ProgressOhio

The ordinance updates sections of city code covering employment non-discrimination, fair housing, public accommodations and ethnic intimidation.

The sections are similar, but not uniform in listing who is covered, though commonly, race, religion and sexual orientation are included. Sexual orientation was added to the housing and accommodation code in 1984, and to the others in 1992.

The updates add gender identity or expression and, if the sections don’t already have them, sex, ancestry, age, disability and familial status.

No Ohio or federal law prohibits discrimination by sexual orientation or gender identity, although a bill to add them is currently in the state legislature. Four other Ohio cities include both in their non-discrimination ordinances: Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and Oxford.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Email Priscilla Tyson's aide and express your support for the revisions: cgwilliams@columbus.gov

Attend the City Council meeting on Monday, December 15 at 5 PM: Columbus City Hall Council Chamber, 2nd Floor 90 West Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215

2,592* emails have been sent by Progress Ohio members to legislators urging a "no" vote on Ohio Senate Bill 380. The email campaign targets Jon Husted and the 15 members of the House State Government & Elections Committee.

Put simply, lame ducks in the Ohio legislature are doing everything they can to leave a legacy of more difficult and confusing elections systems while they still have the chance.

With S.B. 380, they’re targeting early voting. Instead of a straightforward system with one deadline for everyone, Senate Republicans would create a web of deadlines, rules and regulations.  Under this new scheme, early voting would be harder, while challenging voters and their ballots would be easier.

Senate Bill 380 would:

Create three different deadlines for absentee voting, while eliminating same day registration in Ohio
Force boards of elections to use error-prone government databases for all new registrations
Allow partisan operatives to challenge and discard absentee ballots for purely technical reasons

Want to help with the effort to stop Senate Bill 380? Click here.

*10:05 PM UPDATE:  Make that 2,642 emails sent to Husted and the House State Government and Elections Committee.
10:47 PM UPDATE: 2,722.
11:27 PM UPDATE: 2,786.
11:46 PM UPDATE: 2,850.

Activists will gather in Columbus this Wednesday, December 10 to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

At 4:00PM at the State House (exact location TBD), the declaration will be read in its entirety, and speakers will make commentary.

Sponsors and participants include: United Nations Association - Columbus Chapter, Central Ohioans for Peace, Faith Communities Uniting for Peace, Interfaith Association of Central Ohio, SweatFree Ohio, Ohio AFL-CIO, Ohio Conference on Fair Trade, and Columbus Area Jobs with Justice

Click here to RSVP and comment.

Click on the image to read the full declaration.

From the Introduction:

All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.

The United Nations is committed to upholding, promoting and protecting the human rights of every individual. This commitment stems from the United Nations Charter, which reaffirms the faith of the peoples of the world in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person.

In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations has stated in clear and simple terms the rights which belong equally to every person.

These rights belong to you.

They are your rights. Familiarize yourself with them. Help to promote and defend them for yourself as well as for your fellow human beings.

...until you consider the origins of Mother's Day.

Julia Ward Howe, who penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic, also authored a mothers' Declaration calling on women to oppose war, and worked to get recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Says Code Pink: "Were she alive today, Julia probably would have told her kids to dispense with the roses and chocolates, and instead join her in an anti-war rally. Yes, Julia Ward Howe was a peacenik."

[Howe] saw some of the worst effects of the [civil] war -- not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause….She called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action.

Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace, but her effort was carried on by Anna Jarvis, who had organized women during the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and then toward reconciliation of Union and Confederate neighbors.

Jarvis’ daughter, of the same name, then took up the campaign for Mother’s Day. After the custom spread to 45 states, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day in 1914.

Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration:

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Maybe Pryce, Schmidt, Tiberi, Chabot, Boehner, Regula, LaTourette, Hobson, and Turner have a thing against moms. But YOU can make this Mother's Day a Mother's Day For Peace.

Help CodePink help Iraqi refugee moms here.

Send a MomsRising Mother's Day card and tell the presidential candidates to fight for family-friendly policies. here.

Oh and don't forget to call the Congressional Switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 to give the above members of Congress a piece of your mind about H.R. 1113.

Do you have another suggestion for honoring Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration? Are you a mom working for peace? Leave a comment below.

Following an interfaith prayer service at St. John's Evangelical Protestant Church, Columbus commemorated the 5th Anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq in the State House atrium.

The program included speakers, poetry, music, and breakout forums on Economic Justice and Healthcare. Full program here.

The event was sponsored by the Central Ohio Peace Network (COPN).

Related:

"Blessed Are The Peacemakers" - Full transcript of David Robinson's speech at the 3/19 event

5 Years Too Many: Peace Takes Courage (VIDEO)

Columbus Dispatch: Group Says War Hurts Ohio Services

Columbus Dispatch: Faiths join in prayers for peace: Personal commitments part of Iraq-war service

Yesterday, Progress Ohio sent out a call to action - we asked you to write Letters To The Editor using our "Speak Out" tool.

The topic: The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

The message: Urge Ohio Congressional Representatives Steve Chabot (OH-1), Jean Schmidt (OH-2), Jim Jordan (OH-4), Bob Latta (OH-5) and John Boehner (OH-8) to stand with Ohio's families and vote to override Bush's veto of SCHIP reauthorization.

In just 24 hours, the Progress Ohio community has generated almost 1,000 Letters To The Editor to 64 different Ohio newspapers.

Top 10 newspaper recipients: Columbus Dispatch, Dayton Daily News, Springfield News-Sun, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cincinnati Enquirer, Mansfield News Journal, Akron Beacon Journal, Canton Repository, Newark Advocate, and the Lorain Chronicle-Telegram.

On behalf of the 122,000 Ohio kids whose health care coverage hangs in the balance, Progress Ohio staff extends a HUGE THANK YOU to those of you who have taken action on this issue!

Progress Ohio--powered by YOU.

Our original call to action:

The health care coverage of 122,000 Ohio kids hangs in the balance. Can you spare a minute to help?

Click Here To Take Action

Next week, Congress will vote to override Bush's veto of the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). We need each and every one of the 18 Congressional Representatives from Ohio to stand with Ohio's families, and vote to override Bush's veto.

13 of them, including 6 republicans, are with us on this. Four are not.

At least not yet.

This week, as part of our ongoing multi-pronged effort to bring Steve Chabot(OH-1), John Boehner (OH-8), Jean Schmidt (OH-2), and Jim Jordan (OH-4) into the fold, Progress Ohio is spearheading a Letter To The Editor (LTE) campaign.

Our partner organizations in other key states are targeting their Representatives with LTE's as well. We need active members of the Progress Ohio community (that's you) to help us do our part here in Ohio.

Click Here To Take Action

Why Write A Letter To The Editor?

Legislators and their staffs do read LTE's to get a sense of public opinion. Also, LTE's can help generate overall media buzz on an issue.

About Progress Ohio's Speak Out tool

The email addresses for the newspapers' editorial boards are already in there, sample letters are there too.  In just a couple of clicks, you'll be done.

Click Here To Take Action

You ARE public opinion. Write a Letter To The Editor to make your voice heard. 

Progress Ohio, America Votes, and the Ohio Progressive Leadership Network are pleased to announce our 9:30 AM welcome speaker: 

First Lady of Ohio, Frances Strickland

Mrs. Strickland will speak about sustaining Ohio's progressive movement through 2008 and beyond.

First Lady Frances Strickland has shared Ted's vision for a better future for Ohio with thousands of people across the state. Often seen brandishing her guitar and leading the crowd in a sing-along, Frances brings an irreplaceable creativity and enthusiasm to her work for Ohio.

Our lunch speaker:

Robert Creamer of Progress Ohio's national partner, Americans United For Change. Creamer's recently released book is entitled Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, with a foreword by Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.

Says Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio): 

"If every activist in America read Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight, we could change our country. This book will help bring on the New Progressive Era. It's that good."

Find out more about RootsCamp here. 

RootsCamp is Sunday, January 13, 9-5 at the Riffe Center, 31st Floor, corner of State & High Streets, Columbus, OH 43215

RootsCamp: Come. Talk. Learn. RootsCamp is a conference for organizers, leaders, tech, fundraisers, bloggers and anyone else who is working for change. It's an opportunity for open dialogue about leading the way in '08 and beyond.

RootsCamp is participant-driven. Want to lead a session? Write your topic on a card and tape it to the wall. Add more sessions throughout the day as ideas are generated. YOU set the agenda.

RootsCamp: Ohio jobs for Ohioans. Organizations who are hiring in '08, bring your job descriptions; job-seekers bring your résumés - we're going to have a jobs fair.

RootsCamp is FREE. Breakfast/lunch provided, and plentiful coffee.

We received this today from our friends at ACORN: 

Project Vote Statement on Supreme Court Hearing of Crawford v. Marion County Elections Board

On Wednesday, January 9, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Crawford v. Marion County Elections Board. The case is about the constitutionality of Indiana's law requiring voters to show government issued photo identification before casting their ballots. Crawford plaintiffs argue that Indiana's strict photo identification requirements disenfranchise minorities and are unconstitutional. A federal appellate judge has written that the law likely burdens those "low on the income ladder." Donna Massey, Project Vote Board Member and supporter of voting rights, issued this statement:

"With Crawford v. Marion County Elections Board, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to strike down a law that has no purpose other than to suppress the votes of minority and low-income Indianans. According to Census data, fewer than half of eligible minority and low-income Americans voted in 2006.  Our democracy works best when all voters can easily register and voice their choice on Election Day. Americans have a right to vote, even if they don't have a photo ID.

"Strict photo ID laws for voters are really about denying certain Americans of their right to vote. Research shows that young, poor, minority and elderly voters are more likely to lack photographic identification. A University of Washington study, for example, found that in Indiana 22 percent of African American voters lack proper identification compared to 16 percent of white voters. Twenty-one percent of voters earning less than $40,000 a year lack the necessary ID compared to just 13 percent of those earning more than $40,000. The only reason politicians support these laws is to give their party an advantage over the other.

"Requiring voters to show photo ID is just one of many hurdles partisans put up to make it more difficult for certain people to vote.  Too many minority voters are met at their polling places with long lines, partisan challengers, faulty equipment and needlessly strict ID requirements. The right to vote has been under assault for the past eight years by partisans who put winning their interests above the right to vote.

"Strict photo ID laws are a solution in search of a problem. There is no evidence of widespread fraudulent voting in this country. Indiana even acknowledged that there hasn't been a single case of voter impersonation in the state's history. Americans take voting seriously and do not misrepresent themselves at the polls, so politicians shouldn't misrepresent the facts to justify unnecessarily strict photo ID laws for voters.

"As the country's premiere nonpartisan voter registration organization, Project Vote wants to make sure that the Americans we help register to vote can vote and have their votes counted on Election Day. Nothing should come between Americans and their right to vote."

If you haven't already, sign up for RootsCamp '08. It's a free, open conference about all aspects of progressive organizing - field, fundraising, online, etc.

Anyone can lead a session (come early to sign up for a time slot). Session topics that have already been proposed are here.

To see who else is coming and to sign up, click here.

From rootscampohio.org:

We'll share innovations, failures, old wisdom and new discoveries, with an eye toward:

• Developing our skills and networking to lead the way in 2008 and beyond
• Building organization and sustainability in Ohio's growing progressive movement

WHEN:            Sunday, January 13, 2008    9 am – 5 pm (free breakfast & lunch)

WHERE:          The Vern Riffe Center, 31st Floor.  At the corner of High St. and State St, Columbus, OH 43215.

PARKING:        Under the Statehouse - access from 3rd St. between Broad St. & State St., or in the City Center Mall parking garage - access from 3rd, Main, or Rich Sts.

You did it!

Thanks to the efforts of Ohio Majority Radio and longtime radio executive Gary Richards, central Ohioans will once again hear progressive talk from favorites like Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, and Randi Rhodes.  We'll also hear coverage of local high school football, boys and girls basketball, and other local sports.

It all starts at 6 AM this Monday, December 3rd. Tune to AM 1580 WVKO.

How can an individual listener like you help keep Progressive Talk radio on the air?

Contribute to Progress Ohio's radio ad campaign fund!

By donating to Progress Ohio's radio ad campaign fund, you will not only be helping keep Progressive Talk on the air, you'll be supporting Progress Ohio's 112 community partnerships.

It's been a long road to secure Progressive Talk radio in Columbus. After all this hard work, let's do everything we can to keep it on the air.

Now that it's back, click here to support WVKO's Progressive Programming.

It's time Ohio began rewarding the new generation of military veterans by providing them bonuses, much the way it gave back to veterans dating to World War I, State Treasurer Richard Cordray wrote in a letter delivered Monday to state legislators.

Cordray seeks a ballot issue that would ask voters to amend the state constitution to allow the state to issue bonds to pay for the bonuses. The state would pay about $106 million in bonuses to veterans of the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars if the Legislature and voters approve the idea, Cordray said. Ohio traditionally has used the ballot to pay such bonuses and they would cost taxpayers nothing.

Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Massachusetts are among the states offering bonuses to veterans who served in the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. New Hampshire offered bonuses to Gulf War veterans.

CORDRAY’S PROPOSAL:

• Up to $1,000 for military personnel who served in the Persian Gulf War and in current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan

• Up to $500 to those serving elsewhere during the same timeframes

• $5,000 to families of those killed in action, in addition to other allowable benefits

"While modest, these benefits recognize the service of our war veterans and help with their transition back to civilian life," Cordray said.

Click here to express your support for Cordray's proposal and for Ohio's veterans.

“Ohio’s tradition of honoring the sacrifices of soldiers who served during periods of major conflicts defines our state’s history as well as its geography,” Cordray noted. Veterans have been rewarded through land grants, relief for their families, and voter-approved bond amendments:

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: Large tracts of the Northwest Territory, which later became the state of Ohio, were districts reserved to compensate veterans. This practice continued from 1776 through 1855.

CIVIL WAR: In 1862, a state property tax was levied to create a fund “for the relief of the necessities of the families of non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates.”

WORLD WARS I & II, KOREAN AND VIETNAM WARS: Ohio issued bonds through separate voter-approved amendments to the state’s constitution in order to provide compensation to its veterans.

Under Cordray's plan, the Legislature would decide whether to put the amendment on the ballot next year. If lawmakers decline, Cordray could circulate petitions seeking voter signatures to place the amendment on the ballot.

Rep. Peter Ujvagi, a Toledo Democrat and advocate of veterans' issues, on Tuesday began looking for co-sponsors of a resolution that would authorize the amendment for the ballot.

While Americans remain divided by the Iraq war, the bonus program offers Ohioans a chance to weigh in on how returning veterans are treated, Cordray said. "This is very much Ohio's tradition. I'd like to believe this generation has the same commitment that previous generations have had," he said.

Click here to express your support for Cordray's proposal and for Ohio's veterans.

To read the full text of the proposed amendment, a cost analysis, and background on previous veterans’ ballot issues and military bonuses in Ohio, go to www.ohiotreasurer.gov

It was standing room only yesterday at the Riffe Center in Columbus -- 127 voting rights activists turned out for a Forum and Lobby day sponsored by America Votes, People For The American Way, the Ohio Women with Disabilities Network, Common Cause Ohio, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Ohio Citizen Action, the Ohio State Conference NAACP, and Progress Ohio.

The panel of speakers included Tokaji of OSU’s Moritz College of Law, Mary Keith of ACORN Ohio, Pete Johnson of CASE Ohio, Karla Lortz of the Ohio Women with Disabilities Network. Peg Rosenfeld of the League of Women Voters moderated a question and answer session.

A variety of voting rights topics were explored by the panel:  public agency voter registration, deceptive practices, disability access, voting systems, and voter identification.

Keynote speaker Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner reviewed her office’s current work toward restoring trust to Ohio’s elections, as well as the challenges ahead. She spoke at length about the process of testing Ohio’s voting machines. The project is managed by the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, and will include collaboration and advice from a representative, bipartisan group of Ohio's local election officials.

Karen Gasper of America Votes led a lobby training – participants were briefed on how to have an effective meeting with legislators about voting rights and election reform. Participants then met with their Ohio State Senators and Representatives in both the Riffe Center and across the street at the State House.

Media present included ONN, Fox, and others.