Ohio is full of vibrant and progressive communities, and it is a proud state to be from. But we are in the middle of an opioid crisis that is hurting people who are struggling with addiction all across the state, and their friends and families as well. Right now, many people who use drugs are being incarcerated for drug-related charges, and when they are released they come back to their communities. But they don’t always get the the help that they need to stay away from drugs. This crisis is hurting the whole country, but the National Institute on Drug Abuse recognizes that it’s hitting Appalachian states the hardest, and Ohio is in the top five states for opioid-related overdose deaths.

Some people think that if a person can’t stay in treatment after being released from prison, it’s because they made a choice not to. But we have to remember that it’s hard to reenter society after being in prison, and it’s hard to recover from drug addiction, so it’s very difficult to do both. In fact, many common ideas about reentry and drug recovery are not helping people as much as we think they are.

Cincinnati, OH – On May 11, 2019, at 10:30am, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will host “Community Conversations: US Deportations and Modern-Day Slavery in Mauritania.” We encourage the widest attendance possible at this event, to spread awareness about a tragedy currently befalling Ohio families and the human rights abuses taking place in Mauritania today.  

Mass organizations need people who will fill the role of organizers.  Interns, students, and other volunteers are essential along with government paid or subsidized work available through some federal and state programs.  In the next order of difficulty though there are invaluable resources for some organizations if you are able to access or repurpose staff through national service programs. 

In the United States this largely means divisions currently placed under the Corporation for National and Community Service like the AmeriCorps VISTA program.   I know what you’re thinking.  These are aimless young people looking for some experience somewhere or trying to pass their time as a placeholder while sorting out their futures after some college experience.  They aren’t “real police,” ready to the do the work of building an organization, but more likely people trying to do a little good without much sweat while they keep their eyes on their own future.  True enough, but there is another way of looking at these people and their potential to build your organization.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The U.S. government's media and a Dalai
Lama-supported campaign to liberate Tibetan political prisoners have
published two portraits of what the Panchen Lama's face could now look
like on his 30th birthday and are demanding to know his fate after
China took him into custody when he was six years old.

"Despite China's sporadic claims that he was attending school and
leading a normal life, no one has seen or heard from the 11th Panchen
Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima since May 17, 1995, the day Beijing took him
away as a six-year-old boy and rendered him disappeared ever since,"
said the Tibetan Bulletin published by Tibet's India-based
government-in-exile which also represents the Dalai Lama.

Mr. Nyima was born in Chinese-controlled Tibet on April 25, 1989.

If alive, the now 30-year-old man would be the second-most prominent
religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism, a position endorsed by the top
religious leader, the Dalai Lama.

"The panchen lamas and the dalai lamas play a significant role in the

Joshua Douglas’ new book, Vote for Us: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting, does not explain when it was that we had our elections or what we can vote for other than “us,” but it does provide a great survey of election reform efforts, who’s working on them, and what’s working, with a list of organizations at the back that you can engage with.

While voter ID laws have spread, the racist stripping of names from polls goes unmentioned, threats and intimidation by fascist presidential candidates would have been hard to address in a book that aims at fairness and balance between the two noble political parties, verifiability of counting is apparently not a major concern, and the unthinkable but widely understood reality that often each of the two approved choices is simply indecent must not be named, nonetheless useful and significant reforms are being made here and there in the United States.