Local
Lao Tzu said that silence is a source of great strength. This principle was evident on September 12, when about 400 people of faith marched in silence from the First Congregational Church in downtown Columbus to the Ohio Statehouse.
It was a revival, on a much larger scale, of the Moral Monday rallies held at the Statehouse before the November election two years ago. Started by Rev. William Barber in North Carolina, the Moral Monday movement reclaims the moral narrative from the religious right, which in recent years has defined morality almost exclusively in terms of restricting reproductive rights and condemning LGBTQ people.
Rev. Susan Smith modeled the silent march on an event from the height of the civil rights movement. “An attorney’s house was bombed,” she said. “They marched from the University of Tennessee to city hall. All you could hear was the shuffling of people’s feet on the pavement. When you’re marching and you’re silent, people don’t know what to do, except listen. The power comes in the very silence.”
Members of the Ohio Community Rights Network gathered outside the Ohio Statehouse on September 12 to demand the right to ban fracking wastewater injection wells and shale natural gas pipelines in their local communities. They compared the impact of the proposed Nexus Pipeline on Ohio communities to the threat posed by the Dakota Access Pipeline to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
Actors impersonating Ohio Governor John Kasich, Secretary of State John Husted, and the oil and gas industry performed a street theater piece that was both entertaining and deadly serious.
Over Labor Day weekend a group of Columbus residents took action against the systemic racism that drives police brutality by restricting the lifeblood of the system: corporate profits. They held an economic blackout (or boycott) of all large corporate enterprises, including chain stores and banks.
About 100 protesters kicked off the blackout by marching from Franklin Park to the King Arts Complex, where organizer Karla Carey explained the blackout strategy. “This weekend we’re asking that if you have to spend money, that you reinvest it in the black community, to keep the black community thriving.”
African Americans only spend about 3 to 5 percent of their dollars in black-owned businesses, Carey said. “Economically, we need to have our voices heard. This makes a difference to the big chains and corporations.”
The discussion then turned to police brutality. “Ron O’Brien has held the office of County Prosecutor for 18 years,” Carey said. “Not one Columbus police officer has been indicted in a police-related shooting. If you’re OK with that, then don’t vote in November. But if you’re not, vote for Zach Klein.
Dear Ohio Activists and Concerned Residents,
Many of us have been watching the events unfolding on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. The Native Americans who live on the Standing Rock Reservation are not willing to simply stand by and watch a destructive pipeline project ruin their water and desecrate their sacred land. The company behind the project is Energy Transfer Partners/Enbridge. The U.S. government is willing to break treaties with the Native Americans in order to allow the pipeline to be built, putting corporate profits and greed above the rights of the people and nature on the reservation. We fully support and applaud the efforts of all the residents at Standing Rock
Finally, the major for-profit media is approaching consensus that it’s easy to hack U.S. political elections. Even candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are raising unprecedented doubts – from very different directions – about the reliability of the upcoming vote count.
Ultimately, there is just one solution: universal hand-counted paper ballots, with carefully protected voter registration rolls, and a transparent chain of custody.
The corporate media and the Democrats are obsessed with the “Russians.” Donald Trump rants about a mythological army of voters voting multiple times.
But the real threat to our election system comes from private for-profit corporations that register voters, control voter databases, then count and report the vote with secret proprietary software and zero transparency, accountability, or recourse.
As a crowd waited for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to join a September 2 political rally at Capital University, local Green Party members took the podium to explain the key role of third party politics, and how Stein’s presidential bid coalesces with state and local efforts to transform the political landscape.
“Politics creates the kinds of communities that we will live in,” said Anita Rios of Toledo, who ran for Ohio Governor in 2014. “Somebody is going to make those decisions, and if it’s not somebody who understands our needs, they’re going to make decisions based on the people who give them money — decisions that simply do not work for us.”
Healing our communities requires a groundswell of Americans participating in politics at the local level, Rios said, “not just as voters, but also as candidates.” She described her Ohio gubernatorial run as a grueling effort that required great sacrifices from herself, her family, and a legion of Green Party activists.
Help set the agenda for Central Ohio from the bottom up! Don’t leave the future of the greater Columbus area to current out-of-touch public officials and elite titans.
The Pre-Election Citizens Grassroots Congress will be held on Sunday, September 11, 2016 from 1-5pm at the Whetstone Library. Representatives of community organizations are invited to attend the Grassroots Congress to decide what causes we can all work together on in central Ohio to affect this November’s election.
Everyone is encouraged to bring a proposal from you or from your group or just come to vote on the issues. All ideas and perspectives will be welcome, ideas may be large or small. We will vote to approve everyone’s proposals, narrow the list down to the three top issues, and make a plan to help each other and support the causes going forward.
The "D" inThe Columbus Dispatch does not stand for Diversity unless you define Diversity as "middle-aged white males."
Diversity is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the condition of having or being composed of differing elements (especially through) the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization."
This inclusion appears to be not taking place at the Dispatch. A look at the pictures of the individuals listed below indicates a sameness in gender and race:
The CEO of New Media Investments, the owner of the Dispatch, is Kirk Davis, a middle-aged white male.
The president and publisher of the paper is Bradley Harmon, a middle-aged white male.
Paulie Gee’s, located in the Short North on High Street, has just broken through the cheese barrier by introducing the Columbus restaurant goers to a creamy and absolutely deliciously decadent, house made, cashew-based, vegan ricotta cheese for its socially-just pizza toppings. Paulie Gee’s also offers other vegan alternatives such as house vegan sausage and breadcrumbs.
They have also strategically partnered with the recent expansion of another local sociallyjust dining favorite, The Angry Baker, to cover fabulous vegan dessert offerings. The evolution of restaurant food must shift to plant-based favorites, as our global consciousness adapts to the reality of a human population at 7.5 billion people that has limited planetary resources.
Central Ohio welcomes Jill Stein!
Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein will be at Capital University on Friday, September 2, 2016 from 12-2pm. She will give a lecture on the state of Third-Party politics in America as well as student issues and climate change.
This event will be held on Schaaf Lawn at Capital University. Rain location will be in the Schneider Room in the Student Union. There is limited seating and parking. Note: This room has a maximum capacity of 200, so first-come, first-serve.
This event is being presented by the Ohio Green Party and the Capital University Campus Greens, and is not in any way endorsed by Capital University.
Capital University is in Bexley, off East Main Street. The event will be on campus outside on the Schaaf Lawn, between the Shaaf Hall and Student Union.