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if the wars for freedom ever ended we might get our freedoms back, our rights to demonstrate restored, the Patriot Act repealed, the local police rid of their tanks and war weapons, the landscaped stripped of all the cameras and metal detectors and bullet-proof glass that have grown up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

There was plenty of hope for change around the country when President Joe Biden’s administration finally took office in January and for the most part, they’ve been able to right the shipwreck left behind by former President Donald Trump’s incompetent administration. Plenty of improvements have been made to normalize federal government operations –– both foreign and domestic –– so everyone is feeling a little bit better. To add to this positive trajectory, the Biden administration’s recent withdrawal from Afghanistan –– after twenty years of war, bloodshed and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent –– was the right step in the right direction at a new time for America. Unlike his predecessors, Joe Biden has finally been able to accomplish what other presidents could only scale down and talk about. It took major guts.

From Win Without War: Every year, there is a “cap” on the number of refugees the United States will resettle, and that means accepting more refugees from Afghanistan could bar others seeking safety and refuge from other global crises. There’s a simple solution: instead of squeezing people fleeing unprecedented catastrophes — many we helped create — through a defective and insufficient process, the United States could simply increase the number of refugees we welcome. In fact, the United States has a history of opening its doors to people fleeing crisis: the 1980 refugee cap was set at 231,700.  Representatives Barbara Lee and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez organized 66 of their colleagues to pressure the Biden administration to meet this urgent moment by increasing next year’s refugee cap to no less than 200,000. We have just a few weeks to influence the president’s decision, and that means now is the time for us to do everything we can to amplify these champions’ call.

Thursday, September 2, 7pm, Tuttle Park, 240 W. Oakland Ave.

The recent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan was quickly followed by the rise to power of the Taliban. This stark change in the situation marks a shift in U.S. imperialism and the situation that is facing Afghan workers and peasants.

In this meeting, we will discuss recent articles covering the current situation and Afghan history to try to get a grasp of what these developments mean for the struggle against imperialism and for international socialism.

Suggested readings will be posted on this event page but are not required to participate in this discussion.

Hosted by Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists.

“Ten members of one family — including seven children — are dead after a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighborhood of Kabul . . .

“The youngest victims of Sunday’s airstrike were two 2-year-old girls, according to family members.

“Relatives found the remains of one of the girls, Malika, in the rubble near their home on Monday.”

The Free Press has written before that a short drive past I-270 might as well be driving to Mars when it comes to political beliefs and ideology.

London, Ohio in neighboring Madison County – just 15-minutes past Columbus – is one of those planets, er, towns.

The decline of small town Ohio is well-documented. Good paying jobs have vanished, drug addiction has sent too many kids into foster care, and the obsession for MAGA refuses to wane.

London is a community of roughly 10,000, but because it is so close to Columbus small numbers from the big city are moving there seeking affordable housing. The locals can be friendly, but simmering below the surface is rural Ohio’s anger towards the lefty oasis that is Columbus. Trump in 2020 won 70 percent of the vote in Madison County while Columbus went 65 percent for Biden, and with hundreds of thousands more votes.

“Texas to Ohio: Bans Off Our Bodies,” hosted by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio

Wednesday, September 1, 5pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

On September 1, one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country could go into effect — unless we do something about it. Texas’s S.B. 8 will ban abortion at six weeks of pregnancy and encourages private citizens to act as “abortion bounty hunters” — allowing anyone to sue any Texan who they believe provided an abortion, or even helped a patient get an abortion, after six weeks.

Join Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio on September 1 at 5pm to learn what you can do to fight back against this law. Together, let’s reach out to friends and family and encourage them to take action and spread the word about S.B. 8.

RSVP for this event by using this link.

Hosted by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio.

To understand the imminent likely outcome of redistricting and reapportionment of Congressional and state legislative districts in Ohio, one must look at who is calling the shots among Ohio Republicans, who dominate the process. I call it the Republican Rigging Ring.

There has been a distraction of 10 public hearings around the state hosted by the redistricting commission. They were poorly attended by commission members – Gov. Mike DeWine preferred to attend a Cincinnati Bengals practice – because what the public says is of little consequence to the Republicans in charge, who make up five of the seven members.

It was alleged at one of the hearings by none other than former Ohio Democratic Party chair and former unsuccessful candidate for Oho attorney general, David Pepper, that somewhere off the books, either behind closed the doors or on private Zoom meetings, Republicans leaders were meeting to carve up the state to their satisfaction, public be damned.

The Republicans are making diplomatic public statements promising fairness when fairness is the farthest thing from their minds.

What is on their minds?