People

In 2014, the Central Ohio Worker Center (COWC) was formed to help build a stronger Central Ohio for low wage and immigrant workers. As we wrap up 2024, the list of accomplishments and contributions are numerous. Ten years of May Day Celebrations have taken place, each year the event has grown and transformed into what it is today: a celebration and resource fair featuring dancing, local unions, legal support, delicious food, government agencies, kids activities including a huge book give-away from our friends at the Ohio Federation of Teachers, other non profits, and community. In 2024, 300 people came through the doors to help celebrate workers. Supporting the passage of the Wage Theft Ordinance has been one of the biggest accomplishments the center has seen. With years of advocacy, the ordinance passed in September 2020. It is one of the strongest municipal wage theft ordinances in the country.

The Ohio state legislature has done it again.

Two years ago, lawmakers stuffed House Bill 507, a bill about how many poultry chicks could be sold in a batch, with unrelated amendments – at the last minute during lame duck session, with no notice or chance for people to comment. One of those amendments REQUIRED fracking our state parks.

Last week, during the 2024 lame duck session, legislators stuffed HB 308 – a bill that declares nuclear energy to be “green” – with a series of amendments, during its last committee hearing, again with no public notice or chance to comment.

This time, one of the amendments extends fracking leases for our state parks and public lands from three years to five years, with an option to extend for another three years – meaning that every lease doled out to the oil and gas industry allows them to frack our state parks and wildlife areas for up to EIGHT years.

Though the results of the national election were razor thin by my assessment, I think the turn toward authoritarianism and away from more pluralistic public policy making is troubling for all of society, not just those of us advocating for universal single payer healthcare. This billionaire lead DOGE advisory organization being formed will undoubtedly propose further monopoly of all aspects of our society.

Public statements about the austerity to be visited on broadly defined segments of our society, will only lead to further upheaval and division. Without extreme popular push back I feel we're in for a very fraught future in total.

A college friend recently received an ad in the mail for “100 percent legal THC.” The glossy card promised “Natural Cannabis, Natural Relief” with photos of “potent edibles,” “disposable vapes,” and “high grade concentrates.” Intrigued, he visited the website and purchased several pre-rolled joints, aka “pre-rolls.” A few days later, a package arrived in the mail with contents that looked, smelled, and tasted like marijuana. In fact, the potency statistics on the packaging appeared nearly identical to those on dispensary products. In excellent health for a 60-year-old, my friend’s only side effect was a good night’s sleep. He liked both the price and the high.

On Saturday afternoon November 23 a spirited group of local Black church congregations and other activists marched through the Short North after last week’s gross and sad display of hate. They wanted the community to know their response was not based out of anger or vindictiveness. Instead, it was based on compassion and love for each other and their community – and sadness towards those who hide their own personal misery behind hate symbols, masks and guns.

Rev. Victor Davis from Trinity Baptist Church who helped organize the “Jericho March” told the Free Press afterwards that he preaches social justice “every Sunday” and you can’t “preach the Gospel without that message”, and that there is a sense, at this time in American history, progress has been made. Nevertheless, in many ways the song of hate remains the same. Both him and his congregation were shocked and rattled by what they saw on the news and social media from the previous weekend.

As I write this column, it’s been a week since the world, as we know it, tilted. We all feel off center, disoriented, like we’re in an alternate reality/a horror show. But, no, it’s real! And now we have to deal with it.

Personally, my emotions are raw. I have an underlying feeling of depression and despair. So much is out of my control and I’m anxious about what comes next. Waiting for the next shoe to drop. I imagine most of y’all can relate.

And I’m a yogi. My practice is full of strategies for coping with reality, for being in the present moment. I’ll try to share a few with y’all.

One definition of yoga is: “Making different shapes in which to explore the breath.” It is a breath-based practice. So, what does that breath look like? Think of your body as a balloon. You know, when you blow up a balloon, you get the air all the way to the bottom, and then you inflate it up to the top from there.

https://worldbeyondwar.org/join-the-world-not-the-u-s-empire/

Remarks upon acceptance of Real Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo, Norway, November 10, 2024.

It’s wonderful to be here with many of you whose work I’ve known but whom I’ve rarely if ever been with in person. I am very grateful to John Jones and Tomas Magnusson for arranging this event. I am thrilled to be here at the start of what I expect will be years of terrific work by the Lay Down Your Arms Foundation — an appropriate name here in the House of Literature. The great Fredrik Heffermehl, who has been gone from us for nearly a year now, often stressed the influence on Alfred Nobel in the creation of the Nobel Peace Prize by Bertha von Suttner, the author of the 1889 novel Lay Down Your Arms.

The Columbus Free Press is proud to announce the recipient of our 2024 "Libby" award for Lifetime Achievement in Community Activism -- Abe Bonowitz. The Free Press honors community activists annually with a "Libby" Award, named for a former Free Press editor, Libby Gregory, who lost her life in 1991 in an airplane accident. 

The Awards event will happen during the Free Press Second Saturday Salon in the afternoon on December 14, 1:30-4:30pm at the First Unitarian Universalist Church at 93 W. Weisheimer Rd. It is free and open to the public with refreshments. Facebook Event.

This week on Everybody Knows with Dr. Bob and Dan-o, Dan plays his original songs and talks about his video and event for Halloween.

Listen Fridays at 11pm on WGRN 91.9FM and streaming live at wgrn.org

Also on Mondays at 2pm on WCRS 92.7/98.3FM and streaming live at wcrsfm.org

The radio show is archived here.

Black immigrants have been methodically making their mark in Ohio with little notice or fanfare for decades, until Haitian-Ohioans in Springfield were unwittingly thrust into the national political conversation. “Black Immigrants in Ohio: A Demographic Data Brief” is the latest installment from “Behind Closed Doors: Black Migrants and the Hidden Inj