Local

November 15 ended up being the third time since 1946 that an execution in the US was left unfinished. A “failed” execution. Not “botched,” because while it was ugly, the prisoner left on his own power.

Alva Campbell was to be killed in revenge for murdering Charles Dials in 1997. Campbell is a very sick man. He could die on his own within months. It was well known before entering the death house that “no suitable veins” had been found in preparations for the execution.

Thousands of Ohioanshad urged Governor Kasich to avoid a spectacle by simply pushing Campbell’s date back enough that he would die in prison like most killers convicted of capital murder. “Life without parole” really means “death in prison.”

Theater troupes and filmmakers persist in telling and retelling A Christmas Carol year after year. And why not? Charles Dickens’s ghostly morality tale makes a moving case for redemption and generosity, the respective hallmarks of the religious and secular sides of the holiday.

The story is such a perfect complement to the season that anyone who performs it competently is likely to meet with success. That is, unless they give in to the temptation to put their own spin on it. Then, all bets are off.

This year, a local theater production and a nationwide movie decided to get creative with the classic tale. In each case, they would have been better off letting Dickens be Dickens.

The troupe is Shadowbox Live, which in the past has given us Scrooge, a movie-to-stage adaptation that musicalized the tale but left its inspiring message intact. This year, Shadowbox remade the wheel with Cratchit, an original production that sets the action in modern America and focuses on Scrooge’s underpaid employee rather than the skinflint himself.

Beauty and trance and grace--are you getting near the amount you need?

As Keith Richards has said, everybody needs some trance in their daily lives. Same for the other two artistic virtues. Our impoverished inner worlds are thirsting, dehydrated as they are of these not-so abstract elements. I am very sure of this, adamantly so. Wanna fight about it, Zippy?

I didn't think so.

The other day I was at my usual haunt, Luck Brothers coffee house, waking up around noon, gazing out the window as the house blend was working its stimulative magic on my consciousness. Todd the Lad had a mostly brilliant mix playing as he usually does, partially instrumental, some vocals, mellow...when it happened.

I became part of the sound painting.

Because Gov. John Kasich is playing politics, Tom Noe is rotting in jail. Noe, one of 50,000 inmates in Ohio prisons, holds a unique distinction. He is a political prisoner, kept behind bars to please both political parties. Other prisoners of lesser means and influence remain behind bars, too, also victims of the governor's political motives.

We read about political prisoners all the time in third world, totalitarian and less civilized countries than the United States. Such individuals are put behind bars for a long time on phony or exaggerated charges in a foreign land because they posed a political threat or at least failed to please other countries' political elite.

When we read about political prisoners abroad, we in the United States say "not here." Yet we have political prisoners in Ohio. Tom Noe has been incarcerated for 11 years and is currently locked up in the Marion, Ohio, Correctional Institution after several years in the Hocking Correctional Institute in Nelsonville, Ohio.

Noe, 63 years old, is a senior citizen and at the rate things are going, he will be pushing 70 before he is released.

There’s not a single independent record store on High Street across from campus. Thus the apocalypse for off-campus has officially arrived even though the bell has been tolling for the previous two decades.

True, the internet has caused record stores to almost go the way of the dinosaurs, but to think there’s not a Used Kids, a Johnny-Go’s, or a Magnolia Thunderpussy between Lane and Chittenden says a lot. High Street has become antiseptic, or better yet, a septic tank of corporate bull poop. And a Target is on its way, whoop-de-do.

Ohio State and their non-profit Campus Partners got to work in 1995 following the tragic murder of OSU student Stephanie Hummer and they should be commended. But you may remember how Campus Partners said they wouldn’t demolish High Street’s independent and quirky vibe.

Now their mission to clean-up High Street is approaching an end stage. It’s clear however “clean-up” was a veiled way to describe how they wanted to also corporatize campus. In essence, make it more appealing to rich parents and their trust-fund children who are considering OSU for higher education.

The Open Shelter of Columbus has had a year full of changes, and despite the organization’s stormy weather, the shelter will ring in the holidays in style with their annual holiday event “Ho Ho Hope For The Holidays.”

According to a statement from the Shelter’s Development Coordinator, Harry Yeprem Jr., “The event exists to provide Holiday Cheer and Help to those who may not normally able to experience it.” The event, Yeprem added, was “was very near and dear to the heart of Mary (Beittel, the shelter’s late co-founder and Executive Director).”

Approximately 400 men, women and children are expected to attend this year's event at Broad Street United Methodist Church. The event will be held on December 19, the Tuesday before Christmas at the Church, located in the Discovery District at 501 E. Broad Street.

Doughasis, much like a proverbial oasis, pops-up in warm months the Granville Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings from 9:30 am to noon and indoors from December through February at the Granville Elementary School. It’s fare will quench the thirst of parched vegans for fresh, warm, vegan donuts (Reese’s Puff, chocolate filled, churro, cookie butter Oreo, pumpkin churro, vanilla and chocolate sprinkle), and other delightful sweet treats like blondies, Buckeye bars (GF) and sugar cookie bars in the vegan dessert desert region just east of Columbus. Doughasis, launched in June 2017, is fully vegan owned and operated. They also pop-up at the indoor Pickerington Farmer’s Market at Combustion Brewing on Thursday nights from 4-7pm – see the Doughasis Facebook page for specific pop-up location, date and time details.

How did fentanyl get into a Franklin County jail cell and kill Brent Gibney? His parents want an answer to this question after their son Brent Gibney, 29, died at Grant Hospital on October 4. He had been found unconscious “in his cell” at the Franklin County Jail, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s office.

Debbie Gibney, Brent’s mother, told the Free Press that the Franklin County Coroner’s office confirmed to her that her son died of a fentanyl overdose. “They told me had two and a half times the lethal dose of fentanyl in him,” she said.
Grant Hospital medical records obtained by the Free Press document that Gibney’s urine test came back positive for fentanyl.

Gibney’s parents were never contacted about their son’s death by county jail officials. In a statement to the Free Press, Debbie claimed that “We actually heard from another inmate about his passing.” She said, “The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department is not saying why or what killed him,” though the Franklin County Sheriff’s Official Offense Report noted that “unknown white powder” was in Gibney’s cell.

Tuesday, Dec 5, 4-6pm
37 W Broad St.
In 2012, Dreamers took nonviolent direct action and won DACA, an executive action that protected 800,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation. On September 5th, President Trump repealed DACA, threatening to strip Dreamers of their ability to live, learn & work in their home – the USA.

Now, we MUST pass the DREAM Act, which would make DACA the law and grant undocumented youth a path to citizenship. Our best chance is to force Congress to put DREAM into the Omnibus Spending bill, which must be passed by December 8th to fund the federal government. We are calling on every Democrat and Republican who says they support Dreamers to join Senators Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others who have pledged to vote against any spending bill that does not include the DREAM Act.

We can win this – IF hundreds of us take over the offices of Representatives and Senators across the country to demand they make a choice: stand with Dreamers or stand by as 800,000 young immigrants are deported
 

Saturday, Dec 2, 5:30-7:30pm
199 N. Main St. Mansfield Ohio
Join Bill Baker and his canine companion Freedom for an evening of storytelling and conversation. Freedom and Bill have traveled 5,000 miles since departing Mansfield in June and have returned to share some of their adventures since minimizing, reducing materialism and living in a portable 63 square foot home.
Dinner will be a potluck so please bring a dish to share if you are so inclined. Light beverages and tableware provided.
This is also a fundraising event to help improve the tiny house and allow the sustainable journey to continue. There will be a number of crafts and artifacts available as a thank you for your donation.