Local

Wednesday, September 29, 2021, 12:00 PM

Sunday evening workers and supporters of workers at Worthington’s three library branches gathered on Worthington’s Village Green to rally support for voting yes to unionize. The year-long effort to unionize the workers at Worthington Public Libraries has come down to a vote, which employees and the community are optimistic will result in the recognition of the union.

If workers at Worthington Public Libraries succeed in forming a union, it would be the first library to be unionized in Franklin County. Libraries in Franklin County are fragmented among individual towns and cities, which is why the City of Worthington has three branches under Worthington Public Libraries. Columbus has its own library system, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries, and cities like Bexley, Upper Arlington, and others each have their own independent libraries, but all share resources with each other.

Sunday evening workers and supporters of workers at Worthington’s three library branches gathered on Worthington’s Village Green to rally support for voting yes to unionize. The year-long effort to unionize the workers at Worthington Public Libraries has come down to a vote, which employees and the community are optimistic will result in the recognition of the union.

If workers at Worthington Public Libraries succeed in forming a union, it would be the first library to be unionized in Franklin County. Libraries in Franklin County are fragmented among individual towns and cities, which is why the City of Worthington has three branches under Worthington Public Libraries. Columbus has its own library system, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries, and cities like Bexley, Upper Arlington, and others each have their own independent libraries, but all share resources with each other.

Tuesday, September 28, 12:30pm, Ohio Statehouse

This event is in conjunction with an “international solidarity protest” “from Ohio, to Texas, to Mexico.”

Hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, Ohio Women’s Alliance Action Fund, Ohio Women’s Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Women Have Options Ohio, and Feminist Flag Corps.

Sunday, September 26, 2021, 5:30 PM
Stand with Worthington Libraries workers as they prepare to for their Union vote. 
Location:  Village Green Park (NE corner of N. High St and Dublin-Granville Road), Worthington. 

Next week, the Ohio Senate will take the first steps towards completely outlawing abortion with a hearing on Senate Bill 123. The proposed bill would outlaw all abortions in Ohio if the U.S. Supreme Court were to issue a ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

The street in front of Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior was filled Friday afternoon in solidarity with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). The peaceful, youthful crowd was made up of mostly organized contingents of long-time Zapatista supporters from Mexico City’s humble neighborhoods, including many indigenous groups.

The Sunday before, the EZLN made a public communiqué warning that the state of Chiapas is “on the verge of civil war,” denouncing “actions and omissions of the state and federal governments regarding” recent kidnappings, murders and detentions.

In Mexico City, this reporter counted about three thousand protesters of many of the country’s ethnicities responding to the EZLN’s call made only the day before to march and protest to this downtown building — the equivalent to the U.S.’s State Department or the U.K. Home Office. Protests were likewise held in cities across the country and at Mexican embassies around the world.

Simultaneous with the march, a contingent took over the Chiapas state offices here in the nation’s capital.

September 19, 2021

To the people of Mexico:
To the peoples of the world:
To the Sixth in Mexico and abroad:
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion:

First: On September 11, 2021, in the early morning, while the Zapatista air delegation was in Mexico City, members of ORCAO – a paramilitary organization serving the Chiapas state government – kidnapped the compañeros Sebastián Nuñez Pérez and José Antonio Sánchez Juárez, autonomous authorities from the Good Government Council of Patria Nueva [New Homeland], Chiapas.

The ORCAO is a political-military organization with paramilitary characteristics: they have uniforms, equipment, weapons, and ammunition purchased with money they receive from [government-sponsored] “social programs”. They keep part of the money for themselves and use part of it to pay off government officials for reporting that they [the ORCAO] are complying with the terms of the social programs. They fire on the Zapatista community of Moisés y Gandhi every night with these weapons.

On January 22, 2021, Tom Brokaw rendered his resignation as reporter at NBC News, where he had been for the last fifty-five years. He closed out his stellar career at NBC as the only newsman to have anchored all three of its biggest news shows. At the time of Watergate, he was a young thirty-one years old–so young that some in the trade grumbled that he was not experienced enough for the posting–and had been named the White House correspondent for the network. The Fall of Richard Nixon is his experience of the debacle.

Let’s face it. Columbus needs to be more like Austin.

Both are state capitals and have massive urban public universities. Both are left-leaning oases. Both began to explode in growth during the 1990s, and for the most part remain landlocked boomtowns.

But one is where many want to visit and live, where the other is maligned for not much to do and a lack of culture. Worse, too much disparity between rich and poor.

Guess which one is Columbus y’all?

Austin is not the slacker hippie, Willie Nelson-loving live music paradise it once was in the 70s, 80s and even 90s. But its public access to oh-so close outdoor adventure remains unparalleled.

Take Barton Springs, called “the soul” of Austin. The natural spring or pool is open year-round, with acres of parks and trails branching out in all directions. It’s icy clear waters drawing people from around the world, its surrounding banks filled with locals and tourists taking a serious chill as someone plays an acid-sounding guitar.