Freep Heroes

The selfless good Samaritans who helped others in the wake of the hurricane

The numerous, often nameless and faceless Americans, who, unlike the Bush administration, rushed to the aid of those trapped on roofs and left to die. There's a battle going on for the soul of America. This is the side we support.

The Free Press Salutes

The Columbus Dispatch

We hate to say it, but we really wish we would have written the series on mortgage rip-offs. The Dispatch reporting was thorough and exemplary. Moreover, in this day and age when the media is often reluctant to take on companies that might advertise with them, the Dispatch cited specific businesses that are destroying communities through unscrupulous practices and destroying the American Dream.

Enemies of the People

The Bush administration and its federal agencies

Under Ohio law, possession of up to four ounces of marijuana is considered a ticketable offense, punishable by no more than a $150 fine. That was way too lenient for Cincinnati mayoral candidate David Pepper, and back in June he briefly floated a proposal to make it a misdemeanor offense punishable by a $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail. While that proposal went over like a lead balloon, and Pepper soon backed away from it, the issue continues to play out in Cincinnati pre-election politics.

At a question and answer session with students at the Seven Hills Upper School last Friday, which was covered by the Cincinnati Enquirer, one of the students asked Pepper about his now abandoned proposal. "We have become the place in the entire region where drugs are dealt," Pepper said, pointing to Vine Street in the city's majority black Over-the-Rhine neighborhood as the area's worst "open air drug market." In most drug arrests in Over-the-Rhine, he added, neither the buyer nor the seller are from the neighborhood.

Slidell, LA - The residents of Chalmette are glum: three and a half weeks ago, Hurricane Katrina ravaged their coastal community, a suburb east of New Orleans. Chalmette was determined to be "100%"; this damage classification means that all of the homes in the community were badly damaged by the storm, nearly obliterating the small town. Thirty-seven year-old Ben Holder, longtime resident and homeowner, came back Monday to find his two-story home flooded with six feet of brackish water and briny mud. Holder, like many of the residents I spoke with, has an unusually optimistic attitude:

"My grandmother and mother-in-law were both drowned in the flood, and my truck is completely destroyed, my boat is upside-down on the roof of my house, which is also upside down; but somehow, by the grace of God, these two little lizards I was keeping upstairs spent ten days alone without food and water and both of them survived!"

Neighboring Slidell was only slightly more fortunate: a drive south toward New Orleans along the marshy coast reveals a once-picturesque gulfside community leveled by the hundred-fifty plus mile-per-hour winds

Dear Friends,

On October 5th, Simply Living and three other local organizations (Bexley Public Radio Foundation, Community Refugee and Immigration Service and Groveport Madison Local School District) were granted a long-awaited construction permit from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to build a Low Power FM (LPFM) radio station. (By definition, a low power station operates at 100 watts, which the FCC considers to cover a five-mile radius. In actuality the signal can cover up to an eleven-mile radius.) This action was the culmination of a series of filings and agreements which included a timeshare agreement whereby we share the signal, 102.1 FM, and programming with the three other permit holders. According to the permit, we have until April 2007 to put this station on the air. Pertinent to this process is the parallel effort of Columbus Community Radio Foundation to build a 170 watt translator station at 98.3 FM in Grandview, a station that by definition cannot originate programming but can pick up another station's programming and broadcast it to a wider audience, due to its higher power.

October 15th, Toledo, Ohio was the scene of a violent confrontation between police and demonstrators after Neo-Nazis held a rally in a African-American neighborhood on the north side of Toledo. The rally by the Nazis was promoted throughout the local media and anti-fascist activists from around the Midwest were gathered to protest as well as countless members of the community. As the crowd grew to close to 600 people, some eggs and other items were tossed at the Nazis who held up their white power signs in front of their faces as shields. The police responded by riding their horses out into the crowd and protecting the Nazis with shielded officers. They singled out a youth wearing a Cincinnati Red’s hat and arrested him without any explanation. The crowd grew indignant as the Nazis were then escorted by police to where residents believed they were going to begin their march.