Announcement of Sierra Club job opening

Community Organizer for Columbus, Ohio

The Sierra Club, a leading environmental organization, seeks two (2) full-time Community Organizers in Columbus, Ohio to plan, organize and implement the education and mobilization efforts of our Building Environmental Community campaign. Requires writing /editing skills, 1-2 years experience with volunteers or non-profit, strong organizational skills & travel.

To Apply:
Send cover letter/resume to: Sierra Club, Attn: BEC, 36 West Gay Street, Suite 314, Columbus, Ohio 43215 or bryan.clark@sierraclub.org. Application deadline is 19 January 2004.

Job Description:

This Community Organizer works with Midwest field staff, Ohio chapter staff, and chapter/group volunteers to organize support for grassroots campaigns, events and skills training and to generate turnout for campaign visibility events. Works with appropriate staff to integrate the regional and chapter programs with the goals and objectives of the Sierra Club's Building Environmental Communities Campaign. Creates demand for action on air quality

Southwest Neighbors Protecting Our Environment defeat the Tire Pyrolysis

When the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) met on Tuesday January 6, 2004, it only took them about fifteen minutes to vote down the proposal from United Purifying Technologies (UPT). After four people from SouthWest Neighbors Protecting Our Environment (SWNPOE) testified briefly, and two SWACO board members spoke against it, the board defeated a resolution to offer a lease to UPT. This ended the possibility that the Trash Burning Power Plant property on Jackson Pike would be used as a tire pyrolysis facility.

The citizens of southwest Columbus got up in arms about the proposal from a start-up company that consists of one person, president Jeff Troth, and a plan that he has been trying to implement for over a decade. When the Ohio EPA issued a draft air permit to UPT on July 17, 2003, it vaulted the proposal to the forefront of the projects being considered by the SWACO to pay off the debt the City of Columbus still owes on the construction of the plant that has been idle since late 1994.

The pyrolysis facility that UPT envisioned would shred tires then bake them at 450 degrees in a reaction vessel in the absence of oxygen. The

Running On Empty

Ralph Nader plans to announce this month whether he'll be running for president in 2004. Some believe that such a campaign is needed to make a strong political statement nationwide. But if Nader does run this year, what kind of support -- in the form of volunteers, resources and votes -- could he reasonably expect?

Results of a nationwide survey, released in late December, provide a stark look at the current inclinations of people who've been part of his electoral base. After receiving about 11,000 responses from readers on a core e-mail list, the progressive online magazine AlterNet reported back: "While 27 percent of you voted for Nader in 2000, only 11 percent say you would vote for him in 2004."

This year, Nader would be lucky to receive 1 million votes -- a far cry from his 2000 total of 2.8 million.

Dire as the AlterNet numbers are for a prospective Nader run, they probably overstate the extent to which he would retain voters from 2000. The survey tally came before Nader publicly ruled out being a Green Party nominee in 2004. Last time, one of the main reasons given for supporting Nader as the

Cheerleader Conspiracy

AUSTIN, Texas -- Mr. Bumble observed that the law is an ass, and he'd never even seen the congressional redistricting plan drawn by Texas Republicans. Sigh. I just hate when Tom DeLay and Karl Rove get away with a dirty deal like this. The University of Texas is now represented by Lamar Smith of San Antonio, I'm in a district that runs to the Mexican border, and two blocks north of me, they're in with Houston. Help!

As one who relishes our state's incontrovertibly bizarre political mores, I must confess I love the sheer awfulness of this map. It is, in its own way, totally awesome and worthy of the truly noble tradition of lunacy for which Texas is so noted.

Speaking of said tradition, I have failed to give sufficient recognition to our only governor, Goodhair Perry, who is adding to the old je ne sais quoi in truly impressive quantities. Goodhair gave such an amazing performance at his end-of-the-year press conference that I was forced to call a perfectly reliable reporter for the Dallas Morning News and ask if it was a joke.

Bush as Hitler? Let's be fair

Beyond the shared enthusiasm of the Fuehrer and all U.S. presidents for mass murder as an appropriate expression of national policy, I've never seen any particularly close affinity between Adolf Hitler and the current White House incumbent, but the Republican National Committee (RNC) seems peculiarly sensitive on the matter.

At the end of the first week in January, the RNC lashed out furiously at Democratic Web site Moveon.org for including in its featured entrants for robust campaign ads for 2004 a couple that offered Bush/Hitler comparisons.

One features Hitler making a speech, crosscut with footage of the Nazi blitzkrieg, while a voice-over says, "A nation warped by lies ... lies fuel fear ... fear fuels aggression ... invasion ... occupation." As the scene fades from Hitler giving a raised arm salute to Bush with his hand raised at his inauguration, the voice-over says, "What were war crimes in 1945 is foreign policy in 2003."

The second ad shows Hitler, speaking in German, with a voice-over translating the lines as "We have taken new

Freep Heroes

Freep Hero -- Bill Moss, Watchdog for the Children

Let’s see, it took the collusion of the Democratic and Republican parties -- both who refused to fill out a full slate of four Columbus School Board candidates and instead picked two each to create their notorious “Gang of Four” -- along with the Chamber of Commerce, the Dispatch, the Democratic Mayor Michael Coleman and $357,000 to defeat Bill Moss in the last election. Despite the fact that many white liberals who distrust everything that the Dispatch says tend to believe the paper when it comes to Moss, he remained the only School Board member unbought, unbossed and unbowed by Columbus’ power elite. Moss’ courageous last electoral battle against the pay-to-play forces of corruption will be remembered, while the unprincipled policies of Mayor Coleman will have passed into history.

Free Press Salutes -- Tom Siemer, Protester for Peace

Seeing beyond the ‘vision thing’

I am so tired of vision-speak.

Anymore, you’re not worth your sight in business, culture, politics or the breakfast table unless you talk up the vision thing.

Act like you know where the boot hill we’re going; pretend you’re sure where we should be; concoct some bullseye story to explain how we get there then - bam - you too are a certified visionary.

Command of vision-speak, (plus boatloads of money for amplification), can get you elected governor, president, heck, even mayor with little or no experience because, after all, experience is just another word for hindsight and who needs hindsight when you’ve got crystal balls?.

Whether there are any worthwhile futurescapes in your dome - or their chances of actually seeing daylight - is irrelevant.

Because it ain’t how you see it anyway, it’s how you say it.

Spout righteously, and the wish-list of everything you and your cronies ever want out of life becomes a blueprint for the good of man.

To politicians and other unholy sees, vision-speak serves vital purposes.

A family conversation

I recently spent the past holiday with my family, and used the opportunity to talk with as many of my nieces and nephews as possible. This conversation was with my nephew Raymond who is graduating high school in a years time and saw me identify myself as “Black” on a survey someone handed to me. Raymond wanted to know “why?”, since everyone is calling themselves “African American”. Our conversation turned into a oral history lesson that lasted about an hour between myself and my two brothers. What I said to Raymond went like this.

Factory farming cattle for profit speeds the evolution of disease

This issue’s column is kindly submitted by Free Press Board member Sarah Clark. Thanks, Sarah!

Recently, the U.S. government officially acknowledged the presence of a lame cow slaughtered in Washington State that had the degenerative disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). This disease is caused by the prion, a recently understood biological concept, and represents a new threat to public health. The beef industry is guilty of distributing and actually speeding the evolution of this disease due to their grossly inhumane feeding and slaughtering practices. The majority of people are complicit in this crime because they pay to run the factory farms, slaughterhouses and rendering plants that dominate cattle farming today regardless of their inhumane nature.

Our Media update

Local:

Public Access TV: On December 18th, Rich James, Chair of the Neighborhood Network, spoke at City budget hearings. To read his prepared remarks visit www.theneighborhoodnetwork.org. In 2003 the City completed a vetting of potential contractors and the Columbus Cable Commission recommended that The Neighborhood Network receive a management contract. This happened in May 2003 but the City has not taken action on a contract. There is a larger issue at stake than the immediate service the channel can provide. The next round of cable franchise negotiations for Columbus will commence in about two years. Additionally, there are legal and regulatory challenges facing local franchise authorities that threaten the right of municipalities to collect franchise fees and secure rightful public interest requirements from cable providers for using public rights of way.

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