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On Saturday May 4, the night of the Columbus Blue Jackets game and Gallery Hop in the Short North, the Coalition to Free Masonique Saunders blocked off the intersection at Buttles Avenue and North High Street for 90 minutes. Their goal was to stop the flow of capital to raise awareness about Columbus Police’s murder of Julius Tate Jr. and the false felony murder and aggravated robbery charges on Masonique Saunders. The Coalition wants people to pack the court at 9am on Thursday, May 9 to prevent Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien from trying Saunders, the falsely charged 17-year-old, as an adult.

Kaiya Gordon, Lainie Rini, and Margie Sarsfield, three out of the four people arrested, drove into the intersection and stopped their car. The police pepper-sprayed the activists near the car and used their bikes to push others onto the sidewalks. Rini and Sarsfield were attached to the car to prevent the cops from towing the vehicle with them in it.

While being brutally pulled, pepper sprayed, and denied medical care, Rini was shouting, “Let go. You’re hurting me. My eyes are burning.”

The color palette of springtime is a delight. Everywhere amongst landscapes are bright, colorful blooms. On a clear day, the most vibrant flower can stop someone dead in their tracks. There is a reason why flowers are given as gifts or used as adornments for dinner tables. Not only do blossoms bring happiness, but they breed life; the flower serves as the reproductive organ for the plant and will produce seeds, if not removed. These amazing plant allies attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and beneficial insects to the garden. Flowers have a vital function within the ecosystem, one that binds all life together.

On Saturday May 4th, 2019, protesters outraged at the wrongful incarceration of Masonique Saunders held a march. Shortly after, two activists locked down to a car blocking traffic on High Street. Police maced these folks while they were completely immobilized and unable to move! At least four people were arrested during this peaceful action, and we need your support to bail them out so our comrades can rejoin the fight to #FreeMasonique. Any amount helps! 

Backstory on Masonique’s case: On December 7, 2018, Columbus police murdered 16 year old Julius Ervin Tate Jr.. On December 13, they arrested his 16 year old girlfriend, Masonique Saunders, charging her with the murder they committed. She recently “celebrated” her 17th birthday behind bars while Eric Richards, the officer who killed Julius Tate Jr., was recently awarded SWAT officer of the year. We are sick and tired of the racist police terror killing and caging Black youth! Stay updated on ways to get involved in supporting Masonique by following  @freemasonique on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter or checking freemasonique.home.blog

Write Chelsea

Saturday, May 4, 7pm
Goodale Park, 120 w. Goodale St.
Raise your voice in support of Masonique Saunders, falsely imprisoned in Franklin County. Masonique is 17 years old and charged with murder by the Columbus Police after the police shot and killed her boyfriend, Julius Tate, Jr. 
The National Week of Action to #FreeMasonique is May 3rd-10th, and we invite you to march with us on Saturday May 4th to call attention to the unjust charges this 17-year-old child is facing!
We will meet at the Goodale Park Gazebo at 7:00 PM and march up High St, making noise and raising our voices to demand Masonique’s freedom!

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Friday, May 3, 7-10pm, ROY G BIV Gallery, 435 W. Rich St.

A new look. A new gallery. The same commitment to emerging artists. Join us at our new location in Franklinton as we open our doors and invite artists, art lovers, fresh faces, and old friends to enter in. We’re kicking off our next chapter with “The ROY Family Reunion Exhibition,” a celebration of ROY artists from 1989 until now, showcasing the diverse talent that has made ROY the home for thoughtful, innovative work that it is today.

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World Press Freedom Day – May 3 – is not very well known, but freedom of the press is certainly a concern nowadays.

The United States now has the distinction of being one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the word. Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index 2019 documented that 63 journalists were killed while doing their jobs during 2018 – a statistic 15 percent higher than the year before. The report states that U.S. journalists are subjected to an unprecedented number of death threats and blames much of it on Trump’s accusations about “fake news” and calling journalists “enemies” of the people.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told NPR that reporters in the U.S have endured attacks by police and protestors, are targeted at the border and in other countries. All over the world, an increasing number of journalists are murdered, falsely imprisoned, and subject to violence. The CPJ reports that more than 260 journalists are in prison, the highest ever recorded.

Anyone looking for insight into Ilhan Omar, the prominent freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, is apt to be both pleased and disappointed by Time for Ilhan.

Norah Shapiro’s documentary does a good job of explaining how a Muslim immigrant from Somalia came to play such a big role on the national stage. On the other hand, it offers little help in understanding the controversies that have arisen since Omar arrived in Washington.

One thing is certain: Omar is not the kind of woman who’s deterred by long odds. That becomes apparent minutes into the film.

Walking into her young daughter’s bedroom, she’s greeted with the question “Are you president now?” Though that particular job is out of reach for Omar, as it is for any immigrant, the girl obviously thinks there is little her ambitious mom can’t achieve. And Omar seems to have passed this “can do” attitude on to her daughter, whose wall displays a list of qualifications needed to become an astronaut.

Weddings, over the years, have been something of a pain in the ass. From time to time I’ve done everything from a Catholic Church to a cornfield, and it’s all sort of a frontal assault on those of us who suffer from ADD. While my Keynesian philosophy appreciates weddings as an important economic driver, my inner tightwad estimates the expense of and shivers at the sight of a horse drawn carriage.

I can’t even deal with the invitations -- being commanded by people I barely know to “save the date” feels like being ordered around by a cop, which is my least favorite kind of being ordered around. Although I don’t know if I’ll even be alive in July of 2020, I now know for damned certain I’ll be spending at least one day that month eating rubber chicken with people named Todd and Andy.

But this time was different. When I walked into my office on one fine Monday in early April, I spied an envelope with “Ed” written on it carefully placed on my keyboard. Opening it, I found an invitation to the Smith-Jones Wedding, to take place on 4/20/19 at precisely 4:20 PM. There was no address, just some vague directions to a road near Legend Valley and a dubious promise of signs.