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Opening Gitmo to the World

To read Witnesses of the Unseen: Seven Years in Guantanamo is to run your mind along the contours of hell. 

The next step, if you’re an American, is to embrace it. Claim it. This is who we are: We are the proprietors of a cluster of human cages and a Kafkaesque maze of legal insanity. This torture center is still open. Men (“forever prisoners”) are still being held there, their imprisonment purporting to keep us safe. 

The book, by Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir — two Algerian men arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and wrongly accused of being terrorists — allows us to imagine ourselves at Guantanamo, this outpost of the Endless War. 

What’s Missing from Dunkirk Film

Yes, I’m going to tell you what’s missing from this film without watching the film. Trump has, as promised, made me so sick of winning that I really could enjoy watching a defeat film, but I think I’ll pass. If I’m wrong about what’s missing from it (I mean one of the many things that are, no doubt, missing from it), I promise that I will eat an entire plan for victory in Afghanistan annually for the next decade.

One of the oddest things about World War II is how it has been marketed as a humanitarian war since the moment it ended.

One reason this is odd is that several times the number of people killed in German concentration camps were killed outside of them in the war (at least 50 million worldwide vs. 9 million killed in the camps). And the majority of those people were civilians. So a war against killing people in camps would be a very strange way to understand World War II, unless killing many more people can be made an acceptable means of opposing killing people. The scale of the killing, wounding, and destroying made WWII the single worst thing humanity has ever done to itself in any short space of time.

Ohio’s Anti-Wind Regulation Comes at a Serious Cost

In the corporate war against renewable energy, a single Ohio regulation stands out.

It is a simple clause slipped into the state budget without open discussion, floor debate, or public hearings.

The restriction is costing Ohio billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

The regulation demands that wind turbines sited in the Buckeye State be at least 1,125 feet from the blade tip to the nearest property line, about 1300 feet total—nearly a quarter-mile.

Take Action for Trans Rights!

Blue, pink an white flag background with words take action for trans rights
Thursday, July 27-29, 5:30-9pm
Goodale Park march to Statehouse
Facebook Event
Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Org, Equitas Health, HRC Columbus,Equality Ohio, Kaleidoscope Youth Center and Stonewall Columbus invite you to join us in protest. We will gather at 5:30pm Thursday at the Goodale Park Gazebo and march to the Statehouse in protest of the Trump administrations attacks against transgender military service members.
We need to rise up together to show this administration that these acts are unacceptable, and show that we are here to support, protect, and empower our community.
The march will begin at the gazebo in Goodale Park and will proceed via the sidewalks to the Statehouse. Signs and chanting are encouraged! We hope to see community members and allies out in force, raising their voices in support!
We stand by our brave, selfless transgender service members and will not stand idly by.

 

Biological Annihilation on Earth Accelerating

Human beings are now waging war against life itself as we continue to
destroy not just individual lives, local populations and entire species
in vast numbers but also destroy the ecological systems that make life
on Earth possible.

By doing this we are now accelerating the sixth mass extinction event in
Earth's history and virtually eliminating any prospect of human
survival.

In a recently published scientific study 'Biological annihilation via
the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population
losses and declines'
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/05/1704949114 the authors
Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich and Rodolfo Dirzo document the
accelerating nature of this problem.

When Barbara Lee doesn’t speak for me

For Americans who oppose perpetual war, no member of Congress has been more admired than Barbara Lee. Ever since she cast the only vote against a blank-check war resolution, three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Oakland Democrat has earned a reputation for bravely speaking antiwar truth to militarist power.

But, now, the core wisdom of her eloquent speech on the House floor nearly 16 years ago is under threat — from Lee herself.

 

When Lee beseeched her colleagues to “think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control,” she was looking far beyond the politics and passions of that moment on Sept. 14, 2001. In a July 7 tweet, she has stepped away from steadfast support for the necessity of diplomatic initiatives. 

Spoken word/open mic night to support the BlackPride4

Black and white drawing of four black activists and signs that say Drop the Charges and BlackPride4

Tuesday, July 25, 8-11pm
Lincoln Cafe, 740 E. Long St.
Join us for a spoken word open mic night to fundraise for the #BlackPride4!! 
During Columbus’ Pride parade on June 17, 2017, a group of protesters asked for 7 minutes of silence to bring awareness to the 7 shots fired at Philandro Castile as well as the 15 trans women who have been murdered this year alone. Within 30 seconds, police met the protestors with violence, peppery spray, and criminal charges. Four were arrested during pride, now known at the #BlackPride4, and are in need of money for legal fees. 
Not only is this a chance to support the #BlackPride4 but to better understand queer people of color through artistic expression. Let’s listen to each other through spoken word, poetry, and music and help the BP4 fight police brutality in court.
We will have the fabulous John Gibson and Tiffany Mariie to MC the event and get things started! 
Sign up when you walk in to share your talent and feelings!

Where are the wreaths for the known?

U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis recently told constituents of how he participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. He told us to remember and give thanks to those who gave their lives in the service of our nation, as they are the “indispensable Americans without whom we would not be free.”

Ernie Gallo of Palm Coast is the USS Liberty Veterans Association’s president. On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty, stationed in international waters, was attacked for two hours by the Israeli military. That left 34 U.S. sailors and Marines dead, 174 wounded and the Liberty the most decorated ship for a single engagement in U.S. Navy history.

The Ethics of not Ruining Everything

Today I listened to the audio book of Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationship With Animals by Lori Gruen while reading the hardcopy of From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel Dennett. As a result I have been better able to empathize with Dennett’s obsession with the uniqueness of human consciousness, and I have been better able to marvel at the complex precision of Gruen’s theorizing. But I don’t seem to be any better off than I was before when it comes to knowing how to persuade or otherwise mobilize people to stop humanity from wrecking this planet or harming various life forms on it. In that and other senses, both books read/listen to me like eternal introductions that never get around to the tofu of the matter.

BlackPride4-led Community Conversation

Four young black people one with fist in the air

Monday, Jul7 24, 6-8pm
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and University Center, 30 W Woodruff Ave.
Facebook event
Join us for a community conversation led by the #BlackPride4, community organizers associated with the BP4, and other invited Black LGBTQ+ community members.

On July 17, exactly one month after the arrests and police brutality inflicted on peaceful protesters at their own Pride Parade, Stonewall Columbus (SWC) organized a "community conversation" to address people's concerns. This conversation was called in the wake of a planned meeting between the #BlackPride4 and Stonewall on June 22 that was canceled after the BP4's arrival, with the BP4 facing disrespect from the SWC board members who told them of the last-minute cancellation.

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