Long before intersectionality became a prevailing concept which helped delineate the relationship between various marginalized and oppressed groups, late South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu said it all in a few words and in a most inimitable style. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together,” he said.

Like other freedom and justice icons, Tutu did not merely coin the kind of language that helped many around the world rise in solidarity with the oppressed people of South Africa, who fought a most inspiring and costly war against colonialism, racism and apartheid. He was a leader, a fighter and a true engaged intellectual. 

Thursday, January 20, 6-7pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

Join us as we kick off the year by celebrating your commitment to abortion access and acknowledging the passing of the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. We know we’re up against quite the fight this year and navigated relentless attacks last year. We deserve a moment to grab a drink, be in community, and look forward together.

Thursday evening will be a moment to ground ourselves in the fight we have ahead and get to know one another while we do so! A virtual happy hour, a place to connect with a new friend in this work, and a place to sign up for future actions.

Last year, we saw numerous attacks introduced at the state and local levels. Including six abortion bans, four anti-protest bills, four local anti-abortion ordinances, three anti-trans bills, two voter suppression bills, two major SCOTUS cases, and one state budget that includes attacks on abortion access and comprehensive sex ed.

They decided their life’s work was going to be saving other peoples’ lives. But no other group of professionals has had a reckoning during the pandemic as nurses and doctors have. And while they are expected to work long hours in horrendous situations, hospital executives are awarding themselves generous bonuses.

The turnover and resignations of healthcare workers is not entirely due to the pandemic’s crush. But how their employer has treated them during the (seemingly) worst healthcare crisis ever.

“Every hospital system in Ohio is standing on the back of all the staff demanding they work harder,” wrote a nurse.

At the start of the pandemic the Free Press wrote about the mind-boggling situation The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center was in when they set up an outdoor donation triage asking the community for extra masks and other PPE.

Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 4:00 PM 

The final big legislative achievement of 2021 was a bill authorizing $768 billion in military spending for the next fiscal year. President Biden signed it two days after the Christmas holiday glorifying the Prince of Peace.

Dollar figures can look abstract on a screen, but they indicate the extent of the mania. Biden had asked for “only” $12 billion more than President Trump’s bloated military budget of the previous year -- but that wasn’t enough for the bipartisan hawkery in the House and Senate, which provided a boost of $37 billion instead.

Overall, military spending accounts for about half of the federal government’s total discretionary spending -- while programs for helping instead of killing are on short rations at many local, state, and national government agencies. It’s a nonstop trend of reinforcing the warfare state in sync with warped neoliberal priorities. While outsized profits keep benefiting the upper class and enriching the already obscenely rich, the cascading effects of extreme income inequality are drowning the hopes of the many.