Juneteenth is a day to honor the resilience and tenacity of those who survived slavery and fought for justice and freedom. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger brought news to enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, that they were freed in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. That news took 2 1/2 years to arrive.

Juneteenth deserves an honored place in our labor history as we as we continue the fight for workers’ rights and to build worker power. On this day, we recognize the origins of the U.S. labor movement in the struggle of enslaved African people for emancipation. W.E.B. Du Bois characterized the American Civil War as a general strike. Black Americans’ withholding of their unpaid work collapsed the Southern economy and, with it, the defection of many Black residents to the Union military effort proved decisive in the Confederacy’s defeat. 

The following article is a prime example of what neighborhoods across Columbus are up against when trying to fight Columbus City Council and the Mayor’s office and the connections they have between developers (and others) along with those who serve on commissions and civic organizations that are Columbus City Hall lackeys who are pushing city policy down our throats. 

The name Little Turtle is in reference to Chief Little Turtle who was an Indian leader that helped lead Native Americans against federal forces in the late 1700s and early 1800s. One of his victories against U.S. troops is noted as being the U.S. Armiy’s worst defeat by American Indians. Residents of Little Turtle are holding out hope that they too can beat the odds and stop an unwarranted $5.4 million City of Columbus Road Project that reeks of political favoritism for another of our city’s many pay to play developers.  

It is no secret that many believe the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Capital City Lodge 9 and its union members have strong-armed their way into having too much control over how the Division polices Columbus citizens with minimal chance of being held accountable for their actions.

Local activists believe FOP Capital City Lodge 9 can be brazen, toxic and indifferent to those they serve.

They endorsed Trump for President last year even though many residents they serve heartedly rejected Trump. They threatened to charge Congresswoman Joyce Beatty with assaulting an officer after she was maced during that fateful Saturday afternoon, May 30, 2020, during George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests. They mocked Lebron James after he was critical of the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting by police.

FOP Capital City Lodge 9 likes to praise heroic officers on their Twitter and Facebook pages, and officers should be commended for a dangerous job well done – if done professionally.

Cleveland has been spiraling downward. It’s one of the poorest cities in the country, beset by worsening violent crime, poverty and decaying infrastructure. Now, 42 years after the end of his first term as mayor, Dennis Kucinich is ready for his second.

Kucinich won a race for mayor of Cleveland at age 31 and promptly infuriated the power structure, which could not accept his insistence that the city’s electric utility should remain under public control. Mayor Kucinich challenged and mocked the greed and anti-democratic zeal of the banks that drove the city into bankruptcy when he refused to accede to the corrupt demands that the Municipal Light Plant be sold off. After defeating a recall campaign in 1978, he lost a bid for re-election the next year -- but left an enduring legacy.