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Governor DeWine and Health Department Director Dr. Amy Acton failed to include Ohio prisons and jails in their COVID-19 harm reduction plan. Now, inmates, staff members, and their loved ones are paying the price.
Just last night, we learned that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee at the Morrow County Jail had finally been tested for COVID-19. His results came back positive, days after he first began to show symptoms. This is a jail that had no free soap until very recently, and has continued to accept transfers from other counties and facilitate deportations, spreading the virus in Ohio and beyond.
Friday, April 24, 11am-1pm
Caravan of cars, vehicles only and practice social distancing
Margaret Sarber-Nie passed away today. Many people whose lives intertwined with hers are mourning. Margaret was a hippie, an activist, a militant. Her resume includes involvement with some of the most radical organizations of the 60s and 70s. She was one of the founders of Community Festival, edited the Columbus Free Press, worked with the Indochina Coalition, SDS, and participated in demonstrations and actions – fighting for a revolution.
I can remember the first time I met Margaret. It was at Community Festival in the early 90s. I had just begun publishing the Free Press and she told me she was a former editor of the paper and I should look it up in the newspaper’s files. If I wanted to talk to her, I could call her at 268-FUCK. I did call her.
Margaret was a great storyteller and fascinating as the stories were – they were all true. From her being one of the Free Press staff arrested in 1972 for inciting riot during the Vietnam War to openly carrying a rifle to protect the community from law enforcement and the FBI (wearing a beret, of course).
It’s a comforting thought, to think the law is on your side. For 50 years, environmentalists in the United States have celebrated Earth Day tomarkthe anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement. They celebrate the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, the Clean Water, and the Endangered Species acts.
But, there is a catch.
The laws celebrated during Earth Day have failed to guard against mass species die-offs, the climate crisis, deadly air pollution, the corporatization of freshwater, and the largest loss of biodiversity in human history. The planet is on the verge of ecological collapse.
These environmental laws may have won narrow battles. But they are decisively losing the war.
“Environmental protection” is no more than an illusion that functions to permit and regulate harms to nature. It legalizes pollution.
April 22, Earth Day - 7:20 - 9:00 pm EST
Over at The Open Shelter, they have upped their sanitation with cleanings twice a day. They are also offering hand sanitizer as soon as people walk in. Not only do people not have access to places to wash their hands, making them more susceptible to the Coronavirus but Shell Mathias worries their immune systems won’t be able to stand up as well as others
“Their bodies are already tired, they are worn down and not getting the rest they should and perhaps not getting the nutrition they need,” said Mathias, who works at The Open Shelter.
The guests at The Open Shelter have reacted well to the new procedures as a result of COVID-19. Its supporters, old and new, have also reacted well. The shelter has received support, financially and materially, from so many individuals and groups that it has been overwhelming. They are committed to providing meals, almost always hot, to anyone who shows up. This requires supplies they do not usually have or need, such as Styrofoam to-go containers, Styrofoam bowls with lids, pre-wrapped plastic ware and lots of bottled water.
Jorgé is an American citizen, but this doesn’t mean he’s unaware of how cold and demanding some gringos from the middle of Ohio can be.
Jorgé, who asked not to use his real name, told the Freep he works for FedEx but said “they are not taking this COVID thing seriously.” He has asthma so “I’m not going in.”
Jorgé’s landlord told him and his roommates rent was due on April 1st. Knowing his tenants may not make rent, this Grove City landlord said they could set up a payment plan – but only after they provide bank statements, a letter from their employer saying they were laid off, documentation they are not receiving any government assistance, and agree to a credit check.
“As for that part, we told him no one is going to be able to do that for you,” said the 20-something who’s active with local left-leaning progressive groups. “These people are more concerned for their investors than the people they build their livelihoods on.”
It’s one thing to be 20-something and white in conservative-leaning Ohio (Trump land) during the pandemic – than 20-something and Hispanic. Then take that a step further: Hispanic and undocumented.
As this lockdown drags on, excitement is at a premium. Foghat’s “Slow Ride,” once just a guilty pleasure, has now become a breakfast tradition. Which is another way of saying that a new album to review felt something like Christmas in April. All the more interesting because the Devil Doves are a band I have been writing about for a long time.
Commit to the Bit is something of a sonic departure from the percussive acoustic guitar attack of previous Devil Doves releases. Compared to albums like The Devil Doves and Also Playing, the tracks have a fuller sound with more sonic depth. This is in large part due to the emergence of keyboardist Jeff Straw, whose fingerprints are all over the album. While in the past he at times seemed to be adding Nicky Hopkins-esque gloss to already completed songs, he is now frequently the driving force behind arrangements.
In conjunction with percussionist Kyle Davis’ cajon work and the odd electric guitar, the result is a highly accessible sound that anyone should be able to get into quickly (if not instantly)
Ohio State University is trying to build a new fracked gas plant, right on campus in Columbus. Ohioans have overwhelmingly expressed a shared desire for a future powered by renewable energy that will create 21st century jobs, reduce the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and pollutants into our water. And Mayor Ginther recently announced a plan to transition the City of Columbus to 100% renewable energy by 2022. OSU’s new plant would be at odds with Columbus' plans, and the community's wishes.
Make your voice heard by sending a comment to the Ohio Power Siting Board, letting them know why you want them to reject this proposal.
April 15, 1970 was a nationwide anti-draft action day. Here in Dayton, there was a sit-in at the local draft board of about 35 people. At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, there was an anti-draft peace rally. At the end of the rally a student speech pronounced that “it was not enough to protest the war, but people had to take action!” At that point, they marched over and occupied the Navy ROTC building. Later the black students who were organizing for a black studies program and an increase in black enrollment joined the occupation. Over 300 students were arrested, making national news and rocking Ohio.
With the announcement of the invasion of Cambodia, protests occurred across the country with major protests at Ohio State and Ohio University. The week before the Kent State killings, over 1,000 students were arrested at Ohio State University protesting the war and black students there were also demanding a black studies program.