MY Project USA Annual Banquet & Awards 2020

My Project USA logo

Sunday, February 23, 5:30-9pm
The Boat House Restaurant at Confluence Park, 679 W Spring St
FIVE YEAR CELEBRATIONS OF AMAZING SERVICES & ADVOCACY

A BENEFIT BANQUET TO PROTECT & EMPOWER COLUMBUS YOUTH & FAMILIES

AN AWARD CEREMONY TO CELEBRATE CENTRAL OHIO'S SOCIAL JUSTICE LEADERS & ACTIVISTS

Please Join Us for an Inspirational Evening with Elected Officials, Interfaith and Community Leaders and our Youth Leaders as we gather to Support and Celebrate Columbus Youth and Families.

In the last five years, MY Project USA has become a mainstream Muslim Social Services & Civic Engagement Organization. We are working hand in hand with our interfaith and social justice partners to bring prosperity and hope to the under-served communities in Columbus. At our annual banquet, we will celebrate our accomplishments. We will also re-energize our base and will raise money to continue and grow our work to the next level. Please join us and bring your family and friends with you.

The proceeds of this dinner:

How Are We Going to Pay for Saving Trillions of Dollars?

Enhanced Medicare for All — that wild scheme that Michael Bloomberg calls “untried” because it’s only been tested for decades in virtually every wealthy nation on earth — would cost $450 billion a year less than the current U.S. system. In the usual propaganda terms (in which you multiply by ten and then — if asked — admit that you’re talking about ten years) that’s a savings of $4.5 trillion! Let’s be honest and call it $450 billion a year.

The health coverage debate has gone on for the past century in the United States, during which numerous other studies have reached similar conclusions. The massive savings that awaits us according to these studies, does not include the potential healthcare savings of greater, more reliable preventive care, or of the reduced stress of guaranteed coverage, or the economic benefits of investing in Medicare For All.

Bloomberg Has Spent Enough to Give a Nickel to Every Person Whose Life He’s Ever Damaged

A review of Michael Bloomberg’s political career should not be limited, I think, to the fact that he has the debating skills of a baked potato. Nor does it matter much that he focuses his sales pitch on being a great “manager” but clearly can’t manage to hire anyone to tell him he has to prepare for a debate. His use of non-disclosure agreements to hide undesirable stories deserves the criticism it’s getting, but just begins to scrape the toxic moldy surface.

My colleagues at RootsAction.org have looked into Bloomberg’s record in some depth and are organizing against his campaign in early primary states. Let’s review just a few of the facts.

"Who Killed Malcom X?"

Two black men in hats

Fifty-five years ago on February 21, civil rights activist Malcolm X was shot on stage at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Three men were quickly arrested for the murder. Two of those men — including our client, Muhammad Abdul Aziz (then known as Norman 3X Butler) — have always maintained their innocence.

"Who Killed Malcom X?", a new six-part documentary on Netflix, seeks to answer the question: Did two innocent men spend decades in prison for crimes they did not commit?

Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison) reading

Book cover

Saturday, February 22, 7-10pm
Church for All People, 946 Parsons Ave.
We're celebrating Black History Month with a reading of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," adapted by Lydia R. Diamond!

You Have to Laugh

It’s often hard to report on U.S. politics and government with a straight face. It’s even harder to report on the usual reporting on U.S. politics and government with a straight face. So much of it is beyond the reach of parody. Yet it also opens up opportunities to shock people with basic facts.

The stock market going up is not a good thing. Wars don’t expand human rights. Loony newfangled schemes to give everyone healthcare and education have been tried for many decades in many countries, making them more reliable and old-fashioned than getting to keep your beloved health insurance company and student debt. Muslim terrorists are not in the top 1,000 threats to your health. Russian Facebook accounts are not in the top 10,000 corrupting influences on U.S. elections. The amount of money the Pentagon spends every year is $100,000 times $100,000 times $100 plus more than you can truly comprehend. Michael Bloomberg is not an impressive serious person.

PAN AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL Review

 

One of the top ways to celebrate Black History Month - and the movie going experience in general - is to attend the Los Angeles-based 28th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival. PAFF focuses on Black-themed films, ranging from studio pictures to indie productions, with works from Hollywood, the USA, Mother Africa, the Caribbean, Melanesia (the Black South Pacific Islands, such as Fiji), Australia (this fest remembers that Down Under’s indigenous people, the Aborigines, are also Black) and beyond. The features, documentaries, shorts, animated pictures, etc., from Africa and the Black Diaspora provide movie fans an opportunity to see independent and international films in the world’s entertainment capital that Angelenos may otherwise never get an opportunity to view. This yearly cultural gemstone includes workshops and panels presented by the PAFF Institute, plus an ArtFest centered at Cinemark’s Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and the adjoining shopping complex.

 

The Paradox of Climate Security

If there’s anything that’s going to shatter national borders and force humanity to reorganize itself, it’s climate change.

But as long as we look at this looming planetary unraveling from within the cage of nationalism — especially “white nationalism,” which quietly remains the full meaning of the term — we simply see the natural world as another potential enemy: a threat to “national security.”

EURYDICE OPERA REVIEW

[NOTE: This review may contain plot spoilers for those unfamiliar with this 2,600 myth.]

LA Opera’s world premiere of composer Matthew Aucoin and librettist Sarah Ruhl’s sublime Eurydice is an optically and aurally stunning reinterpretation of the ancient Greek myth about Orpheus (Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins) and the title character (depicted by Angeleno soprano Danielle de Niese and at the performance I experienced, by Rhode Island soprano Erica Petrocelli). Like Romeo and Juliet - consider that Shakespeare’s tragedy inspired the beloved stage and screen adaptations of West Side Story in 1957 and 1961, with a new iteration opening on Broadway this week, with a Steven Spielberg movie remake waiting in the wings - there have been many versions of this immortal romance derived from Grecian mythology.

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