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A recent visit to Las Vegas demonstrated the wisdom and far-sightedness of the Nevada city's leaders compared to the "thinkers" of Columbus regarding NHL hockey and casinos.

Two decades ago, Columbus landed an NHL expansion team, the Blue Jackets. The team was housed downtown in Nationwide Arena.

It was Columbus' first "big four" major league sports franchise. Fans hoped the Jackets would be competitive from the start, make the playoffs and eventually win the Stanley Cup.

What ensued was an epic fail. The Jackets have made the playoffs only three times and have never gotten beyond the first round.

Industrialist John H. McConnell plunked down an $80 million franchise fee and the team began play in 2000. After he died, his son John P. McConnell took over. Nationwide Insurance now owns 30 percent of the club.

It is well-known that for professional teams in medium-sized metropolitan areas to compete for championships, the owners must be wealthy enough to subsidize the team to the tune of millions a year. This does not appear to be happening in Columbus.

When was the last time you lost track of your friend at a protest against a US war because you were among hundreds of thousands of fellow activists also out in the streets? When was the last time you had to squeeze yourself into a teach-in against US foreign policy because the room was packed? It's been a while? Then you are not alone.

Unseen Wars

Columbus Community Pride 2018: Back to Our Roots

It's time to celebrate Pride in the best way - as a community!  Stonewall Columbus' Pride isn't safe for LGBTQIA+ people of color, so we created Columbus Community Pride to bring Pride back to its radical roots and support ALL people. Our Pride will center LGBTQIA+ people of color and other marginalized groups. Community Pride takes no corporate sponsorship and will not invite the police to any of our events. Columbus Community Pride will feature a range of celebrations, performances, and cultural events, culminating in a day-long Community Pride Festival. All events are FREE to attend!

Black, Brown and ONYX ’Zine Release and Cookout

Thursday, June 7, 6-9pm

934 Gallery, 934 Cleveland Ave.

The saying “ignorance is bliss” means that it is better to not know about a thing, situation or event. It means it's better for someone to not know what a person really thinks about you or your circumstances. Some people feel that it’s better to be unaware, and thus ignorant of unpleasant situations that cause them stress or would in some way hold them accountable for what they have now become aware of in their safe, blissful world. If we don’t know about a thing, we can’t help, support or change a thing. If we don’t know about it, we can’t care about it. 

Currently there is a “Me Too” campaign going on across the nation. It seems that now is the time for people, especially women, who have been sexually harassed to have their voices heard. If women have been raped in the past they are now speaking out about it in the present. Men are going to jail, they are being fired from their jobs, they are being made to step down from high political offices, a few women have also been accused of sexual harassment. Now is the time for people to speak out and demand justice for the sexual crimes committed against them. 

Now that the gubernatorial primary is over, the policies pursued by the two major party candidates for Ohio’s chief executive office indicate we’ll have boring, middle-of-the-road corporate status quo. It looks like Ohioans’ choices will be between a third party woman and two male candidates racing to the wishy-washy center.

Richard Cordray’s already running as a centrist shunning the progressive democratic left and staking out territory to the right of John Kasich – particularly on the health care issue. The Dispatch spelled it out in a recent headline: “Cordray bashes House GOP, praises Kasich.” Mike DeWine’s campaign commercials emphasize that he has a large family. He’s also opposed to opioids. Like, who isn’t? This creates space on the Left for progressives to push for universal single-payer health care in Ohio.

Also, Cordray is afraid of legalizing marijuana which gives a tremendous boost to the Green Party, the only other party on the ballot for governor.

Whit’s Frozen Custard in Clintonville just entered the vegan non-dairy frozen dessert market this spring to the excitement across Columbus of vegans and those who are allergic, lactose intolerant or otherwise need to avoid dairy products. At this time, the Clintonville Whit’s offers one option: coconut-based vanilla. (Note: not all Whit’s locations are on board yet, so call ahead, verify, and ask them to carry it at their location near you if they don’t already have it.)

Whit’s also carries flax milk for those who enjoy shakes. The cool thing about Whit’s is that you can make their frozen dessert into whatever wondrous variety your taste buds are inspired to create. They have a fantastic assortment of fruits and berries as well as staples like peanut butter and Oreo-style cookies that are vegan.

The physical toll that football takes on athletes has been a source of controversy in recent years. A new and offbeat movie looks at the toll paid by an athlete who practices an even more dangerous sport: rodeo.

The Rider has garnered attention not only because of its absorbing tale but because the cast consists of people who experienced nearly identical events in the real world. Rather than relying on professional actors, writer-director Chloe Zhao tells her fictionalized version of Brady Jandreau’s life with the help of Jandreau and his friends and family.

Jandreau plays Brady Blackburn, a Native American horse trainer and bronco rider who suffered a nearly fatal head injury after falling under a horse’s hooves. We meet him as he’s attempting to get his life back—to the extent that’s possible. Providing a mixture of encouragement and insults is his alcoholic father, Wayne (Tim Jandreau), while more consistent moral support is offered by his intellectually challenged sister, Lilly (Lilly Jandreau), and a host of friends.

You’re in good company. Maybe you don’t know any vegans personally – except maybe Eriyah, but here’s the names of some famous vegans you may already admire:

Stevie Wonder

Dennis Kucinich

Joan Jett

Angela Davis

Jessica Chastain

Coretta Scott King

Ariana Grande

Joaquin Phoenix

Jennifer Lopez

Erykah Badu

Ellen DeGeneres

Woody Harrelson

Barry White

Peter Dinklage

Moby

Chaka Khan

Morrissey

Grace Slick

Bryan Adams

Russell Simmons

James Cameron

Ellen Page

Al Gore

Jay-Z and Beyonce

Alanis Morrisette

Peter Max

Betty White

Stevie Wonder: "We have to be about making our planet more greener, the urban areas more sustainable for the children. We can't just talk about it, we have to be about it."

Jessica Chastain: “I guess it’s about trying to live a life where I’m not contributing to the cruelty in the world. … While I am on this planet, I want everyone I meet to know that I am grateful they are here.”

Joaquin Phoenix: “It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.”

This is a little weird so bear with me, folks.

I'm gonna write you about the best night o' music I've had so far this year--the Andyman tribute a month ago at the Little Rock Bar on N. Fourth Street by the Joe Peppercorn congregation. Joe and bros performed their original music as The Whiles and then a solid couple of hours of stuff by a quaint if daftly named British boy band from yesteryear and Liverpool called The Beatles.

But first, my short essay on the first 16 seconds of the first song on the third Black Sabbath album and what that precious quarter of a minute has spawned, like a cross between a supremely fertile devil rabbit and a bat-eating alcoholic slob with a fantastic lashed-to-the-mast voice.

The song: Sweet Leaf.

The album: Master of Reality.

The guitarist: three-fingered Tony Iommi.

The chord pattern: bow-bow/babba-bow/bowww/bow-bow!

Repeat. Again.

Bang head on study hall table. Do it in detention six hours later. Never stop. Never give in. Sabbath rules.

As we go to press, dozens of farmworker women and men from Florida and scores of clergy, students and consumer allies from around Columbus and the country plan to converge at Wendy’s Dublin, Ohio headquarters on Tuesday morning, June 5 at 9am, 1 Dave Thomas Blvd. off of 161, to protest Wendy’s deafening silence in the face of a growing national boycott of the fast-food retailer.

As a colorful public protest draws attention outside headquarters’ Thomas Conference Center, a farmworker delegation plans to enter the meeting to directly address Wendy’s Board and leadership on the company’s failure to join McDonald’s, Burger King, and 12 other retailer peers in the Fair Food Program. The workers and consumers will decry Wendy’s choice to abandon Florida farms participating in the Fair Food Program in order to source tomatoes from Mexico, where egregious rights violations like sexual assault, child labor, and modern-day slavery are commonplace and well-documented.