Local
It’s almost Christmas. If you haven’t figured that out by from the ads for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, you can see it in all the holiday-oriented fare on local stages.
BalletMet’s The Nutcracker. A couple of takes on A Christmas Carol. Heck, even the Jewish Community Center-based Gallery Players has a show with “Christmas” in the title, though it boasts an appropriately Jewish theme. (See complete list below.)
In Columbus, the granddaddy of all holiday shows is Shadowbox Live’s Holiday Hoopla. This decades-old tradition occasionally comes off as just that: a tradition. Some years, it has a same-old, same-old quality that is as comfortable as an old slipper—and about as exciting.
This, thankfully, is not one of those years. For 2015, Shadowbox has added new songs and freshened up old ones. Best of all, its skits are a deft combination of sly humor and bittersweet sentiment.
Shop local, shop independent, shop small business, and shop for social justice!
To be a responsible consumer during a stressful holiday season, you can support your own community by shopping at real stores instead of national websites, and keep the individuals and artists making a living selling their own products or owning neighborhood stores. Here are some gift ideas for discerning progressive Free Press readers:
ACTIVIST gifts
For friends or family members who frequent street rallies, consider giving a bullhorn. A good, sturdy megaphone with a strong audio range is a boon for chanting and giving speeches outdoors. For your activist friends who give occasional educational presentations using a computer at a meeting or conference, a pocket video projector is a thoughtful gift. Some are no bigger than a smartphone. You can find bullhorns and projectors at local office supply store – and don’t forget while you’re there to add in some thick black markers and colorful poster board for sign-making and some clipboards and pens for petitioning.
It’s All Natural is the only totally exclusively vegan and vegetarian market in Northeast Columbus (Gahanna just off of Morse Rd in the Cherry Bottom Shopping Center). They focus on vegan, organic, locally made, non-GMO foods and offer many kosher, gluten-free, sugar-free and tree-nut free options such as peanut-free peanut butter. They are also currently phasing out all non-vegan items so there are several items on sale to move them out if you want to get some good deals on honey or buttermilk pancake mix.
When you want something new on the vegan market, this is the place that has it first.
Vegan Egg Alternatives: Want to try the latest algae-based vegan egg replacer mixes by Follow Your Heart, or the chia and chic pea egg replacer by Neat, or The Vegg nutritional yeast and rice milk-based French Toast Kit or Scrambled eggs mix, or the Orgran Gluten-Free egg replacer or the seasoning spice packs for those who still prefer tofu; it’s all available at It’s All Natural.
This past November 7, 2015 a historic moment took place in Columbus. Fifteen African American Columbus residents were sworn in as the first Board Members of the Columbus Civilian Community Board (CCCB). They will hold this position for one year and were approved by residents of Columbus who have been meeting on a weekly basis for months before the induction ceremony.
Khari Enaharo, a board member and the originator of this movement states that the main goal of the CCCB, known by some as the Triple CB, is to “minimize conflict and maximize cooperation to produce constructive outcomes between Black people and others in our communities.”
Deborah Muhammad, also a board member says her main goals are to “be an example of the Code of Conduct that we are going to implement in our communities, becoming more unified and cleaning up our communities and making them safe.”
As Columbus struggles with issues of public trust in government caused by the conduct or misconduct of elected officials,The Columbus Free Press takes a look at our local election system as evidenced by the 2015 election cycle. Recent years have provided some of the biggest public failures, including allegations and convictions of elected officials, including the school data scrubbing scandal, NCLB school tutoring fraud scandal, unvoted Nationwide Arena public purchase, undisclosed tax abatement and continuing financial losses, inflated priced home sales to foreign nationals, Redflex bribery scandal and the continuing F.B.I. public corruption investigations.
All this begs the questions, 1) does our electoral system produce the best pool of candidates and elected officials possible?, and 2) is it appropriate for citizens to find and demand better ways to ensure honesty and competence in local government? Communities across the country are wrestling with the same questions, and some are finding answers and working toward solutions.
The 2015 Election and Campaign Financing
Just how serious has the problem of heroin addiction become for Columbus and its suburbs?
Before a recent 60 Minutes story that exposed the local epidemic nationally, there were reports that Central Ohio rehabilitation centers were maxed out and putting abusers on waiting lists. But when The Columbus Dispatch editorial board called for a clean needle exchange program this past summer, it was truly eye opening. A double-take moment for many considering the paper has often promoted itself as a local mainstay of moral and conservative excellence.
Pressure from the Dispatch is apparently working. Mayor Michael Coleman announced in November the city with $280,000 in initial funding will begin a needle exchange program scheduled to start in January. Called “Safe Point,” the exchange will be administered by the AIDS Resource Center Ohio in the Short North.
The morning after Election Day 2015, I woke up suddenly. My mind was racing, “This isn’t right. This isn’t right. Something’s not right.” As an analyst, I’m used to working with mass quantities of data; I’m used to looking at patterns of numbers. Sometimes these differences just leap out at me. Such was the case on that morning.
The prior evening, Issue 3, which would have legalized marijuana in Ohio while according growing rights to just ten properties, went down in flames. Just 34 percent of voters supported the measure; a crushing 65 percent opposed it. So said Ohio’s election officials when the vote was called at 9:41 pm.
The defeat had opponents jumping for joy. Issue 3’s “deeply flawed, monopolistic approach failed garner broad support” said one. It “would have made a handful of rich celebrities and businesspeople even richer” mused another. Meanwhile, those who understand the sordid history of Ohio elections were witnessing the repeat of a troubling pattern.
Thursday, December 3, 6:30 - 8 pm
Northwood High Bldg, Room 100
2231 N. High St (park in rear lot "R" spaces)
Come explore in depth the transition from global "fast fashion" to global fair trade and local fashion! What will that look like? We'll have clips from the film "The True Cost" and experts to lead a discussion on how we can make the transition to a sustainable clothing future!
Cost: Free, donations to Simply Living Sustainable University welcome.
Contact: Chuck.Lynd@gmail.com or call 614-354-6172 with questions.
As you read this, a terror attack has put atomic reactors in Ukraine at the brink of another Chernobyl-scale apocalypse.
Transmission lines have been blown up. Power to at least two major nuclear power stations has been “dangerously” cut. Without emergency backup, those nukes could lose coolant to their radioactive cores and spent fuel pools. They could then melt or explode, as at Fukushima.
Yet amidst endless “all-fear-all-the-time” reporting on ISIS, the corporate media has remained shockingly silent on this potential catastrophe.
Nor has it faced the most critical step needed to protect our planet in a time of terror: shutting all atomic reactors.
The world’s 430-plus licensed commercial nuclear plants give terrorists like ISIS the power at any time to inflict a radioactive Apocalypse that could kill millions, destroy huge parts of the Earth and devastate the global economy.