Action Alerts

Sunday, June 29, 2025, 4:00 PM
Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland Park Avenue 43214.  Free parking will be available on nearby streets and in lots owned by the North Broadway Methodist Church.  

From the 1960’s into this New Millenium, Peter Paul and Mary used music to entertain, educate, inspire, and energize Americans to work for a better world.  Three veteran Columbus musicians will pay tribute to PP & M’s legacy with songs, memories, and quips. Bill Cohen, Joanne Blum, and Joe Lambert will sing and strum the most beloved songs that PP & M seared into the hearts and minds of so many people for decades.  Among them: If I Had a Hammer, Blowin’ in the Wind, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Jet Plane, and Day is Done. Plus, the audience will be invited to sing along on tunes like Puff the Magic Dragon and the Times They Are a Changin’.  

Fifth Annual TANK Day
Saturday, June 28, 12-5pm
Fedderson Community Center, 3911 Dresden St., Columbus OH 43224
Bring the family bring the kids and come celebrate the life and legacy of the awesome Mr. Casey Christopher Goodson Jr aka Tank Man. Food, petting zoo, bouncy house, face painting, a 360 photo booth.

Columbus’s best kept 95-degree day secret was overrun this week by scores of young people at Runaway Bay apartment complex in Grandview. The pop-up party fueled by social media once again exposed a historical reality: There’s too few public spaces and not enough culture for non-privileged young people in Columbus. There are also too few public pools in Columbus, due to lack of funding or greedy developers, such as those who bought out Olympic Pool in Clintonville.

The Free Press is not condoning the illegality of young people taking over a private beach, that by the way is rarely used by tenants, but we are not condemning them as the police-state apologists from Channel 6 WSYX did. Few people are ever seen on this beach probably because Runaway Bay management charges $100-per year to have access.

Community Festival (ComFest) is back in Goodale Park Friday, June 27 through Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Come visit the Free Press booth at Comfest!

ComFest will feature over 200 musical performances, workshops and community-oriented programming over three days. In addition to the line-up of the city’s best live music spread over seven stages, workshops, KiDSART, live comedy, poetry readings and other programming will be featured throughout the park. The much-loved Street Fair also returns with one-of-a-kind vendors, arts and crafts, local food and community organizations. 

Now in its 53rd year, ComFest’s history is celebrated in the ComFest Museum located in the frosty, air-conditioned Goodale Park Shelterhouse. Stop in to learn about Community Festival’s roots in social activism, protest movements, community engagement and civil rights.

Thursday, June 26, 2025, 8:00 PM
The "Midnight Rockets" were not myths or isolated incidents—they were deliberate, engineered releases of radioactive gas from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Energy during and after the Cold War. Declassified documents from 1985 confirm that technetium-99 and uranium hexafluoride were routinely vented into the atmosphere through a 164-foot exhaust system known as the Tall Stack, with minimal filtration and ineffective monitoring. By 1994, government data showed that nearly 86% of airborne radioactive emissions at the site came from this process. Decades later, a federal whistleblower lawsuit and independent environmental testing in 2023 revealed off-site contamination. The pattern of exposure matches prevailing wind data, confirming that the so-called "Midnight Rockets" silently blanketed communities in radioactive fallout for years. 

Register here.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 6:30 – 8:00 PM
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W Weisheimer Rd, Columbus 43214
Join other members of Indivisible Central Ohio for our monthly in person member meeting, fourth Wednesday of every month. We will discuss current actions and activities and hear from you about your ideas for new actions! 
Register HERE. 

The sanctuary of Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square (125 E. Broad St. Columbus, Ohio 43215) will be open from 9am - 4pm on Tuesday, June 24th. Restrooms and bottled water provided. A simple 25 minute service of Holy Communion open to all will be offered in the side chapel at Noon.

Monday, June 23, 2025, 8:00 PM
Join the Teach-In Network, RootsAction and Defuse Nuclear War to learn about what’s going on in Iran, the deeper history of Israel-Iran relations, and what we might expect from the coming days, weeks, and months. In a moment when consent to a destructive and foolish war on Iran is being actively manufactured, it’s essential to come together as a movement, share information, and strategize. 

Register here. 

Sunday, June 22 6-8pm
Ohio Statehouse, Broad and High Streets
As Trump launches war on Iran, risking millions of lives and pushing the world closer to World War 3, we must take to the streets and demand: STOP THE WAR ON IRAN! MONEY FOR PEOPLE'S NEEDS, NOT THE WAR MACHINE!

In addition to protesting with signs at the statehouse or in your neighborhood, we encourage you to call your Senators and US Representative to tell them to take a stand against needless war. You can use 5calls.org or find contact info HERE. 

Juneteenth on the Ave
Saturday, June 21, 12-6pm
Bronzeville area, Mt. Vernon Avenue
Juneteenth is celebrated annually, usually on the 19th of June to mark the date when some of the last enslaved people in the Confederacy were notified of their freedom following the Civil War.  
Juneteenth on the Ave. is a city-wide, family-friendly celebration and commemoration of Freedom.

Juneteenth Block Party 
Saturday, June 21, 11:00 a.m.— 5 p.m.
Umoja Juneteenth Block Party
381 E. Main Street, Columbus, OH 43215, Main St between Grant Ave & Washington Ave.
In honor of Juneteenth, a local McDonald’s will partner with the Umoja Juneteenth Planning Committee to host a block party on Main Street between Grant Ave and Washington Ave. The event will take place on Saturday, June 21, from 11a.m. to 5p.m. There will be activities, giveaways, music, food, and more for attendees to enjoy while they celebrate freedom and unity with Owner/Operator Andre Hill and the wider Columbus community.