By Alula Nuguse After five months of humanitarian crimes in the region of Tigray, the United States has decided to intervene. The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, demands change in Tigray, calling for the military’s exit in Ethiopia’s northern region. "The challenge in Ethiopia is very significant. And it's one that we're very, very focused on, particularly the situation in Tigray where we are seeing very credible reports of human rights abuses and atrocities that are ongoing," Blinken said during a foreign affairs committee. The situation in Tigray has been described as an “ethnic cleansing” by the Secretary of State. Protestors and the Tigrayan people call it a genocide. Between the various US government officials, the protestors and the United Nations, this issue is gaining international recognition fast. The UN Human Rights Chief, Michelle Bachelet, commented on this issue on March 4. “Deeply distressing reports of sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings, widespread destruction and looting of public and private property by all parties continue to be shared with us, as well as reports of continued fighting in central Tigray in particular,” Bachelet said. Even the media, both local and international journalists have been detained (since released) for attempting to report on these atrocities in the Tigray region. Ethiopian officials have allegedly threatened these members of the media, for possibly “misleading international media.” “Victims and witnesses of human rights violations and abuses must not be hindered from sharing their testimony,” Bachelet said. “Credible information also continues to emerge about serious violations of international human rights law and humanitarian laws by all parties to the conflict in Tigray in November l a s t y e a r .” On March 11, the White House called for an independent investigation of the human rights abuses in Tigray. The White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, said in a conference with reporters on Thursday that President Biden is “deeply concerned, highly engaged” on this issue. “We need to get an independent investigation into what took place there, and we need some kind of process, a reconciliation process so that the country can move forward,” Blinken said. The United States now is more motivated than even to get involved in this issue. There have been protests across the country in cities such as Washington D.C., New York, Seattle and many others. The voices have been heard by the government, and violating international human rights law is something the US seems to be taking very seriously. The measures the United States has taken are a step in the right direction but may have come too late. The damage done in the Tigray region is devastating to say the very least. With over 100 documented cases of rape, an unnumbered amount of murders and senseless beatings shown on social media, it will be difficult for this region to build back its foundation. The US investigation will be taking place in the coming weeks, with international allies in the UN offering their aid as well. The violation of international law has gotten the attention of the United States, and intervention is inevitable.

By Bill Woods March 11th is a significant date. As I write this article, the local news on the radio reminds me that COVID-19 was officially announced as a pandemic in this country one year ago today. A lot has happened in the twelve months since that announcement. Not only have nearly 550,000 people died due to the virus, but millions of jobs have been lost or put on hold. Poverty has grown, and already existing economic and social inequities have increased. The education of children has been disrupted, and the virus has exacerbated other social and psychological tensions in our society. The murder of George Floyd also took place during this time period. His death spurred a significant protest movement under the umbrella of Black Lives Matter to reform police practices and end the double standard in our justice system that African Americans often confront. Simultaneously, political and social polarization promoted by then-President Trump continued to the point of increasing racism and worsening the pandemic in many states. Meanwhile, social media provided the networks for misinformation and alternative realities to thrive. 2020 was also a Presidential and Congressional election year. Despite the pandemic, a record number of voters voted by mail or at the polls on Election Day. Impeachable behavior, policies that were damaging the country, and his complete mismanagement of the pandemic finally caught up with Donald Trump, and Joe Biden soundly beat him in November. Nevertheless, during his final months in the White House, Trump used his position to attempt to invalidate the election, and he promoted an assault on the Capital Building to stop Congress from approving the Electoral College votes. A steady diet of lies about a fraudulent election has left a sizable group of Americans believing that Biden is only President because of voter fraud. Thus, despite the Trump Administration's replacement with a competent and progressive Administration, politics remains a bit scary, with the Republican Party seemingly committed to its own success rather than upholding democracy and the processes that make it work. March 11th also remains significant as a day that comes between the passage of the $1.9-trillion COVID-Relief Package by Congress and the President's signing the bill into law. This package of relief programs has been called the most significant effort to provide a safety net for Americans since the New Deal. Besides $14-billion for supplying vaccines and distributing them throughout the country, this Act includes $350-billion for state and local governments, $10-billion for state and local infrastructure projects, and $130-billion for primary and secondary Public Schools. It also contains $30-billion for transit agencies that have been crippled during the pandemic. In terms of personal relief, the law authorizes checks of $1,400 to individuals earning up to $80,000 a year and couples filing jointly earning up to $160,000 a year. A critical piece of the legislation will help families and individuals facing eviction or problems making rent or mortgage payments. $45-billion is earmarked for rental, utility, and mortgage assistance. In addition, federal unemployment payments of $300 per week will also be extended until September 6th. One unique part of this law that will immediately reduce child poverty across the country is the expansion of the child tax credit program to include low-income working families and families in poverty. These families will now qualify to receive $300 per month for every child who is five years old or younger and $250 per month for a six to seventeen-year-old child. Although the Bill fails to make this extension permanent, proponents hope that a dramatic reduction in child poverty will significantly increase their chances for making it so. In conclusion, Cincinnati felt all the hardships of the pandemic. Poverty and food insecurity increased, and already existing economic and social inequities became more evident once this health crisis took hold. Its residents and institutions in need will greatly benefit from the funds flowing from the new federal stimulus and relief law. One local step that falls in line with this federal assistance package is the current grassroots initiative to increase City Government funding for affordable housing. Although a drop in the bucket compared to $1.9-trillion, the $50-million that voters will be asked to approve on May 4th would require the City to finally step up to the plate and do something significant to address the worsening affordable housing crisis in our midst.

By Alula Nuguse Throughout the last couple of years, the push for environmental change on the national level has been evident with politicians and advocates pushing for a solution. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with other politicians, has continuously pushed the Green New Deal (introduced in 2019) as a way to reduce carbon emissions and remake the economy. The Green New Deal, in broad terms, is a proposal that calls for eliminating all carbon emissions in the next decade. According to the Green New Deal document, the deal calls for “meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources." The question is if this goal is attainable. Ocasio-Cortez, commonly referred to as AOC, has been outspoken about this topic during her political career. After she introduced this deal, AOC appeared at multiple universities to discuss her vision for a cleaner America. During a Sunrise Movement rally at Howard University, AOC shared her thoughts about the environmental crisis. “We have never seen a planet like this,” AOC stated when referencing the atmospheric levels of carbon. On a personal level, climate change can affect everyone whether it's poor air quality, wildfires, or even flooding. The effects will differ geographically, but climate change can create many issues for basically every living person, therefore it stands to reason that we should focus on finding how to prevent this crisis. The Green New Deal is one of many plans to counter this global issue. Now the question has to be, how can this proposal affect the citizens of Cincinnati? Well, to begin with one must understand the situation Cincinnati is in. Cincinnati has actually reduced carbon emissions in the last couple decades. According to the Environmental Resilience Institute, there was a 36.3% decrease from 2006-2015. However, although Cincinnati has reduced carbon emissions, as a city it is still one of the worst when it comes to air pollution. This air pollution in Cincinnati is coming from a variety of sources such as power plants, dust from unpaved roads, and automobiles to name a few. According to the American Lung Association, people in Cincinnati have a greater risk for health problems, some of which can shorten the life span by one to three years. Many politicians from different political backgrounds have been advocating for ways to emit cleaner energy for the future of the world. AOC has been one of the leaders at the forefront of the environmental crisis. The numbers are evident, Cincinnati air is not as clean as it should be. There is no short-term solution to this problem, but with cooperation from politicians and communities, we could see some form of improvement. Other politicians such as Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have been outspoken on this subject as well. It is evident that many of the leading voices on climate change are strong women with plans that could begin to display real change in the nation. Cincinnati can start by listening. Realizing what the issue is and how to address it together. All the leaders of climate change in the thousands of communities around the country know one thing for certain: this issue needs to be worked on together, or else it will be impossible for any change to occur.

By Bill Woods How can community organizing make a difference in neighborhoods facing an immediate crisis like COVID-19 or dealing with long-term issues such as preventing the negative impacts of development projects on community residents? At the Community Issues Forum on February 25th, a panel described how the Peaslee Neighborhood Center and its allies like the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center are doing just that. Responding to the Forum's title, "An effective neighborhood response to the economic hardships of the pandemic," the speakers also talked about Peaslee's creation and advocacy for an equitable development rubric that would give neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine critical information about the probable negative or positive results of a proposed project. At a previous Forum on February 11th, Pastor Damon Lynch III put forward his thesis that economic community organizing by residents is the only way to bring success to African-American neighborhoods. The organizing now going on at the Peaslee Neighborhood Center fits that model. Effective grassroots organizing created this neighborhood center after Cincinnati Public Schools closed the building in the 1980s, and since that transformation it has provided an array of services for OTR-residents. Megan Hague, Peaslee's Program Outreach Coordinator, opened the Forum by providing an overview of how the Neighborhood Center's emergency services were launched. Once the COVID-19 pandemic took hold locally, it became apparent that Peaslee's normal operation of services within the building was going to be both disrupted or temporarily halted. It was also evident that this health crisis created new problems for OTR-residents who already lived with numerous economic inequities. Food insecurity emerged as an immediate issue, and Megan and other Peaslee staff began to organize ways to provide food and essential supplies to residents. Since it already had close ties to Rothenberg School, Peaslee saw the school as a natural location for its food distribution efforts. When regular classes stopped, Rothenberg and other Public Schools remained committed to distributing the free food that would normally be served to qualified children as in-school breakfasts and lunches. Working with Rothenberg and the Free Store Food Bank, Peaslee devised a process of providing extra food and supplies to families that were already making food pickups at the school. When this model succeeded, Peaslee went on to establish two other school distribution points as well as several neighborhood locations. Magda Orlander of the Interfaith Workers Center went on to describe her organization's involvement in emergency food distribution. Already an ally of Peaslee with its office in its building, the Workers Center joined forces and began setting up other distribution centers. It found that its client base of low-income workers and immigrant families also confronted food insecurity and that food and other essential supplies were sorely needed. Although protecting and advocating for the rights of workers is the paramount goal of CIWC, it also felt compelled to assist clients who were often unemployed and without resources during this pandemic. Panelists Manuel Perez and Paul Breidenbach of the Workers Center and Sergio Mata of the Free Store Food Bank depicted in detail the establishment of one vital distribution center at the Willows in Springdale. The Willows is currently a housing complex where many immigrant families and individuals live, and this population was badly in need of food and other essentials during the last eleven months. Perez narrated a series of slides that portrayed both the need for and the smooth operations of the Willows' Distribution Center. Sergio Mata then emphasized that the Free Store Food Bank actively supported new sites like the Willows. Their creation, he declared, has been essential in serving the growing number of people who currently cannot afford to buy food and necessary supplies. Time was set aside to hear about the current status of Peaslee's Equitable Development Rubric. With the support of several other neighborhoods, Peaslee has been promoting this process to the City as an effective way to screen proposed developments to expose their probable negative and positive impacts on community residents. City Council is currently reviewing Councilman Greg Landsman's draft of an economic development procedure that professes to accomplish these same goals. Megan Hague explained that Peaslee has determined that Landsman's initial draft falls far short of replicating the Peaslee Rubric, and the Center is asking Council to proceed more slowly while it sincerely listens to the ideas put forward by neighborhoods like OTR that have suffered from numerous past development projects that received City support. She requested that Forum participants make this same plea to Council members in the next week with phone calls and emails.

By Taylor Killens Mental health issues are often overlooked and considered as an illness that will pass in time, but “Effortlessly Empowered” at Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church is a mental health group that is fighting the issue head on. While it is a difficult battle to treat mental health, it’s an ongoing and promising one. Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist is excited to announce not only how they value mental health within their community of women, but how they plan to celebrate Women’s History month next month. Many of the ladies that attend Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church have come together as a group to educate one another on the struggles of women in mental health, how to identify when you are battling a mental health issue, and how to educate other women on how to handle their mental health issues. The goal of Effortlessly Empowered is to uplift and empower women through adversity. This group consists of women of all ages, titles, backgrounds, jobs, and struggles. Each Wednesday and Saturday the ladies come together in a circle. In that circle, each woman shares their story in a judgment-free zone. The majority of these women have struggled with addiction, divorce, the loss of loved ones, miscarriage, and employment struggles. These struggles led these women to a dark and vulnerable place. As they suffered from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, they turned to God and the church family to seek the help they needed. This group is led by Kaylah Morris, a LHMB community member since she was 8 years old. She is now a college graduate from Xavier University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Although she leads Effortlessly Empowered, her goal is to establish her own mental health therapy business to dedicate her career to helping women who are struggling with various mental health issues. Kaylah Morris shared her own stories and shared how she got through the trials and tribulations in her own life. She teaches that the course of your life begins with yourself. It’s vital to be able to hold yourself accountable for what we allow in our space and what energy we allow in our space. She also discusses the science behind mental health, but she focuses on depression and anxiety in particular. She has the group members participate in exercises to force each and every one of them to express their true feelings and force them to have the conversations that they have avoided for a long time that could be triggering their mental health state. Ms. Morris stated, “Being a part of Effortlessly Empowered has not only taught me how to cope with my mental health issues which are depression and anxiety, but the women in this group have taught me to embrace who I’ am, they taught me to fall in love with the woman that I’m regardless of my flaws, and that women are power.” After participating in a plethora of their sessions the goal is to see progress each session. Each woman fights their battle in their own time and no one is in competition with the other person. Women cannot let their mental health issues stop them nor define them because the future is female. A member named Trinity Pearson stated, “My dream is to be a sideline reporter for ESPN. I’m currently enrolled as a digital media major at Bowling Green State University. My brother and sister passed away in 2018 when I began my college career and I suffered major PTSD because I was the only one in the car accident that survived. Effortlessly Empowered, my church family, and therapy taught me to fight. To not only fight for myself, but to fight for women and women who look like me because you don’t see many African American sideline reporters. My goal is to lead others and I have to lead by example by not only working hard by being the best media reporter out there, but also taking care of my mental health because without your mental health you are nothing.”

By Robert Park We live in a sick society, one wracked with racism, xenophobia (fear of foreigners), and ignorance, and infected with tribal “identity” politics now veering intentionally toward fascism. The injustices that come from this rigged system serving the wealthy result in social dissension, dysfunction, poverty, and crime. The police operate at the miserable interface of social discord and conflict. Racism has become an effective tool for anti-democratic politicians intent on deceiving while engaging large sectors of the working class against their own best interests. The cops are between a rock and a hard place and seem to attract more than their share of racist low-lifes. They have to deal with the sordid consequences of a sick society at the level of personal behavior. But they operate under rules and enforcement policies established by the civil authorities – officials like city councilors, city managers, solicitors, county commissioners, district attorneys, and judges. They all have blood on their hands having defended and sustained this system for generations. It is their policies that produce the police behavior we now observe everywhere, even if many of those policies were delegated to the police themselves: that was a convenient, self-serving choice by public officials. Not all cops are bad just like not all investment bankers are bad. We just need rules, laws, and enforcement to prevent bad behavior and against which to hold police behavior and their supervision fully accountable (like for banking, sort of: but racism in banking needs some work too). Civil authorities should have fixed this problem long ago but didn’t. Racism is either too valuable for the bad politicians or too scary for the good but inept politicians to deal with. The good ones need to explain the many ways that racism actually harms most white people in America. Sometimes authorities need a push from organized labor (or mass protest) to do the right thing. But police unions are the worst – they just got thrown out of the Washington State Labor Federation for their complicity in racist law enforcement practices. Here’s what a good police union contract would demand for the police working environment -Stop inflammatory and predatory practices: Invalid traffic stops or other challenges by police (e.g, racially motivated), especially for trivial problems that are very selectively enforced. Stop and frisk Generating the expectation of brutality (chokeholds or any other infliction of harm) Illegal surveillance (e.g., face recognition software) Arrests leading to incarceration for minor offenses -Stop clear violations of constitutionally protected activities - Rules of engagement 1. Non-impaired citizen: Explain the problem, disclose basis for a plan of action, with contingencies Miranda, etc. If escalating conflict: secure environment, stand down and deploy social worker/conflict mgr without forceful restraint; if probable cause and citizen attempts to leave without police permission or being identified, follow without violence or placing police at risk If subsequently established that police action was unwarranted (no probable cause, unconstitutional, etc.): automatic payment of compensation (lump sum plus per hour) by police departments 2. Impaired citizen (drunk, drugs, mental health issue): Establish a safe environment without forcing citizen; inflict no harm Deploy social worker/conflict mgr Place in a secure treatment facility with public access, not jail. 3. Social protest: Obey Constitution Expedited class action remedies with compensation for police violations of constitutionally protected activity These are not simple solutions; unions committed to justice could help craft workable solutions acceptable to groups now subject to abuse by police. Under these operating requirements: 1) harm to citizens would be greatly reduced, especially for groups previously the victims of racist attacks by police, 2) policing would be much less hazardous to the police (a valid union demand), 3) public officials would be forced to modify the roles of social institutions to accommodate new demands for treatment, conflict resolution, etc., not to mention addressing underlying social problems such as un- and under-employment, fair employment, healthcare, public transportation, public education etc., etc.

By Key Beck June is LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning) Pride Month. Pride gives us an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments, memorials, and history of LGBTQ culture. Even though “LGBTQ” are letters most folx know and hear about, it is important to note that there are other identities that are including the Queer and Transgender rainbow, such as Pansexual, Asexual, Nonbinary and Intersex individuals. There are many more identities that I did not list, so I encourage you to do some research to become aware of the many folx under the LGBTQIA umbrella. In the past, the weeks of June would be filled with cheering crowds alongside colorful parades, families visiting LGBTQ cultural centers, companies holding LGBTQ awards ceremonies and friends communing together. Instead, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pride looks like people sitting in front of their computers on digital calls, solitary folx at home watching movies and some folx feeling a sense of lost connections with others. Traditionally, Pride is a time especially important for young people coming out to parents and communities. This year young people are forced to stay in the closet (hiding or not sharing their LGBTQ identity) or worse having to stay in a non-affirming home experiencing highly rejecting behavior. This often leads to young people being kicked or forced out of the home. It is important to note that forty percent of young people who are experiencing homeless identify as LGBTQIA+. So if we think about pride as a celebration, we also must think about Pride as a sanctuary for some. Pride gives young people the opportunity to be proud of who they are and show that pride to the world. It is important that we as adults, and as a society, provide a safe and affirming environment for all LGBTQ young people. For that reason, there are nonprofits like Lighthouse Safe and Supported who work with agencies and service providers to create that accepting and supportive atmosphere for LGBTQ youth and we provide best practices to care for and work with LGBTQ youth. Another disparity that this new way of life is highlighting is the lack of accessibility in our current system for certain marginalized people, specifically black and brown people or people with disabilities. For too long, many folx living with disabilities have been looked over for employment positions due to their inability to “go into the office.” Now, we have validated that physically going into the office is not needed for every position. And that providing a computer is the bare minimum, and useless, if folx don’t have access to dependable internet access. This accessibility issue also relates to LGBTQ youth in schools. Based on the 2017 GLSEN School Climate Survey, 35% of LGBTQ youth miss at least one day of school every 30 days due to feeling unsafe because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. These students would be forced to become either truant (which makes them susceptible for entering the preschool-to-prison pipeline), forced to drop out of school, or forced to attend school while enduring multiple barriers. Now, with classes being held online, many LGBTQ youth have the opportunity to finish school with their peers and achieve their educational goals. They have access to teachers and school resources without having to face bullying. They are able to have support people, pets, and tools at their leisure while attending classes. COVID-19 has forced us to take a hard look at how we celebrate and spend time together. We have had to think intentionally about the ways we can be inclusive, and how we can sustain a culture of patience and acceptance. It would be silly to say that we are thankful for COVID-19, but it wouldn’t be silly to give thanks for making us take a hard look at diversity and inclusion. This is a perfect time for us to highlight the oppression that exists in our current systems for many of us disability advocates, social justice activists and diversity consultants. So as we celebrate this unique Pride, let us not just go back to normal or the way things were. Let’s do a hard stop, then a hard reset and then start from where we are currently. Let’s continue the momentum of inclusion, let’s keep having conversations of accessibility and let us highlight the faces of the LGBTQ community who are often erased. Happy Pride. *Lighthouse Safe and Supported is working to prevent and end LGBTQ youth homelessness in Hamilton County, Ohio. They provide LGBTQ Cultural Competency Training, Resource Guides, Host Home Programs for temporary housing and Faith in Families programming that works to reconcile families who have resistance to their children’s LGBTQ identity.

By Bill Woods The City of Cincinnati is in the midst of passing a new budget in this far from normal year. Not only is COVID-19 still with us, but the City has just experienced more than two weeks of protests related to the murder of George Floyd and police racial bias in general. The Pandemic exposes the economic and social inequities already existing in urban America, while the tragic event in Minneapolis puts the spotlight back on decades of police violence against African-Americans. All this takes place as City Council wrestles with a budget presented to it by City Manager Patrick Duhaney and Mayor John Cranley. The budget itself is not an easy problem to deal with. A potential deficit usually looms, and the City has not raised its earnings tax in decades. In fact, Council has steadily cut the percentage of dollars it can take from the property tax. This year is no different, and the deficit projected at the beginning of the budget process was $73.4 million. The budget must be passed with no deficit by June 30th, and Council may have already approved this 2021 financial blueprint at its Wednesday meeting one day prior to the publication of this issue of StreetVibes. At this point, Council is holding a series of public meetings so citizens can voice their views about city and neighborhood funding needs. Members have already heard a lot of diverse opinions. The budget presented to Council by the City Manager and Mayor includes items that already prompt opposition. The total operating budget given to Council, $411.9 million, represents a 1.2 percent decrease from 2020. Due to falling revenues due to the Pandemic, the projected deficit needs to be covered by cuts to most City departments and services and by borrowing up to $50-million. The budget does include funding to put all City employees furloughed during the pandemic back on the payroll. Particularly contentious items are greatly reduced funding for the streetcar and increased dollars for the Police Department. Mayor Cranley has always opposed the streetcar, and its very limited funding for 2021 essentially shuts down its operations. During the pandemic, the streetcar has not been running, but a majority on Council have always overridden the Mayor's opposition to maintaining this service. At this moment in the budget negotiations, it is too early to predict how this issue will be resolved. The funding item currently receiving the most vocal opposition is the additional money for the Police budget. The budget delivered to Council increases the Department's budget from $151.7 million to $152.6 million. This is by far the largest item in the City budget, but the Mayor defends the increase because much of it goes toward fully funding the Citizen Complaint Authority, the body charged with investigating allegations of police misconduct. The fact that the police budget is over one/third of the entire budget is certainly out of step with many protesters' demand for "defunding the police. "Defunding" means everything from starting from scratch to envision a new public safety system to reassigning certain current police responsibilities to social workers and neighborhood organizations. For instance, a number of pastors representing African-American churches just met with Mayor Cranley to talk about a plan that would fund Cincinnati neighborhoods to take responsibility for public safety in their areas. Meanwhile, a special meeting at the Convention Center sponsored by Council to hear citizens' views about the budget brought out a number of young people from the local protest movement. They demanded reductions in the police budget. Several speakers declared that if Council members failed to take action on police budget cuts, the protesters would organize to defeat them at the polls. Many other issues were voiced by citizens at the budget hearings. The need for the City to provide funding for low-income neighborhood projects and human services that assist families and individuals was articulated by numerous attendees. Cincinnati's affordable housing crisis was also cited, and speakers called on Council to adequately finance the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. In short, Council members face a lot of hard choices before casting their final vote on the 2021 City budget.

By Charlie Tackett Riah Milton was a “joy to be around.” Riah Milton was a loving sister. Riah Milton was a loving aunt. Riah Milton was a “unique and beautiful soul.” Riah Milton was a helper who gave back to her community. Riah Milton was a dedicated home health aide. Riah Milton was a student at the University of Cincinnati. Riah Milton was loving. Riah Milton was caring. Riah Milton was joyful. Riah Milton was a devoted friend. Riah Milton loved traveling. Riah Milton loved going outdoors. Riah Milton was helpful. Riah Milton was considerate of others. Riah Milton was outgoing. Riah Milton was “never…scared to struggle.”* Riah Milton was a woman who was taken too early from this world at the age of 25 in Liberty Township, Ohio, not too far from here in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a woman who, like so many a part of the black trans community, met her last moments of life with violence. To add more tragedy and horror to her last moments, the Butler County police and The Enquirer misgendered and deadnamed her while reporting on her case. The Sheriff of Butler County even stated, while misgendering Milton, that her death was not a result of a hate crime, but a result of robbery, even though the third assailant is still at large, according to the Enquirer. How can a Sheriff definitively claim such a statement when the investigation isn’t over, and especially when the facts are appalling for people in the trans community, especially for people of color? According to Mic.com, hate crimes against people in the trans community are often underreported due to the lack of laws protecting LGBTQ+ rights and inconsistent tracking within government agencies, which often leaves LGBTQ+ organizations and activists to gather data. From 2010 to 2016, 111 people in the trans community were killed, and 72% of those people were black trans women and femmes. Reports from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) in November 2017 showed a marked increase in that 84% of people in the trans community who were murdered were people of color, and 80% were women. However, these estimates are likely to be much higher than the reports have indicated. To put this into the context of Riah Milton’s murder, hate crime statutes of gender identity or sexual orientation do not exist in the state of Ohio. Statewide laws protecting employment, housing, and public accommodations also do not exist in the state of Ohio for people in the LGBTQ+ community, all of which perpetuate violence, discrimination, and hate crimes against people in the LGBTQ+ community. Non-existent laws protecting LGBTQ+ rights and inconsistent tracking are some of the many reasons why when people a part of the trans community are killed, their deaths are underreported in the criminal justice system and in the media. And when their deaths are reported, they are often misgendered and deadnamed like Riah Milton was by the Butler County Police Department and The Enquirer. These reports too, often receive very little media attention and quickly fade into the background. The Enquirer, since reporting on Riah Milton’s murder, included a note on the article where they misgendered and deadnamed her that “subsequent reports will identify Milton by her chosen gender and name.” Even when reporters acknowledge their wrongdoings, they can’t even acknowledge their mistakes correctly. All of these acts by the police and reporters disrespect Riah Milton, her family, her friends, and the LGBTQ+ community, who are all in mourning right now. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 15 people in the trans community have been killed so far this year, and there could be more people that have been killed due to under- and misreporting. Of the 15 people killed, 11 were people of color: Dominque “Rem’mie” Fells, Monika Diamond, Neulisa Luciano Ruiz (also known as Alexa), Yampi Méndez Arocho, Lexi, Serena Angelique Velázquez Ramos, Layla Pelaez Sánchez, Penélope Díaz Ramírez, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, and Riah Milton. All of these people were family members, friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, coworkers, creators, poets, writers, sports fans, musicians, business owners, advocates, frontline workers, boxers, Youtubers, moms, men, women and most importantly the initial description: people.** People who were loved. People who will be missed. Riah Milton’s sister, Ariel Mary Ann, tweeted that if you share any posts on social media about her sister to use the “hashtag #BlackTransLivesMatter and #SayHerName” and to “donate to a black girl’s GoFundMe, call out transphobia and anti-blackness in your spaces and communities,” so their voices can be heard. This epidemic of violence against the trans community, especially people of color, has to stop. Demand your local and state politicians change the legislature to protect the rights of the trans community and LGBTQ+ community. Vote for politicians who are allies for the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. Spend your money at businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. Better yet, spend your money at LGBTQ+ and BIPOC owned businesses. Demand your place of work write policies that protect LGBTQ+ rights. Stand up to family members and friends that perpetuate transphobia and anti-blackness, such as Ariel Mary Ann said. We owe it to Riah Milton, to Dominque “Rem’mie” Fells, to Monika Diamond, to Neulisa Luciano Ruiz (also known as Alexa), to Yampi Méndez Arocho, to Lexi, to Serena Angelique Velázquez Ramos, to Layla Pelaez Sánchez, to Penélope Díaz Ramírez, to Nina Pop, to Tony McDade, to Dustin Parker, to Johanna Metzger, to Helle Jae O’Regan, to Jayne Thompson, and people in the trans community everywhere to demand action be taken and justice be served. Show them that their stories and lives will not fade out into the background. Show them that their stories and lives matter. *Note: All of these statements made about Riah Milton were gathered from MetroWeekly, WCPO Cincinnati, the Human Rights Campaign, USA Today, Elle **Note: All of these statements were gathered from the Human Rights Campaign, Wikipedia, and Twitter.

By David Ledesma We have not been accepted. We have been forgiven. And some of us, not even that. It was not like the system woke up one day and decided that we were dignified people. It did not magically realize about its flaws, about the wounds that it inflicts in the skins of the neglected. Insatiable as it is, it simply noticed that we also have some money. Not all of us, maybe. But it needed to make some room for those who can help it keep on growing. If we are valuable now, as we were not in the past, it is not because world leaders finally decided to follow the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They did not adopt as their own its ideal of freeing humanity from fear and want. They have not stopped watching us as votes, as bodies that you can send to war or throw away, as a shapeless mass that can be used as the fuel that keeps their rapacious corporations alive. If today some of us get to be represented through the movies, through the speeches and through some public policies it is not because we now live in a world suited for all kinds of diversity, guided by the ideals of peace, inclusion, and nondiscrimination. The system simply redefined its concept of normality. It changed its parameters a little bit so it could include some decent families that help the world flourish with their capital and their Eurocentric beauty. In other words, we still venerate the concept of normality. And this term only exists if its opposite is there too. The utopia was to tumble the boundaries that make some of us feel less human. What we got instead was a discrete relocation of the borders; the territory of normality became bigger to allow some of us, the forgiven, to live there as refugees. And, of course, as refugees they need to meet some requirements before trying to walk in the land of freedom as if they were actually humans. The system officials will check the color of their skin, the money they make a year, their moral standards, their gender expressions, and their political thoughts. The process can be tougher for some of us, and for some others the forgiveness is delivered almost automatically. For example, if you are white enough and you have enough money, let’s be honest, no one really cares if you are a gay man. Even in a conservative third world country, like mine, you only need to have a nice last name and look güerito enough to be forgiven. If you are a brown LGBTQ person, it may be a little different. We were born here, in la tierra del olvido. This is where our great great grandfathers were killed, where their houses were set on fire, where our great great grandmothers were rapped, becoming eternally las chingadas, by some others of our great great grandfathers. So, technically, this land, Mexico, Latin America, is supposed to be our land. But somehow, it still feels like we just arrived yesterday in some boat and they are still trying to figure out if we have souls. I do like my skin. I like that I do not have to go to the beach to look tanned. I like the way I look in white shirts and my black hair that grows as chayote. But, once again, let’s be honest: brown skin is a course. If you want to survive in this machinery tailored by the white grandfathers, you have to hide behind a wall made of decent clothes, ridiculous jobs in enormous corporations, cars, pretty houses or whatever you can use as a sign that shows the world that you can produce more than the minimum wage. If not, you better be prepared, because the system can vomit you as if you were rotten food any day. The course punishes you with all its rigor even in your country (where most of the others are cursed too) and it follows you if you try to escape. It flows through your veins and it passes on through generations. I have not been forgiven. I am too short, too brown, my haircut is the same that is worn by some reggaeton singers and my clothes are not fancy, they show a lot (not flesh, but skin, brown skin). I am used to walking through my country being watched as if I were about to commit a robbery everywhere I go. My voice is weak even when I shout. My brain will never be smart enough to be considered valuable. My hands will never produce nothing more than useless phrases that nobody can build an empire with. So I will never be forgiven. I no longer think that I can change the world. I don't even think that I can change my community, my colonia. To be honest, I am no longer even trying. But one thing I know for sure and it is that I refuse to accept that cruel, racist and insensitive people can define the concept of humanity. Us, the unforgiven, are part of it too, and we will shape it as well, either you like it or not.

By Communities Act Now Jenn Arens and Joele Newman work at Peaslee Neighborhood Center; Michelle Dillingham works for the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers; Marche Gendrew is the Coordinator for the Cincinnati Educational Justice Coalition; Mona Jenkins and Amanda Lynne Barker work at the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition; Mona also represents Mass Action for Black Liberation. They are all founding members of the “Communities Act NOW (CAN)” coalition. As we witness righteous unrest in our streets and budget hearings, we are called to expose and dismantle oppressive structures. In this moment, we must specifically uproot anti-Black racism manifest in egregious police violence; and we must do so much more. A major portion of the work lies in fundamentally changing how, and for whom, our City is built. Cincinnati, alongside other US cities, lives with a legacy of place-based racism and classism that has excluded whole communities from its economic prosperity. Our history of discriminatory lending, predatory real estate practices, systematic disinvestment, biased criminalization, social exclusion, and reckless displacement has done, and continues to do, violence to our neighbors of humble means and to our neighbors of color. This reality was born by design, and so it must be righted by design. Cincinnati will never succeed unless benefits for our most marginalized communities are intentionally prioritized in our public policies and practices. To wait for resources to trickle down from the most powerful is neither a real nor a just solution, especially while lives are threatened by our morally inexcusable inequalities in poverty, employment, infant mortality, education, life expectancy, health care, and incarceration. Representatives across key, in-motion, action initiatives aimed at equitable development in Cincinnati have been meeting over the last year. United in a shared vision for justice in our communities, we wanted to make it easier for residents to understand and advocate for equitable development policy solutions and for local decision makers to implement these solutions. We brought together various parts of our work, and the result is the “Communities Act Now (CAN) Action Platform”. The four initiatives in the Platform provide a necessary foundation and road map to improve equitable development in Cincinnati and are designed to address the equity problems that have already been established by multiple studies and assessments in our city. Further, they are anchored in best practices learned from other cities across the country. First, we must adequately fund our city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund; a critical resource needed to address our deep, decades-long affordable housing crisis. Local trust funds for affordable housing are common across a wide swath of local municipalities, including Indianapolis, Louisville, and St. Louis. These funds provide critical resources to supplement the dramatically inadequate state and federal dollars for affordable housing. Cincinnati has been late to the game, establishing our fund in 2018, and failing thus far to dedicate a significant, ongoing source of revenue. In response, local advocates have created Cincinnati Action for Housing Now, a ballot initiative campaign to require the City to annually allocate millions of dollars into affordable housing investments. If passed, it will provide roughly 500 homes each year to households in the two lowest income tiers identified by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This would constitute a major a step toward a long-term solution for our widening housing crisis, which has been well-documented in study after study showing shelters overcapacity and a shortage of tens of thousands of housing units at price points needed by Cincinnati families. In the face of Covid-19 challenges, this effort is aiming for the May 2021 ballot, and is up and running with signature collection and various outreach strategies. It will take a massive, collaborative, grassroots effort, and the campaign is excited to expand support and welcome folks across the greater Cincinnati community into the work. Visit actionforhousingnow.com to find out how to get involved. We also need to leverage our public assets more wisely with the Equitable Development Rubric. At the heart of this initiative is an evaluation tool built to assess a given development project’s contribution to equity across class and race, primarily in housing affordability, jobs and labor, community input, and local assets. This tool was developed from research on Inclusionary Housing policies and Community Benefits Agreements in other cities, expertise from various Cincinnati professionals, and input from Cincinnati residents through a serious of open public sessions. The Rubric generates an overall score, and the accompanying policy framework would require large development projects to meet minimum scores in order to receive significant public subsidies like tax abatements, zoning, or public land from the city. This will ensure that our taxpayer-owned assets are used to realize benefits that include our whole Cincinnati community, and not only the wealthiest among us. The effort behind the Rubric is focused on a grassroots strategy to equip our neighborhood community councils with tools to put this framework into action, while advocating for city-wide adoption into policy. Walnut Hills Area Council has endorsed the Rubric, and a number of other councils are in process or engaging with it. The Rubric has also been endorsed by various social justice-oriented organizations including Affordable Housing Advocates; Applied Information Resources, Inc.; Cincinnati Educational Justice Coalition; Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center; Co-Op Cincy; Community Matters; Gen H; Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless; Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center; Marianist Social Justice Collaborative; Mass Action for Black Liberation; MUSE Cincinnati Women’s Choir; Praxis Matters; and Youth at the Center. To find out how your organization can endorse, or how your community council can use the Rubric, visit peasleecenter.org/rubric, or contact jennifer.arens@peasleecener.org. Additionally, we need tax reforms that equitably fund public services like our public schools. Cincinnati gives out enormous tax abatements to developers, diverting critically needed funding away from our public schools and other public services like our libraries and senior services. While property tax exemptions are allowed by state law, there is a significant opportunity to change how these exemptions are allocated. The public was sold on the idea that business and investment would not come to our city unless developers and corporations were offered commercial and residential tax abatements. While this may have been the case twenty years ago, in recent years the City of Cincinnati has enjoyed population growth and significant development. The argument can be made that the tax abatement program worked, and achieved its goal. However, the data shows this program has wandered far of course, no longer encouraging investment in the poorest neighborhoods but rather enriching the wealthiest. The data also shows our school district losing millions of dollars meant to provide an adequate and free public education for Cincinnati families. We must prioritize equity and transparency in the tax abatement process. This effort calls for a moratorium on TIF districts; a full, public accounting of all development subsidies; and significantly increased oversight and enforcement of regulations within tax abatement policies. These changes will prioritize the needs of our schools and communities over private profit. To round out the platform, we need a “Good Cause Eviction” ordinance, which would require a landlord to have and show a justifiable cause in order to terminate a tenant’s residency (or refuse a lease renewal). Though some level of cause is currently required of landlords filing legal evictions, the standards grant landlords vast and unreasonable powers over tenants; also, these standards do not apply to informal or de facto evictions in which a landlord ends a tenancy without a legal procedure. A Good Cause Eviction ordinance would offer expanded and desperately needed protections in Cincinnati, a city with abysmal eviction rates that eclipse the already awful national averages. With this legislation, a landlord’s power to terminate tenancy would be limited to the following reasons: Tenant fails to pay rent Tenant materially violates the rental agreement or legal obligations regarding the residence The residence will be occupied by the landlord or a family member To perform repairs necessary to make the rental residence safe and habitable and the performance of the work will make the residence temporarily uninhabitable while the work is being done To comply with city orders to vacate the property A lease provision that waives a tenant’s rights under the ordinance would be void and unenforceable. Until this ordinance is passed, this initiative also calls for a moratorium on the city’s use of property tax abatement, tax increment financing, or any other city financial incentive or pass-through funding on properties from which tenants were required to move without good cause (as outlined above) within the past 24 months. As various neighborhoods are forced to confront the looming threat of speculation and gentrification, this legislation will help to offer some protection to Cincinnatians vulnerable to unjust displacement with new profit-driven development. If we are serious about building a fair and inclusive Cincinnati, we must make a change in the area of equitable development now. We do not need any more studies or consultants before putting each of these pieces in motion. We offer the CAN Action Platform as a path to equity. For more information and further details on how to take action, visit the CAN website at cincycan.org.