Local

March 8, 2023 at 5:30 Eastern, 4:30 Central time:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/my-country-is-the-world-tickets-569789424507
 A book called My Country is the World:  Staughton Lynd’s Writings, Speeches, and Statements against the Vietnam War edited by Luke Stewart, is about to be released by Haymarket Books:  See https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1956-my-country-is-the-world?mc_cid=28ef3d72c2&mc_eid=f491d9cdea

Tuesday, March 7, 7pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

Featuring a panel discussion with leading proponents for reproductive rights, we will present on the state of abortion rights in the US and the road forward to win back federal protections and ensure access to safe and legal abortion in all 50 states. Our panelists will present practical advice on campus advocacy, ensuring access to all aspects of reproductive healthcare, as well as discuss legal and political perspectives. Participants will walk away knowing effective steps forward for ensuring access to comprehensive reproductive care for all people.

• Pamela Merritt is Executive Director of Medical Students for Choice, where she leads a dynamic team working to create tomorrow’s abortion providers and pro-choice physicians.

• Lauren Morrissey is the co-founder and co-director of the Student Coalition for Reproductive Justice (SCRJ), a student-powered organization fighting for access to sexual and reproductive healthcare on Catholic college campuses.

Creed III is the latest Rocky spin-off franchise installment. Michael B. Jordan, making his directorial debut, continues the legacy as Adonis Creed, the son of legendary boxer Apollo Creed. He is continuing Ryan Coogler's established story. Due to creative differences, Sylvester Stallone, who stars in Creed and Creed II as Creed's mentor, is not in this. It's nice to see how Creed deals with obstacles, mostly on his own and with help from his family in this aspect of his life. I'll admit, it's safe to say the franchise can stand independently without Rocky.

Monday, March 6, 2023, 6:00 PM
A well-known environmental and human health risk is the effects of heat in cities, particularly areas where there are few trees but lots of parking lots, buildings, and pavement. David Celebrezze of the City of Columbus will discuss the August 2022 project to collect data from Columbus neighborhoods and assess temperature differences. He will also discuss potential steps cities and individuals can take to mitigate the effects of heat as the climate becomes warmer.  Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed.  
Register here. 

When people in the Columbus, Ohio area think about the Arnold Sports Festival, it’s usually about how much revenue it generates over the three-day weekend it takes place over the first weekend of March every year.

That is especially true with local merchants, local media and elected officials.

Everyone seems to have their own piece of the Arnold Schwarzenegger money pie that reportedly generates about $51 million each year.

What you won’t hear from those local merchants, local media and elected officials is how many caskets and cremation urns it has generated.

There is way too much revenue to pocket to care about the rampant steroid use that has gone on with “The Arnold” among its bodybuilders, strongman competitors (men and women) and other strength events.

There has not been any credible testing of Arnold competitors for steroids and other illegal substances since Schwarzenegger and former FBI agent Jim Lorimer founded the event in 1989.

Lorimer passed away on November 24, 2022.  

The Dispatch quoted current Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther in the story announcing Lorimer’s death at the age of 96.

Drop off art - Sunday, March 5, 2-5pm
Vanderelli Room, 218 Mc Dowell St, Columbus, OH 43215
Donate art for a fundraiser for 1DivineLine2Health to stop human trafficking to be held March 10, 6-9pm.
(614) 403-4689

No period of our history has had more books written about it than the US Civil War. However, the diplomatic struggle, international aspects of this fight, has not been included. That gap in our historic record has now been magnificently filled by Dan Doyle’s A Cause of All Nations (2015, Basic Books).

While not a history of battles and heroic generals, this topic may sound like a dry, uneventful read, it is anything but! It is a page turner, covering a key, central, but previously uncovered, chapter in our nation’s struggle against secession and slavery. For the slave-holding Confederacy, the ability to gain international recognition was a struggle for survival. The Union, on the other hand, had to block recognition of the Confederacy if the Union was to survive.

Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin is quoted as stating that the Confederacy would either “win the war peacefully overseas or lose it by arms at home!”

It was a contest at which the arrogant slaveowners proved to be woefully short of skills.

Rather than taking humor again as the genre for this essay, I follow French author Emile Zola’s classic 1898 open letter to the President of France as my model and metaphor. For readers unfamiliar with European history, Zola accused the French national government of antisemitism in its the unlawful prosecution and imprisonment of French Army General Staff officer Alfred Dreyfus. Falsely charged and sentenced for life for alleged espionage, he was denied all legal rights.

Zola identified judicial errors and lack of evidence in his front page “J’Accuse” in the major daily newspaper, L’Aurore. In retaliation, the government prosecuted Zola for libel. Found guilty, he fled to England for 15 months. Zola’s and others’ denunciations of the government’s blatant dishonesty and illegal actions led to the French Supreme Court’s annulment of both convictions following thorough investigations.

Friday, March 3, 2023, 5:00 PM – Sunday, March 5, 2023, 3:00 PM
For more than 60 years, Amnesty International USA has hosted our Annual General Meeting. Amnesty International is a global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights. We work to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity are denied.  

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is an opportunity for members and activists to come together and inspire one another, learn about each other’s efforts and campaigns, share stories and experiences, and listen and participate in our sessions and panels. Throughout the weekend, you will meet and interact with individuals and groups who share your commitment to human rights. We hope that when you leave AGM, you leave with new skills, inspiring stories, and a refreshed sense of hope and determination. Join us for AGM in March!  

Environmental activists, after Wednesday’s public meeting (March 1st) of the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission, called on commission members to seek emergency adoption from Gov. Mike DeWine of Proposed Rule 155-1-01, which sets the regulations regarding oil and gas industry leases for fossil fuel extraction from Ohio public lands. 

The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission approved Proposed Rule 155-1-01, along with a draft Standard Lease Form, at its February 1 meeting and sent these items on for consideration by the Common Sense Initiative and Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.