Local

Sunday, June 26, 2pm, Franklin Park [near the Franklin Park Adventure Center], 1755 E. Broad St.

SURJCO exists to organize white people in Central Ohio to take anti-racist action. Interested in getting more involved?? Come meet new people and learn about SURJCO at our summer kick-off meetup on Sunday, June 26. This event is open to the public and is kid friendly. If you plan to attend, please fill out this form so we have an idea of how many people to expect [forms.gle/PPSKcCHKPAm6c2jv6]. Please share widely!

When: Sunday, June 26; 2pm

Where: Franklin Park; meet by the Franklin Park Adventure Center; 1755 E. Broad St.

What to bring: Bring your own snack and drink and a blanket or chair to sit on!

RSVP for this event by using this link.

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) and its partners invite you to experience the diversity of agriculture this summer during the 2022 Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series.

This annual series of public tours and workshops features nearly 20 organic and ecological farms and businesses in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana, providing unique opportunities for farmers, educators, and conscientious eaters to learn about sustainable agriculture, local foods, and those who make it possible.

Tour guests can walk through urban farm fields, livestock pastures, and more during these OEFFA farm tours: 

 Ignorance might be bliss, arguably in some situations, but not in this case. Here, ignorance can be catastrophic as western audiences are denied access to information about a critical situation that is affecting them in profound ways and will most certainly impact the world’s geopolitics for generations to come. 

We have chosen the Goodale Park Parimeter for the Walk for Health Care Justice this year. It will take place during ComFest, occurring in the Park, making our presence visible to hundreds of people as we walk.  We hope to have announcements about our action from one or more of the ComFest Stages, asking for other people to join us.

We invite you, family and friends to participate in this 1 mile walk for Health Care Justice. It will take less than 1 hour.

We will meet before 4 PM on the North-East corner of Goodale Park, at the intersection of Park Street and Buttles Avenue, begin will a few words and walk clockwise around the Park. If you have a SPAN Ohio T-shirt and sign, please bring them. We will have some signs available.  Bring a noisemaker.

Friday, June 24, 6:00pm
The Ohio State House. 1 Capitol Square Columbus OH 43215
From Michael Moore:
The choices we make in the next few hours will determine the fate of our democracy

Minutes ago the Supreme Court ruled, once again, that women are indeed second-class citizens — stripped of their rights to control their own bodies, and forced to give birth should they become pregnant.

This is one of the worst abominations ever committed by this country. And if we don’t act, RIGHT NOW, they will get away with it.

So, on this day of infamy, I ask, I beg, I IMPLORE you — 

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! 

FLOOD THE STREETS!

Join me and the other millions in the majority and PLEDGE TO FIGHT BACK — today, tonight, and EVERY DAY until full rights are restored to women.

Remove all Republicans in November. 

Part Two (of Four)

In the shadows of democracy (cont’d.)

City Council appointments and elections

The process of filling public offices, especially City Council, is a key element in the reproduction of undemocracy from one iteration of office-holders to their successors. The city boosters in the media never comment on this.

Until the election of Elizabeth Brown in 2015 (reelected in 2019), no Council member had been elected without first being appointed to office since Mary Ellen O’Shaunassey in 1995. In 2019, Brown did not even complete nonpartisan Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

More recently, Shayla Favor and Rob Dorans gained their seats by submitting 500-word essays and resumes. They were not elected to office

These appointees, including mayors, typically rise from their “holding pens” (to quote one long-time civic activist) or school practice yards in the Franklin County Board of Elections, Columbus Board of Education, or minor City positions. They do not join the ranks of the rulers first by popular election.

After a two-year virtual-only hiatus, ComFest is in many ways rising from the pandemic’s ashes and returning to its full glory at Goodale Park.

What should never be undervalued is the energy and creative power of the volunteers who have run ComFest, which many know is coolest party in town, if not the only party in town that truly matters, for the previous half century.

But what also shouldn’t be forgotten is how they kept ComFest going in the face of a pandemic. There were two virtual ComFests, and they required a great deal of technical expertise and logistical planning that was entirely new to the volunteers, says ComFest volunteer Marty Stutz.

“Really, it was a lot of the same folks who put together the regular ComFest, and they just decided, ‘Hey, this is really important, and what can possible be done to keep ComFest going even though there’s not going to be a live festival in the park?’,” said Stutz. “There was a whole lot of people who came together with not a lot of time to put the virtual together.”

Friday, June 24 to Sunday, June 26, this on-line event requires advance registration

We’re a coalition of organizations and individuals working together to host A Radical Gathering — a virtual space for cultivating the world we all deserve.

A Radical Gathering will happen online the weekend of June 24-26 and will include a series of teach-ins, workshops, trainings, presentations, and panels, covering a myriad of revolutionary and visionary topics.

When we say the gathering is “radical,” we mean that it is for

• Getting at the roots of problems

• Thinking outside the realm of what we’ve been taught to believe is possible

• Exploring big questions and unsettling truths

The gathering is a chance to learn and teach each other, to meet other people doing their part of the work, and to practice some skills we’ll surely need. As we continue to move further into climate collapse and through other violent impacts of global capitalism and colonialism, those of us who have vision should gather, share, and practice together.

Will you join us and see where this goes from here?

Community Festival (ComFest) kicks off Friday, June 24 at noon in Goodale Park.

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, ComFest is back live and will feature over 150 musical performances, workshops and community-oriented programming over three days.

In 2022, ComFest is celebrating 50 years of community, social activism and education.  In addition to the line-up of the city’s best music spread over four stages, workshops, comedy and other special programming will be featured at the Peace and Healing Pavilion. The much-loved Street Fair also returns with one-of-a-kind vendors, arts and crafts, local food and progressive community organizations.

Visit the ComFest Museum located in the air-conditioned Goodale Park Shelterhouse and travel back to the early years of Columbus’ favorite festival.

Hilltop hero Zerqa Abid, who has dedicated her life to helping thousands of young people on the Westside, is threatening a hunger strike if the City does not take more action to curb increasing violence by young people.

Last Friday, following three homicides over two days of young people in the Hilltop, Abid and the Hilltop Youth Social Justice Collaborative held an emergency press conference.

“There are 10,000 children at risk in our neighborhood,” said Abid, founder and director of My Project USA. “We cannot just be patiently waiting on the promises and talk we’ve been given for a year.”

But the City has given millions since 2021. This May, $16 million in funding was announced for summer youth programs, with $8 million of this allocation going to anti-youth violence programs.

But many are asking, is it enough? What’s more, they ask, who’s getting the money and is their advocacy effective?