A meeting for the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) to
decide to permit or deny fracking four Ohio state parks and wildlife areas
will be held Wednesday, November 15 at the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources (ODNR) office, 2045 Morse Road in Columbus.

Save Ohio Parks will host a press conference outside the ODNR building on a
grassy area at 9:30 a.m., just before the 10:30 a.m. meeting. The public is
invited.

"The OGLMC has had almost a year to educate itself on the human health
effects, environmental impacts and climate concerns that would likely affect
citizens, Ohio state parks and the world should these fracking leases be
granted," said Randi Pokladnik, steering committee member of Save Ohio
Parks. "We and other environmental groups and citizens have inundated the
commission with thousands of emails, citing research, peer-reviewed health
studies and climate data associated with fracking. Now it's up to them to do
the right thing for Ohioans by denying leases to frack under our state parks
and public lands."

Fossicking through the discord and strife in the world, to find some alluvial meaning, or trace elements of hope, and the common truth about their value and their sources, we have to kneel down, get close, and appreciate anew, the difference between muck, fool’s gold and gold.

Our social media is inundated with sensationalist news, boosted and curated deliberately to incite outrage, and as a society, we have normalised the habit of ejaculating our meaningless opinion onto everything.

Our news media have long since ceased being the vigilant guardians of public discourse, the Fourth Estate's foundational role. They have declined in virtue and value, increasingly favouring immediacy over investigation, and provocation over profundity, leaving the essential mission of informing the public with unbiased and thorough journalism in the balance. This decline has eroded the bedrock of trust and accountability that should underpin our information landscape.

If anyone—that is, the relatively few Columbus residents who pay attention—had any doubts, the election results and the self-celebration of the re-elected seal the anti-democratic, anti-publics deal.

Consider these facts:

The “mayor” in name only—who accepts his unearned, increased salary for not doing his job, not knowing the city, and accepting no responsibility for anything—ridiculously proclaims:

“The Columbus Century” and “the sun is always rising in Columbus.”

As a historian, I should be stunned. But I know better than that. Despite his private developers and private interest group funded campaign war-chest of more than $1.5 million dollars (likely closer to $2 million) and City Hall staff working for his  campaign including appearances in ads, Ginther ignorantly borrows on political economic rhetoric of the late 19th and early 20th century of “the American—and many other--‘centuries.’” This echoes the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in the 1890s. It is not the metropolitan rhetoric of the 21st century.

Friday, November 3, 2023, 12:00 PM
Join AFSC staff every Friday at to hear updates from Gaza. Then, take action with us as we contact our elected officials and call for an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian access to Gaza. Our elected officials need to keep hearing from us. Register here

November 9, 2023, 5:00 PM
The 2023 Free Press Annual Awards Dinner is free - all are welcome.  

Featuring peace activist David Swanson on "War Abolition and the Ukraine Problem."  

Honoring local community activists:  
2023 Free Press "Libby" Award for lifetime achievement in Community Activism - Cynthia Brown of the Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity
2023 Free Press Activist Artist Award - Alicia Jean Vanderelli of the Vanderelli Room.

RSVP: colfreepress@gmail.com.  

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