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This article is posted from its original publication in Washington Monthly, Sept 4, 2021.

In August 10, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas proposed an inappropriate amendment to the $3.5 billion infrastructure bill currently being considered by Congress. The provision bans federal funds from going to K–12 schools that teach critical race theory. It passed 50–49.

Cotton and his Republican peers—as well as Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia—followed the direction of Tucker Carlson and his peers at Fox News and other right-wing media, who have been mounting a scare campaign to convince white America that radical educators nationwide are blaming their children and grandchildren for the sins of our nation’s past.

Oppo research. Never forget. Adult use initiative a go. The bird is a word.

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

Editor’s Note:Updated tables of pending cannabis legislation: Federal, Ohio and Ohio decriminalization.  Comparison tables of proposed legislation: CAOA, Adult use initiative and HB 382.

Oppo

Wednesday, September 8, 7-9pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

We will be talking about GOTV [Get Out The Vote], Early Vote poll standing, and community map making. Also hoping to hear more on City of Columbus Issue 7 that will be on the November ballot.

We hope to have Franklin County Commissioner Erica Crowley at our October meeting.

Please e-mail <demcoalitioncentralohio@gmail.com> to request the meeting link.

Hosted by The Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations of Central Ohio, Dublin Area Progressives, Franklin County Young Democrats, and Franklin County Democratic Party.

At around this time in the universe, we are approaching the end of the Piscean Age and about to enter the Aquarian Age.

The 2000-year Piscean age is characterized by the birth of Christ and the creation of the church. Humans found a deeper connection to the divine and matters of the soul. At the same time, the concepts of heaven and hell, good and evil, sin and sacrifice characterized the prevailing beliefs about reality.

The conflicts on the planet today are countless: nation against nation and brother against brother. Everyone seems to be in opposition to something. It is said that at this time there will be a thousand wars and the tensions will build like a festering boil! That comes as no surprise to anyone, I’m sure. We can all feel and testify to the hostility in the air.

But…the story goes that when the boil bursts, as it must, and all the pus has drained and clear blood is present, that the Age of Aquarius has been born. Out of the chaos and suffering, a thousand years of peace is foretold.

Suicide Prevention in Columbus is located at North Central Mental Health, 1301 North High Street, where there is plenty of parking and 24-hour security.  The training for becoming a volunteer is the best training program I have ever participated in. It is 36 hours. While you will be nervous when you take the first call, you will know what to do. If you sign up to be a volunteer, and discover it's not for you, you can let it go at any time. Volunteers are people from 18 to their 80's. I've been impressed with the number of young people of high school and college (mostly OSU students) who volunteer. It is wonderful to hear a young person take a call from someone their age and help them find a path forward. COVID-19 has caused a severe shortage in volunteers who are needed for 3- or 6-hour shifts, around the clock, 24/7. Many shifts have been "covered" in the last 2 years by the only 2 paid staff members, and other times there is only 1 volunteer, when 2 or 3 are needed.

Sunday, September 5, 2021, 1:00 PM
On the 20th commemoration of the September 11th attacks, the scholars hope to reflect back on the global implications and ever-changing markers since then. The event is also a soft-launch for the newly formed International Islamophobia Studies and Research Association. Register here. 

When you imagine ending a war, do you imagine the U.S. President lamenting the human cost of the war’s financial expense while simultaneously demanding that Congress increase military spending — and while mentioning new wars that could potentially be launched?

Do you picture him blowing up families with missiles from robot airplanes, and committing to continuing those “strikes” while maintaining that such things don’t constitute continuing the war?

Did you hope that if the wars for freedom ever ended we might get our freedoms back, our rights to demonstrate restored, the Patriot Act repealed, the local police rid of their tanks and war weapons, the landscaped stripped of all the cameras and metal detectors and bullet-proof glass that have grown up for two decades?

Did you imagine the people in Guantanamo cages who were never on a “battlefield” would no longer be viewed as threats to “return” there once the war was “ended”?

Did you think that without a war there might be something resembling peace, including perhaps an embassy, the lifting of sanctions, or the unfreezing of assets?

Saturday, September 4, 2021, 2:15pm

This Saturday at 2:15pm EDT, Rehumanize International's annual conference features a keynote address from Sabrina Butler-Smith, Exonerated Death Row Survivor and member of Witness to Innocence. Sabrina was a loving teenage mother when she was wrongfully convicted in the death of her nine-month-old son in Mississippi. She was later exonerated of all wrongdoing, after spending six and a half years incarcerated, two of those years on death row. She was the first woman exonerated from death row in the US. She now works to change legislation, determined to make the system better so others, especially youth, do not have to experience what she did.

Death Penalty Action is a sponsor of this conference in partnership with our allies at Rehumanize International. Rehumanize International is a nonprofit human rights organization dedicated to creating a culture of peace and life, and in so doing, seeks to bring an end to all aggressive violence against humans through education, discourse, and action.

Vendors, Yummy Food & a Great Music Lineup! You can attend in person or if you want to stay home you can watch the Live Stream! Links live on Friday Sept 10!

Friday, Sept. 10
5:30 - Wahru’s Spirit Drummers
6:30 - Four Mints
8:00 - Nancy Wilson Tribute
9:45 - The Ark Band

Saturday, Sept. 11
1:00 - Transit Arts
2:00 - Billy Zenn & the Enablers
3:00 - Dougie Simpson & the Peace Band
4:00 - Carol Walker & The Bitterttones
5:00 -The Apostles
6:00 - Gregg Swann & The Late Crew
7:00 - Flex Crew
8:00 - Willie Phoenix
9:00 - Deal Breakers