Local

There’s been plenty to be grateful for in 2021, but like many things in our American democratic republic, the wheels of progress move slow and 2020 kept its claws dug into the year that followed it. Frankly, we should have known this was going to happen when six days into the new year, the world watched as an insurrection and near-constitutional crisis played out on live TV, all due to the results of the 2020 presidential election. Many of us will never forget where we were on that weirdly historic day. I was flipping back and forth from C-SPAN –– to watch Congress count the Electoral College votes –– to One America News Network, which was the only station airing a peculiar rally (in full!) that President Trump was holding on The Mall. I remember the cameras were only aimed at the stage so I couldn’t see how many people were in the crowd, but slowly the two networks’ coverage merged together and I could see that unlike his inauguration four years before, Trump finally did attract a crowd to D.C.

Tuesday, December 28, 7pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

Inhale/Exhale is a space for restorative healing for organizers and activists. We welcome all organizers in the progressive and left movements to honor their bodies by resting and entering this space to learn various ways to heal. In this installment, we will focus on envisioning and creating the future you desire and then being it! We will build collective power around imaging a better future as a community. Come ready to learn, share, engage, rest, and heal. Please sign up to attend this lovely event! We want you whole and rested for this work, so please show up if you can.

This event will be led by Sharonda Crome.

The Columbus Police Department (CPD) did a sloppy job handling the kidnapping and murder of Imam Mohamed Adam.

The family of the Somali Imam Mohamed Hasan Adam is unable to pay respect for their son and bury his remains properly after he was shot dead last Friday. Holding the remains for more than 24 hours violates the Islamic law of burial as well as the Jewish law of burial. CPD did a lousy job from day one when Imam Mohamad was kidnapped last Wednesday evening. It took an army of volunteer Somali search and rescue teams to locate the Imam. Sadly, he was found dead already. He must have been shot three hours before the Somali search teams located his body inside his car.

Note: area readers are aware that the local “daily newspaper” is no longer either daily or a newspaper. Following USA Today/Gannett, the Columbus Dispatch does not publish on Dec. 24 or 25, 31 or Jan. 1 (as well as Thanksgiving or Labor Day). They do not coordinate with their carriers so subscribers do not receive the everyday New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Washington Post. The USA Today managed Dispatch website is chaotic and incoherent. It does not replace even the printed Dispatch’s late and low volume of actual news.

All opinion writers—including New York Times’ conservative columnists—must meet basic standards of journalistic practice and ethics. They are responsible not only for presenting clear and logically coherent opinions, but also for adhering to established facts and objective evidence. In other words, alternative narratives and their rhetoric must be constrained by critical if minimal standards.

Courage – Year in review – Statute to SoS – MMCP expansion – Give!

Selected bites of fresh cannabis news sliced from the headlines, with a legislative flavor and sweet Ohio twist. Sources are linked.

Courage in Cannabis

Courage in Cannabis, a groundbreaking collection of short stories, has earned the Amazon Rank of #1 New Release, #1 Best Seller in Herbal Remedies and International Bestseller.  The collection features inspiring authors who are doctors, lawyers, activists, caregivers and pioneers in the cannabis industry with unique experiences and perspectives that have led them to the plant. The authors come from across the United States and Canada featuring some of the greatest changemakers in the hemp, CBD, and cannabis industries. I’m proud to be one of them.

On Sunday, Dec. 5, dozens of theater lovers gathered at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s Africa Event Center to hear about the strange connection between the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a remote Canadian town and the zoo itself. In a related activity, some of them also gathered outside an animal habitat earlier that afternoon to watch the playful (and often X-rated) antics of the little-known apes known as bonobos.

What brought both humans and apes together was Come From Away, a touring production that will play the Ohio Theatre Feb. 8-13. The Broadway musical tells what happened when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks halted all air travel and forced 38 planes to make unscheduled landings in Gander, Newfoundland. There, about 7,000 travelers became the guests of the town’s 9,000 residents, who helped to feed and house them until they were allowed to continue on their way several days later. 

“This is about what happens when people take care of other people,” Sue Frost, the show’s producer, told the Dec. 5 crowd. “It is really a tribute to humanity.” 

We are sticking our heads into the sand of reality on Omicron, and the results may be catastrophic.

Omicron is over 4 times more infectious than Delta. The Pfizer two-shot vaccine offers only 33% protection from infection. A Pfizer booster vaccine does raises protection to about 75%. Still, surveys show that Omicron has had very little impact on the willingness of Americans to get a booster, or even get a first vaccine dose.

It is arguably the most significant image from Columbus in the year 2020, and that’s saying a lot. It’s not an actual photo, but a screen shot of a video, one which went viral.

The man throwing up his arms (“Don’t shoot!”) is 31-year-old Randy Kaigler, a State Tested Nurse Aide, a father who loves to play with his kids, do family activities. He actually shouted, “I can’t breathe!”

It was Saturday, May 30, 2020, the same day when City Council President Shannon Hardin and US Rep. Joyce Beatty were sprayed.

“He (the officer) literally looked me in my face, laughed, and sprayed me in my face,” said Kaigler, who says it was his dad who called him that night asking if this was him in the disturbing photo.

Kaigler claims he was not a bad actor that day or other days he was downtown. “I saw a lot of people during the protests do a lot of dumb shit.” Instead, he had pleaded with others to not damage property.

“It’s just the little things for me,” said Kaigler. “I’m a happy person. I try to remain positive and use that not only to help myself but others as well.