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The Ohio House Health Committee approved Senate Bill 260 today, Tuesday, December 15. The full House could vote on the bill by this Thursday.
When a person decides to have an abortion, they deserve safe, legal, affordable, and accessible care in their community. For many Ohioans, that means a local health center and a video conference with a prescribing physician. Don't let Ohio Republicans take that critical option away from your friends and neighbors.
In the midst of a pandemic, where everyone, including the Ohio Legislature has lauded the use of telemedicine as an important way to ensure patients have access to the healthcare they need while simultaneously eliminating the possibility of the spread of a deadly virus, that this legislature would choose to attack the use of telemedicine for a very specific procedure.
Let’s talk about Mindfulness. Mindfulness is one of the main components of yoga and one of it’s biggest benefits. Mindfulness is PRESENCE. It is what Ram Dass talked about in his 1974 book Be Here Now. Eckhart Tolle expounds about presence in The Power of Now. Really, when you think about it, there is ONLY NOW, the present moment.
You’ve heard the saying “The past is history, the future a mystery and the present is a gift.” You cannot breathe in the past or future moment, only this one and the next and the next until your body dies. The breath is a constant that only exists in the now.
Here’s a great practice:
4 times a day, say at 10, 2, 6, and 10, stop what you are doing and notice your breath. You have to set an alarm on your phone or you’ll forget. Trust me on this.
So 4 x/day, stop and notice 3 the breathes. Don’t change it, just notice it. Just 3 breathes. You can build to 5.
1. One company benefits from HB 104. The original version of HB 104and its predecessor HB 771tell a more complete story of the actors behind this bill. A single small private entity, eGeneration of Cleveland, had a heavy hand in writing the bill and is its major beneficiary. Language on their website confirmed this.
Monday, December 14, 5-6pm
Bethel International United Methodist Church, 1220 Bethel Rd.
We invite ALL to stand with us for Casey Goodson, Jr. Wear masks, bring friends, and stand against brutal and racist acts that continue to take the lives of our Black brothers and sisters. It may be cold, it may be raining, it will be dark, but justice - and injustice - knows no boundary. Join us. Stand up. We will not be silent.
At the December Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon, we discussed a progressive agenda for 2021, both locally and nationally. Many local activists reported on their goals and events for the new year.
Connie Hammond described the work of the Central Ohio Worker Center (COWC) and their victory in having Columbus City Council pass a Wage Theft Ordinance. Their main issue is wage theft and they will hold a seminar on it in February 2021. Their new member orientation will be January 16:
At the December Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon, we discussed a progressive agenda for 2021, both locally and nationally. Many local activists reported on their goals and events for the new year.
Connie Hammond described the work of the Central Ohio Worker Center (COWC) and their victory in having Columbus City Council pass a Wage Theft Ordinance. Their main issue is wage theft and they will hold a seminar on it in February 2021. Their new member orientation will be January 16:
Most Free Press readers are familiar with Ohio House Bill 6, the infamous $1.3 billion electric ratepayer bailout of FirstEnergy’s nukes and coal. And the bribery and racketeering scam revealed by the FBI last July, implicating FirstEnergy in illegally funneling money to legislators and later into opposition to a signature gathering campaign that would have overturned the bill.
There has been a lot of publicity, anger, and citizen outrage directed at the legislature to repeal House Bill 6 since the scandal broke. Yet the legislature, which took only 96 days to pass the bill, somehow cannot act on repealing House Bill after 145 days—until now.
Although this is not a milestone that we wished to have reached, we would like to come together to recognize and reflect upon the 900 days that Miriam and her family have spent living in sanctuary. Let’s continue the fight (¡Que siga la lucha!) to ensure that Miriam does not spend a day more in the shackles of sanctuary.
Please join us on Sunday, December 13th at 6:00pm for a Zoom event that will include music, an update from Miriam herself, a call to action, ways to help Miriam and her family, and an hour to spend in the uplifting company of community.
ZOOM LINK for the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84893189981?pwd=RG1MKzJvU3VOYmJNelRMc2pNdXBUZz09
If you would like to help Miriam and her family directly but cannot attend the event:
Please visit our GoFundme and contribute what you can. All donations go directly to Miriam to cover basic needs and legal fees for when she is finally free: https://www.gofundme.com/f/miriam-and-family-at-first-english
Event plan:
Many questions remain surrounding how Casey Goodson was killed and the officer who killed him, Deputy Jason Meade.
As more details emerge about Meade – like his background as a pastor and his controversial Christian views on policing – activists are asking: have these views affected his judgment on the job?
Meade’s recently resurfaced 2018 interview for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office “Connecting with the Community” YouTube series, along with a 2018 audio recording of a sermon he gave at a convention for the Ohio State Association of Free Will Baptists, offers insight into Meade’s contentious logic between police use of force and the teachings of Jesus.
In his sermon at the Baptist convention, he said, “I learned long ago why I’m justified in throwing the first punch. Don’t look up here like ‘Oh police brutality’.”
He continues his ramblings about use of force ending with, “Jesus was the manliest man in the history of mankind.”