Advertisement

With the arrival of Earth Day and our celebration of Madre Tierra (Mother Earth), most of us can’t help but be concerned about her health and the impacts that climate change is having on her and our own lives. The Earth is being ravaged by climate change and the evidence is overwhelming. The American Association for the Advancement of Science recently said: “Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising. Temperatures are going up. Springs are arriving earlier. Ice sheets are melting. Sea level is rising. The patterns of rainfall and drought are changing. Heat waves are getting worse, as is extreme precipitation. The oceans are acidifying.” In 2012, air pollution killed about 7 million people, and last year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of drastic effects ahead, including food shortages and civil strife in countries already struggling to meet the basic needs of their people. The impacts and the vulnerability of certain regions around the world, especially Latin America are more evident than ever before and only immediate action will help us to avert even more harmful effects of climate change to our children’s and grandchildren’s generations.

“Benghazi” is one of those kneejerk labels that rightwing folks slap on a story they don’t actually understand but have determined the “right” answer to anyway. It’s a hot button, not an argument, like the “IRS scandal,” which the right is finally beginning to admit it got wrong because it ignored the law as written.

If you have never heard of the word “vegan,” this is the definition: someone who has acknowledged the fact that animals are fully conscious individuals who desire freedom and as such, warrant the same fundamental right to be free, not to be treated as property or unnecessarily killed. Vegans, therefore, abstain from using animals or their products as much as is practical in modern society. However, people have often self-identified as “vegans” to simplify many needs: food allergies, doctor’s orders, plant-strong health (well planned whole foods, plant-based diets can prevent, arrest, reverse or otherwise positively impact 15 of the top16 causes of death), sustainable consumption, energy conservation, ecological preservation, food security etc. Demand for vegan, organic, non-GMO options are rapidly rising trends of the informed consumer, not a fad. Those who require vegan options would be delighted to dine anywhere and not treated like an afterthought or discriminated against outright. What a wonderful thing it would be to walk into any restaurant and see clearly identified vegan options for every course of a meal.

The fetid muck never goes away It lingers for generations Once a place of peace and beauty Nothing now survives the pepto-bismol pit Bit by bit, by bit they all succumbed with searing nostrils, burning lungs to satisfy our voracious appetite. Pink lives, sentient and shy, robbed of their young, their trusting eyes broken, their gentle nature plundered. Here your terror ends -- but mine begins -- where the trail of dead fouls air and land. Your while bones littered about. Your bodies swollen or exploded. Incomprehensible the deed. Inconceivable the spill. Unthinkable the toll, beneath the odor's first layer. An unwholesome tang, insidiously nauseating and frightening at its core. Deep-sweet and high-sour. the effluvium charms only black flies and bloodthirsty savages. There are no frogs in this lagoon. There are no fish in this lagoon. There is no life in this lagoon.
On April 15, 50 students and community allies lead by the Ohio State Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) gathered to deliver a message to the Wendy’s location on campus in the Wexner Medical Center: that they will not tolerate OSU’s continued business with Wendy’s; a company which refuses to support farmworkers in their supply chain. As readers of The Free Press recall, Columbus has become the epicenter of a national effort to have Wendy’s join its fast food competitors and join the acclaimed “Fair Food Program”, a partnership between farmworkers represented by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), farmers, and 12 multinational corporations which guarantees farmworkers a substantial wage increase and provides an enforceable Code of Conduct outlining rights routinely absent in agricultural labor. Of the top five fast-food corporations in the nation -- McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, and Wendy's -- Wendy's is the only one not participating in the Fair Food Program.


Jude Law pulls out all the stops as a profane, bipolar ex-con in Dom Hemingway. Scarlett Johansson leaves the stops pushed all the way in as an alien seductress in Under the Skin.

Though the films are polar opposites, they have two things in common: Both are based in the UK, and both match the personalities of their leading characters.

The Transformers toy/cartoon/comic book/terrible action movie gestalt is observing its 30th anniversary this year, and time has made it a seemingly impenetrable mess of characters and backstories. But while the movies have been less than stellar examples of the storytelling craft, in the comic book world it’s never been a better time to dig giant robots. With their big cross-series “Dark Cybertron” storyline coming to an end, IDW is giving new readers a great jumping-on point as they reestablish their storylines in the aftermath and challenge some of the very basics of the Transformers status quo.
The Columbus Action Network ("CAN") urges Franklin County residents to vote "against" Issue 6, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium's proposed 1.5 mill continuing property tax levy. Issue 6 proposes to more than double the Franklin County property tax dollars directed toward the Zoo, and to make the levy permanent, where in the past levies had to be renewed every ten years. The CAN opposes this request for several reasons: 1) Any publicly funded entity seeking to double its public funding should have its proposal looked on with great skepticism, and such is the case here with the zoo's 110% proposed increase. We see no compelling reason for a doubling of the zoo's property tax collected from Franklin County residents. Quite simply, a zoo is not an essential element of the county, and our essential levy-funded human services to our most vulnerable residents - public schools, public transit, child protective services, mental health, addiction services, developmental disability services, and senior services - are a far higher priority for scarce taxpayer dollars than is the Zoo.

Pages

Subscribe to ColumbusFreePress.com  RSS