Local
Part One (of Four)
Unlike those of any other U.S. city of its size, and certainly its slogan-dominated, boosterish aspirations, residents of Columbus have few legal rights and fewer ethical democratic rights. I write as a privileged member of the community, a homeowner, retired professional, taxpayer, and voter. Many others lack my privileges. They have even fewer rights. The City of Columbus has no inclusive urban vision, no focus on the public, especially those in need, other than private interests and developers.
The contradictions of Columbus past and present require a long book. I can only highlight some of the major ones here. Refer to my continuing series of Columbus Free Press columns (listed at end of this essay and available on the website) as well as Kevin Cox’s Boomtown Columbus (2021), the only documented, book-length study of the 220-year-old city. I ask rhetorically: Does the 14th largest city in the nation deserve to have a thoroughly researched, fact-based history—not the fictitious and trivial version expressed always without context in Columbus Dispatch and on WOSU?
A long view
For all her decades of experience in politics and the ways of Washington, D.C., nothing had prepared Lady Bird Johnson for the role of First Lady. She and her husband were elevated to their offices under the worst circumstances imaginable. On the airplane ride back from Dallas, she visited Jackie Kennedy who was in the hold of the plane with the casket. Lady Bird told her, "Oh, Mrs Kennedy, you know we never even wanted to be vice president and now, dear God, it's come to this." We. Mrs. Johnson seemingly sublimated her husband’s wishes to hers. But as Julia Sweig shows us, LBJ’s political career was her career too. Indeed, she sometimes referred to his office as “our presidency.” If Robert Kennedy, the attorney general, was the second most powerful person in Washington during his brother’s presidency, Lady Bird Johnson played that same role in her husband’s administration.
Tuesday, June 21, 4:40-6:30pm
Southland Center, 3700 S High St>
Join CEA members as we rally outside the Board of Education meeting in support of the Schools Columbus Students Deserve!
Posters will be provided, and (appropriate) homemade signs are also welcome.
CEA members should wear their gray Solidarity shirts.
Monday, June 20, 10am-1pm, Neighborhood Services, Inc. Food Pantry, 1950 N. Fourth St.
Join the NSI Food Pantry and other local community partners for a resource fair in celebration of Juneteenth!
Community partners and resources provided include:
• ARCH [Accompanying Returning Citizens with Hope]
• MHAOhio [Mental Health America of Ohio]
• ID vouchers
• Birth certificates
• and many more!
This is a free event; all are welcome!
Hosted by Neighborhood Services, Inc. Food Pantry.
A Nuclear Nightmare Bill
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has introduced S.4064 - International Nuclear Energy Act of 2022. Designed to spread American nuclear technology internationally and end prohibition on foreign ownership of nuclear in the US, Manchin’s bill would:
Create fast-track procedures for deemed civil nuclear exports for countries defined by the Secretary of Energy. Expand the Export-Import Bank program on Transformational Exports to include civil nuclear facilities and related goods. Create the U.S. Nuclear Fuels Security Initiative to reduce and eventually eliminate reliance on Chinese and Russian nuclear fuels.The proposed legislation – like the campaign to keep Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuke standing - is part of a current concerted push to resuscitate a moribund industry that should be allowed to die before it kills us.
A Mounting Pyramid of Catastrophes
For decades environmentalists have warned that climate disasters are looming, but they are already here. Storms exacerbated by climate change knocked out electricity to a large portion of Central Ohio this week. Then came a brutal heat wave, which followed the normal pattern of climatic calamity. What we're seeing in Ohio is out of the ordinary, but it's quickly becoming the norm. We are all paying the price because our state and, for a long time, the Federal government have refused to recognize climate change as a health danger.
June 18, 10am - June 19, 10pm
303 W. Broad St.
Symbolizes the end of slavery. It serves as a historical milestone reminding Americans of the triumph of the human spirit.
The activities during the "annual" Juneteenth Ohio Festival event includes:
College & Career Fair
Unity Walk For Wellness
Tribute to Fathers Day
Free Health Screenings
Soul Food Cook - Off
Children’s Pavilion (Underground Rail Road Journey)
2 day Concert Series featuring: Reggae, Blues, Jazz, Gospel & Old School Soul
Exhibitors and Paradise Island Shopping Area
Gated & Secured Event
Friday, June 17, 2022, 9:00 AM (gathering starts) 11:00 AM (program events)
“Just imagine for once if we led the world in funding peace and not wars.”
Just imagine! The words are those of Robert Weissman, president of the organization Public Citizen, in response to the legislative efforts of Reps. Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan, who are the co-chairs of — glory hallelujah! — the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus. They recently introduced legislation that would cut Pentagon spending by $100 billion and divert the money to programs that actually helped the country . . . e.g., universal health care, ending child poverty, saving the environment.
Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime community advocate who has begun circulating petitions to run for Mayor in the 2023 Mayoral primary election calls for an immediate public hearing and investigation into AEP’s claim that their decision to shut off power was to protect the power grid and prevent longer power outages.