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Forum: Is Impeachment Inevitable or Avoidable?

Newspaper headline for Washington Post saying Trump Impeached

Tuesday, July 16, 6:30-8pm
Quest Conference Center, 8405 Pulsar Pl.
A forum on the question: When is it time to remove a leader?
Please reserve (free) your tickets with this link on Eventbrite:
http://impeachmentforum.eventbrite.com?s=101649598
Come hear a discussion among the following experts:
- Dr. Michael Les Benedict: Ohio State University, Constitutional Law and Impeachment
- Dr. Anthony DeStefanis: Otterbein, U.S. History, labor and the working class
- Dr. Tony Mughan: Ohio State University, Political Science, History and Government, research interests in political parties, the mass media, and elections and political behavior

Community Meeting in Support of Miriam Vargas

lots of people posing with a sign that says Keep Miriam Home

Monday, July 15, 6:30-8:30pm, First English Lutheran Church, 1015 E. Main St.

Please join us on Monday, July 15, at 6:30pm, as we continue the conversation on how we can best support Miriam Vargas and her family.

We will be moving forward on ideas from our February 25 meeting.

• Outreach: Intersectionality, starting with the local community

• Care/Logistics: Miriam’s day-to-day needs

• Media/Communications: Creative messaging

• Fundraising: Funds for Freedom

• Lobbying/Advocacy: Who else needs to be with Miriam?

• Implicit Bias: Checking racism, bias, and privilege

Hosted by Miriam in Sanctuary and First English Lutheran Church.

All Hands on Deck! Tell Your Ohio Senator and Representative NO ON HOUSE BILL 6

Big nuclear power plant smokestack with white smoke billowing out

Ohio House Bill (HB) 6 is a huge proposed bailout of two Chernobyl-in-progress Ohio nuclear power plants, plus two old coal burners. The bailout would go to Akron’s bankrupt FirstEnergy, whose two nuclear reactors sit on Lake Erie, threatening the drinking water of millions.

In 1986 the Perry reactor east of Cleveland became the first U.S. reactor to be damaged by an earthquake. Critical pipes and concrete were cracked, as were nearby roads and bridges. A top-level state study showed soon thereafter that evacuation amidst a major accident would be impossible.

FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse, east of Toledo, is a 42-year-old Three Mile Island clone. In 2002, boric acid ate through its head, threatening a Chernobyl-scale accident irradiating Toledo, Cleveland, and the Great Lakes. At FirstEnergy’s request, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has exempted Davis-Besse from vital regulations for flooding, fire protection, earthquake vulnerability and security. Its radiation shield building is literally crumbling.

In 2003, when nearby power lines sagged onto tree limbs, FirstEnergy blacked out some 50 million people throughout the northeast and well into Canada.

Columbus Police Reform

Black man in dreads talking at a mic

 Please consider 1) looking at the video of June 5 public testimony and/or 2) calling the Mayor’s office  and/or 3) attending on Monday night July 15 at City Hall to let CDP and the City know we care about this issue. Thank you for any action you take to improve policing.  Columbus continues to suffer racial injustice within and by the Columbus Division of Police. The Mayor’s Community Safety Advisory Commission, intended to recommend improvements to CDP, finally took public testimony after meeting for 13 months, and near the very end when Commission recommendations were to be drafted.  The June 5 public testimony was shocking as citizens raised numerous and consistent serious allegations against CDP.  These included but were not limited to these reports.

Lights for Liberty to End Human Detention

Drawing of a statue of liberty bending down to hand her torch to s small boy as a hand is grabbing the boy and pulling him away and the words Lights for Liberty

Friday, July 12, 7-10pm
Ohio Statehouse, Broad and High Streets
We’ll be having a team from Columbus partnering with Angry Tias and Abuelas to bring much needed items for families leaving detention and families in Mexico. Please consider donating toiletries, socks, shoes, and cards to use for bus transportation. We will have clearly marked boxes for collecting these!Thank you!

This is a nationwide MASS MOBILIZATION effort. We will gather here in Columbus at the Ohio Statehouse at 7pm on July 12. We will join together in solidarity, listen to a few speakers, and hold a candlelight vigil at 9pm.

Bob Bites Back

Latino people posing for camera looking grim, one man holding a sign that says #LetEdithStay We Stand with Edith

Why neo-Nazis love Trump’s immigration policy

Remember when Trump muttered those despicable words “There’s good people on both sides” after the white supremacists’ rally at Charlottesville in 2017? Recall their slogans: “Blood and Soil!” or, as Hitler preferred, “Blut und Boden.” Blood, of course, referred to the Nazi obsession with racial purity and bloodlines. Soil referred to a belief in settlement areas on borders controlled by the Germanic/Nordic races. The Blood and Soil canard went hand-in-hand with the Nazi concept of Lebensraum, or “living space.” Trump is using a new version of Nazi propaganda to try to instill fear of immigrant hordes taking away jobs and living space from his white male supporters.

Is the Teachers’ Strike Wave Coming to Columbus?

Young white man with facial hair, glasses and a hat posing with his arm around a black woman in a solidarity T-shirt

On Wednesday at 7 p.m. inside the Two Dollar Radio Headquarters, Columbus Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), hosted Eric Blanc to discuss his book, Red State Revolt, about why there was an upsurge of teachers striking last year in supposedly right-wing majority states. DSA invited Regina Fuentes, member of the teachers’ union, Columbus Education Association, to present on their Columbus Students Deserve movement.

Demand U.S. Legislators Defund Harmful Immigrant Enforcement Policies

People outside at a rally holding signs saying Children out of detention and End Mandatory Detention Now
From Unitarian Universalists Justice Ohio - Demand U.S. Legislators Defund Harmful Immigrant Enforcement Policies.  From the Friends Committee on National Legislation:  "The administration has demanded more money for harmful immigration enforcement policies and Congress has funded them.  The supplemental spending bill (H.R. 3401) Congress just passed was more of the same. It provides money with no guarantee that it will be spent to protect children, not further militarize our border. This approach is worsening the humanitarian crisis. Congress is home this week for their Independence Day recess. It’s important that they hear from you. Urge them to divest from enforcement spending and instead, invest in true humanitarian assistance."   Three Steps to Dropping by a Congressional Office:  1.

Near East Side Riots – 50 Years Later

Street scene with a tower and trees and a lightpost and electricity poles

The Near East Side has become one of the trendier places of Columbus in recent years. However, it was only a half-century ago this month that the Near East Side had a completely opposite story to tell. A story that has helped give the neighborhood a negative perception for decades. The Near East Side of 2019 is a long cry from the Near East Side of 1969. Or is it?

The day was Monday July 21, 1969, the day after the historic Apollo 11 Moon Landing.  David Chesnut, a 69-year-old white businessman on 832 East Main Street fatally shot Roy Beasley, a 27 year-old Black sanitation worker for the City of Columbus who lived in the home directly behind Chesnut’s dry cleaning business, The Pad and Pillow Place, when the two got into an argument over Beasley’s three children playing on Chesnut’s property.

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