Local

The United States has a history of churches offering sanctuary to people without papers.

In the early 1980’s, American churches provided safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict.Forty years later, the sanctuary movement is responding to federal immigration policies that makes obtaining asylum difficult, if not impossible.

In the past two years, organized religions are offering their buildings as sanctuaries for people without papers who are under threat of deportation and separation from their children. This is not a new threat...it’s been happening for decades for various reasons.

A local case is Miriam Vargas, who along with her two young daughters, has been living at the First English Lutheran Church near downtown Columbus, Ohio since July 2018. There are several other denominations that offer similar types of sanctuary for people without papers. Edith Espinal has been fighting deportation in sanctuary at the Columbus Mennonite Church for two years and is currently on a hunger strike, waiting for a visit from Senator Sherrod Brown, as we go to press.

Yes We Can is to be congratulated for taking on the Franklin County Democratic Party machine again, though the Party machine under the control of Boss Ginther and his sidekick Shannon Hardin, fight any new voices and ideas with all their might. Yes We Can exists because the Republican Party has clearly given up contesting elections in Ohio’s capital city. Or maybe they determined they don’t need to oppose the Franklin County Dems, whose Republican-lite policies are so pro-elite and the “unelected, but appointed” Columbus City Council members are all owned and operated by wealthy developers. Next mayoral election, Yes We Can should run a mayoral candidate to oppose the anointed one and bring out some new voters.

Plenty of new ideas are needed locally as the city has 22 percent of African American families living in poverty, Ohio is one of the top five states in human trafficking cases, and the state is ranked third in the nation for reports of hate crimes.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” stated George Santayana. We’ve heard this often the past three years, mostly in reference to the rise of Nazi Germany. The rigged U.S. election system and antiquated and undemocratic Electoral College system has produced the most “perfect” presidential pomposity in political history. The genocide is not as overt but getting closer as more immigrants are interned at our borders while their kids are stripped from their families and caged. We need to understand that all the horrendous draconian laws, corporate dominance, and wealth inequality we face now did not begin with Donald Trump. He is just the predictable outcome.  

2020 is almost here. It’s not the end of the world as we know it, just the end of a dismal decade that continues its incremental climb to inverted fascism in the US. The planet is in peril.

On Saturday, November 16, dozens of Ohio college students, activists and immigrant advocates will go to Morrow County Jail in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, to protest the county’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The demonstration will be held from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. and will involve testimonials from those personally affected by ICE actions.

Corrections Facility Administrator Captain Sara Fulk emphasized at a Morrow County Commissioners meeting that expenses are increasing. “The cost of everything is up,” said Fulk. “The costs of meals, utilities, and wages have all increased.” ICE brings detainees from many central Ohio counties to the Morrow County Jail. A Kenyon College student involved in organizing the protest stressed that Morrow County residents should know that their municipal tax dollars are subsidizing ICE operations in Ohio.

Drake's Exit Opens Way for Kasich, Meyer        

President Michael Drake is stepping down at OSU next year and the search for his replacement is under way. Look no further than former Governor John Kasich as Drake's replacement, so says John Michael Spinelli, Ohio's leading independent reporter. Kasich has largely faded from the scene, having been vanquished by Donald Trump and reduced to writing nonsensical books and making obsequious comments on CNN. The OSU job would restore his visibility. Half of the OSU trustees owe Kasich a favor because he appointed them.

Meanwhile, Drake's imminent departure opens the door to a comeback by Urban Meyer as OSU football coach. Meyer quit after last season in part because he believed that the 3-game suspension imposed by Drake was excessive. New coach Ryan Day is going great guns at this writing, but big money from the pros could pull him away. Stranger things have happened.

How Convenient! The Chase Young Suspension           

Yes We Can is to be congratulated for taking on the Franklin County Democratic Party machine again, though the Party machine under the control of Boss Ginther and his sidekick Shannon Hardin, fight any new voices and ideas with all their might. Yes We Can exists because the Republican Party has clearly given up contesting elections in Ohio’s capital city. Or maybe they determined they don’t need to oppose the Franklin County Dems, whose Republican-lite policies are so pro-elite and the “unelected, but appointed” Columbus City Council members are all owned and operated by wealthy developers. Next mayoral election, Yes We Can should run a mayoral candidate to oppose the anointed one and bring out some new voters.

Plenty of new ideas are needed locally as the city has 22 percent of African American families living in poverty, Ohio is one of the top five states in human trafficking cases, and the state is ranked third in the nation for reports of hate crimes.

Maybe a decade ago I was a hockey fan. During an unexpected moment of affluence my wife and I splurged on Blue Jackets season tickets in the nosebleed section, and I would dutifully go down to see bad hockey week after week. Bad for real – this was in the latter years of the Ken Hitchcock era, with borderline NHLers like Andrew Murray and Gilbert Brule sometimes playing on the second line. 

The technical reason we cancelled our seats was that having children had made the expenditure unthinkable, but it was not a painful decision. I was done – I even cancelled my subscription to Fox Sports Ohio. They had just become painful to watch. A second broken shoulder ended my beer league career permanently. I lost the love. Even subsequent success and the playoffs didn’t bring me back. 

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” stated George Santayana. We’ve heard this often the past three years, mostly in reference to the rise of Nazi Germany. The rigged U.S. election system and antiquated and undemocratic Electoral College system has produced the most “perfect” presidential pomposity in political history. The genocide is not as overt but getting closer as more immigrants are interned at our borders while their kids are stripped from their families and caged. We need to understand that all the horrendous draconian laws, corporate dominance, and wealth inequality we face now did not begin with Donald Trump. He is just the predictable outcome.  

2020 is almost here. It’s not the end of the world as we know it, just the end of a dismal decade that continues its incremental climb to inverted fascism in the US. The planet is in peril.

The decision is now entirely up to Columbus Mayor Ginther. But, if the community’s response to the Police Chief auditions held at East High on November 21 was any indication, it is certain that Seattle Assist Police Chief was the clear preference of the over 400 people who gathered to hear their pitches.

The Acting (pro tem) Chief, Thomas Quinlan, who has 30 years in the Columbus Police Department wanted the public aware of his accomplishments for the last 286 days of his tenure of Acting Chief: “I know this community and how to build relationships with it. Now is not the time to change leadership.”

Assistant Police Chief Perry Tarrant, the only other candidate from Seattle, made it clear that he has been a change agent wherever he has served. “I know how to change systems and practices. The police have an obligation to be respectful of all cultures. The community’s voice is important and what gets done is to ‘deed’ those voices within the community.”

Tarrant bases his police work on three issues: inclusion, transparency and accountability. Tarrant, a black man, is the past president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

Queen City lawyer battles deadly chemical foe

DuPont ads used to boast that the company provided “Better Things for Better Living…Through Chemistry.” Dark Waters is a fact-based chronicle of one man’s efforts to prove how tragically inaccurate the slogan was.

As the film opens, Robert Bilott (a low-key Mark Ruffalo) is just settling into his new position as a partner in a Cincinnati law firm when an old acquaintance drops by. West Virginia farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) says his cattle have been dying off in mysterious ways, and he suspects the cause is a nearby landfill operated by DuPont.

Tennant wants Bilott to intervene, but Bilott insists his background is in defending corporations, not suing them. However, he soon pays the farmer a visit that convinces him something is seriously wrong. Getting to the bottom of what that something is, and who should be held responsible, turns out to be a frustrating task that will dominate his life for years to come.