Justice for Tyre King Vigil
Friday, May 19, 6-9pm
18th and Madison Streets, near east side Columbus
The Grand Jury is convening this Friday to decide whether or not the officer who killed Tyre King should have to face an open trial. We are not expecting justice. Prosecutor Ron O'Brien has NEVER held CPD accountable for a lethal shooting so we are expecting the system to fail the community once again.
We will gather in the school yard of Douglas Elementary near the site where Tyre's life was lost Friday evening. We are mourning the tragic loss of life and the lack of justice for him and all the victims of police violence in Columbus.
Join us and find out ways you can join the movement to fight for police accountability and real investments in the programs that actually keep communities safe.
Columbus Central SDA Church will be hosting the family in the time following the announcement.
Press inquiries can be sent to mcgovern@ohorganizing.org

While I’ve been in Russia trying to make friends, back home in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, a group of torch-bearing supporters of Robert E. Lee has held a rally generally understood as a proclamation of white supremacy.

The day has finally come: Chelsea Manning has been released! From May 2010 through today Chelsea has been in prison for exposing the costs and inhumanity of war.  She risked everything to do what she felt was right.What can we  commit to today to end war? Share your inspiration and commitment with Chelsea. We will make sure she receives it. At these moments of victory, it is important to let the inspiration refuel our own commitments.

One inevitable outcome of the phenomenal violence we all suffer as children is that most of us live in a state of delusion throughout our lives. This makes it extraordinarily difficult for accurate information, including vital information about the endangered state of our world and how to respond appropriately, to penetrate the typical human mind.

'Phenomenal violence?' you might ask. 'All of us?' you wonder. Yes, although, tragically, most of this violence goes unrecognised because it is not usually identified as such. For most people, it is a straightforward task to identify the ‘visible’ violence that they have suffered and, perhaps, still suffer. However, virtually no-one is able to identify the profoundly more damaging impact of the 'invisible' and 'utterly invisible' violence that is inflicted on us mercilessly from the day we are born.

So what is this 'invisible' and 'utterly invisible' violence?

One of the wonderful things about the page, stage and screen is how they can introduce us to historical figures and eras, often long ago and far away. This week is your last chance to spend an evening with W.E.B. Du Bois (Ben Guillory) - or as close as one can get to meeting this Civil Rights giant more than a half century after his death (Roy Wilkens announced Du Bois’ demise during 1963’s famed “March on Washington”). And at its best, witnessing the West Coast premiere of  Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington in the intimate setting of the Los Angeles Theatre Centre complex’s Theatre 4 is like being in the presence and company of the brilliant (he was the first Black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard) anti-racist leader (circa 1900 Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were the most prominent African Americans) and author of the 1903 classic The Souls of Black Folk and the pacifist, suffragette and socialist Mary White Ovington (Melanie Cruz, who appeared in productions such as the HBO series Big Love).