Columbus’ political establishment is being forced to reckon with a new generation. On Sunday afternoon, the nonprofit Columbus Stand Up! hosted its second annual youth-led candidate debate at Fort Hayes Education Center, where students as young as 15 grilled candidates for Columbus City Council District 7 and the Columbus City School Board.

In a city where partisan politics often feel scripted, the event broke the mold: teens and twenty-somethings set the agenda, filled the auditorium, and put candidates on notice that the next generation is watching.

A Race Defined by Nepotism and Party Politics

This year’s contests are already thick with insider maneuvering. District 7’s council race — representing Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods — has been shaped less by policy and more by partisan endorsements.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" for you and me, but ignorance of the Constitution is an excuse for the government.

When a cop violates your right to speak, protest, or be free from unreasonable force, qualified immunity steps in to protect them. Likewise for any public employee.

It's time for this to stop. We need leaders like you in Columbus.

Step up and stop the spread of government overreach in Ohio.

Join us today: AbolishQualifiedImmunity.org/volunteer

There is a great opportunity coming up to build the peace movement by supporting or creating anew a powerful local event on the International Day of Peace. We’ve got all the resources you could want below — and if something is missing, let us know!

September 21 is the International Day of Peace, first celebrated in 1982 and recognized annually by many nations and organizations, including day-long pauses in wars that reveal how easy it would be to have year-long or forever-long pauses in wars.

This could not be more critical than at this moment of escalating genocide in Gaza, the ongoing devastation of the war in Ukraine, horrific militarized violence in Sudan and the Congo, and military spending skyrocketing across much of the globe.

This is a good day on which to work for permanent peace and to remember the victims of war. Below are events you can join, and resources you can use to support those events or to organize new ones.

It’s also a good idea to ask your local government to pass a resolution honoring the International Day of Peace.