it has been named, has touched pretty much everyone in one way or another. I am one of them. I have reversed 23 overdoses so far. Two of those were dogs that got into a stash.
I used fentanyl for quite a while. I didn’t particularly want to. I liked smoking heroin tar on foil. Sadly, fentanyl became so pervasive that it was economically and practically impossible to avoid. Many people fall in this way. Prescription pills are so expensive, and frequently fake, that sustaining a habit is impossible except for the very wealthy. Even the wealthy will eventually get a pressie (fake pills) if they aren’t fastidious about testing.
Hundreds of OSU students sit on the Oval in front of Thompson Library in protest of Senate Bill 1 and the university’s recent DEI rollbacks. When asked about her perspective on the speak-out, Brielle Shorter said “Last week when OSU sunsetted ODI, there were lots of tears, there was lots of pain, there were lots of hugs. Less than a week later, today, we are here in joy and celebration, because you cannot legislate us as human beings.”
Did you know ICE puts Ohioans in jail who haven’t even been charged with crimes?
You guessed right. It's about money for the jailers, not what's best for our communities.
The people we're talking about are Ohioans who have cases in immigration court, or who are eligible for deportation — a civil matter. Said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, "Incarceration is an extreme action. It's separation from your family, your job, your home. The loss of liberty. It's isolating; it makes people sick; and it's terrifying. If it seems patently inhumane to put people navigating a civil process in a criminal jail, that's because it is."
The cannabis community has recently been a-buzz. On January 29th, Ohio Senator Stephen Huffman (R-Tipp City) introduced Senate Bill 56. (Yes, the same Stephen Huffman who marshalled the medical marijuana program in 2016 by championing HB 523 as a Representative. He is now an Ohio Senator.) SB 56 would “… consolidate the administration of the marijuana control program, revise the medical and adult-use marijuana laws, and to levy taxes on marijuana.” In other words, rework Ohio Issue 2, the citizen led initiated statute to legalize adult use marijuana that over 2 million voters passed in the 2023 fall election by 57-43%.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s recent executive order mandating that nearly all state employees return to the office full-time—five days a week by March 17, 2025—has ignited a debate over its potential to disrupt workforce retention and efficiency.
Human trafficking is humanity’s worst atrocity. It is an activity that is illegal worldwide where humans are frequently trafficked for sexual slavery. Every 30 seconds a person is forced into human trafficking! Eighty percent of these cases are girls and women. Human trafficking is a crime that generates billions of dollars worldwide and much of that money is generated in the United States. The numbers are chronically underreported.
In 2022, Ohio was the fifth state with the most victims of human trafficking. In Columbus, human trafficking has to do with the cartel, sometimes with the police, and many times with drug dealers. The victims are of different races and are violated, some murdered and thrown like garbage in alleys and placed in abandoned buildings. We have a huge humanitarian crisis in the capital of Ohio.
