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Monday, January 9, 2023, 7:00 PM
At these weekly Monday-night meetings we chat about any current projects. Going forward, we hope to meet in person once a month. Keep an eye out for those events!  Registration link. 

Cannabis columnist has written 100 articles for the Columbus Free Press

100. Five score. Ten tens. One Hundred. Centuple. Centenarian. Let’s face it 100 is a vast number and a big deal. It represents a milestone that that spans over 20 years, from the dark ages when cannabis was contraband to the enlightenment when the plant emerged as a legal $1 billion Ohio maket.

Mary Jane Borden, who writes the “Mary Jane’s Guide” column for the Columbus Free Press, has been on a mission to legalize medical marijuana in the State of Ohio. These 100 articles, both in print and online, document the process and its progress. Her a goal is to, “To ensure that Ohioans are the smartest, best informed and most effective advocates for the cannabis plant.”

Sign the petition

The perpetrator Krieg Butler, a 36 year old man took the life of Sinzae Reed, a defenseless 13 year old child and was released from jail on claims of self defense. Krieg had an opportunity to de-escalate the incident, in fact he was prepared to leave the scene as he was in his truck when he stopped to return to Sinzae, exited his vehicle and proceeded to murder this 13 year old child. Sinzae who is under almost 3 times the age of Krieg had his back to Krieg when he was murdered. This injustice is dangerous to my community as it encourages and invites others to commit hateful and harmful acts against others without any consequences.

Columbus activists submitted the following letter to Tyack’s office on Thursday

Dear Mr. Tyack:

On October 12th of 2022, 36-year-old Krieg Butler Sr. mercilessly shot Sinzae Reed, 13, in the Wedgewood Apartment Complex multiple times. He then fled the scene of the incident, leaving the youth for dead. At the time of the murder, Mr. Butler was on probation for a domestic violence dispute which, according to all available interpretations of Ohio law, should have precluded Mr. Butler from owning a firearm in the first place.

Author’s note: occasionally in Columbus and especially by OSU football fans, I am alleged to be anti-OSU. Nothing could be farther than the truth—I strive since 2004 for students, faculty colleagues, and highly qualified staff, none of whom receive the respect and rewards they deserve. That remains my goal.

Part One

The president and the university: Who fails whom?

In a typically flawed effort at reporting or explaining Ohio State University president Kristina Johnson’s pseudo-sudden resignation under orders from the Board of Trustees (BOT), the Columbus Dispatch inexplicitly turned to two unknowledgeable right-wing Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University faculty members. They purport to study university presidents’ “contracts,” an odd field with no criteria or standards.

Agnes (Zackary Drucker), the pioneering, pseudonymized transgender woman who participated in Harold Garfinkel’s gender health research at UCLA in the 1960s, has long stood as a figurehead of trans history. In this rigorous cinematic exercise that blends fiction and nonfiction, "Framing Agnes" explores where and how her platform has become a pigeonhole. Framing Agnes endeavors to widen the frame through which trans history is viewed, one that has remained too narrow to capture the multiplicity of experiences eclipsed by Agnes’s. Through a collaborative practice of reimagination, an impressive lineup of trans stars take on vividly rendered, impeccably vintage reenactments, bringing to life groundbreaking artifacts of trans health care. The films' signature form-rupturing style radically re-envisions the imposition of the frame on the cultural memory of transness through his communally driven excavation. This reclamation tears away with remarkable precision the myth of isolation as the mode of existence of transgender history-makers, breathing new life into a lineage of collaborators and conspirators who've been forgotten for far too long.

Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime community advocate who is circulating petitions to run for mayor in the 2023 May primary election states, “Our current mayor and other city officials long lag behind current trends when addressing – if at all – Columbus’s homeless population. The city hands out millions of dollars to local non-profits who are never held accountable for spending our tax dollars. The then city washes its hands from the problem, claiming they have done their part by providing funding.”     

2023 allows all to decide the future. We defeated Covid, inflation, and attempts at inducing fascism from inflation.

I'm still amazed at the year Columbus, Ohio ended up with, while turbulence existed after our nation decided a higher existence should come from evolving past these things.

2022 Columbus reminded itself of importance as an incubator of things everyone loves…

For example:

2022 year ended with the biggest concert I’ve ever witnessed in Columbus, Ohio.

Joe Walsh’s 6th Annual Vets Aide Concert sold-out Nationwide Arena November 13, 2022. Vets Aide featured an All-Ohio Line-Up.

I saw Walsh reunite the James Gang with special guest Dave Grohl, Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, The Breeders and the OSU Marching Band - “The Best Damn Band in the Land.”

What is democracy but platitudes and dog whistles? The national direction is quietly predetermined — it’s not up for debate. The president’s role is to sell it to the public; you might say he’s the public-relations director in chief:

“. . . my Administration will seize this decisive decade to advance America’s vital interests, position the United States to outmaneuver our geopolitical competitors, tackle shared challenges, and set our world firmly on a path toward a brighter and more hopeful tomorrow. . . . We will not leave our future vulnerable to the whims of those who do not share our vision for a world that is free, open, prosperous, and secure.”

These are the words of President Biden, in his introduction to the National Security Strategy, which lays out America’s geopolitical plans for the coming decade. Sounds almost plausible, until you ponder the stuff that isn’t up for public discussion, such as, for instance: