Local
Friday January 20, Noon-1:00 pm
100 E Broad St, Columbus, OH – outside Chase Tower/Chase Bank
Protest against Chase Bank funding of the fossil fuel industry
Third Act Ohio, a group of "experienced" Americans 60+ will demonstrate outside Chase Tower to raise public awareness about how Chase and other big banks are funding the climate chaos we have witnessed in extreme flooding, wildfires, and droughts since 2018. Chase is by far the worst offender, having loaned $382B for fossil-fuel projects between 2016 and 2021. The International Energy Agency—long an ally of oil, gas, and coal companies—about-faced last year: it warned the world to cease all new fossil-fuel projects in 2021 to have any chance to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Third Actors will also be delivering letters to the bank's branch manager, and for delivery to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
Part Two
A new set of factors emerged in winter 2021-22. The first opened a previously unexposed window into the failed interworking of the Assistant City Attorney liaison for the Columbus Police Department (CPD). I first learned about this from a conversation with an exceptionally knowledgeable, professional CPD officer about why he was not permitted to give a citation or tow a car that was parked illegally.
For a relatively brief time, a court in another state ruled that police or parking enforcement officers chalking tires or making a note on a car’s window to indicate that it was observed for the 72-hour limit represented an “invasion of privacy.” A Michigan court struck that down.
After my conversation with the CPD officer, I contacted the relevant Assistant City Attorney. He refused to accept any information, citizen input, or question. While referring to the relevant court rulings, he denied their actual content, demonstrating complete unfamiliarity with the basics of his paid employment.
There are a lot of reasons for a progressive caring person not to be focused on the growing threat of fascism in the United States. After getting past all the pressing needs of one’s personal life (in a society of long hours, financial insecurity, poor healthcare, energetic kids drugged, a record number of adults imprisoned, the most finely tuned propaganda system ever devised, not to mention intimidation and fear), the main stumbling block is that everything is turned into a partisan question. If you’re focused on the growing violence and hatred and lawlessness of Republicans, then you’re cheerleading for the Democrats.
Protesters staging a protest outside the Lincoln Theatre on East Long Street in Columbus, Ohio before the City of Columbus's Martin Luther King Day Program, demanding change and action in the City, in regards to equality and preventing violence.
These protesters were carrying signs demanding justice for recent high-profile Black murders in the Columbus area, including Andre Hill (killed by a then-Columbus Police Officer in Northwest Columbus in December 2020), Donovan Lewis (a 20 year-old Black man who was killed by Columbus Police in the Hilltop), and 13 year-old Sinzae Reed. Reed, who was murdered in October 2022 outside the Wedgewood Apartments in West Columbus was murdered by a 36 year-old White man. On January 17, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the Franklin County Coroner's Office officially declared Reed's death a homicide.
The Community Festival (ComFest) is seeking applications for its 2023 Community Grants program. Each year, ComFest invites grant applications to support and sustain innovative programming demonstrating a commitment to ComFest’s principles and mission which are rooted in community, social justice and progressive activism.
ComFest established the grants program in the spirit of giving back to the community. Since 2006, nearly $350,000 has been awarded to local organizations.
To learn more about ComFest’s Grants program, application requirements, previous grant recipients, and submit an application, please visit: https://www.comfest.com/committees/grants.
The deadline for submitting applications is Monday, March 13, 2023. Applications received after the deadline cannot be considered.
Thursday, Jan 19 7pm-9pm
Join the Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists!
This week, we will be meeting at the Ohio State University campus in the Enarson Classrooms Building Room 214 from 7-9pm, where we will be watching a screening of the revolutionary film “Soy Cuba.” This film explores stories of four Cubans suffering under the U.S.-supported Batista dictatorship before the 1959 Cuban revolution. Hope to see you there!
Join online: http://tinyurl.com/CORSmeeting
From Amnesty International, USA
The military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay is a glaring, longstanding stain on the human rights record of the United States. Today, it continues to hold 35 Muslim men, most without facing charges or a trial. Many, like Toffiq al-Bihani, were tortured by the U.S. government. And Toffiq, along with 19 other detainees, has been cleared for transfer to other countries, yet he remains behind bars without charge or trial.
President Biden has a critical window of opportunity to end these ongoing abuses by closing the detention center before the end of his term.
Help us close Guantánamo and ensure the transfer of all cleared detainees to countries where their human rights will be respected.
Act Now to tell President Biden to shut down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility!
I love music and, like I think anyone raised in America, loves a good celebration. It’s important, though, to keep in mind that many of the celebrations we hold come from having overcome extreme adversity. It’s also important to note the complexities of the people we celebrate.
The first official Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday was celebrated on Monday, January 20, 1986. I was five years old. The national push had hit its peak starting in late September of ‘80, when one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, Mr. Stevie Wonder, ended his album Hotter Than July with a track that includes the lyric:
“Because it should never be
Just because some cannot see
The dream as clear as he
That they should make it become an illusion.”
The January 2023 Free Press Salon was held over Zoom on January 14th. This is what happened.
Mark Stansbery, Free Press Board member, started out the November salon by introducing Pat Marida of the Ohio Nuclear Free Nework. She updated us on Ohio's ongoing contamination from the nuclear industrial complex and new discoveries of civilian housing contamination. The slideshow can be seen here. The surrounding area of the nuclear plants in southern Ohio have caused the Pike County cancer mortality to go from 12 percent below the U.S. to 32.8 percent above. The overall Pike County death rate ages 0-74 is nearly double that of the U.S. Videos about the issue here.
Both cause and consequence of Columbus as the “plague city” is City government’s—Council and paid staff including Columbus Police Department—rudeness. In ways that once surprised me, the City’s disrespect, dismissal, and incivility mirror the literal crudeness of the failing physical city, from filth to lack of sanitation, and endless broken streets and sidewalks. (See my “The plague city: Daily life in Columbus, Ohio,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Dec. 17, 2022.)
It is stunning how little attention mayor, city council, Zoning and Neighborhoods, and the Department of Public (aka Private) Services pay to “their” city. Instead, they cannot restrain the overflow of grants without accountability, tax abatements, and other incentives to developers which directly undercut the actual city’s well-being contradicting its charter-mandated services to its publics. The contradictions are incalculable.