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I call the public’s attention to today’s radical, unprecedented, unconstitutional, and inhumane campaign to ban books in schools. It combines intersecting dimensions that span history, education, child development, and respect for the text and legal and cultural traditions of “We the People,” “Public Welfare” and “Public Interest.” It includes the rights of children, for which we fought from the late 19th century into the present.

I write as a historian of literacy and education, and children and youth; a teacher of college students for almost 50 years; and a concerned citizen. My colleagues and friends include authors of national prize-winning, young adult novels banned in several states on false grounds.

The Caravan for Water and Life has run through much of central Mexico, backed by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI). The Caravan’s goal is to raise awareness of how the subsidiary of Danone multinational corporation, Bonafont, for years has pushed first peoples aside to take over their wells, then sell the water in those infamous little plastic bottles that cost a large fraction of a day’s pay at minimum wage.

At the Caravan’s launching next to an appropriated well in Puebla state, on March 22 spokeswoman and former presidential candidate María de Jesús Patricio Martínez denounced how government complicity continues unabated four years into López Obrador’s six-year presidential term — and that complicity includes not only government and business, but criminal elements as well.

A press statement and photo by La Jornada can be seen here.

The Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee has been fighting for improved working conditions on Kenyon’s campus for the better part of 2 years and Kenyon College is quietly at the forefront of union-busting amongst the higher-education community, spending thousands of dollars an hour to take away the rights of its undergraduate student workers with implications for undergraduate and graduate workers nationwide.

This morning, workers at the Westerville Starbucks, 533 South State Street, petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union election to join the Starbucks Workers United movement that’s currently sweeping the country. The store is the second in Columbus behind four locations in Cleveland and one that filed this week in Cincinnati, becoming the seventh in Ohio and pushing well over 200 nationwide.

Workers at the Westerville Starbucks wrote a letter to Starbucks CEO saying that “the company has now deemed it too expensive to provide adequate coverage for us to properly serve the community we love,” echoing a sentiment streaming out from locations from across the nation.

This morning, workers at the Westerville Starbucks, 533 South State Street, petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union election to join the Starbucks Workers United movement that’s currently sweeping the country. The store is the second in Columbus behind four locations in Cleveland and one that filed this week in Cincinnati, becoming the seventh in Ohio and pushing well over 200 nationwide.

Workers at the Westerville Starbucks wrote a letter to Starbucks CEO saying that “the company has now deemed it too expensive to provide adequate coverage for us to properly serve the community we love,” echoing a sentiment streaming out from locations from across the country.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
While it’s important for you to recycle, it’s also important to Recycle Right. By taking just a few minutes to recycle the right way, you help reduce pollution, contribute to cleaner water, conserve limited natural resources, support our economy and reduce central Ohio’s reliance on landfills. SWACO is here to help you recycle right, answer common recycling questions, and provide the necessary tools and resources you need to make recycling right convenient for your household.  Register here. 

On April 11, 2022, the B.R.E.A.D. (Building Respect, Equality and Dignity) organization held its third rally in support of affordable housing at the Washington Gladden Social Justice Park. The action called for the city of Columbus and county of Franklin to set up over $100 million in housing funds to help build more housing options that would be available for families with less than $150,000 of annual income. The action was a dress rehearsal for the May 10, 2022 Nehemiah Action at the Ohio Expo Center, 6 p.m., where the 2022 BREAD campaigns for a city identification program, fair housing, group violence intervention, and environmental justice will be presented to city and county elected officials by over 3,000 BREAD members. 

On April 11, 2022, the B.R.E.A.D. (Building Respect, Equality and Dignity) organization held its third rally in support of affordable housing at the Washington Gladden Social Justice Park. The action called for the city of Columbus and county of Franklin to set up over $100 million in housing funds to help build more housing options that would be available for families with less than $150,000 of annual income. The action was a dress rehearsal for the May 10, 2022 Nehemiah Action at the Ohio Expo Center, 6 p.m., where the 2022 BREAD campaigns for a city identification program, fair housing, group violence intervention, and environmental justice will be presented to city and county elected officials by over 3,000 BREAD members. 

Tuesday, April 12, 7pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

Join Jewish Voice for Peace Central Ohio in person or online for a screening of “The Wanted 18.” Through a clever mix of animation and interviews, “The Wanted 18” recreates an astonishing true story: the Israeli army’s pursuit of 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared “a threat to the national security of Israel.” Consequently, the dairy is forced to go underground with the Israeli army in relentless pursuit. This documentary is an enchanting, inspirational tribute to the ingenuity and power of grassroots activism and self-determination.75 minutes.

“In-person” location: Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St., Rm. 100

Free parking is available in the “R” spaces — “R” for “Rardin Clinic” — behind the building.

RSVP for this event by using this link.

Hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace Central Ohio.

A Hilliard City Council member aligned with “America First” is now linked to a serious. privacy breach of Hilliard students.

When the vice president of Hilliard’s City Council, Republican Omar Tarazi, recently requested all disciplinary records of Hilliard City School students over the previous five years, he was accidentally also sent the students’ identities, roughly 4,200 names, a serious privacy violation to say the least.

Especially when you consider the data was copied to school board members and that Councilmember Tarazi admitted to forwarding the data to “a number of others who were similarly interested in looking at the data,” as he told the Columbus Dispatch. Hilliard is increasingly becoming one of Central Ohio’s most diverse suburbs.

One serious question is, did Tarazi send the data to politically like-minded friends (some MAGA?), and did these friends then do the same?