Recently I have heard that there is a concern in the metro-Columbus area regarding the state of health care services for our veterans. Apparently the Department of Veterans Affairs is having problems meeting the current demand, and the nearest V.A. hospital for veterans in Columbus is over an hour's drive away. If our national administration is going to talk war, then thought and action should also be given to our young men and women upon their return to home-life. Although I did not see combat, I am officially a Vietnam Era Veteran, and someday if I am out of employment or medical insurance, I may need to use veteran health benefits.

dance contest
in the growing absence
of ceremony and ritual.

driven by icons and marketing
toward a state of apathy
we are faced with
way too many choices
many finding they are unable
to choose at all

as the storm clouds gather
an inhumane political agenda
falsely projected by those
who would divide and isolate us
from each other
and all of us
from the rest of the world

instilling fear.
those who would have
and use it all
continue encouraging us
to sit this one out
consistently inviting us.
to remain silent

in the growing absence
of ceremony and ritual.

let's dance.

Do you know what you are not seeing on television? Last month a peace organization purchased national commercial airtime from Comcast cable to run an anti-war ad on the night of the State of the Union Address. The ad was pulled at the last minute and the chance to edit the ad, as is customary, was not granted. Comcast was concerned about content it could not "substantiate:" an assertion that the war "violates international law" (an issue debated before the UN) and a description of Bush and his cabinet as "self-appointed mercenaries" (at worst an insult and a form of protected speech).

Censorship? Comcast cable recently won approval of a major merger with AT&T Broadband Cable Company, a move that gives 70% of the audience in the top 20 markets. The merger passed without a peep from the FTC or FCC about anti-trust or public interest risks. Comcast and other cable giants are now also trying to head off congressional proposals that would rein in skyrocketing subscriber fees. Did Comcast withhold the ad to curry favor with politicians?

The Sierra Club is continuing its legal actions against the City of Columbus Department of Sewers and Drains, (DOSD), which has been illegally dumping untreated raw sewage into Central Ohio rivers and basements.

The Club has compiled these statistics from its records search: 3 billion gallons of raw sewage and industrial waste bypassing Columbus' two sewage treatment plants each year, 900 illegal cross connections of sewer lines into stormwater lines, 800 illegally unreported sanitary sewer overflows, and 10,000 reported basement sewage backups in the last 5 years. The city also has issues of illegality surrounding combined sewer overflows (where stormwater and sewage flow in the same pipe and can mix in wet weather) and a 13-inch unpermitted sewer bypass pipe at the Jackson Pike Wastewater Treatment Plant. To get a perspective, the current bypass pipe at the plant is 8 inches in diameter. The city maintains that this new pipe is part of its floodwall project.

The Sierra Club has been disappointed that neither Mayor Coleman nor any City Council members have so far been willing to stand up and question the actions of the DOSD.

To all people of good will round the world,
    Love and Peace of Christ be with you.

    We are addressing President Bush and all the American people as human beings, not as a president of United States. We presume that as Christians you have hearts full of love and compassion. You will pity our Iraqi children, our elderly, and our youth that have no hope in a better future and a decent life. We, Dominican sisters and brothers in Iraq, are living and sharing with our people in their sufferings. The Iraqis have been going through hard times for twenty-three years, for they have witnessed two disastrous wars. If President Bush starts another military attack against Iraq, we think this will be a catastrophe. We believe that you can feel the danger that is looming over the Iraqi civilians. That is why millions of people from different countries round the world are demonstrating, writing letters and trying to put pressure on President Bush not to initiate a new military attack.