Thurs, Aug 2, 12-1pm
471 E. Broad St.
Edith is a Columbus mother who has been living in sanctuary since September 5th, 2017. Edith has previously discussed her case with Rep. Beatty, only to be told that the congresswoman was too busy to visit with her. With it being August Recess for Members of Congress, we are again renewing our request that Rep. Beatty champion Edith’s case.

The Free Press Salutes – Anti-ICE protestors and Columbus Sanctuary Collective

The Free Press salutes Anti-ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) activists who shut down city streets around ICE headquarters in downtown Columbus, attempted to occupy the ICE office and erected a two-story wooden tripod structure in front of the building with a sign reading "ICE RUINS LIVES HERE" on Monday, July 9. Demonstrators held signs reading "Abolish ICE" and chanted "No Borders, No Wall!"

Police descended on the demonstrators, bringing in a hook and ladder firetruck to remove two activists one attached to the top and one to the bottom of the handmade structure. Columbus Police arrested a dozen activists, charging them with trespassing and/or obstructing police business. Ten of them spent the night in the Franklin County Jail and pleaded guilty the following morning. Their attorneys Bob Fitrakis (this paper's editor) and Connie Gadell-Newton categorized the protestors' actions as "nonviolent civil disobedience in the finest tradition of American dissent." Judge Barrows indicated he agreed with them.

Columbus is home to several annual conventions appealing to the gaming, fantasy, comic book enthusiasts and the general geek community. There's the Origins Game Fair, Marcon fantasy and science fiction convention, the Ohayocon anime convention, Buckeye Comic Con, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), Geeklycon and this year, WizardWorld. Matsuricon is an annual Japanese pop-culture event in Columbus, started in 2006 and held exclusively in Columbus, that focuses primarily on Japanese animation (known as “anime,”) manga (Japanese graphic novels,) and video games.

"Matsuri" is the Japanese word for "festival." Matsuricon’s goal is to promote the cultural awareness of Japanese pop culture through related events, special guest speakers and cultural presentations. At Matsuricon you can find everything geeky and otaku, from anime to video games, Doctor Who to Marvel, My Little Pony to Homestuck and everything in between. It's an anime con first, but includes everyone else because the obvious overlap of fandoms.

Congress took the first steps to make Klansmen and neo-Nazis a special protected class of citizen with special protection when on July 8, Congressman Daniel Donovan (R-NY) introduced the “Unmasking Antifa Act of 2018.” It is currently in the House Judiciary Committee where it will languish while the Democratic Party is done pretending to fight Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. With the business of the House cleared of performances, the bill will then move forward.

The bill makes assault or intimidation of anyone exercising their rights under the Constitution while wearing a mask punishable by 15 years in federal prison. Despite the fact that the Klan has done that since the beginning of the lukewarm period of American history books call by the misnomer “reconstruction,” the bill names only one kind of person.

The design is to make it a crime to fight back against racists in any public way. Under this new law, all a Nazi snowflake would have to do is claim they were triggered by counter protestors, and everyone present would face 15 years in prison for wearing a mask or 10 years in prison for “conspiracy” if they were not.

Take an improbable real-life event, add a few history lessons, throw in an inspirational sermon or two, season it with a dollop of satire and romance and pour the whole concoction into a crime-drama mold. Then, for good measure, top it all off with an impassioned plea for decency. 

What do you get? With Spike Lee as the director, you get the messy, magnificent and moving BlacKkKlansman.

John David Washington (Denzel’s son) stars as Ron Stallworth, who in the early 1970s becomes the first black cop in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Though at first relegated to serving in the records room, Ron is eager to try undercover work and jumps at the chance to infiltrate a student-sponsored event featuring Kwame Ture, the civil rights activist formerly known as Stokely Carmichael. There Ron proves his worth by taking to subterfuge like Trump to hyperbole. As a reward, he’s reassigned to the department’s intelligence unit.