Local

I had an odd feeling when I walked into the local Cabela’s.

It’s a big, beautiful store, designed to appeal to campers, hunters and others who enjoy spending time in the great outdoors. I’d been there before and felt comfortable, if a little out of place.

But that was before June 12, when a lone gunman forced his way into a gay bar in Orlando and shot 102 people, killing 49. He was able to pick off so many because he was armed not only with a semiautomatic pistol but with a SIG Sauer MCX assault rifle capable of firing 30 rounds as fast as he could pull the trigger.

Though the shooter didn’t purchase his assault rifle at Cabela’s, he could have. Mixed in with the store’s tents, fishing poles and other outdoor gear are rifles and shotguns designed for shooting game both big and small. And mixed in with those are weapons designed for one purpose only: to kill as many people as possible in as little time as possible.

Those weapons include the MCX, which Cabela’s sells for $1,679.99 when stores can keep it in stock. It’s currently out of stock at Columbus’s Cabela’s, which is hardly surprising.

Anyone who has read the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, knows that it is full of wild stories – tales of sex, murder and betrayal that would make a dime-store novelist blush. But genocide? Incest? Yep, they're in there too. And according to a group of deep – and free – thinkers, those crimes against humanity are being celebrated in larger-than-life fashion just an hour south of the Buckeye state.  And in part at taxpayers' expense, no less.

The Ark Encounter opens its doors on July 7th, and the word around the well is that Noah himself would have been impressed. At 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high, the timber-frame building (allegedly the world's largest) is built to the dimensions mentioned in the book of Genesis. Situated about midway between Cincinnati and Lexington on I-75 in Williamstown, Kentucky, the Ark Encounter will relive the saga of the thunderstorm to end all thunderstorms. Complete with animal couples (yes, even dinosaurs) the Ark Encounter serves as the companion piece to the Creation Museum, 45 minutes to the north.

Everything that was supposed to happen during my trip to Kurdistan, didn't. But what did happen all the time I couldn't have ever predicted happening at all.

I knew the day was coming, but that doesn't mean I was looking forward to it.

That day was June 3, 2016, the day Muhammad Ali died.
 

It was gratifying to see the mainstream media give him his due. His passing was well covered and many people paid tribute to him. Most of them shared a personal story about the man known as “The Greatest.”
 

I have my own story to share.
 

In 1979 I was the television sports anchor for the American Forces Network Europe, stationed in Frankfurt, Germany.

One day as I was preparing my broadcast for that evening's show, the phone rang and I answered.
On the other end of the line was a man with a thick German accent but who spoke very good English.
 

“Mr. Alwood,” he began politely. “I was wondering if you would like to interview Mr. Muhammad Ali?”
 

There is an old joke I remember:

Q.: “How do you know when a politician is lying”
A: “His/her lips are moving.”

This certainly seems to be the case with One Columbus, the politician-supported political action committee (PAC) formed to oppose Issue 1 – the citizen’s ballot issue that will be voted on in a special election August 2nd proposing a change to Columbus City Council. The group appears to be launching a campaign against the citizens’ initiative, based solely on lies or distortions.

On August 2nd, in a Special Election with just one issue on the ballot – Issue 1, Columbus will vote on whether to adopt a more contemporary form of city council, where three members will be elected at-large in city-wide elections and ten members will be elected from smaller council districts that are clusters of neighborhoods. This format would replace the antiquated seven member all at-large elections (elected citywide) we have had since 1914.

The ten council districts will be developed by an independent apportionment committee, comprised of nine Columbus electors who submit applications and then are chosen to serve on the committee. The mayor and council will each choose three members of diverse political registration (majority party, minority party, third party or independent). Those six will then choose the final three again recognizing the diversity of political affiliation or non-affiliation and broadly reflecting the geographic and demographic diversity of the city. The committee will then elect a chairperson and hire a “districting master” who is qualified by experience and training to create an apportionment plan.

Bernie Sanders need only ask the obvious question to find his way out of the corporate capitalist neocon wasteland where he now lingers – What Would Debs Do?

Sanders is quite familiar with the life of his “hero” Eugene Victor Debs. Sanders produced a documentary on Debs’ life in 1979 before being elected to political office. In the 1970s, Sanders ran in five statewide races on the ticket of the left-wing Liberty Union Party. Debs ran five times for president of U.S. on the Socialist Party ticket.

Now Sanders and his mass of young followers find themselves squabbling over how to influence a meaningless Clinton Democratic Party platform. Students in my Intro to American Government class are familiar with the phrase “A political promise in the UK is a pledge but in the U.S. it’s a hedge.”

One the first times I thought about Aesop Rock, I ended up looking at sculptures by Alberto Giacometti after listening to “Shere Khan” on the acclaimed rappers 1997 “Music for Earthworms” Ep because he referenced the Swiss artist when describing fragility.

The last time I thought of him I was sitting at Front Row bar looking at a T-Shirt that emblazoned his current album cover for “The Impossible Kid.”

I'm assuming The T-shirt was purchased at this month's Columbus stop @ the A & R bar. Aesop Rock performed mostly new material with the help of Bobby Freedom and DJ Zone. Columbus, Ohio's own Blueprint came up on stage to rap at some point.

Aesop Rock was the most confident I'd ever seen him. The room was sold-out. He was scheduled to appear on a Late Night Television show backed by with Yo La Tango the next night so fragile was not how I would describe him anymore.

In a small press room on the fourth floor of the Cannon House building, an oversized crowd heard Revs. Jesse Jackson and Lennox Yearwood, joined by members of the newly formed (see http://www.opednews.com/articles/Congressional-Briefing-Apr-by-Marta-Steele-Bipartisan_Congressional-Committees_Corruption_Democracy-160422-490.html ) Congressional Voting Rights Caucus, and others, including Terri O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). The subject was the insidious disappearance of voting rights, including the relevant legislation, and what we can do to reverse it.

Barbara Arnwine moderated the event with energetic enthusiasm. This former executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, now presides over the Transformative Justice Coalition, which she recently founded.

On June 22 over 50 Unitarian Universalists gathered outside the Wendy’s on Woodruff & High calling attention to the nation-wide boycott of the Ohio-based fast food chain.  The protest happened in tandem with the Unitarian Universalist Association, with hundreds of thousands of members worldwide, officially endorsing the Wendy’s boycott.

It’s a new chapter of a long story: the Free Press has covered the now 3 ½ year campaign urging Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) for farmworker dignity.  The Program entails corporations paying one penny more per pound of tomatoes purchased and agreeing to buy from reputable farms that uphold basic rights such as breaks, shade, and zero tolerance for wage theft and sexual harassment — conditions all too common in the industry. All of Wendy’s major competitors in the fast-food industry — McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell and Chipotle — are partners in the Program.