This is our lucky day for quite a few reasons. We haven't yet rendered the climate of this planet uninhabitable for our species. For those of us who are not in prison: we're not in prison -- and not because of some significant difference between us and many who are. For those of us not hungry or scared . . . (see note above re prisons). But there's another big reason that this is our lucky day -- a reason that is different in kind from these.

As a crowd waited for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to join a September 2 political rally at Capital University, local Green Party members took the podium to explain the key role of third party politics, and how Stein’s presidential bid coalesces with state and local efforts to transform the political landscape.

“Politics creates the kinds of communities that we will live in,” said Anita Rios of Toledo, who ran for Ohio Governor in 2014. “Somebody is going to make those decisions, and if it’s not somebody who understands our needs, they’re going to make decisions based on the people who give them money — decisions that simply do not work for us.”

Healing our communities requires a groundswell of Americans participating in politics at the local level, Rios said, “not just as voters, but also as candidates.” She described her Ohio gubernatorial run as a grueling effort that required great sacrifices from herself, her family, and a legion of Green Party activists.

The "D" inThe Columbus Dispatch does not stand for Diversity unless you define Diversity as "middle-aged white males."

Diversity is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the condition of having or being composed of differing elements (especially through) the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization."

This inclusion appears to be not taking place at the Dispatch. A look at the pictures of the individuals listed below indicates a sameness in gender and race:

The CEO of New Media Investments, the owner of the Dispatch, is Kirk Davis, a middle-aged white male.

The president and publisher of the paper is Bradley Harmon, a middle-aged white male.

Laura Bentz of Keybridge Communications describes her company as "a boutique PR firm -- founded by a former writer for the Wall Street Journal -- that specializes in writing and placing op-eds. With some of the country's most influential trade groups and global corporations as clients, we run many of the major op-ed campaigns in the U.S. We place roughly 3,000 op-eds per year."

Paulie Gee’s, located in the Short North on High Street, has just broken through the cheese barrier by introducing the Columbus restaurant goers to a creamy and absolutely deliciously decadent, house made, cashew-based, vegan ricotta cheese for its socially-just pizza toppings. Paulie Gee’s also offers other vegan alternatives such as house vegan sausage and breadcrumbs.    

They have also strategically partnered with the recent expansion of another local sociallyjust dining favorite, The Angry Baker, to cover fabulous vegan dessert offerings.  The evolution of restaurant food must shift to plant-based favorites, as our global consciousness adapts to the reality of a human population at 7.5 billion people that has limited planetary resources.