Labels are central to the politics of media. And no label has been more powerful than “terrorist.”

 A single standard of language should accompany a consistent standard of human rights, which the world desperately needs. “If thought corrupts language,” George Orwell wrote, “language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.”

 No amount of rhetoric from its defenders and apologists can change the reality that Hamas engaged in mass murder. What Hamas horrifically did to more than 1,000 Israeli civilians of all ages two weeks ago meets the dictionary definition of terrorism.

Don’t Tell 

On the way to East High School, we stopped to pick up Annie at her house on Long Street. She used to live in an apartment in Poindexter Village, now she lived a few doors down from the Reverend Phale D. Hale, Sr. family. Another famous family on the East Side and in the state. Rev. Hale had been the President of the NAACP and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. I thought it was cool that he lived in my neighborhood. It showed where his heart was, with his people.

Annie was glad to see us, well, me at least. Jean didn’t particularly like Annie and made sure we both knew it. She wasn’t outright mean, but she insulted Annie every chance she got. Like the time when Annie got a new haircut. I thought it was cute, but Jean told her she looked like a black orphan Annie from the movie. When Annie and I entered the lunchroom that day Jean started singing “the sun will come out tomorrow” and everybody laughed and those that knew the song started singing with her. I was mad, but Annie wasn’t. She started singing it too.

In the last week, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther shows signs of an incumbent in a tight race desperate to prove he deserves another shot at his job. If he were even slightly engaged with everyday people, he wouldn’t need the polling firm he’s hired to learn about what matters to people in the city he is paid to lead.

Selected voters in Columbus recently received a survey (or “push poll”) from a market research firm, EMC Research, paid for by the Friends of Ginther campaign ($55,000 paid to EMC Research on July 27, 2023). What these polls lacked in ethical research, they made up for in creative rewriting of history, attempting to create a fiction of Andy Ginther as having “worked tirelessly to fight crime” in Columbus with only two examples to offer the public of his effort.

Martin Scorsese paints a vast canvas of greed, betrayal, and twisted love in "Killers of the Flower Moon." This sweeping epic, a suspense-filled crime drama, is adapted from David Grann's acclaimed book, revealing a dark chapter in American history. It explores the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma, who, after striking "black gold" (oil), faced mysterious murders. At 80, Scorsese still pushes cinema's boundaries.

After serving as a cook in World War I, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns to Oklahoma and meets his influential Uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro), known as the "King," Hale's power in the Osage Indian Reservation comes from cattle ranching and deep community ties. Driven by greed, Hale persuades Ernest to marry Mollie (Lily Gladstone), an Osage woman with a potential oil inheritance. As tragedies strike Mollie's family, FBI Agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) is sent to investigate the suspicious events.