There was unexpected good news at the January 2021 Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon! On Saturday night, January 9, about 45 local and national community activists met through Zoom from 7-8pm to hear about local and national social justice issues.

View video of Cyber-Salon

Showing Up for Racial Justice

The first to speak was Ginnie Vogts of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). She talked about SURJ’s mission and activities and how to get involved. SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. They work to connect people across the country while supporting and collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts. SURJ provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change.

The invisible hand

As everyone knows, Adam Smith invented the theory that individual self-interest is, and ought to be, the main motivating force of human economic activity, and that this, in effect, serves the wider social interest. He put forward a detailed description of this concept in an immense book, “The Wealth of Nations” (1776).

Saturday, January 9, 2021, 1:00PM
Ohio Statehouse

Since the insurrection at the Capitol Building, I keep thinking about my Dad and wondering what he would have thought. Frank J. Pace, son of Italian immigrants, joined the National Guard at 19 and almost lost a leg during World War II. Then he volunteered to fight in Korea when his unit was called up.

He didn’t have to go; with two small children he was exempted. But Dad went because he loved his country and thought it was his duty. Left at home with two small sons, his wife Kathryn also sacrificed in service to that sense of duty.

My Dad was a Roosevelt Democrat. When Truman was elected against long odds, my Dad wept for joy. Later he would become a Reagan Democrat, in search of the patriotic unity he had experienced during the wars.

My Dad left the US Army Reserves as a Sergeant Major at mandatory retirement age. When he died suddenly soon afterwards, his army buddies made sure he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. His nation bestowed on him the same honors I had seen given to John Kennedy, a slain president. The ceremony was the same right down to the flag draped caisson and black riderless horse. 

Tuesday, December 22, 2020 was the last day for meetings at the Ohio Statehouse, with the full senate scheduled to meet in the afternoon to pass any remaining legislation. Only one committee was scheduled to meet in the morning – the Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee. And the committee had only one item on their agenda – Ohio House Bill 104.

HB 104 had passed the Ohio House in June with a vote of 80-11. All Republicans voted yes, and all the nay votes were from Democrats. Why 22 Democrats would vote in favor of this Republican-sponsored boondoggle has its opponents stymied.

Opposing this bizarre nuclear subsidy was a long struggle, lasting over 2 years and continuing until the very last minute. And the way it was sneaked through the legislature, managing to move along with an extremely low profile, and popping up unexpectedly, is nearly unique in the long history of outrageous Ohio legislation.

In 10 poorly-written pages, reduced from 34, House Bill 104 laid out obligations for the state that would have: