Part Two (of Four)

In the shadows of democracy (cont’d.)

City Council appointments and elections

The process of filling public offices, especially City Council, is a key element in the reproduction of undemocracy from one iteration of office-holders to their successors. The city boosters in the media never comment on this.

Until the election of Elizabeth Brown in 2015 (reelected in 2019), no Council member had been elected without first being appointed to office since Mary Ellen O’Shaunassey in 1995. In 2019, Brown did not even complete nonpartisan Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

More recently, Shayla Favor and Rob Dorans gained their seats by submitting 500-word essays and resumes. They were not elected to office

These appointees, including mayors, typically rise from their “holding pens” (to quote one long-time civic activist) or school practice yards in the Franklin County Board of Elections, Columbus Board of Education, or minor City positions. They do not join the ranks of the rulers first by popular election.

Friday, June 24 to Sunday, June 26, this on-line event requires advance registration

We’re a coalition of organizations and individuals working together to host A Radical Gathering — a virtual space for cultivating the world we all deserve.

A Radical Gathering will happen online the weekend of June 24-26 and will include a series of teach-ins, workshops, trainings, presentations, and panels, covering a myriad of revolutionary and visionary topics.

When we say the gathering is “radical,” we mean that it is for

• Getting at the roots of problems

• Thinking outside the realm of what we’ve been taught to believe is possible

• Exploring big questions and unsettling truths

The gathering is a chance to learn and teach each other, to meet other people doing their part of the work, and to practice some skills we’ll surely need. As we continue to move further into climate collapse and through other violent impacts of global capitalism and colonialism, those of us who have vision should gather, share, and practice together.

Will you join us and see where this goes from here?

Hilltop hero Zerqa Abid, who has dedicated her life to helping thousands of young people on the Westside, is threatening a hunger strike if the City does not take more action to curb increasing violence by young people.

Last Friday, following three homicides over two days of young people in the Hilltop, Abid and the Hilltop Youth Social Justice Collaborative held an emergency press conference.

“There are 10,000 children at risk in our neighborhood,” said Abid, founder and director of My Project USA. “We cannot just be patiently waiting on the promises and talk we’ve been given for a year.”

But the City has given millions since 2021. This May, $16 million in funding was announced for summer youth programs, with $8 million of this allocation going to anti-youth violence programs.

But many are asking, is it enough? What’s more, they ask, who’s getting the money and is their advocacy effective?

Ready, aim, fire:

“I believe in Jesus, guns and babies.”

So declares Kandiss Taylor, GOP candidate for governor of Georgia, in a campaign ad.

Or how about: “I’m Eric Greitens, Navy SEAL, and today, we’re going RINO-hunting.” This is not about killing rhinoceroses. “RINO” stands for Republican in Name Only – you know, anti-Trumpers. Greitens, former governor of Missouri, who resigned in the wake of a sexual abuse allegation, is now running for the Senate – running fully armed and dangerous as hell, at least according to his little TV ad, which features him and a bunch of guys dressed up in camouflage outfits, fully armed, kicking someone’s door open, tossing in a smoke bomb.

ON JUNETEENTH WE VISIT AUSTRALIA, DEFUND THE FASCISTS & SAVE PACIFICA RADIO

We open the GREE-GREE zoom #99 with CLAIRE ATKIN of Check My Ads and its brilliant, cutting-edge campaign to strip internet-based income from fascist media mavens like Steve Bannon.

Launched in early June, Claire’s pathbreaking strategy includes grassroots campaigning against the violent-laced hate-mongering of the extreme right  wing.

Claire is followed by LEHMAN WEISCHSELBAUM’s call for whistleblowers to unearth fraud and theft in the 2016 election that put Donald Trump in the White House.