Local
April 11- 13, 2019
Three days of festivities designed to celebrate independent film. Take part in honoring makers and creatives around the globe. Come one, come all. Location: Central Grip & Lighting, Grandview Theatre, and Studio 35. For a full schedule and tickets visit: www.Columbusfilm.org.
Ruben Castilla Herrera was the uncompromising conscience of central Ohio’s activist community. Wherever there was injustice – Ruben was there, demonstrating, demanding, asserting the rights of the people. Ruben dedicated himself to helping the working people, the underpaid, the Immokalee farmworkers. He was never caught up in personal gain for himself or making political connections.
He didn’t really trust elected public officials. What he understood was that real democracy was in the streets and injustice must be confronted. Public officials that tolerated it had to be called out. He led us in rallies about immigrant rights, sanctuary, police abuse, peace. He was always there with a bullhorn, his thought-provoking speeches inspiring hundreds through the years. Like legendary activists before him – Cesar Chavez, Eugene Debs, Martin Luther King, Jr. – Ruben was ubiquitous and unyielding.
Wednesday, April 10, 1pm
Ohio Statehouse
The Ohio House will vote on the six-week abortion ban Wednesday, April 10th at the Ohio State House. This is the same day as the Freedom of Choice Ohio Coalition Advocacy Day 2019 so we will meet at the Holiday Inn and walk over together. You may also meet us at the Ohio Statehouse chamber at 1:00 p.m. to pack the House and show our opposition to this harmful legislation!
Tuesday, April 9, 2019, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom is a great introductory dramatization of the Spanish Civil War: the ideological, political and, ultimately, military conflict between the various factions, parties, militias, armies and governments of the Republican, Anarchist, and Communist resistance. (in English, 109 minutes) We'll project this on an approximately 8 foot space. Popcorn, coffee, tea, and other refreshments will be provided. Feel free to bring anything for yourself or to share. BYOB! Donations accepted, not required. Sponsored by Columbus Anti-Racist Action.
Location: Sporeprint Infoshop, 979 E. Fifth Ave., Columbus.
More information on Facebook.
Over 50 people marched from Bicentennial Park to the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center today to demand the release of Masonique Saunders, 17, who was incarcerated last December. Saunders is being charged with felony murder after Columbus police shot and killed her boyfriend, Julius Tate, in an undercover operation. Saunders was not involved in the murder.
Singing and chanting, the marchers carried drums, instruments, and noisemakers so that they can be heard from inside the jail.
“Masonique did not murder Julius, the police did. They need to be held accountable, she needs to be with her family and community in her home and school,” said Lainie Rini, a member of the Coalition to Free Masonique Saunders.
Saunders has been in the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center since last December. She has not been granted any bail. The Coalition has held actions and demonstrations for the past several months to demand the release of Saunders, including a sit-in in city prosecutor Ron O’Brien’s office last Monday.
Three years after their building burned down, Columbus KTC Buddhist Meditation Center began their rebuilding. On Sunday, April 7, they held a ceremony to bless the land where their original building stood in Franklinton. The event was led by a contingent of lamas from Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, KTC’s home monastery in Woodstock, New York. The lamas led the assembled members of KTC in a litany of Tibetan prayers and then blessed the land with traditional rituals.
The official groundbreaking followed with Lama Kathy Wesley, KTC’s resident teacher; Kim Miracle, Board President; and Peter Macrae, new building architect, turning the first shovelfuls of dirt. The event marked the end of a long period of fundraising that showed the center’s commitment to staying in Franklinton, where they’ve been since 1990. They plan to be in their new building by this time next year.
Sun, April 7, 2-4pm
399 S. Front St.
Gathering at Bicentennial Park (233 S Civic Center Dr, Columbus, OH 43215) at 2pm and marching over to the Franklin County Juvenile Jail (399 S Front St, Columbus, OH 43215-5038, United States) to demand justice for Masonique! Bring your instruments, be ready to sing and chant.
We all have our own Origin Story that brings us to who we are today. Whether it has brought trauma or prestige, all origin stories must be understood as how we begin.
Before starting let us all establish ground rules. All Super heroes (organizers) go through some kind of a struggle or a painful experience, and “it is the choices they make, rather than their special abilities, that make them superheroes” (organizers) (Dr. Janina Scarlett).
Why would you want to become a superhero, or an organizer? What are some attributes of being an organizer? We have many examples of heroes, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter and Star Wars. But who are the role models for an organizer? Throughout history, mostly they have been ostracized or assassinated. Can each of us describe feelings and attributes that bring us to the choice of joining that elite group of people who have stepped up to organize when called? ‘’
All the cool politicians are backing it; President Trump is mocking it: it’s the Green New Deal. The Democratic Socialists (DSA) spring issue of Democratic Left is totally dedicated to reporting on the Green New Deal. Perhaps DSA’s most famous member currently is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), or as Time magazine calls her on its cover, “The Phenom.”
It was AOC more than any other elected official who brought the Green New Deal into vogue. First, a week after the 2018 midterm election, the Sunrise Movement held a sit-in over climate change at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Representative Ocasio-Cortez stopped in to chat up and support he demonstrators. Soon after, she went beyond that as she introduced House Resolution 109 – the Green New Deal – in the newly seated 116th U.S. Congress. Senator Markey (D-MA) introduced similar legislation with Senate Resolution 59. Their legislation reveals that the Green New Deal in essence is a jobs stimulus program centered around solving the problems of climate chaos and economic inequality.