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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?
Yesterday, June 14, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence came to Columbus, ironically during Gay Pride week. LGBTQ groups protested his visit, hosting DJs and drag queens in a dance party to make the notorious homophobic uncomfortable.
The event, as reported on CNN, went this way: "Crowds converged on a small stretch of Gay Street -- you read that right -- outside the hotel where Pence was speaking to a separate group about tax reform. Videos posted to social media showed crowd members raising rainbow flags and dancing to loud music. They were celebrating the kickoff of Columbus' Pride Festival, but organizers also wanted to send a message to the vice president."
Pence could barely get a word out in his speech to a couple of hundred supporters at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus when protestors converged on the event shouting loudly about ICE raids and family separation. Pence was repeatedly heckled while he touted tax reform, attacked Ohio Democratic Senator Shsrrod Brown, and announced his support for candidate Troy Balderson, running for Republican Congressman Pat Tiberi's seat in the 12th district.
Saturday, June 16, 11am-7pm
Mayme Moore Park, 867 Mt. Vernon Ave.
Join us for a day-long festival centering on QTIPOC and on those at the intersections of oppression. Our pride is taking no corporate sponsorship and police are not invited. The Columbus Community Pride Festival will feature performances and visual art by queer and trans artists of color, a community resource fair, outdoor activities for children (and the young at heart), POC-owned food trucks, and much more! Join us for a day of celebration, creativity, and joy — and help grow the promise of liberation for QTIPOC in Central Ohio and beyond!! Visual ASL Interpreters will be provided for all Community Pride events. Please contact the interpreter coordinators at cbuscommunityprideinterpreters@gmail.com to request close vision or tactile interpreters for all Community Pride events.
Stay tuned for announcements of performance and workshop lineups, food trucks, vendors, and community resources.
Families in Columbus Ohio, along with their children, came together and took to the streets on Thursday, June 14th from 5-7pm EST. They came together at Goodale Park, to talk about and protest for the end of family separation. The protest and rally was in response to the “Military-Style” ICE raid that took place June 5th in Sandusky Ohio, on workers at Corso’s Garden Center.
Before the protest began, people listened to a very diverse group of speakers, from many different walks of life, as they shared their perspectives on the issue. These were people who were working day and night to support this cause and what had happened to the families of Sandusky Ohio.
Friday, June 15, 2-5pm
Outside the Renaissance Hotel downtown, 50th N. Third St.
Mike Pence is coming to Columbus June 15, the first day of Pride! Help welcome him with a Big LGBTQ Dance Party!