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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.

Can’t Believe It’s Vegan just joined the Columbus catering scene with their tasty 100% plant-based options! I finally got to try their Jackfruit Slider I had heard so much about at the Vegan Spring Pop-up Market last weekend, and I understand why peeps are raving about owner Clayton Freeman’s healthier vegan alternatives to traditionally animal-based favorites. Other options available were the Vegan BLT and the Vegan Sausage Sliders. All came with a side of vegan coleslaw and chips and salsa. If you want some great sliders at your next party, remember there is a new, healthier option in town by Can’t Believe It’s Vegan!       

VeganShift and the Columbus Vegan Meetup are doing their monthly vegan book club featuring author Sherry F. Colb’s book “Mind if I Order the Cheeseburger,” hosted by Joy Lawrence of Pure Joy Massage and Yoga on May 13 in Westerville. You can also attend our “Second Saturday Ask a Vegan” lunchtime dine-in event on May 11 at Ye’s Asian Vegan Kitchen in Hilliard.

Thursday, May 2, 7-9pm, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and University Center, 30 W. Woodruff Ave.

Since the dissolution of our former parent organization, the International Socialist Organization [ISO], we have worked to rebuild our organizing collective on a healthier basis.

Now, we are in the process of rethinking our approach to organizing and charting a path forward to building a new revolutionary socialist organization in Ohio.

We would like to invite all of those interested in initiating this new formation to contribute in this collective process of developing the kind of revolutionary organization we want and need in Columbus to fight against exploitation, oppression, and the capitalist system.

This meeting will focus on developing comrades’ ideas into proposals, which will then be voted on in the coming weeks. We will facilitate discussion by combining break-out groups to focus on specific topics, while utilizing stack to discuss among the entire collective.

Hosted by Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists.

Toledo’s 2014 water crises which left 500,000 area residents not able to drink, bathe, or touch their tap water because a potentially deadly algal toxin called microcystin could make them sick, started the realization in Toledo that Lake Erie was calling out for help.

For the next 2 years the people tried to work through the regulatory system and government officials to protect the Lake and the residents. What they discovered was that all the regulations and tax money thrown at the problem were merely “window dressing” that gave the impression of doing something. More testing of the water, signs posted at beaches to let people know the dangers of going in the polluted lake waters and voluntary classes for agriculture businesses on how to apply fertilizers.

On April 8, two days after the death of Rubén Castilla Herrera, the team that supports Miriam Vargas gathered at First English Lutheran Church on the Near East Side. They met to remember Rubén, who started the sanctuary movement in Columbus. Miriam and her family have been living in sanctuary at First English since June. 

Miriam was overcome with grief. She met with the team as usual but could only say a few words. “He was like my father,” she said. “He was like a grandfather to my daughters.”

Reverend Sally Padgett, senior pastor at First English, did her best to comfort Miriam. “We’re still here to fight for you,” she said.

The team met again two days later to figure out how to carry on the work without Rubén, who left very big shoes to fill. “Rubén was always texting me early in the morning, asking ‘What to you need?’” Miriam said. “He brought me books in Spanish from the library. He would horse around with my daughter Camilla. He gave me strength every single day. He was my angel. I always told him that. He would always say, ‘I’m just here to help.’”

It was an event 20 years in the making.

In April, Julian Assange, the controversial founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, was arrested in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for what appears to be trumped up charges regarding classified information that Wikileaks published in 2010. While there’s been no shortage of big news in recent months, as often tends to be the case in our hyper-partisan, 24-hour news cycle, the most important aspects of the Assange story have been misrepresented by the mainstream media and partisan hacks on both sides.

First and foremost, everyone needs to realize that while Assange is certainly a tendentious figure who provokes a variety of feelings, the charges brought against him by the U.S. in this particular instance are because Chelsea Manning supposedly asked Assange for help cracking a government password back in 2010. While Assange originally agreed to help Manning with the hack, he subsequently failed at doing so, making the charge even more frivolous, so much so that the Obama administration actually decided not to prosecute Assange for the same thing. So, the fact that these charges are being brought forward now has several journalists scratching their heads.

Ohio’s corrupt voter registration system must be reformed. The Dispatch got it right in an editorial that began by saying “Ohio lawmakers should take up Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s request to make voter registration automatic.”

Our current system, fueled by the former Secretary of State and hardline right-winger Ken Blackwell, was designed to target and eliminate core Democratic voters, particularly blacks and poor people. Former Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted perfected the art of de-registering Democratic voters. A 5-4 Supreme Court decision in the Husted v A. Philip Randolph Institute case last year upheld Husted’s undemocratic scheme – purging voters who hadn’t voted in the last few federal elections.

In the run-up to Ohio’s 2004 presidential election, the Free Press broke the story that 305,000 voters – primarily in the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo – were stripped from the voting rolls. In the next four years prior to the 2008 presidential election, the Free Press acquired the names of 1.25 million voters kicked off the voting rolls. Between 2009 and 2012, the number reached 1.1 million.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 8:00 – 10:00 PM