Progressive friends who are used to gathering on the second Saturday for the Free Press salons met together through Zoom on April 11 from 7-9pm for a "Cyber-Salon." About 37 people were able to tune in to hear speakers, announcements and music. The idea was proposed by Free Press Board President Pete Johnson and our video production/technical support guru Trane DePriest hosted and produced the Zoom event, available here at the Free Press YouTube Network.

After the welcoming remarks and a bit of Free Press history, the first speaker was Torin Jacobs, reporting on his new initiative to give grocery gift cards to people in need now that there is COVID-19 and many of our neighbors and friends are out of work. The local Mutual Aid group will distrbute most of the $50 gift cards and the Free Press will be accepting nominations of people who need them - send an email to: colsfreepress@gmail.com to nominate someone, and put "Gift Card" in the subject line.

Esther Flores, RN, Missionary, & CEO of1DivineLine2Health was the next speaker. She is constantly out on the frontines helping "street sisters" the victims of human trafficking and other needy people on the west side (and all around the city). Her work is very important, especially in this time of fears about the virus. She tries to comfort and keep the women healthy. She told the group that many women are getting out of jail and prison with no money and nowhere to go. She also said that MRSA is more of a concern to her as a health hazard right now. She asked that people please donate funds and non-perishable food -- particularly cracker/chicken or tuna combo packets. You can donate here: https://1dl2h.org/donate

The next topic was about the elections - both local and national. We heard from Bob Fitrakis, John Brakey of AUDIT-USA and TrustVote, Bennie Smith - the man who discovered "fraction magic" in voting machine tabulation, and other election integrity activists. The in-person voting in Wisconsin, a vote-by-mail national option, and the importance of Tennessee (and Shelby County specifically) as a swing state were topics of conversation. Trane showed a video promoting upcoming election Zoom conferences.

After some local announcements about future events, the one-man-band Steve Dodge closed out the salon with a couple of songs. People had tuned in from their homes in central Ohio, Arizona, California, Washington state and other states. Energized by the focus on how activism is continuing despite the coronavirus lockdown, people are looking forward to the other upcoming events and next month's cyber-salon!

Upcoming events:

Saturday, April 18, 2020, 10:00 to 11:30 AM, Move to Amend Ohio Network 8th Annual (VIRTUAL) Gathering: Building a Real Democracy Movement in Ohio.  Keynote Presentation: “The Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival” by Rev. Donna Moore. Hear from Move to Amend National Director Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap on national MTA successes and 2020 plans and connect with other Ohioans to build a community for fundamental change to end corporate rule, get big money out of politics and work in solidarity with others to create justice! Stay tuned for Zoom link. For more information, contact Sandy Bolzenius, sbolzenius72@hotmail.com. Please register/RSVP at ohio@movetoamend.org.

Saturday, April 25, 2020, 10:00 AM.  SPAN State Conference Goes Online. Since we can’t hold our conference in person, we will be bringing it to you online!  Keynote Speaker:   Wendell Potter. Participants who join by computer will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer period.  We will conduct a brief tutorial on how participants can use the Zoom tools.  It is easy to log in via computer and in most cases, no download is required.  You just click on the link that you will be provided.  You can join with a phone call, but you will not be able to receive the video portion or use the video tools to participate. This is the first part of our planned conference.   We are making plans to bring the rest of the conference to you via Zoom over the next few months.   You will be receiving a new invitation for each segment of the conference that is presented.   Register (requires) in advance for this meeting:  https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqdu2gqTsqWLOeXq7GMLJ7Xdb6KMtywA.  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. There is no charge for participating in this video conference.  However, there are costs associated with the presentation, so if you would like to make a donation, please do so via our webpage:   https://www.spanohio.org/index.php/takeaction/donate.  We would be very appreciative of any donation you can give.  Facebook.