Editor's Note: This Sunday the Hilltop Historical Society was scheduled to hold its annual memorial service for Confederate soldiers, but it has been postponed until September and a decision to place Confederate flags will be made then.

One year into America’s reported racial reckoning, it is difficult to discern much meaningful change in our country. A major factor contributing to our stalled progress is an inability to grapple honestly with our nation’s history. The recent American Legion incident in Hudson highlighted how much some people prefer anodyne, sanitized stories of an imagined past to thoughtful inquiry that honestly grapples with legacies of race and power. In Columbus, there are some who hold far stronger preferences for hagiography and mythology over history, with far starker implications and consequences.

The Ohio Senate Finance Committee last week added a clause to the proposed 2022-2023 state budget which would give any “medical practitioner, health care institution, or healthcare payer” the “freedom” to decline services if it violates their moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.”

SC3909, or the “Medical Practitioner Conscience Clause,” would make it legal to discriminate based on any reason that would violate a doctor or health care provider’s “conscience.” The clause would protect discriminatory practices by health care workers and providers from being “civilly, criminally, or administratively liable.”

In early May of 2021, the Department of Justice released 10 pages of their FBI file on former Nirvana singer-songwriter Kurt Cobain. Since the rock icon’s death in 1994, mainstream media has mostly repeated police statements that Cobain killed himself with a shotgun. FBI statements and a mass of accumulated evidence suggest that they purposely avoided looking into the radical activist musician’s death due to U.S. intelligence involvement.

Cobain’s Radical Left Politics

One of the reasons the FBI may have had for participating in and/or covering up Kurt Cobain’s murder is their history of targeting political leftists. In 1971, activists broke into an FBI office and revealed its Counter-Intelligence Program (Cointelpro), which started in the 1950s and targeted anti-war and Civil Rights activists.

Sunday, June 13, 1-6pm, Northwest Kiwanis Park, 4840 Stonehaven Dr.

Join Rainbow UA in celebrating the first-ever LGBTQ Pride event in Upper Arlington!

This event will include the following.

Booths: Kaleidoscope Youth Center [plus bins for donations], Equitas Health, flags from Trans Ohio, LGBTQ history table, free Mom Hugs / Momma Bears, League of Women Voters, Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio, Equality Ohio [Ohio Business Competes], Columbus Public Health, James Center for Cancer Health Equity, Ace and Aro Alliance of Central Ohio, Family Pride Network, and Lifeline of Ohio,Stonewall Columbus, GLSEN [Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network]

Speakers: Rick Neal, Glennon Sweeney, David Polakowski, and Joe Matessa

I reviewed a couple of the June 12th releases

Schoolly D + Ice T – The Real Hardcore

Philly Rapper Schoolly D invented teenage rap marketing in the 80’s. Schoolly D’s album namedSchoolly D released on Schoolly D Records boasted sex, money, and street respect. Schoolly D fathered every gangster rapper from Ice T to Biggie Smalls.

Record Store Day finds the Philly Legend releasing his recent recording with actor/rapper Ice T’s“The Real Hardcore” in vinyl form.

Ice T who starred in a Geico Commercial and won a Grammy with Body Count raps with Schoolly D influencing Ice T’s the L.A. Rap classic “6 In the Morning.” Schoolly D triumphs over a hard drum reminding the listener he invented “Gucci Time.”

 Ice-T and Schoolly D were teenagers who had to figure out how to navigate the 1980’s C.I.A. bringing crack cocaine in their neighborhoods while puberty and poverty existed.

Gucci Mane would agree that Schoolly D looked fresh in his watch and fly gold chain.