Another terrorist slips into the classroom, into the news.

Does anyone understand this? Even if guns are easily, readily available, why, why, why? I find it impossible even to be angry — it’s hard to be angry under incomprehensible circumstances.

Instead, I find myself imagining George W. Bush giving a speech in which he condemns the latest horrific murders at . . . but instead of saying Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, he blurts out “Iraq.”

The Free Press is proud to announce that a cartoonist we publish, Clayton Jones of Virginia, is the 2022 winner of the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award in Editorial Cartooning. His work was awarded for its "unique style" which is "energetic" using "image and text to comment on larger issues." They stated that his cartoons hit on themes of human rights, imbalance of power and systemic racism. His work can be seen at freepress.org, columbusfreepress.com and our Facebook pages. 

"Winners of the 2022 RFK Journalism Awards were selected in student and professional categories from over 350 entries across print, broadcast, and new media categories, encapsulating some of the most exemplary reporting from the past year," PR Newswire reported.

Lost in the attention accorded to the flurry of right-wing Republican legislatures’ passing and governors’ signing blatantly partisan and extralegal redistricting bills—and, in a growing number of states, both state and federal courts ruling them unconstitutional—is “the great state of Ohio.” In North Carolina, for example, the State Supreme Court not only rule legislative redistricting unlawful, but instituted more constitutional maps. As I follow the incessant “shenanigans” (the much too soft and legally irrelevant word of the Columbus Dispatch [Editorial Board, “Our view: While your groceries go up”]) of the politically biased State Redistricting Commission. Not “shenanigans,” these are violations of the U.S. Constitution and state law. They constitute a unique and so far highly successful path of obfuscation and voter suppression.

The stage is set

Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime community advocate who has begun circulating petitions to run for Mayor in the 2023 Mayoral primary election attended today’s Little Turtle “Thumbs Down” save the Turtle event. Mr. Motil was approached by Little Turtle community leaders in March of 2021 to assist them in fighting this corrupt and unethical roadway project and has been at their side ever since. 

Motil says, “It’s heartbreaking to witness the destruction of this grand boulevard that has stood here for over 50 years when Little Turtle became Central Ohio’s first planned housing development. And it is all being wasted for the benefit of a developer who used his money and political influence to fatten his bank account.”   

MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022, 4 TO 6 PM
Little Turtle Way between Longrifle Road and Blue Jacket Road

This is your invitation to witness firsthand the site of the iconic mounded, grand boulevard being leveled! Come early to see the excavation on the 2 mounds underway now. 

Little Turtle residents will rally in the Little Turtle community Monday, May 23, 4 to 6PM, to show their unity to Columbus and to the Columbus City Council members of its great displeasure with the demise of the community’s grand boulevard, a 50-year piece of Columbus history, and now the roadway’s resultant traffic congestion. The boulevard mounds are being leveled and the mature trees removed.

On behalf of the residents, we are inviting you to come out to see and document the boulevard’s destruction, as a piece of Columbus history is being erased, as well as the end of Little Turtle’s moniker as a “hidden gem.” You, as well as the taxpayers of Columbus, need to see how $6 million of our tax dollars are being spent on a roadway not wanted or needed by the residents and the disgraceful demise of beautiful greenspace and mature trees. We will not go quietly into the night.