Over the last five years, the Youngstown, Ohio region has suffered over 700 man-made earthquakes, an illegal dumping of fracking waste into our river, accidental spills that destroyed private ponds and a small wetland, the trucking of radioactive solid fracking-waste into a low-income neighborhood and shale-gas fracking in the Safe Drinking Water Source Protection Area of our water supply, the Meander Reservoir. Because our elected officials have refused to prevent these ongoing harms to public health and safety, Frackfree Mahoning Valley and the Youngstown Community Bill of Rights Committee are using the ballot box to codify into law our rights as citizens to clean air, clean water and a sustainable future. This battle to codify the unalienable rights of citizens over the privileges of corporations and the self-interests of some elected officials, political parties, and community leaders, began in 2013. In 2015, the Community Bill of Rights (CBR) charter amendment only lost by 299 votes out of over 12,000 votes cast.

Over the last five years, the Youngstown, Ohio region has suffered over 700 man-made earthquakes, an illegal dumping of fracking waste into our river, accidental spills that destroyed private ponds and a small wetland, the trucking of radioactive solid fracking-waste into a low-income neighborhood and shale-gas fracking in the Safe Drinking Water Source Protection Area of our water supply, the Meander Reservoir.  Because our elected officials have refused to prevent these ongoing harms to public health and safety, Frackfree Mahoning Valley and the Youngstown Community Bill of Rights Committee are using the ballot box to codify into law our rights as citizens to clean air, clean water and a sustainable future.  This battle to codify the unalienable rights of citizens over the privileges of corporations and the self-interests of some elected officials, political parties, and community leaders, began in 2013.  In 2015, the Community Bill of Rights (CBR) charter amendment only lost by 299 votes out of over 12,000 votes cast.

Prejudice and bigotry are grievous personality flaws, but I must admit that I applied both to Ages and Ages prior to seeing them live on September 18th. Over the years I’ve made something of a cottage industry of sneering at hipsters, musically anyway. I think it might run back to scary stories my mother told me of proto-hipsters in the early1960’s demanding source purity in folk music, as opposed to that hated sellout Judy Collins. Or maybe I’m terrified that someone knows more about Waylon Jennings than I do. Probably I’m just frightened of the double decker bike people. In any event, an evening in the Short North makes me go fight or flight, and I find Pitchfork magazine marginally useful for wiping off oil leaks on old Piaggio engines.

On Thursday about 50 demonstrators, most wearing black, marched in a silent mock funeral procession from the Columbus Mennonite Church to the home of Mayor Andrew Ginther in the predominately white neighborhood of Clintonville.

“Mayor Ginther’s inaction speaks louder than words,” said Tynan Krakoff, an organizer with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). “Ginther needs to wake up to the racism thriving in Columbus. We are here to demand justice for Ty’re King and Henry Green. We are calling on city officials to invest in communities of color and for the mayor to break his silence and complicity in upholding racism.” SURJ is a national organization of white people organizing to fight against racial injustice.

“As white people, we know that we are treated differently than our neighbors of color, particularly under police programs such as the Summer Safety Initiative,” Krakoff said. “We need to shift our city’s budget away from policing and instead invest in black communities.”