"No borders! No nations! Stop deportations!" A small but mighty group gathered across the street from the Hotel Leveque to protest Trump's announcement that deportations would be stepped up starting Sunday morning, June 23 in certain major US cities.  The protestors shouted at people coming out of the building that they should not stay in a building in which ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) uses to hold immigrants in cells in that very building.

The activists had written chalk messages against deportations, detention centers and mistreatment of immigrant children on the sidewalk in front of the hotel but were shooed off by the hotel staff. From across the street they chanted, sang, and read the names aloud of the immigrants who had died in U.S. custody or shortly after being in a U.S. detention center. 

Some drivers honked as they passed by and the group was joined by some of the pro-choice ralliers from a statehouse demonstration that had just ended. One anti-abortion counter-protestor also argued with some in the "stop deportations" group. Police were not present. 

Trump has since "postponed" the mass arrests he had scheduled for this week. 

Sunday, June 23, 3-5pm, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd.

This Town Hall will present experts on the Federal proposal and how it might work in Columbus. Dr. Fadhel Kaboub, economics professor at Denison University, will present an overview of the Resolution, including the Job Guarantee program. Cathy Cowan Becker, leader of the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign in Columbus, will discuss on-the-ground movements in central Ohio. Terry Hermsen, leader of a strategic effort to create a Hub for local organizations that are addressing the climate crisis, will moderate the discussion. A question-and-answer discussion will take place after the presentations.

Simply Living is sponsoring this event in conjunction with the Justice Action Ministry of First Unitarian Universalist Church.

Joe Biden just put a spotlight on his mindset when he explicitly refused to apologize for fondly recalling how the Senate “got things done” with “civility” as he worked alongside some of the leading racist lawmakers of the 20th century. For Biden, the personal is the political; he knows that he’s virtuous, and that should be more than good enough for African Americans, for women, for anyone.

“There’s not a racist bone in my body,” Biden exclaimed Wednesday night, moments after demanding: “Apologize for what?” His deep paternalism surfaced during the angry outburst as he declared: “I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career, period, period, period.”

SPREAD THE WORD

Spy Behind Home Plate

opens now at Gateway Film Center on June 21

Washington Post article: https://wapo.st/ 2MzTAZT

Los Angeles Times review by Ken Turan: https://lat.ms/2wGKWhA

Aviva Kempner’s The Spy Behind Home Plate is the first feature-length documentary to tell the real story of Morris “Moe” Berg, the enigmatic and brilliant Jewish baseball player turned spy. Berg caught and fielded in the major leagues during baseball’s Golden Age in the 1920s and 1930s. But very few people know that Berg also worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), spying in Europe and playing a prominent role in America’s efforts to undermine the German atomic bomb program during WWII.

If you’re free, if you’re not locked behind bars (and I do realize that this is true of a smaller percentage of people in the so-called Land of the Free than anywhere else on earth), be grateful. One thing you can do is get your hands on important new books. I recommend this one: The Meaning of Life: The Case for Abolishing Life Sentences by Marc Mauer and Ashley Nellis, Featuring Six Portraits of Lifers.