As I have written in these and other publications, Columbus is poorly served by its major media, from its no-longer-daily Columbus Dispatch, owned and operated by the USA Today/Gannett chain, to its three network TV affiliates and its NPR affiliate. None actively and reliably serve their publics or fulfill the press’s and media’s historical and democratic mission. (See my columns, “Columbus’ identity crisis and its media”; “Response to Columbus Alive, ‘The list: Reasons that Columbus Underground opinion piece is trash,’ by Andy Downing and Joel Oliphint, Columbus Alive, July 26: A visit to journalism fantasy land”; “The Columbus Dispatch – The decline of a metropolitan daily newspaper”; and “WOSU, the nation’s worst NPR affiliate?

I had a breakthrough yesterday — and I don’t mean metaphorically.

Wars rage, countless humans suffer, the rich get richer, life goes on. I still have my morning coffee. But not yesterday.

What happened — about 5 a.m. — was a fleeting . . . oh so fleeting . . . insight into life beyond its small certainties and routines. When life suddenly spins out of control, the Great Unknown is momentarily present. I have decided to write about it, or try to write about it, to honor the vulnerable everywhere.

That hour of the morning is not my normal get-up time, but as I enter geezerhood (I turned 75 half a year ago) I find myself waking up throughout the night and heading with sudden urgency to the bathroom. No big deal. This is part of the routine.

Six and a half weeks ago I broke humerus bone (upper arm). I had surgery to put a pin put into my arm. This is the 1st bone I’ve broken in my 73 years. It SUCKS!

I’m an alpha female, mother, grandmother and keeper of the casa. It has been quite challenging to “let” my sweet husband do for me the things I’ve always handled. Like undressing myself: I had to ask him to peel my sports bra off over my head! Very humbling, to say the least. Thank God we’ve been married for several decades. This experience is an exercise in patience. I’m having to adjust to my new normal. It’s made me reflect on all of the things I’d taken for granted – like undressing myself.

I have been teaching yoga since the 80s and I miss it terribly. My body misses it. I especially miss doing the yoga pose Down Dog (DD). I think about all of the times in a yoga workshop when the teacher kept us in DD for a long time and I’d think, when will it end. Now, I can’t wait to be able to pop out a Down Dog. Never thought I’d see the day where I was craving a nice long DD!

In this special emergency edition of the SOLARTOPIA GREEN POWER & WELLNESS SHOW we confront the horrifying realties of the fifteen Ukrainian nuclear power plants now teetering on the brink of the Apocalypse.

In honor of March 8 - International Women's Day:

Last Friday evening, the Department of Justice filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the case by the states of Illinois and Nevada seeking to force U.S. Archivist David S. Ferriero to publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as part of the Constitution. The brief asks the D.C. Circuit to affirm the dismissal of the case “without resolving the ERA’s legal status.”

Importantly, the brief does not embrace the district court’s conclusion that the time limit stands in the way of the ERA. Instead, it recognizes that the questions of the ERA’s validity are important, profound, and novel. The brief argues that the dismissal should be affirmed on the grounds that the plaintiffs lack standing and have fallen short of the requirement to show a “clear and undisputable” entitlement to government action. 

The brief also repeats President Biden’s statement “expressing his ‘support for the ERA loudly and clearly’” and declaring that “nothing prevents Congress from taking legislative action to ‘recogniz[e] ratification of the ERA.’”