Opinion
The saga of Gov. DeWine’s Covid failures progresses. [https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2021/06/25/harvey-j-graff-dewines-blundered-coronavirus-response-vax-million-didnt-help/5335280001]
Its downward spiral accelerates with the surging Delta variant, the relatively low rate of vaccinations, and the Governor’s unwillingness to act. The daily news conferences and active role of the Department of Health ceased, and policy making stopped. The Governor surrendered to opposition, reelection concerns, and the virus itself.
Bol Aweng, now of Hilliard, Ohio, is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. At the age of six, he was forced to flee his village and travel 1,500 miles on foot to a refugee camp in Kenya. Bol eventually came to the United States. He graduated from The Ohio State University, majoring in fine art, and was awarded the Robert Duncan Alumni Citizenship Award for starting the Buckeye Clinic in South Sudan.
Bol lives in Hilliard, Ohio with his wife and five children. He speaks to thousands of students each year, sharing his story and raising funds for his clinic.
The following is his chapter “The Journey of Hope” from Far From Their Eyes: Ohio Migration Anthology, edited and published by our friend Lynn Tramonte of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance.
Here’s what happened at the October Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon on October 9.
Free Press Board member Mark Stansbery kicked the salon off by announcing it was the Free Press’ annual “Libby” award ceremony.
Free Press volunteer Suzanne Patzer explained who Libby Gregory was – she was aformer 70s and 80s era Free Press Editor and tireless activist for environmental, peace and women's issues. She was also an entrepreneur -- starting the first vegetarian restaurant in Columbus, the King Avenue Coffee House; Tradewinds (one-time home of the Free Press); and Byzantium, colubus’ premier bead store. She was tragically killed in a 1991 plane crash. The Free Press honors her memory by giving the Libby award each year to honor our local community heroes, who promote alternative paths and are helping to give birth to a better world.
A recent article and a recent book have raised this familiar topic anew for me. The article is a super uninformed dud of a hatchet job on Michael Ratner by Samuel Moyn, who accuses Ratner of supporting war by trying to reform and humanize rather than end it. The critique is terribly weak because Ratner tried to prevent wars, end wars, AND reform wars. Ratner was at every antiwar event. Ratner was at every panel on the need to impeach Bush and Cheney for the wars as well as for the torture. I’d never even heard of Samuel Moyn until he wrote this now widely debunked article. I’m glad he wants to end war and hope he can be a better ally in that struggle.
It’s bad enough that mainstream news outlets routinely call the Pentagon budget a “defense” budget. But the fact that progressives in Congress and even many antiwar activists also do the same is an indication of how deeply the mindsets of the nation’s warfare state are embedded in the political culture of the United States.
The misleading first name of the Defense Department doesn’t justify using “defense” as an adjective for its budget. On the contrary, the ubiquitous use of phrases like “defense budget” and “defense spending” -- virtually always written with a lower-case “d” -- reinforces the false notion that equates the USA’s humongous military operations with defense.
Back in the old days, a proto-version of the Black River’s described themselves as something called “Electric Americana.” I don’t know if they are still using that phrase in their marketing materials, but as I was working on this review for their latest album it jumped back into my mind and stayed there.
I am on record as arguing that Americana is not a type of music. Indeed, fresh off a pot of coffee in 2014 I referred to it as “this loathsome catch-all, this black hole of description, this perfidious non-thing.” Perhaps a bit over the top, but the years have not really changed my mind.
Being Puerto Rican is complicated in the capital of Ohio. My descendants come from the native islanders, the Taínos, Spain, and West Africa. Puerto Rico was originally known as El Boriquén and the natives Boricuas. Nowadays, the official language is Spanish with many words influenced by the Taínos.
The tradition is we speak in Spanish with our elders. Unlike my generation and younger we speak Spanglish among each other. Our gene pool is mixed. We are easily mistaken for people from other cultures. Our history involves colonialism, slavery, revolts and resiliency. Puerto Rico politics are complicated. It is a colony of the USA. The US Naval and Marine forces practiced missile bombing on the small islands around it. As a result, people began to suffer from cancer. Environmentalists and advocates have gone to jail by voicing their concerns demanding the demilitarization and clean up from the radioactive waste and missiles.
“Unanswered Questions” looks at the events of 9/11 from the perspective of 9/11 families. The author follows the journey of the well known “Jersey Girls” as well as many groups or organizations that grew out of the frustration experienced by the families. Although I began to doubt the official story of 9/11 early on, I had not heard of the Family Steering Committee, Families of September 11, 9/11 Families for a Secure America, 9/11 Families to Bankrupt terrorism, Coalition of 9/11 families, Fix the Fund, Give Your Voice, LMDC Families Advisory Council, Skyscraper Safety Campaign, Tuesdays Children and several more. Intertwined with the experiences of the families is mention of the loved ones lost. Where were they on that morning, how did they die that morning? What was the final communication with family?
According to author Ray McGinnis, only 11% of the questions posted to the 9/11 commission were answered. Entire chapters are devoted to questions posed but not answered of NORAD, the FBI, Mayor Giuliani, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Port Authority, Donald Rumsfeld, as well as the FAA, CIA, Security and Exchange Commission.
I use walking sticks when I walk nowadays, kind of like cross-country skiing in late summer, but I had no idea doing so would connect me with a guy named Joe and open a flow of aching love and the deep desire to matter.
“Can I give you a cane?” he asked.
This was in the alley two blocks from my house. I was pushing myself along — I love to walk in alleys for some reason, maybe because I never know what I’ll come upon — and I passed an older guy (around my age, that is) whose garage door was open. He was working at his bandsaw. As I walked past him, he turned and called out his cane offer to me.
I stopped, shrugged. In my 75 years on Planet Earth, no one had ever offered me a free cane before. We stood looking at each other. “Hi,” I said. We introduced ourselves. He stepped away from his bandsaw and I explained that I already had a cane., but thanked him. “This is what I do,” he said. “I make stuff. I give it away.”
Can't Gerrymander Statewide Races
While the Republican's once a decade gerrymander hangs in the balance, it is well to remember that one class of races cannot be grotesquely reshaped. Statewide contests, which fully encompass the often jagged borders of Ohio, are immune to the stuff. It would be wise for Democrats to concentrate on them.
A few months ago, I was sure that the Ohio Supreme Court would step in, slap the redistricting commission's and Ohio legislature's hands and force the creation of intelligently shaped districts that would have a slight Republican advantage after tossing out the horribly GOP-skewed ones. Three appeals to the high court already have been filed but any decisions will come in December at the earliest.
No less prominent journalists than cleveland.com's Andrew Tobias and Ohio University's Thomas Suddes are hinting that Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor will join the three Democrats on the court in voting 4-3 to throw out the gerrymanders and form fair districts. O'Connor went against the grain last decade, but was outvoted by her Republican colleagues.