January 20 was marked by protests across the U.S. against the inauguration of Donald Trump. One of several actions in Columbus was a march to the downtown police station and City Hall to call on Mayor Ginther to demilitarize the police force.

“Trump ran on a platform of ‘law and order,’ which we know is nothing but a dog whistle for violent racist policing  — something he made abundantly clear throughout his campaign,” said Pearl Morgan, an organizer with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), a group that organizes white people to fight against racism. “He openly encouraged violence against protesters at his rallies, seeming to view it as entertainment,” she said.

“We fear that Trump will fulfill his campaign promises to financially support and empower local police departments in their crackdown on our communities,” Morgan added. “That is why we demand that Columbus reject Trump’s plans for our police department, just as the voters of Franklin County rejected Trump on election day.”

Thursday, January 26, 12noon, Chase Bank [Broad St. Downtown], 100 E. Broad St.

Divest your money from the Dakota Access Pipeline!

With Trump as president, the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline [DAPL] is not over. There will be a rally in front of Chase Bank, 100 E. Broad St., asking their patrons to divest their money from the institutions that stand to profit from the pipeline.

If you bank with Chase, divest now!

Since the decision by the U.S. Army to suspend the DAPL river crossing easement to conduct a limited Environmental Impact Statement, the resistance camps at Standing Rock are asking people not to travel to the camps but to “instead take bold action in your local communities to force investors to divest from the project.”

The financial backers of the Dakota Access Pipeline include: JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, ING Bank, Citizens Bank, U.S. Bank, PNC Bank, Barclays, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.

The resistance started January 20. Six citizen activists with Democracy Spring, AllofUs, and Americans Take Action disrupted Trump while he took the oath of office, standing on their chairs and revealing a single word spread across their clothing: R-E-S-I-S-T. 

https://www.facebook.com/democracyspring/videos/618592765007396/

The icon’s day has come and gone, and — oh, the irony — eight people were fatally shot in Chicago on his weekend. Another eight were shot during a Martin Luther King rally and celebration in Miami. 

God knows how many more died this past weekend: around the country, around the world.

An enormous wrong called human violence continues to roll across Planet Earth, but we bring less understanding to it than we had 50 years ago, when King spoke at Riverside Church in New York City and stood courageously against the war in Vietnam.