Even though I’m not registered to vote (I think that will be my next project – voting rights for pigs), I do have an opinion on the elections this year. It’s intense primary season as I write this, and I did some digging to see how the Democrats stack up on animal rights. We all know that Bush would be bad on this issue, that’s a given. He’s bad on the environment which affects animals, he’s bad on war which kills animals, and he’s bad on human issues like jobs, health care and education. If he doesn’t care about people, I’m sure he doesn’t care about non-humans.

I did find this fact about his animal rights record: in October 2003, the Washington Post wrote: “The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.” The rationale is that selling endangered animals to the U.S. would provide money to “developing” nations so they can have better animal conservation policies. Excuse me? The irony of that makes my tail curl (pot-bellies have straight tails, by the way).

This excerpt is from a forthcoming book by Staughton Lynd, who requested portions of his manuscript be included in issues of the Free Press. Lynd, along with his wife Alice, have a lifetime of social justice activism. Staughton directed the Freedom Schools of the Mississippi Summer Project in 1964. He was one of the first Americans to visit and write about North Vietnam during the war in the winter of 1965-66. Staughton and Alice are retired lawyers in Niles, Ohio. Temple University Press plans to publish this exposé on the Lucasville uprising in August 2004.

Prosecutors have called it “the longest prison riot in United States history.”1 More accurately, the Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) refers to “the longest prison siege in U.S. history where lives were lost.” A 1987 rebellion at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta seems to have lasted a few hours longer.2

Under pressure from the Ohio EPA to come up with an area wide plan for sewer development and water quality, the City of Columbus designated a large area of the Darby watershed to be an Environmentally Sensitive Development Area (ESDA). To formulate special standards for development in this pristine area, Columbus agreed to create an External Advisory Group (EAG).

The Sierra Club’s position is that water quality of the Darby Creeks will be preserved only by following the best scientific guidelines available. The process currently being used to determine protection standards for the ESDA is fatally flawed for several reasons.

The process is controlled by the City of Columbus. Don Armour of Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott & May, an engineering firm working for the City of Columbus, was designated by the city as the facilitator. As facilitator, Armour has the ability to control the agenda and the discussion.

On Nov. 24 Columbus passed a water/sewer rate increase that will raise the average bill by about $40/year. Yet the City is a long way from spending our ratepayer dollars in an economic and environmentally beneficial manner. The Club’s work has the potential to redirect the spending of billions of dollars. Make out a tax-deductible check to the Sierra Club Foundation and mail it to: Sierra Club Treasurer, 6760 Hayhurst St., Worthington, OH 43085. We have a generous donor who will match all donations up to $2000!

We urge you to become involved in the Sierra Club’s Sewers Campaign, whether it’s donating a few hours or a few dollars. You can help by writing Mayor Michael Coleman at 90 W. Broad St., Columbus 43215 or calling him at 645-7671. Tell him: “For Our Health, Stop Sewage Overflows.” Or send him an email at mac@cmhmetro.net. You can also send an email from the Sierra Club Ohio Action Network. 

The majority of Pakistani youth have been born to worship the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, a metallurgist by training and head of Pakistan’s nuclear program. It was a rare and equally shocking moment for many Pakistani people to see their “hero” appearing on television on February 4, in the midst of a storm that has been created with a news leak, confessing his sin of what the international community says is nuclear proliferation. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, admitted that he and only he himself is responsible for exporting nuclear know-how to various nations (Iran, Libya and North Korea), thus exonerating the powerful military from any involvement in that business.