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Peacejam

There is a local effort afoot to bring Peacejam training to Columbus. The training and curriculum are provided free through Peacejam. This training is a one-day six-hour training geared to adults who have four or more high school-aged students to work with. One-year commitment of at least 1½ hours per week is expected. Ideal for high school teachers, after school groups, youth groups, agencies that serve youth, faith-based youth groups or individuals with four or more high school aged youth to work with. There is also an elementary curriculum (classroom-based) training available. Anyone interested in the training, contact Lezlie at 614-443-6334. We only need 20 people!

Peacejam facts: ¨ 11 Nobel Peace Laureates on board including Desmond Tutu and the Dali Lama
¨ Over 50,000 participants
¨ Over 140,000 community service projects started
¨ 93% of all participants believe an individual can make a difference
¨ 97% of all participants will be peacemakers for the rest of their lives

Mission Statement:

Jim Hightower reveals W’s little secret

Texas populist Jim Hightower, also known as the anti-Bush, spoke at a TrueMajority event in Bexley on August 13. Hightower signed copies of his new book Let’s Stop Beating Around the Bush. The highlight of Hightower’s talk was his detailed account on how George W. Bush came to own a “ranchette” in Crawford, Texas. Hightower speaks with great authority as the state’s former Commissioner of Agriculture.

As Hightower told us, Karl Rove, referred to as “Bush’s brain,” decided that Dubya needed a ranch in 1999 if he wanted to be elected President. After all, Ronald Reagan had a ranch and so did that last Texas President, Lyndon Johnson.

“There’s nothing Bush likes better than having a photo op of him clearing brush,” Hightower explained. “Bush is always inviting the media out to take pictures of him clearing brush. In my experience real ranchers spend virtually no time clearing brush. They’re usually tending cattle. But Bush bought a ranch in farm country, and the cattle you see as part of the photo op aren’t even his. They’re somebody else’s that he rents the land to.”

Free the Stansbery 1!

The rumors swirled among the Operation Save America faithful, as they whispered to each other: “A pro-deather punched out a cop!” Or an alternative version had him assaulting a woman. Who was this vilified creature? None other than our local Gandhian peace guru, Mark Stansbery. Stansbery participated in an anti-OSA demonstration, and after being tackled by an undercover cop was injured, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The undercover cops had infiltrated OSA and were dressed, as Mark described them, like the “Blue Meanie” males of OSA.

Charges against Stansbery were dismissed after the state failed to provide him with a “speedy trial.” Local attorney Jim McNamara represented Stansbery in the criminal case. Stansbery said that the community has a right to counter protest without being attacked by undercover cops. “This is a community issue and we intend to pursue it,” he concluded.

Ohio radio stations to renew licenses in 2004 – Act NOW!

Fed up with the lack of local news programming, limited alternatives for news gathering and reporting or the lack of diversity even in the music line-ups on your RADIO dial? NOW is the time to get your feedback to the FCC about your stations’ license renewal. Giving feedback to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for current commercial and non-commercial licencees’ contract RENEWALS involves a few steps but may be worth it.

All Ohio radio stations are licensed by the FCC and upon their expiration on October 1, 2004, those granted renewal licenses now will be licensed until 2012, eight years from now! This is a change from what used to be three years, then five years, and now eight years. This means it will be another eight years before we can make such an impact on licensing for radio stations and the use of the public’s airwaves. So, what can you do?

· Go to www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/renewal/ for general information about the license renewal process

Boycott Clear Channel

You all know how awful Clear Channel is with their push of Rush, Bush and the Iraqi war. It has gobbled up populist stations and muzzled free speech. Now, it seems they spread their hate to animals, too. The following information is not for the faint of heart, so take care before you read on. These events happened at Clear Channel stations.

A Denver disc jockey (KPBI-FM) was recently convicted of animal cruelty for orchestrating a stunt in which a chicken was dropped from a third-story balcony to see if it could fly. In Wheeling, a steer’s execution was recorded and aired for 129 stations during a live broadcast. Another similar event involving a Clear Channel DJ (KEGL-FM) in Dallas involved feeding a rabbit to a snake – on the air. (This station was forced to record a public apology on the air and publicize animal welfare information on their web site.)

In addition, Clear Channel’s Tampa station DJ was just charged with felonious animal cruelty for castrating and then butchering an unanesthetized pig in the parking lot of the station. Many consider this a ratings stunt. The animal was screaming in pain.

September-October 2004



Don't forget to check out the columns and
dispatches sections for other articles included in the print edition!

Jobs

When it's not a swing state

MASON, Texas --- Letter from a non-swing state. Every political reporter and his hamster is covering the swing states. Here's the news from the rest of the country. This column is dedicated to all the Democrats in the red states and all the Republicans in the blue states, with affection for all.

In Mason, Texas, pop. 2,148, there are new yellow ribbons up all over town in memory of young Mathew Puckett, the first Mason man to die in military action since World War II. Though Masonites are united in sorrow, the debate over Iraq has only become more embittered. "Now they've killed one of ours. Now you have to support the troops," say the Republicans.

"Now don't you wonder, 'Should we be there?' Now don't you have to ask, 'What good are we doing?'" say the Democrats.

Local Democrats participated in the Mason County Round-Up parade this year. A few people waved at them from regular shoulder-height, but more waved from hip-level, just with their hands, not wanting to attract attention. It's not popular to be a Democrat in Mason County.

Media Watch Alert

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Media watch alert: a curious double distortion in the media mirror, as the situation in Iraq unravels before our eyes. Iraq gets less media play for two reasons -- one an old media fault, and the other political.

As the story gets worse, it also becomes more familiar. We've heard it before, quite a few times, and consequently it doesn't get as much play. "Seven Marines Killed" or "Scores Are Dead After Violence Spreads in Iraq" would have been HUGE stories a year ago. Now they're just another bad day in Iraq, nothin' new here, no news. Back to the hurricane (which is also becoming unpleasantly old news).

John Kerry must (again) make love, not war

This presidential campaign is stuck in the sixties and seventies, right where it belongs.

That's when the preppy draft dodger George W. Bush thought the Beatles were "weird," possibly because, as Kitty Kelly says, he heard them too often on cocaine. He was also the quintessential Chickenhawk, content to see others die in a war he backed but ducked.

That was Vietnam. Now---Oops, he did it again---it's Iraq.

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger knew full well in 1972 that the Vietnam war was unwinnable. They looked into calling off the election, broke into Democratic Party headquarters, dirty tricked George McGovern (with the help of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney), then drunk drove the nation right into a jungle quagmire.

In the age of oil and global warming, that fever swamp has become desert quicksand. But the catastrophe's the same, except now we're also burdened with the last one.

Bush seems morally and mentally incapable of doing anything but plunging deeper, not only into Iraq but into fiscal, ecological, moral and spiritual psychosis.

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