A local non-profit movement continues to make a positive impact on the lives of Ohio’s prison inmate population each year by sending them personalized, handwritten Christmas cards that encourage them to "Continue the Story." 

Over the past several years, Central Ohio’s “Continue the Story" movement has personally reached more than 64,700 inmates incarcerated in Ohio’s prison system at Christmastime, one inmate at a time, in hopes of brightening their lives by spreading the Christmas spirit, which is one of joy and hope. 

Although it is rapidly growing with hundreds of volunteers throughout Greater Columbus, “Continue the Story” was created six years ago after members of the organization became painfully aware of some of the horrors of the modern criminal justice system. Organizers believe a lot of the people who are incarcerated today are essentially good people who’ve made mistakes. 

Foreword: Columbus, Ohio, exposes itself embarrassingly….

If I, as the holder a Ph.D., am barely able to comprehend the intentionally garbled and misleading rhetorical constructions of all of the City of Columbus, Ohio’s purposefully overwhelming number of off-year propositions and charter amendments in the November 2022 election, the City itself violates the newly-approved charter amendment outlawing self-dealing voter initiatives and dropping the 1914 stipulation that competitive testing must be part of the city’s hiring process.

Indeed the number, the linguistic misconstruction, the disorganization, and the mangled presentation of the bond proposals is itself a clear and compelling example of City Council’s purposeful “self-dealing.” Or shall we say “double-dealing”?

The fight to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) continues. Right now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is assessing the environmental impact of this climate-busting pipeline, but they have kept key stakeholders in the dark about the true impacts of a potential oil spill.

We already know the pipeline poses a serious ongoing threat to the Missouri River, including the primary water source of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Join frontline Indigenous water protectors calling for transparency on the risks of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Each day the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) continues to operate, it violates Indigenous sovereignty and treaty rights and poses a constant threat to the Missouri River — a crucial water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes as well as much of the United States.

The film will be available to watch November 18-20 with a Q&A on November 20 at 2:00 EST discussing local food issues with one of the filmmakers and activists from Ohio. Register today to learn more about this amazing leader/activist and about the food we eat.

What did you have for breakfast today? For lunch or dinner? Do you know where what you ate comes from or how it was grown or who grew it? Many of us have taken for granted that what we are eating and feeding our families is healthy for us. The shift in food production from growing our own food to small local farmers to purchasing it at large corporate grocery stores has big implications not only for our health, but the health of the soil, the air and the water....NATURE.

Can a poem transcend fury — fury combined with helplessness? Can individual property owners join NATO?

Having no other options than simply to continue seething, let me tear myself psychologically open for a moment here and see what happens. Yeah, this is personal. And yeah, I live in Chicago — part of what would, I presume, be called the “inner city,” which is where trouble happens, right? A lot of people avoid the inner city. Watch out, it’s dangerous.

But it’s been my home for the last 45 years and I love it for many reasons — but, essentially, for its complex, evolving diversity. Back when I was a reporter with a neighborhood beat in this city, I had an astounding realization: The whole world passes through Chicago! Thus, though my beat was a few square miles of teeming neighborhood, I was, in effect, covering the whole world — not from the top down but from the bottom up. It was a world of struggle and squabble, crime and empathy. It was the melting pot of peace.

Or whatever.