Local

Friday, November 3, 5:30-6pm
WGRN 91.9FM community radio, wgrn.org
Nationally renowned peace activist David Swanson is interviewed by Free Press Board member Mark Stansbery in the program discussing our world's current ways and how to move to a world beyond war. 

David is a regular guest at the Free Press Zoom salons and his weekly articles can be found on freepress.org. His podcast also plays on the local community radio station WGRN 91.9FM. David was one of the first to point out the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the war and the hypocrisy of the United States lies about them.

The Free Press is honoring Cynthia Brown of the Ohio Coalition To End Qualified Immunity with our annual “Libby” Award at a ceremony Thursday, November 9. Cynthia Brown is a regular speaker at the Free Press salons and championed as a Free Press Hero online. The Free Press honors community activists annually with a "Libby" Award for Community Activism, named for a former Free Press editor, Libby Gregory, who lost her life in 1991 in an airplane accident. 

A Youngstown native, she studied criminal justice and political science at Columbus State Community College, media and communications and African American studies at Youngstown State University, and public policy and African American studies at Mesa Community College.

After I exposed Ginther’s habitual hollow phrase, “Our top three priorities are neighborhoods, neighborhoods, neighborhoods” at my press conference on Thursday (Columbus Dispatch, October 27, 2023, “Motil Questions Ginther’s support for neighborhoods; Ginther cites millions invested”), we can all add yet another false claim to the endless growing list. The marketing research firm that Andy paid $97,000 to tell him what important to voters, apparently did not do any research about their client.

Ginther’s dishonest campaign TV ad and mailers falsely present my own positions on excessive use of the police force. This refers to the one night in the Short North when he ordered 150 law enforcement, bicycle and foot patrols, canine units, helicopters, drones, motorcycles, and horses. He quotes me completely out of context. He next, lies about his gun buyback event claiming it “took 300 guns off our streets.” With no evidence at all, the campaign also claims that Andy is a "champion" of “Mental health and addiction treatment.” None of this is true.

I grew up in a church-going family. In fact, for my entire life we either lived next door or one street over from Hilltop United Methodist Church. In 1976, I converted to Catholicism. I grew up down the street from St. Aloysius Catholic Church, and it is across the street from the elementary school my siblings and I attended. I always wondered what was going on in there, and after graduating from high school in 1974 started going to services, making sure to sit in the back of the church. I thought the service–the mass–was lovely.

There was a Black priest who during the service admonished the congregation to put a little more oomph in their responses; in fact, he suggested that we answer as heartily as people cheer at OSU football games. Several weeks later, I went by the church to see if I could talk to that priest about converting, and while he wasn’t there, the priest who answered the door offered to give me instruction.

Today’s news overflows with concerns about the cost and benefits—“is college worth it?”--about higher education itself, its price, public vs. private, preparation of both students and professors, on the one hand, and fears about the maturation of Gen Z caught between social media, AI, and uncertain futures, on the other hand.

Parents and most others assume that established universities are relatively safe spaces for late-teenagers and young adults (now 18-26, no longer 18-22, years old) to grow and learn. They are often not. Irregular reports or alarms do not connect the different elements.

My focus is the failure of public universities because of their commitment to corporate profiteering, sloganeering, and private interests over public, image and finances over student lives. What I describe is true for most universities. My major example is The Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, Ohio, an especially egregious example of all-too-common problems. It is a very large institution that admits to none.

Political corruption and lack of accountability in the statehouse today are reasons Ohio’s Republican Party supermajority legislators are considering despoiling Ohio’s state parks by fracking, said David Pepper, Cincinnati political activist and author, at a recent Columbus rally.

 Dark money led to “safe” gerrymandered voting districts, where some politicians have never been adequately challenged for re-election, he told about 100 people attending the Save Ohio Parks-sponsored “Rally for State Parks, Climate and Democracy” on Oct. 27.

“We're living in Ohio, but it’s happening around the nation,” said Pepper. “All the incentives are turned upside down; the incentive to serve the people goes away, because you get re-elected no matter how bad a job you do, no matter how poor the schools are…no matter how much you screw up the Ohio parks.”

What dark money has given Ohio politicians is an incentive to keep private players happy, and what do the private players want?

Thursday, November 2, 2023, 7:00 PM
It’s not too late to join.
Register by sending an email to Chuck@SimplyLiving.org.  
Put Emerging World in the subject line to receive the Zoom link.  

Wednesday, November 1, 2023
World Vegan Day is a global event celebrated annually on 1 November. Vegans celebrate the benefits of veganism for animals, humans, and the natural environment through activities such as setting up stalls, hosting potlucks, and planting memorial trees.

The first World Vegan Day was created to mark the society's 50th anniversary, held on 1 November 1994. This was later extended to become World Vegan Week and as we now know it, World Vegan Month. Since then, every November, World Vegan Month is celebrated around the world as a time to shine a light on the vegan movement.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023
World Vegan Day is a global event celebrated annually on 1 November. Vegans celebrate the benefits of veganism for animals, humans, and the natural environment through activities such as setting up stalls, hosting potlucks, and planting memorial trees.

The first World Vegan Day was created to mark the society's 50th anniversary, held on 1 November 1994. This was later extended to become World Vegan Week and as we now know it, World Vegan Month. Since then, every November, World Vegan Month is celebrated around the world as a time to shine a light on the vegan movement.

Andrew Ginther’s 2023 campaign for mayor seems to be driven almost entirely by developers and architects, whose campaign donations make up 48 percent of the $1 million the campaign has received this year. In total, Ginther received $485,609.69 from developers and architects just this year.

Included in the donations to the Ginther campaign is $13,700 from M/I Homes PAC, the political wing of M/I Homes of Central Ohio LLC, who own almost 700 properties in the county according to the auditor’s website, and $15,000 from Smoot Construction, a company that regularly receives contracts from the city and earned a place in Ginther’s 2020 State of the City Address.