Protest Reports

Thanks to the participants of the car caravan through the streets of Columbus on Saturday, 11-6-2021, sponsored by National Nurses United and partnered with SPAN Ohio. The purpose was to echo the ad in the Dispatch on Friday and Saturday, to ask our Congressional House Representative, Joyce Beatty, to sign on as a co-sponsor of Medicare for All, HR 1976. We were surprised early this year that her name was not on the cosponsor list, because she was an original cosponsor in 2019, and is a member of the Medicare for All caucus in the House.

Medicare for All is now main stream, desired by a majority of people, both Democrats and Republicans. The reason is too many people have been devastated by medical bills, from hospitals and meds, out of network nonsense, and pre-authorization refusals on the part of health insurers. With administrative medical costs now at 36% of medical revenue, people are realizing we have a health care payment system that is just plain "wacko." People who are poor experience a disparity of life expectancy of 25 years; maternal death rates and infant mortality that are 3 times the rate of more affluent people.

On Saturday, October 2nd 2021 more than 1,000 people attended the Rally for Abortion Justice at the Ohio State House in Downtown Columbus as part of the 2021 National Women's March. Demonstrators in Columbus and at 600 other marches around the country showed up to support the right to access abortion care. The unpreceded Texas law banning nearly all abortions in that state shocked many advocates for reproductive health care.

Abortion access is under attack in Ohio as the 1st hearing for Ohio Senate Bill 123, a "trigger ban" that would criminalize abortions in Ohio, entered Senate Committee with support from two Republican sponsors on September 29th. Also the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear the Mississippi case which could overrule Roe v. Wade in the session starting this October 2021.

At the rally demonstrators held signs that read "My body, my choice" and "Anti-abortion laws are part of systemic racism," and "If you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?"

Exclusive for the Columbus Free Press

Thousands of angry protesters filled Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma boulevard, marching more than two miles to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the disappearance of 43 education students from a rural teacher’s college in 2014.

National anger over the forced disappearances revived days before the September 26th anniversary. Among President Manuel Andrés López Obrador’s most prominent campaign promises when he was a candidate in the 2018 elections was a swift solution to the disappearances and stern sentences for the guilty. Yet now, half way through the six year term, he announced a meager advance.

Moreover, the pledged commitments to education, youth, teachers, employment, and nearly all other social ills have gone unmet — most of them even suffering severe cutbacks. Most repulsive is the rising number of feminicides (murdered women) in an administration that flaunts itself as center-left, populist, progressive, etc.

Background

The street in front of Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior was filled Friday afternoon in solidarity with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). The peaceful, youthful crowd was made up of mostly organized contingents of long-time Zapatista supporters from Mexico City’s humble neighborhoods, including many indigenous groups.

The Sunday before, the EZLN made a public communiqué warning that the state of Chiapas is “on the verge of civil war,” denouncing “actions and omissions of the state and federal governments regarding” recent kidnappings, murders and detentions.

In Mexico City, this reporter counted about three thousand protesters of many of the country’s ethnicities responding to the EZLN’s call made only the day before to march and protest to this downtown building — the equivalent to the U.S.’s State Department or the U.K. Home Office. Protests were likewise held in cities across the country and at Mexican embassies around the world.

Simultaneous with the march, a contingent took over the Chiapas state offices here in the nation’s capital.

Days after local Columbus faith leaders announced their petition for the US Department of Justice to review police practices in the city, dozens of people gathered at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas at 345 S. High Street to demand accountability for the Franklin County Sheriff's department murder of 23-year-old Casey Goodson, Jr. in December 2020. Jason Meade, the shooter, retired and has not yet been brought to justice. 

Letter to Congresswoman Joyce Beatty:

Congresswoman Joyce Beatty
Ohio District 3

Dear Congresswoman Beatty,

Above is a photo of the group of us from SPAN Ohio and Our Revolution who gathered outside your Columbus Office yesterday. We came to ask you to become a cosponsor of Medicare for All, HR 1976, and to support the Medicare Expansion legislation that hopefully will be included in the reconciliation bill.

This gathering was prompted by the lack of a response to a meeting we had by ZOOM in May with Janay Eyo, a member of your staff, attended by 8 of us, including 6 constituents. We made the same ask of her at that meeting. We have had no response.

On Saturday, July 17th over 100 Ohioans in Columbus and Cincinnati rallied to demand that Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) back legislation to increase public transit service across the country. Participants, including members of youth-led climate organization Sunrise Movement and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, called on Senator Brown to support the “Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act.” The bill would provide $20 billion per year in federal funding for transit operations.

Protesters in Columbus gathered in Capitol Square at noon before marching to the office of Senator Brown to read their demands. Sunrise Columbus Hub Member, Jordan Mays, expressed that: 

Protesters gathered in front of the Ohio Statehouse to state their disapproval for Ohio’s new budget that limits a woman’s right to choose.

Two protestors in the pro-choice faction, Kelly and Stephanie, announced that though the budget has already passed, they hoped their demonstration could persuade Governor DeWine to use his powers to “line-item veto some of the egregious things in the Ohio state budget this year.

Specifically, they oppose amendments allowing medical providers to refuse medical treatments to people. One of the main points within the legislation is that a medical professional or institution can refuse to give various treatments based on the fact that the treatment in question will violate their conscience, whether it be morally, religiously, ethically, and so forth.

The protesters also oppose putting up barriers to safe sex education - comprehensive, inclusive, medically accurate sex ed. The protestors pointed out how they felt abstinence-only education is impractical to them, feeling that students should understand how to have safe sex in order to minimize confusion and allow the number of unwanted pregnancies to drop significantly.

Protesters gathered in front of the Ohio Statehouse to state their disapproval for Ohio’s new budget that limits a woman’s right to choose.

Two protestors in the pro-choice faction, Kelly and Stephanie, announced that though the budget has already passed, they hoped their demonstration could persuade Governor DeWine to use his powers to “line-item veto some of the egregious things in the Ohio state budget this year.

Specifically, they oppose amendments allowing medical providers to refuse medical treatments to people. One of the main points within the legislation is that a medical professional or institution can refuse to give various treatments based on the fact that the treatment in question will violate their conscience, whether it be morally, religiously, ethically, and so forth.

The protesters also oppose putting up barriers to safe sex education - comprehensive, inclusive, medically accurate sex ed. The protestors pointed out how they felt abstinence-only education is impractical to them, feeling that students should understand how to have safe sex in order to minimize confusion and allow the number of unwanted pregnancies to drop significantly.

Protesters gathered in front of the Ohio Statehouse to state their disapproval for Ohio’s new budget that limits a woman’s right to choose.

Two protestors in the pro-choice faction, Kelly and Stephanie, announced that though the budget has already passed, they hoped their demonstration could persuade Governor DeWine to use his powers to “line-item veto some of the egregious things in the Ohio state budget this year.

Specifically, they oppose amendments allowing medical providers to refuse medical treatments to people. One of the main points within the legislation is that a medical professional or institution can refuse to give various treatments based on the fact that the treatment in question will violate their conscience, whether it be morally, religiously, ethically, and so forth.

The protesters also oppose putting up barriers to safe sex education - comprehensive, inclusive, medically accurate sex ed. The protestors pointed out how they felt abstinence-only education is impractical to them, feeling that students should understand how to have safe sex in order to minimize confusion and allow the number of unwanted pregnancies to drop significantly.