Your help is needed to bring a dynamic exhibit on the human cost of war to Columbus, Ohio June 12-14. The American Friends Service Committee exhibit: "Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War" will open at 11:00 AM, Monday, June 12, on the West Lawn of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio (High Street between Broad and State) and remain in place through Wednesday, June 14. The Episcopal Peace Fellowship is bringing the exhibit to coincide with the national General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the USA. We need additional contributions from individuals and groups: $10 from 600 people, or $100 from 60 groups, or a combination! All contributions will be used for the exhibit.

The exhibit features:
• A panel display memorializing the civilian Iraqis killed in the war.
• A field of empty combat boots symbolizing the more than 2,350 US soldiers who have lost their lives, each pair of boots bearing the name of a fallen soldier.
• An interlocked field of shoes and sandals representing Iraqi children, women, and men who have died.

Carol Fisher was found guilty today of two counts of felonious assault of two 200 + pound Cleveland Heights policemen (who, collectively, can bench 700#’s) and whose testimony contained serious contradictions.  None of the other witnesses provided by the prosecution actually saw “the assault.”  Their claims had more to do with Carol’s perceived lack respect for authority.  The jury deliberated for more than 8 hours over two days before announcing the verdict. 

Former prosecutor Judge McGinty, who was supposedly “randomly” assigned to Carol’s case, is known to be “police-friendly,” a fact that was painfully obvious to observers.  McGinty ruled out key pieces of evidence as “not relevant” to the case, denying the jury the opportunity (obligation?) of hearing them.  The fact that virtually everyone in Cleveland Heights can relate “horror stories” about the Cleveland Heights police was not to be known by the jury of individuals born and raised in Northeast Ohio, but not in Cleveland Heights.   As the court transcript will show, McGinty showed clear bias toward the prosecution.

Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio
Sunday, April 30, 2006

Pachtama?waas ahhki Anishinabeok.

In the tongue of my Grandma's people, Mohican: "The Great Spirit blesses the land where we, the people, live."

God bless America!

Pachtama'waas ahhki Anishinabeok.

This is Goats in Prison, Volume 1 of the Free Press archives project.

I?m dedicating this never-ending quest to my aunt and uncle Bernice and Arvid Miller from the Mohican Nation Library in Wisconsin. Some of you may remember Arvid from the last page of Custer Died for Your Sins. He helped found the National Congress of American Indians, the United Nations of tribal governments. After he died, their cabin caught fire and all the young people, who never seemed to care much before, formed a bucket brigade and saved their library. Bernice was my Daddy?s childhood friend, and best, along with Bill Coleman, Chief Buffalo from the Aleut Scouts, first American to contact Japanese ground forces. When Aunt Bernice retired the Tribe hired twelve people to do her jobs and now she?s passed leaving over 220 direct Mohican descendents.

A quarter century ago, the United States embarked on an economic crusade to “downsize” its working class: to eliminate millions of jobs by outsourcing employment abroad, and to push millions more middle-class employees into low-wage jobs. The argument advanced by U.S. corporations was that in an age of global economic competition, American workers were simply “overpaid” and weren’t as productive as their European and Japanese competitors. By cutting salaries and benefits, terminating pensions, eliminating jobs, and forcing workers to pay for their own health care, U.S. corporations could stay competitive in global markets.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the vast majority of layoffs occurred within the working class, especially skilled labor and manufacturing jobs. Blue collar workers were pushed in the service sector, frequently earning less than one-half of what they previously had been paid. Airplane mechanics and factory foremen were counseled to learn basic computer skills in order to compete for $10 per hour jobs that couldn’t cover their home mortgage payments or children’s college tuition bills.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Either the so-called "lobby reform bill" is the contemptible, cheesy, shoddy piece of hypocrisy it appears to be ... or the Republicans have a sense of humor.

The "lobby reform" bill does show, one could argue, a sort of cheerful, defiant, flipping-the-bird-at-the-public attitude that could pass for humor. You have to admit that calling this an "ethics bill' requires brass bravura.

House Republicans returned last week from a two-week recess prepared to vote for "a relatively tepid ethics bill," as The Washington Post put it, because they said their constituents rarely mentioned the issue.

Forget all that talk back in January when Jack Abramoff was indicted. What restrictions on meals and gifts from lobbyists? More golfing trips! According to Rep. Nancy L. Johnson of Connecticut, former chair of the House ethic committee, passage of the bill will have no political consequences "because people are quite convinced that the rhetoric of reform is just political."