Local
Thursday, June 21, 6:30-8:30pm
Mt. Hermon Missionary Baptist Church, 2283 Sunbury Rd.
A forum held to discuss holding law enforcement accountable. Rep. Bernadine Kent and Free Press Editor Bob Fitrakis will speak.
Wednesday, June 20, 11am-1pm
LeVeque Tower, 50 W. Broad Street, Columbus, OH
Why: Because separating families is inhumane and immoral and we cannot be silent and complicit. Our government has instituted a policy of separating children from their parents at our borders. This is inhumane and immoral and calls for action NOW!
Tuesday, June 19, 7pm, Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St., Rm. 100
Join the Progressive Peace Coalition for a screening of the documentary “The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States.” Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and its repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies virtually everywhere in the world — except the United States.
This documentary takes an eye-opening look at this critical exception, zeroing in on pro-Israel public relations efforts with the United States. Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, this film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israeli lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor.
Open discussion will follow the screening of this film (84 minutes) which will be free and open to the public.
Free parking is available in the “R” spaces — “R” for “Rardin Clinic” — behind the building.
Murder Incorporated is a three-book series by Mumia Abu Jamal and Stephen Vittoria, which I can highly recommend based on the first book. The other two are not out yet.
Book One, “Dreaming of Empire,” is a critique of U.S. imperialism, a debunking of U.S. nationalist myths, a corrective or alternative history of the U.S. nation. Politically, a book like this would never be permitted in U.S. schools, and it’s clearly not aimed at clearing that hurdle. It uses curse words, which would provide a handy excuse for keeping it out. It’s also not straight history. It’s part chronological, part theme-based. It mixes historical accounts with pop-culture, with quotations from scholars, historical sources, and analysts interviewed by the authors.
Monday, June 18, 2-4pm
Ohio Statehouse grounds
Please register https://bit.ly/2tahuhH
WK 6: A New and Unsettling Force: Confronting the Distorted Moral Narrative
This is the sixth of six weeks of nonviolent moral fusion direct action across the country to show our elected leaders we will no longer allow attention violence to keep poor and disenfranchised people down.
Get up, sisters and brothers! Come and stand with us to demand freedom for all of our people.
Sunday, June 17, 6:30-8:30pm
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd.
Bring something tasty to share with others and, if you wish, bring a card with the ingredients so all our varied diet preferences can be accommodated. If it is a special dish you believe will be particularly well received, by all means, bring a copy of the recipe. We are developing a CSTB "Cookbook" and are always pleased to add new dishes to the selection! Bring your own reusable plates if you can, to reduce the wash up necessary after the event. We try to avoid single-use materials, wherever possible!
If you have something you no longer want that others may appreciate, bring it to the "sharing table". We only request that, if it doesn't find a new home, please take it home with you. (We don't have a used product dispensing system!)
We'll have the usual table discussions and introduction of newcomers, but then - the rest of the evening will be something completely different!
Shortly after the Columbus Community Pride festival started on Saturday, June 16 at Mayme Moore Park in Columbus, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy – an activist for more than 50 plus years fighting for Black Tran’s Liberation – gave a speech on stage to kick things off. She talked about how the LGBTQIA+ Community needs to continue to be more inclusive for the sake of Stonewalls Pride Festival and the importance of staying true to what the festival stands for.
A hundred or more Columbus people stood in a single file line in front of the Omar Ibn El-Khattab Mosque to protect it from a few dozen protestors -- presumably the "God Hates Fags" folks that arrive in the city every year to preach during the Columbus Pride Parade. It was reported that at the time, Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr to mark the end of Ramadan a holy day. The protest group spouted anti-Muslim hatred and at one point a truck ran down the street between the two groups of people with ugle photos on the side promoting anti-abortion sentiments.
Gay, lesbian, trans, queer people including drag queens shut down a major street downtown, disrupt traffic in the middle of the day on Friday, June 15 to protest Vice President Mike Pence – and what do the Columbus Police do? Let them.
Scores of protestors went inside the Renaissance Hotel during Pence’s speech, not to discuss tax policy, but to heckle him, not allowing him to speak for the first four minutes of his event. What do the Columbus Police do? Quietly escort them out one by one without arrests.
A handful of black, gay, lesbian, trans, queer people stand for a moment of silence for 40 seconds in the road at the end of last year’s Pride Parade, without disrupting the flow of the floats and marchers, to protest murders of trans people nationwide and police brutality against black people. What do the Columbus Police do? Viciously attack them with bikes, throw them on the ground, mace them, brutally arrest them, and charge them with multiple misdemeanors and one with a felony.
What’s the difference?