Local
Saturday, September 9, 7-8pm, Hot Times Festival, 240 Parsons Ave.
Join us at the Hot Times Community Arts and Music Festival for the September Free Press Second Saturday Salon.
We’ll gather on the porch of the Health Department building: 240 Parsons Ave., between E. Main St. and Bryden Rd., on the lawn of Columbus Public Health.
• We’ll have a discussion of protest music and musicians playing some protest songs.
• We will also discuss the Ta’Kiya Young murder and the effort to stop qualified immunity for police.
We will be celebrating 46 Fabulous Hot Times Festivals! Art Cars, three stages, vendors, food, friends, family, and fun!
Hosted by The Columbus Free Press.
Late last year, two groups of Columbus immigrants sat down with researchers from the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) for private “listening sessions.” Ohio was one of seven states chosen by these national organizations.
Listening to immigrants, who are the real experts in immigration law and policy, themes emerged. Research findings are presented in a new report, “If The Parents Are Okay, The Children Are OK.” Next, CTAN and CLASP will move from listening and analyzing into action, incorporating parents’ recommendations into their advocacy plans.
In Columbus, parents said they were terrified about their kids’ safety going to and from school, and inside the classroom. On top of gun violence, stranger danger, and drugs that look like candy, they are contending with bullying, verbal attacks, and even ethnicity-based hate crimes.
Friday, September 8 to Sunday, September 10, 240 Parsons Ave. [northeast of the intersection of E. Main St. and Parsons Ave.]
The Hot Times Community Arts and Music Festival is scheduled for September 8-9-10, 2023.
This weekend-long celebration is a special occasion where the community gathers to celebrate peace, harmony, community unity, friends, family, and the arts.
Please enjoy your time at the festival, and upon leaving, take away with you a bit of happiness and friendship that is Hot Times.
Hosted by Hot Times Community Arts and Music Festival.
Thursday, September 7, 7pm, Tuttle Park [outside of the Tuttle Community Center], 240 W. Oakland Ave.
Join Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists for a discussion about how we fight for and win progress today — through reform or revolution?
This meeting will take place in-person outside of the Tuttle Community Center and online at tinyurl.com/CORSmeeting (using the Jitsi app).
Hosted by Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists.
Ta’Kiya Young’s death was a terrible mix of poor decisions, bad timing, and a lack of de-escalation training. But the bottom line is, Kroger is a $100 billion corporate monster – just ask their store employees – and shoplifting should never mean pulling a gun on a young mother and her unborn baby, let alone killing both.
The K9 attack in Circleville in one massive way mirrors Ta’Kiya’s death. The Free Press has heard from several law enforcement sources that the Ohio state troopers who pulled over Jadarrius Rose approached his semi with guns drawn. This was a mistake, these same law enforcement sources told us.
In this post-George Floyd world-on-edge, some younger African Americans panic in the presence of law enforcement. But as Cynthia Brown of the Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity (OCEQI) has repeatedly told us, Ohio law enforcement lacks the skills to help change a life, and because of this, they instead take a life.
Wednesday, September 6, 2023, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Location: 100 E. Main Street, Columbus 43215.
Suggested donation: $50.
RSVP by email to Constance@fgnlegal.com or text to 614-288-1082.
Following a few months’ summer hibernation, after the super-majority Ohio legislative Republicans refused to include his anti-educational and unconstitutional SB83 in its 6000-page budget bill, right-wing State Senator from rural Kirtland, Jerry Cirino is back with a new vengeance, intellectual complications, and dishonesty.
Recipient of three degrees from vocational Lake Erie College including an honorary PhD from an institution that does not award doctoral degrees, Cirino is a challenged individual with no memory, limited literacy, and no understanding of higher education, American history, or either state or US Constitution. Undisturbed by calls from a colleague in the State House to “teach both sides of the Holocaust” and home schooling a 1930s German Nazi (not neo-Nazi) school curriculum, he fantasizes universities—especially public universities—that do not and have never existed. Cirino is an active threat to all 18-28 year olds. And to all residents of the state of Ohio.
Tuesday, September 5, 5:30-7:30pm, Trolley Pub Columbus, 19 E. Fourth Ave.
Join us for Green Drinks with Trolley Pub Columbus!
We will be heading out to clean up our community while enjoying the convenience of the Trolley Pub. You will be provided with litter grabbers, gloves, vests, and trash bags [thanks to Keep Columbus Beautiful]. Registration is required as we have a maximum of 30 spots. Once registered, we will send you a waiver and remind you of the beverage guidelines. This event is BYOB!
Beverage guidelines:
• Each guest over the age of 21 is allowed to bring 36 oz. of beer (including ciders, seltzers, or malt beverages) or 18 oz. of wine or champagne.
• Glass containers and liquor are not permitted on our tours. This includes mini bottles, jello shots, growlers, mixed drinks, etc.
• Coolers, ice, and cups will be provided.
RSVP for this event by using this link.
Prelude
It’s easy for you to sit and make judgments about me, isn’t it? It’s easy for you to tell me what is right and wrong with my life and how to change it. Isn’t it? It’s oh so easy to understand what the other guy is going through when it isn’t you. When you don’t have to suffer the pain and sorrow that is hanging over your brother’s head it’s easy for you to say ‘I understand.’ It’s easy when you have no knowledge whatsoever of the plight that one suffers when someone dies, or something is lost that was cherished. I don’t know where you get off with this belief. This feeling that you’re right and I’m wrong. Where do you get the nerve and courage to stand before me and my God and say that you know it all, you’ve seen it all, and you are the all. You couldn’t have been born with it. It wasn’t something that you brought. It must be something that you were taught somewhere down the line in your life. Somewhere that is make-believe, not of the real world that I live in. Do you live in this world? In my world?
Sunday, September 3rd, 2023 was a beautiful day in Columbus, Ohio. The air was warm but not brutally hot, and the sun shined brightly without a dark cloud in the sky. People sat on the park benches or in the grass staring at their phones or lying on blankets chatting with their fellow guests. Around the park, one of the city's busiest sections hummed along on an unusually busy Sunday; with Labor Day preceding this Sunday, the Short North experienced the same activity it would on a usual Friday evening. The familiar bike carts, powered by drunken tourists fully exploiting the novelty, chugged along the streets cheering loudly at any notable event or witty remark made by their driver. They often worked to entice those around them stuck walking on the sidewalks to join in their excitement, but they were usually ignored.