By now, it's a media ritual. Whenever the U.S. government raises the alert level for terrorism -- as when officials announced the orange code for "high risk" on May 20 -- local, regional and national news stories assess the dangers and report on what's being done to protect us. We're kept well-informed about how worried to be at any particular time. But all that media churning includes remarkably little that has any practical utility.

Presumably, the agencies that are supposed to help safeguard the public don't need to get their directives via network news or the morning paper. As for the rest of us, the publicity is very close to useless -- unless we're supposed to believe that feeling anxious makes us safer or looking sideways at strangers will enhance our security.

Americans could be much better protected if journalists found other uses for some of that ink and air time. For instance, a lot of lives would be saved if news outlets did more to encourage people to stop smoking and avoid excessive alcohol intake. For that matter, public health could benefit greatly if media did a better job of confronting

Though your body was taken away from us years ago, we want you to know that your spirit lives among us still.

Through our dignity and our pride in our history and our culture, you live.

Through our marches and demonstrations and sacrifices for our people's struggles anywhere and everywhere in the world, you live.

Through our dedication to our children, and our commitment to give them the best, you live.

Through those among us who refuse to be beaten down, and who are willing to pay the ultimate price for our manhood and womanhood and peoplehood, you live.

Through our schools and our centers and our holidays and our children named after you, you live.

Through our desire to live life guided by the highest principles, as you did, you live.

And through our commitment to have our freedom and dignity, fully and completely by paying any price, you live.

We declare, brother, to our friends and to our foes, that every shut eye ain't sleep, every good-bye ain't gone.

Brother, you live among us still.

(c) 1985 Yemi Toure

On Friday, May 16, 2003, Columbus Jobs with Justice participated in one of Columbus' first workers' rights delegations. A group of local labor, religious and community members (including County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, representatives from JwJ, the Central Labor Council, the Catholic Diocese, and a number of labor organizations) visited the corporate offices of the Kroger Corporation to ask for a visit with the president and to present a large signed poster demonstrating community support for truck drivers of Teamsters Local 413, who are in danger of losing their jobs. Kroger, a union shop where cashiers and others are represented by the UFCW, is considering giving the trucking contract to a non-unionized, low-paid owner-operator trucking firm in Texas.

At least 50 workers from Teamsters Local 413 marched with the delegation to the corporate office. Delegates presented their statement to a Kroger executive and made statements about their support for the campaign. After the delegation visit, supporters handbilled at a nearby Kroger store to gain support for the campaign and held signs near the highway to raise

As Ohio lurches toward more education cuts to resolve the state’s fiscal crisis, state legislators should be cutting wasteful spending. This means they should even consider cutting failed pet projects that have been coddled by lawmakers.

Limping toward its 7th year of existence, Ohio’s charter school program is one such project. The program has produced no academic return for our investment of state and local taxes, more than $200 million this year. Fiscal conservatives in the House of Representatives scrutinized every line item in the Ohio Department of Education’s budget with a fine toothcomb, yet they refused to even glance at the failed charter school program. With more than $600 million cut from K-12 and public higher education already, this program should be the first place lawmakers look to help balance the budget.

Charter school proponents sold the public a new approach to education. They promised taxpayers that if you ‘forget regulation and red tape, we’ll get results, never you mind how.’

The results are dismal.