The return of one million Palestinians from southern Gaza to the north on January 27 felt as if history was choreographing one of its most earth-shattering events in recent memory.

 Hundreds of thousands of people marched along a single street, the coastal Rashid Street, at the furthest western stretch of Gaza. Though these displaced masses were cut off from each other in massive displacement camps in central Gaza and the  Mawasi region further south, they sang the same songs, chanted the same chants, and used the same talking points.

A  at the Ohio Statehouse to protest Project 2025 and fascism, followed by a March to Senator Moreno's office, then a March back to in front of the Statehouse on February 5, 2025.

“Some experts worry that, if the country went to war, many reserve units might be unable to deploy. A U.S. official who works on these issues put it simply: ‘We can’t get enough people.’”

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Human trafficking is humanity’s worst atrocity. It is an activity that is illegal worldwide where humans are frequently trafficked for sexual slavery. Every 30 seconds a person is forced into human trafficking! Eighty percent of these cases are girls and women. Human trafficking is a crime that generates billions of dollars worldwide and much of that money is generated in the United States. The numbers are chronically underreported.

In 2022, Ohio was the fifth state with the most victims of human trafficking. In Columbus, human trafficking has to do with the cartel, sometimes with the police, and many times with drug dealers. The victims are of different races and are violated, some murdered and thrown like garbage in alleys and placed in abandoned buildings. We have a huge humanitarian crisis in the capital of Ohio.

This article first appeared on the Buckeye Flame

The staff of The Buckeye Flame arrived at one of Ohio’s largest Pride celebrations in 2024 to find our table sandwiched between a cellphone company and a grocery-store chain. 

To our left, the cellphone company was giving out gift cards and T-shirts. To our right, the grocery store chain was giving out high-quality tote bags and industrial strength carabiners. The enthusiastic staffers, with Chappell Roan blaring behind them, beckoned Pride-goers over to their tables to grab their free stuff.

All throughout the day, people would come to our table straight from one of our corporate neighbors, totes open and at the ready.

“What do you have?” people would demand, truly without salutation or preamble. 

Our retorts of, “The truth!” or “Queer journalism!” never went over well. 

So we would point to the fishbowl of rubber bracelets, people would take one and immediately walk off to the next stop on their gay trick-or-treating experience.