Local

This year’s usual bumper crop of holiday movies includes a political biopic, a Disney sequel and a bizarre tale of the aftermath of a hate crime. All of them open on or before Christmas Day. Let’s start with the best.

Welcome to Marwen

In the spring of 2000, artist Mark Hogancamp was savagely beaten by a group of men who disapproved of his cross-dressing ways. He survived—barely—but his memory didn’t. Since then, he has attempted to deal with his loss and trauma by creating a fantasy world set in the fictitious town of Marwen, Belgium.

Robert Zemeckis has turned this real-life tragedy into Welcome to Marwen, a film that seamlessly blends fantasy and reality with the technical finesse we’ve come to expect from the director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump.

Thursday, December 20, 6-7pm
Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, 125 E. Broad St.
Each year, The Columbus Coalition for the Homeless sponsors an annual memorial service to honor our homeless citizens who have passed away this year. This service will include speakers from the community who work with the homeless population, music from Common Harmony, a Harmony Project Program, and the reading of the names of those who have passed. Please, share this event throughout the community.
Hosted by Columbus Coalition for the Homeless.

December 18, 2018 - Sent to Governor by the House

HB 41 VOTER REGISTRATION Will modify the law concerning challenges to voter registrations, the appointment of observers, and absent voting, and to change the manner in which counties may use reimbursements for voting machine acquisitions.

HB 58 CURSIVE HANDWRITING  Will require the Department of Education to include supplemental instructional materials in cursive handwriting in the English language arts model curriculum.

Wednesday, December 19, 11:30am-1pm
The Boathouse Restaurant at Confluence Park, 679 W. Spring St.
The state legislature has sent TWO abortion bills to Gov. John Kasich's desk. Both the six-week ban (HB258) and the abortion method ban (SB145) pose a threat to the future of Ohio's economy and the quality of healthcare in our state. These extremist policies will deter innovative business leaders and high-quality medical talent from practicing in our state and will force patients seeking abortion care to travel outside of the state... if they have the means to do so.

Gov. Kasich will be at the Boat House tomorrow for his final public appearance as Ohio's governor. Let's use the opportunity to apply pressure encouraging him to stand up for the best interest of women and patients here in Ohio by vetoing both HB 258 and SB 145.

Meet outside the Boat House. We'll be there with signs so you won't be able to miss us :) 

These pieces of legislation would undermine the baseline standard of care here in Ohio compared with other states where reproductive freedoms are valued as an inalienable human right.

Ohio lawmakers met at 1:00 in the morning Friday to sneak their pay raises into a Widows and Orphans bill. Besides providing cover for their raid on the taxpayers, the action also prevents Governor Kasich from using a line-item veto . which is only available on appropriations bills for special projects. He is now forced to either veto the bill completely and expose himself to charges that he is against widows and orphans or give the politicians their pay raise. Under the bill legislator’ salaries would rise automatically over the next 10 years from $60,584 to $73,167, the politicians thus spare themselves from having to vote each year to increase their pay. This is good money for a part time job. The legislature is only in session a few months of the year and most of the lawmakers hold full time jobs outside politics. These same lawmakers who can not find funds to repair Ohio’s roads and help the homeless  had no trouble finding money for themselves. By trying to use widows and orphans as a vehicle for their pay raises, politicians only confirm the opinion of most Ohioans that they are using their offices for personal enrichment not public service.

George Moss

Tuesday, December 18, 2018, 8:00 – 10:00 PM
Guess who's back?! BQIC Spoken Word is back!! Please join us as we round out 2018 with this fun, creative event! Come out and share your poems, songs, monologues, inner musings, etc. on the mic!  We will have soda, beer, and chips for a suggested donation! Entry is a $5 suggested donation! We will have the lovely Monee Jae to MC the event and DJ Zewmageddon (Sarah Mamo) spinnin sounds for the night!   Since Art Outside the Lines is giving us the space at a VERY LOW COST they are asking if we can ask people to donate art supplies!! Please please bring any art supplies you can donate to help an amazing art program run by people with disabilities!!  Location:  Art Outside the Lines, 485 E. Livingston Ave., Collumbus 43215. Facebook.  

Monday, December 17, 2018, 7:00 PM.  

Recently the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the US Government both issued reports acknowledging what people all over the world already knew--urgent action is needed in order to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Despite these reports, agencies and legislative bodies that claim to serve the public interest continue to support destructive fossil fuel development and deforestation. Earlier this week in an online auction the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased two parcels totaling 75.06 acres in Wayne National Forest, a second growth forest planted on land the US government obtained by means of treaties with Indigenous tribes that the US has violated. State legislators are now pushing anti-protest bill SB250, with the intent of preventing the people from standing in the way of fossil fuel development. Similar legislation in Louisiana was recently used to charge protesters with felonies for blocking construction of an un-permitted pipeline on private property where the protesters had the landowner's permission to be. SB250 passed the Senate last week and now goes on to the House.

Sunday, December 16, 3:30pm
Northside Library, 1423 N. High
Join Yes We Can Columbus for a planning and strategy session this Sunday from 3:30 - 5:00 pm at the Northside Library Branch (1423 N High St, Columbus, OH 43201) - Meeting Room 3. 

We have been working to build a local government works for all of us and make sure residents can hold elected officials accountable. 

In order to make that happen, we need to make sure we have reasonable local campaign contribution limits. The proposed legislation has a limit ($12,707.79) that basically ensures that a handful of multi-millionaires will continue to own / control our local democracy.

We've already shifted the conversation and helped delay the process. The Ginther Adminstration was hoping to pass it earlier this week on Monday.

At the City Council meeting on Monday, they announced that City Council will have another public hearing on this issue on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 5:30 PM.

Saturday, December 15, 2018, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Join Columbus Socialist Alternative, Columbus DSA, OSU YDSA, and International Socialist Organization - Columbus (ISO) for our first ever socialist feminist movie night! We'll be watching the drama Norma Rae, which follows the struggle of a factory worker from a small town in North Carolina who becomes involved in the labor union activities at the textile factory where she works after the health of her and her co-workers is compromised. We'll watch the movie together, eat some popcorn, and have some brief discussion!  Location:  It Looks Like It’s Open, 13 E. Tulane Rd., Columbus 43202.  Facebook.