Saturday, September 4, 2021, 2:15pm

This Saturday at 2:15pm EDT, Rehumanize International's annual conference features a keynote address from Sabrina Butler-Smith, Exonerated Death Row Survivor and member of Witness to Innocence. Sabrina was a loving teenage mother when she was wrongfully convicted in the death of her nine-month-old son in Mississippi. She was later exonerated of all wrongdoing, after spending six and a half years incarcerated, two of those years on death row. She was the first woman exonerated from death row in the US. She now works to change legislation, determined to make the system better so others, especially youth, do not have to experience what she did.

Death Penalty Action is a sponsor of this conference in partnership with our allies at Rehumanize International. Rehumanize International is a nonprofit human rights organization dedicated to creating a culture of peace and life, and in so doing, seeks to bring an end to all aggressive violence against humans through education, discourse, and action.

There was plenty of hope for change around the country when President Joe Biden’s administration finally took office in January and for the most part, they’ve been able to right the shipwreck left behind by former President Donald Trump’s incompetent administration. Plenty of improvements have been made to normalize federal government operations –– both foreign and domestic –– so everyone is feeling a little bit better. To add to this positive trajectory, the Biden administration’s recent withdrawal from Afghanistan –– after twenty years of war, bloodshed and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent –– was the right step in the right direction at a new time for America. Unlike his predecessors, Joe Biden has finally been able to accomplish what other presidents could only scale down and talk about. It took major guts.

Thursday, September 2, 7pm, Tuttle Park, 240 W. Oakland Ave.

The recent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan was quickly followed by the rise to power of the Taliban. This stark change in the situation marks a shift in U.S. imperialism and the situation that is facing Afghan workers and peasants.

In this meeting, we will discuss recent articles covering the current situation and Afghan history to try to get a grasp of what these developments mean for the struggle against imperialism and for international socialism.

Suggested readings will be posted on this event page but are not required to participate in this discussion.

Hosted by Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists.

“Ten members of one family — including seven children — are dead after a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighborhood of Kabul . . .

“The youngest victims of Sunday’s airstrike were two 2-year-old girls, according to family members.

“Relatives found the remains of one of the girls, Malika, in the rubble near their home on Monday.”

The Free Press has written before that a short drive past I-270 might as well be driving to Mars when it comes to political beliefs and ideology.

London, Ohio in neighboring Madison County – just 15-minutes past Columbus – is one of those planets, er, towns.

The decline of small town Ohio is well-documented. Good paying jobs have vanished, drug addiction has sent too many kids into foster care, and the obsession for MAGA refuses to wane.

London is a community of roughly 10,000, but because it is so close to Columbus small numbers from the big city are moving there seeking affordable housing. The locals can be friendly, but simmering below the surface is rural Ohio’s anger towards the lefty oasis that is Columbus. Trump in 2020 won 70 percent of the vote in Madison County while Columbus went 65 percent for Biden, and with hundreds of thousands more votes.