Human Rights
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Ahead of President Trump’s inauguration and Martin Luther King Day, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance has words of encouragement and support for Ohio’s immigrants.
Said Maryam Sy, Organizing Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance (OHIA), “Migration stories are tales of courage and love that strengthen our communities daily. Let's unite to protect everyone's dignity and rights, and build a welcoming home for all, regardless of background or journey. We are all part of the same human family, and we should strive to treat each other with love, kindness, and respect.”
Dad called them pillow parties.
I was 16 or 17 when he brought it up, once, over dinner. Mom, Dad, my little brother, and I were watching TV. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a thing then, and 60 Minutes was asking and telling plenty. It made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t out to my family. I was barely out to myself.
Dad, an ex-Marine, wasn’t helping. He hated the thought of a gay man serving in the military. When the segment ended, he muted the TV to make sure we could hear him clearly.
“You know what we used to do with ‘em?” It was rhetorical. He continued before we could answer. “We’d throw pillow parties for ‘em.”
He explained: pillowcases, heavy rocks, a group of Marines, and an unsuspecting, suspected gay man asleep in the barracks. A bruised bedtime story. A sadistic Semper Fi sleepover. A pillow party. And if you want to see such hate in action, watch Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War movie “Full Metal Jacket.”
Great family dinner conversation, Dad. Pass the potatoes.
Ohio’s Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones wants to restart his ICE contract during the second Trump presidency. However, Butler County Jail officers abused immigrants and violated the jail’s contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) repeatedly during the first Trump administration.
In 2021, Sheriff Jones claimed he terminated the Butler County Jail’s ICE contract himself after claiming the Biden administration was going to fire him. A lawsuit to hold this jail accountable for abuses against immigrants remains pending in federal court.
Sheriff Jones – as many Ohio immigrants know too well – is an ultra-conservative anti-immigration blowhard from outside Cincinnati who is a regular guest on right-wing media such as Glenn Beck. He has been referred to as Ohio’s “mini-Trump” and has struck fear in hardworking Ohio immigrants who work jobs rejected by white American workers. Butler County, for instance, has a large chicken rendering plant where many workers are Hispanic.
It turns out that it’s not easy, according to some claims, even in this time of great inequity, to manufacture elites – even in super selective universities and the vaunted Ivy League colleges based in the United States.
There’s no question that the glide path to the elite, if you’re rich or lucky, gifted, and do the work, you might have a shot at getting into an elite college. Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University, a little Ivy school, is clear that these elite schools are just shining the gold, rather than finding and mining it in the mountains, like they should be doing.
Today, the RISE Together Innovation Institute expressed deep concern over Governor Mike DeWine’s proposal to reintroduce work requirements for Medicaid recipients in Ohio. This policy threatens to undermine the health and economic stability of thousands of Franklin County residents who are already struggling to make ends meet.
“All of us should have the healthcare we need when we get sick,” said Danielle Sydnor, CEO of RISE Together Innovation Institute. “Governor DeWine’s proposal will take away healthcare from thousands of people who are already struggling to make ends meet. Instead of expanding opportunity and making sure people are healthy, this policy will make it harder for people to get the healthcare they need.”
Potential Harms to Franklin County Residents
Residents will lose healthcare coverage: In 2019, the Commonwealth Fund estimated between 121,000 and 163,000 adults in Ohio could lose Medicaid coverage in Ohio due to Medicaid work requirements.1 That number is likely higher today since more adults without dependents are participating in Medicaid.
Over 8,000 Americans die every day, many of them unnecessarily.
Why? Because the United States still doesn’t have a national health care system that guarantees everyone adequate medical attention.
One particular American’s death has driven that point home. On December 4, a gunman murdered Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare’s 50-year-old CEO. The bullet casings from the shooting read “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.”
Those three words neatly sum up the gameplan America’s giant insurers so relentlessly follow: deny the claim, defend the lawsuit, depose the patient.
Dozens of people from across the city gathered in the Columbus Short North district on a cold December afternoon to show the world that “Hate has no home here”.
Following just weeks after the shocking Nazi march in Columbus , which received international press coverage and condemnation from the Biden administration, the people of Columbus organized a “Walk for Humanity” down the same city streets.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance is building a protection plan for immigrants, because they are beloved members of our Ohio family. Ahead of Giving Tuesday, we invite you to support our “Ohio Is Home” campaign and help erect speed bumps and road blocks in the mass deportation machine.
Please share this message to donate and join our Ohio Is Home community. Sign up for our email list here.
With Thanksgiving just over a week away – and initial preparations for the holiday feast already underway in homes across the country – it has perhaps never felt more important to pause, take a breath, and reflect on the meaning of the season.