Friday, June 28, Noon – Sunday, June 30, 2019, 8:00 PM
The annual Festival In Goodale Park. Location: 120 W. Goodale St., Columbus 43215. Facebook.
Come visit the Free Press wine booth near Buttles on Park Street!
On Wednesday, the first 10 of the 20 Democrats whom the corporate media is permitting into what they call debates were asked what the greatest threat to the United States is. A worthy and funny answer would have been “MSNBC.” Another worthy and funny answer would have been “Donald Trump,” which was in fact Jay Inslee’s answer — and he made clear elsewhere in the event that climate collapse is also his answer. A worthy answer, though nobody would have understood it, would have been “nationalism.” But the correct answer would have been U.S. promotion of environmental collapse and nuclear war. Cory Booker, unprincipled hypocrite though he is, came close with climate change and nuclear proliferation, but it’s not just the proliferation; it’s also the U.S.-led arms race and threat of first use. Tulsi Gabbard got it half right with nuclear war. Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke got it half right with climate change. Julián Castro got it half right and half bonkers with climate change and China. Similarly John Delaney with nuclear weapons and China. Tim Ryan went full-on loony with just China.
These words alone set off the alarm — the fascism alarm, you might say. Donald Trump is by no means the sole source of America’s democracy nosedive, but he’s its current, deeply troubling manifestation.
The following report is by no means exhaustive -- only illustrative. There may well be a Democratic member of Congress near you not included here who serves corporate interests more than majority interests, or has simply grown tired or complacent in the never-ending struggles for social, racial and economic justice as well as environmental sanity and peace. Perhaps you live in a district where voters are ready to be inspired by a progressive primary candidate because the Democrat in Congress is not up to the job.
It isn’t easy to defeat a Democratic incumbent in a primary. Typically, the worse the Congress member, the more (corporate) funding they get. While most insurgent primary campaigns will not win, they’re often very worthwhile -- helping progressive constituencies to get better organized and to win elections later. And a grassroots primary campaign can put a scare into the Democratic incumbent to pay more attention to voters and less to big donors.
Thursday, June 27, 2019, 7:00 – 8:00 PM
Facing the threat of deportation and separation from her family, one year ago Miriam Vargas made the difficult decision to enter sanctuary at First English Lutheran Church. June 27th, 2019 marks the anniversary of her time in sanctuary. Please join Miriam Vargas for an Ice Cream Social on Thursday, June 27th, 2019, at 7:00 p.m. to mark the anniversary of her sanctuary stay. This is not a celebration, but a commemorative event showing friendship and support for Miriam as she continues to fight for a legal path toward citizenship. There is no cost to attend this event. Location: 1015 E. Main St., Columbus 43205. Facebook.
Wednesday, June 26, 6:3-7:30pm
Church for All People, 946 Parsons Ave.
In the last week we have heard threats of ICE raids, deporting millions of people. At the same time, our government has denied responsibility for providing basic safe and sanitary care for the very children whom they have separated from their families (access to soap and toothbrushes). As a church we affirm the sacredness of all people as created in the image of God. As Dr King taught, we live in an interconnected web of mutuality, where injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. As a people called United Methodists, we live in the connection of personal and social holiness. Join us on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm at the Church for All People as we hold a prayer vigil affirming our solidarity with people being threatened and calling for justice and dignity for all people. Please help spread the word about this vigil as we join our prayers and actions together for justice.
Donald E. McInnis’s book, She’s So Cold, is painful to read. McInnis was the defense attorney for one of three boys falsely accused of killing one of the boys’ sister. Much of the book is recreation of police interrogations that were videotaped, and of a court hearing.
This was one of those cases the mass media love and for which they effectively convict the accused in the minds of the public. This was in 1998 in San Diego, and the original victim’s name was Stephanie Crowe. But there were more victims, including Stephanie’s brother, two of his friends, and the three boys’ families. The trauma willfully and knowingly inflicted on them by the police and prosecutors was limited by the fact that so-called “confessions” by two of the three boys were videotaped. I haven’t watched the videos, but reading them is like watching violence in slow motion.
A new film by Will Watson, called Soldiers Without Guns, ought to shock a great many people — not because it utilizes a yet more gruesome form of violence or bizarre form of sex (the usual shockers in movie reviews), but because it recounts and shows us a true story that contradicts the most basic assumptions of politics, foreign policy, and popular sociology.
Bougainville Island was a paradise for millennia, inhabited sustainably by people who never caused the rest of the world the slightest trouble. Western empires fought over it, of course. Its name is that of a French explorer who named it for himself in 1768. Germany claimed it in 1899. In World War I, Australia took it. In World War II, Japan took it. Bougainville returned to Australian domination after the war, but the Japanese left piles of weapons behind — possibly the worst of the many forms of pollution, destruction, and lingering effects a war can leave in its wake.
Thanks, John McCain! Let’s mix a little humor in with war. It’s so much easier to take when we do. By the way, have you noticed that we’re always on the verge of war?
