Action Alerts

The world-renowned Doo Dah Parade is returning to the streets of Columbus on July 4, 2025, Rain date July 3rd. The 42nd Annual celebration of Liberty and Lunacy Freedom of Speech through Humor will be satirizing the world LIVE from the Fabulous Short North starting at 1 p.m.

The world needs a good laugh or two. Doo Dah Parade Disorganizers are unplanning for a groups of marchers to wind their way through Victorian Village and along High Street in Short North.  Overseeing it all will be Doo Dah Less-Than-Grand Marshal:  NBC4 News Queen Colleen Marshall.

Disorganizers also emphasize that the best way to experience Doo Dah is to be IN the parade. Get your humor out and create a memorable entry! No registration is necessary; all you have to do is show up. Line up for parade participants begins at Noon on Park Street (Enter from Goodale.) 

Friday, July 4, 12-4pm
Ohio Statehouse, Broad and High Streets, downtown Columbus

This Fourth of July, we're reclaiming America's promise; Freedom for all! Justice for all! NO KINGS! What started as a local protest is now a nationwide movement. This isn't about left vs. right; this is about the people vs. power unchecked. No more leaders above the law. No more silence when rights are stripped away. No more fear, manipulation, or false patriotism. From coast to coast, city streets to small towns, we're raising our voices: Against authoritarianism, corrupt leadership, racism, xenophobia, and injustice. For the rights of immigrants, workers, families, and everyday Americans For truth, transparency, and equality under the Constitution.

WHO'S INVITED? Everyone who believes in liberty - true liberty, not just the brand sold during election season.

This is for the silenced. The forgotten. The rising generation. This is for YOU.

WE ARE NOT BACKING DOWN! We are not celebrating freedom while people are still in cages. We are not pledging allegiance to leaders who want to rule rather than serve. We are not staying quiet when justice is on the line.

The U.S. Senate just passed their version of Donald Trump’s government spending megabill — and it’s a disaster for our climate and our communities.

Tax breaks for billionaires? Check.

Shredding the social safety net? Check.

Gutting climate and clean energy progress, while expanding fossil fuel extraction? Check, check, and check.

We can’t let this bad bill move another step. And there’s a chance it won’t — it barely squeaked by in the Senate in a 50-51 vote. We can stop it before it gets to Trump’s desk. But your House Representative needs to hear from you NOW, Suzanne.

Tell your House Rep.: Vote NO on the disastrous Trump megabill.

We’re reaching out with an urgent request to stand with Ohio libraries in protecting free and open access to information for all members of our community.

A new law passed in the state budget (House Bill 96) today includes a harmful, expensive and unnecessary requirement that public libraries move any materials related to sexual orientation or gender identity to areas not primarily visible to anyone under 18.

Why This Matters

Sunday, June 29, 2025, 4:00 PM
Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland Park Avenue 43214.  Free parking will be available on nearby streets and in lots owned by the North Broadway Methodist Church.  

From the 1960’s into this New Millenium, Peter Paul and Mary used music to entertain, educate, inspire, and energize Americans to work for a better world.  Three veteran Columbus musicians will pay tribute to PP & M’s legacy with songs, memories, and quips. Bill Cohen, Joanne Blum, and Joe Lambert will sing and strum the most beloved songs that PP & M seared into the hearts and minds of so many people for decades.  Among them: If I Had a Hammer, Blowin’ in the Wind, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Jet Plane, and Day is Done. Plus, the audience will be invited to sing along on tunes like Puff the Magic Dragon and the Times They Are a Changin’.  

Fifth Annual TANK Day
Saturday, June 28, 12-5pm
Fedderson Community Center, 3911 Dresden St., Columbus OH 43224
Bring the family bring the kids and come celebrate the life and legacy of the awesome Mr. Casey Christopher Goodson Jr aka Tank Man. Food, petting zoo, bouncy house, face painting, a 360 photo booth.

Columbus’s best kept 95-degree day secret was overrun this week by scores of young people at Runaway Bay apartment complex in Grandview. The pop-up party fueled by social media once again exposed a historical reality: There’s too few public spaces and not enough culture for non-privileged young people in Columbus. There are also too few public pools in Columbus, due to lack of funding or greedy developers, such as those who bought out Olympic Pool in Clintonville.

The Free Press is not condoning the illegality of young people taking over a private beach, that by the way is rarely used by tenants, but we are not condemning them as the police-state apologists from Channel 6 WSYX did. Few people are ever seen on this beach probably because Runaway Bay management charges $100-per year to have access.

Community Festival (ComFest) is back in Goodale Park Friday, June 27 through Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Come visit the Free Press booth at Comfest!

ComFest will feature over 200 musical performances, workshops and community-oriented programming over three days. In addition to the line-up of the city’s best live music spread over seven stages, workshops, KiDSART, live comedy, poetry readings and other programming will be featured throughout the park. The much-loved Street Fair also returns with one-of-a-kind vendors, arts and crafts, local food and community organizations. 

Now in its 53rd year, ComFest’s history is celebrated in the ComFest Museum located in the frosty, air-conditioned Goodale Park Shelterhouse. Stop in to learn about Community Festival’s roots in social activism, protest movements, community engagement and civil rights.

Thursday, June 26, 2025, 8:00 PM
The "Midnight Rockets" were not myths or isolated incidents—they were deliberate, engineered releases of radioactive gas from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Energy during and after the Cold War. Declassified documents from 1985 confirm that technetium-99 and uranium hexafluoride were routinely vented into the atmosphere through a 164-foot exhaust system known as the Tall Stack, with minimal filtration and ineffective monitoring. By 1994, government data showed that nearly 86% of airborne radioactive emissions at the site came from this process. Decades later, a federal whistleblower lawsuit and independent environmental testing in 2023 revealed off-site contamination. The pattern of exposure matches prevailing wind data, confirming that the so-called "Midnight Rockets" silently blanketed communities in radioactive fallout for years. 

Register here.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 6:30 – 8:00 PM
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W Weisheimer Rd, Columbus 43214
Join other members of Indivisible Central Ohio for our monthly in person member meeting, fourth Wednesday of every month. We will discuss current actions and activities and hear from you about your ideas for new actions! 
Register HERE.