Local

Visit the Free Press booth at Comfest

Wine booth at comfest

Friday-Sunday, June 22-24
Goodale Park
Come by and say Hi and buy some wine to support the Free Press and the Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio at Comfest! Our wine booth is next to the beer booth on Park near Buttles. Comfest is a free, non-corporate yearly celebration of Columbus' community organizations, performers, artists and volunteers. Music, food, social justice, and kids activities. 

Group files suit against Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Drawing of a buckeye leaf and nut on top of the state of Ohio

The Buckeye Environmental Network (BEN) has filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) for withholding critical public information, violating Ohio law. Under public records law ORC 149.43, Ohio Department of Natural Recourses should have granted, but instead denied, a file review request by the group's Executive Director of ODNR files on AquaSalina, a product of oil and gas waste. The group requested to review all records held by ODNR as follows. "1. Records held by your agency regarding Nature's Own Sources/AquaSalina. 2. Communication between your agency and Dave Mansbery, owner of Duck Creek Energy, Inc." 

Rally to Keep Families Together: A Call to Action

Older white people in yellow shirts holding signs that say Stop Separating Families

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!

One day each week for the past two weeks, First UU Columbus members have held a Solidarity Table outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in downtown Columbus at the Leveque Tower, offering moral support, cookies, water, and Know Your Rights information.  We will be back, again, this Wednesday, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. We are in public space on the sidewalk in front of the Tower (ICE's office is on the 4th Floor).  This week we are adding a rally.    Please join us for the Rally to Keep Families Together, as we protest ICE, as well as Senator Portman's office, just across the street.  Make your signs, invite one and all, and rally with us!  Families with children are most welcome.

The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War In The United States

Gray haired white man in a suit waving in front of a silhouette of the United States with photos of news people talking

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

 

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.

Rally at the Ohio State Capital

Words Ohio Poor People's Campaign a national call for moral revival and a graphic silhouette of people with fists in air an flags and signs

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.

Care and Share Time Bank Monthly Potluck

Different colored hands in a circle around the words Care and Share timebank with a blue background

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!

Columbus Community Pride 2018: Back to Our Roots

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.

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