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URGENT! We Need Your Help to Keep Pedro Home

Bald older man wearing a green pullover sweatshirt that says Capital University standing in front of a building with glass doors and a glue curvy sign above that reads ...and correctional center

This is Pedro walking out of ICE detention after being unjustly held and threatened with deportation for the last 7 months! We are excited to see our collective hard work pay off. Without the courage of Pedro’s guardian and his immigration attorneys he would still be in detention or in an even more dangerous situation.

But Pedro’s release from detention is only half the battle. Now we need YOUR help so Pedro can transition back into the community. The link below has more details about Pedro’s story and needs. Please consider a tax-deductible donation that will go directly to housing, food, and transition assistance that are essential to keeping Pedro out of immigrant detention facility.

Together we can!

The View of the March For Our Lives from My Phone

Backs of people standing watching a speaker on a screen

On March 24, 2018, over 1.2 million people across the country rallied and marched to show the political establishment and the gun lobby that the American people are serious about gun control. Unfortunately, I was not one of them. As a father of two small children, I can’t always make it to every protest. Don’t get me wrong, protesting is in my blood, and my children have been to their fair share already, but on March 14, I was conscripted to help with a seasonal egg hunt. The key to being an activist parent is figuring out how to give your children a better future while allowing them to have meaningful childhoods. That day, in the name of meaningful childhood, I bundled up and hid some eggs.

Sixth Annual Ohio Move To Amend Network Gathering

Blue words saying Help Us Topple Corporate Rule! against the Constitution in the background

Saturday, April 7, 9:30am-3:30pm [registration begins at 9am], First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd.

A statewide gathering of local chapters of the national Move to Amend organization that is calling for a U.S. Constitutional amendment to reverse several U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the past century and thereby to firmly establish that corporations are not people and that money is not free speech.

“We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and other related cases and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.”

This event will also include workshops, action planning, a “People’s Assembly,” and reports on work across the state during the past twelve months.

• Keynote Speaker: Mary Jo Kilroy [former U.S. Representative, Franklin County Commissioner, and Columbus School Board member] on “What a True Representative Democracy Looks Like”

Ohio Green Party Statewide Convention

Green silhouette of the state of Ohio with a white flower in the middle

Saturday, April 7, 10am-4pm
Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St. room 100
Bringing together Greens from all over Ohio to prepare for the upcoming election year.
Morning - by-laws conversation for Ohio Green Party Central Committee.
Afternoon - Hear from the candidates running for Green Party office this year and how to get involved.
Free, no RSVP required. If you are registered Green or not, you are welcome.

ColumbusMediaInsider: Dispatch Elevates Yost, Ignores Foe

Black letters Columbus Media Insider with the M looking like cracked glass

The Columbus Dispatch cannot give Dave Yost enough sweetheart coverage in his bid for Ohio Attorney General. The newspaper might as well be named deputy campaign manager for the Delaware Republican and current state auditor. This is hardly the way the recently crowned Ohio's best newspaper should behave.

In fact it is hard to remember the name of Yost's Democratic opponent. Let me take a moment to look it up. The Democrat candidate for attorney general is Steve Dettlebach. He gets little coverage in the newspaper and dispatch.com and when he did get covered, the Dispatch headline gave it a negative spin.

In early March, Dettelbach, former U.S. attorney for northern Ohio, was endorsed by former New York U.S. attorney Preet Bharara at a fund-raiser in Cleveland. The Dispatch carried the Associated Press account. I suspect no Dispatch reporters were available because they were tied up covering Yost.

Bob Bites Back: Business As Usual

A hand with like an orange squeezer with the Earth inside pouring a liquid out of it in to a cup on a table, the other half of the world lying on the table and off to the left on the table are Saturn and two other planets

Judge Cynthia Ebner, endorsed by the Stonewall Democrats, handed out sentences to three of the four #BlackPride4 on Tuesday, March 13. The #BlackPride4 were arrested when they held a silent vigil during the 2017 Stonewall Pride march to call attention to the murders of black trans people and killings of black people in Columbus by the police. Just seconds into the vigil, Columbus Police attacked and brutalized them.

Ashley Braxton was sentenced to two years probation, 90 days in jail with 89 days being suspended, 60 hours of community service, and a $250 fine. Kendall Denton, convicted of a mere fourth degree disorderly conduct, the lowest misdemeanor charge, was given a surprisingly harsh sentence: two years probation, 30 days in jail with 29 days being suspended, 48 hours of community service, and a $100 fine – with $50 suspended because he spent a night in jail.

It's On Wendy's

Darkened photo of back of a black woman outside waving a yellow flag over her head and signs all around her about justice and against Wendys

Thursday, April 5, 5-6pm
2004 N. High St.
In response to powerful and beautiful Freedom Fast and Time's Up Wendy's March, Wendy's released this statement:
"There's no new news here, aside from the CIW trying to exploit the positive momentum that has been generated by and for women in the #MeToo and Time's Up movement to advance their interests."
Since then, the network has called Wendy's statement despicable, reprehensible, and vile. They're right!
We've seen what sexual harassment and sexual violence looks like on college campuses, and we won't tolerate it in Wendy's supply chain. April is sexual assault awareness month, and too often farmworker women are excluded from that conversation. Stand with us April 5th as Columbus heeds the call for a national day of action. Let's show Wendy's that farmworker women are leaders in the movement against sexual violence and that Wendy's has crossed the line.

Shelter Me From The Powder And The Finger

Man playing a guitar with his hair sticking straight up in the air and his face in a strange scowl he's wearing a plaid shirt without sleeves and he has long sideburns, the name Neil Young in red letters at top and Powderfinger below

"Look out, mama, there's a white boat coming down the river" ~ from Neil Young's "Powderfinger"

Damned little makes me happier than riding a bicycle – except maybe a motorcycle. For our purposes today, though, it's the human-powered invention usually attributed to a 19th century French man who was allergic to horses(hit).

I pedal, I thrive. Rhythmic grooves arrive. I bob my head in time as my legs go to the Derby, pumping energy through chain to wheels barely more mechanical than a chariot. Good lawd, I loves you, Porgy!

And when I'm feeling good, I want to the whole neighborhood to hear it.

Thus I break out in song. Lately, Powderfinger.

I lustily howl the quoted opening line--then forget virtually every other word except

Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothing from a following verse where the father advises the rebel son bravery isn't everything. Then – no kidding – I go into Rod Stewart's Maggie May

You made a first-class fool out of me
I'm as blind as a fool can be
oh Maggie I wish I'd never seen your fa-oh-ace

They call that a mash-up, I believe.

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