By Lorry Swain, Co-Chair, Scioto Peace and Justice
FOR Chapter in Portsmouth, OH

It’s been 134 weeks in a row that we’ve been out on the streets of Portsmouth, Ohio, witnessing against the systemic violence that our government is financing or perpetrating on other lives.

Our signs read “Stop the Genocide against the Palestinians,” “Stop the U.S. war against the Iranian people,” “Abolish the Death Penalty,” “No Data Centers,” “ICE out of Ohio,” “Immigrants are Welcome Here,” “Justice for Keith LaMar”…

Keith LaMar has been in solitary confinement at Ohio’s Supermax Prison for over three decades. Exculpatory evidence was withheld in his case after the 1993 prison uprising in which he was railroaded into a death sentence when he urged other prisoners not to cooperate with the prosecutors who were paying inmates to falsely testify in favor of the State. Keith’s case has been featured on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! program three times—most recently on August 10.

At Scioto Peace and Justice, we have continued to raise the profile of Keith’s case since we became a chapter in 2003. We’re organizing a caravan to present tens of thousands of petitions asking Ohio Governor DeWine to grant a full pardon to Keith LaMar. But it’s not only Keith’s case we are working against; we are urging the lawmakers and the populace of Ohio to abolish the death penalty completely.

Once a month, we continue to organize a public forum held in a local church about a topic of urgency to the folks in our region. The topics have ranged from Gaza to harm reduction to homelessness, to fascism to vegetable gardening. This past Sunday, our topic was Universal Health Care and why we don’t have it.

Every Thursday after the street witness, we gather to share a vegetarian meal and meet to figure out how to continue building community based on nonviolence in this very difficult part of the world. Without the shared meals and deepening relationships, we know we could not continue to grow, to work together, or to have a clue about building the beloved community.

Furthermore, eleven of us from Scioto Peace and Justice FOR spent all day this past Saturday in Springfield with Haitian immigrant brothers and sisters and other community folks. The situation is heartbreaking. ICE is everywhere in Springfield—most Haitian families have been forced to shelter indoors as if there were a pandemic outside. Our group helped carry donated food boxes onto vans and a large truck to be delivered to the refugee families who are no longer able to work or shop, attend school or even walk outside.

We returned to Springfield on Sunday for a Jericho Walk, ICE Watch, and a shared meal on the City Plaza. Hopefully there will be thousands of allies who come from near and far to bear witness against the carnage being committed against our Haitian refugee neighbors and our immigrant brothers and sisters across this country.

Here are some signs we made in Springfield that we carried out in the streets. The final picture is of Alisha. Her husband had been detained by ICE a few days ago and has already been deported back to a Haiti that he cannot survive in. The shirt Alisha is wearing is one she made from a design that her husband had earlier created.