Saturday December 21 at 7 pm
First Unitarian Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Road, Columbus 43214

On the darkest day of the year when daylight will be at its lowest ebb, join me and my musical friends for an uplifting concert that looks ahead to the new year, its emerging sunlight, and its potential for joy and progress.

I’ll sing popular songs from the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and beyond that represent our hopes, dreams, and prayers for 2025. They’ll be songs that symbolize positive values of peace, community, gratitude, love, courage, justice, friendship, activism, and struggle. These are songs linked to a wide variety of folks –- Mama Cass, Pete Seeger, the Byrds, the Beatles, James Taylor, Carol King, Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, and Judy Garland.

Fellow musicians Joanne Blum and Joe Lambert will add beautiful vocal harmonies, and Ann Fisher will add soothing counterpoints with her flute.

The reflective evening will also feature wise sayings about darkness and light. And the concert in the darkened sanctuary will be bathed in the glow of dozens of candles. Expect a couple fun surprises too.

Back in the ‘80’s of the last century, we spent more than a decade documenting the impact of U.S. foreign, military and nuclear policies on the island nations and peoples of the Pacific.

Social media censorship is a global phenomenon, but the war on pro-Palestinian views on social media represents a different kind of censorship, with consequences that can only be described as dire. 

 Long before the current devastating war on Gaza and the escalation of Israeli violence and repression in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices have been censored. 

 Some date the censorship to an agreement in 2016 that, according to the Israeli government, sought to “force social networks to remove content that Israel considers to be incitement.”

In an ongoing struggle for free speech, a dedicated coalition of Ohioans from across the state have worked diligently to defeat legislation that conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism and ties it to heightened criminal penalties. Lawmakers attached the same provisions to multiple bills in a deceptive legislative bundling maneuver to fast-track controversial measures by contributing to ‘Christmas Tree’ bills during the lame duck session. Wednesday night December 18 marked the end of the 135th General Assembly and advocates remain energized and committed to protecting First Amendment rights in 2025.