“Frack you!” Republican Governor John Kasich tells a tiny village in his state. ­ It’s a David and Goliath story in the making.

With under 4,000 people, give or take a few, little Yellow Springs, Ohio (that’s its two-blocks-long main street in the photograph) wouldn’t seem to have much clout in Columbus, the state capitol. Or even in Xenia, the seat of Greene County, where Yellow Springs – which inevitably votes with Democrats and other progressives – is surrounded by hostile Republicans.

But hey, this is a little town with a lot of quirkiness, as I’ve reported before, and a hell of a lot of gumption and stubbornness.

And they’re concerned. Oil company interests, hellbent on fracking Ohio into little pieces, are moving into the area. We’re talking about the possibility that natural gas, or at least the brine-y, chemical laden water used in underground fracking, could poison the soil and the porous limestone under it in and around Yellow Springs. That’s important because rainwater percolates through that limestone into the wells that supply the drinking water for Yellow Springs.

So, before the frackmeiseters could get to town and drill-baby-dr…I mean frack-baby-frack…the village passed a resolution asking the state to put a moratorium on fracking.  What was the response of Ohio Governor John Kasich, a greed-based Republican and (why am I not surprised?) former Fox News Commentator?

Well I can only imagine it was something like this: “Geraldine, would you please come into my office for a moment honey, and take this resolution from Yellow Springs, and flush it down the toilet?”

As for Kasich’s actual response to Yellow Springs, it was, according to the weekly Yellow Springs News, nothing but silence. Hell, a village in his state called on him to do something. Why should he give them so much as the courtesy of a reply?

Meanwhile, reports the Yellow Springs News, one oil company called West Bay Exploration has already received permits to drill in two different nearby Greene County locations and has already struck oil in neighboring Clark County.

You’d think the Republicans, who wail and moan incessantly that big government is bad and that power ought to be returned to local government…you’d think they would let little villages like Yellow Springs determine for themselves whether they want fracking in and adjacent to their town limits. No way, bub. Recent state law preempts them. Guess what party dominates the state’s lawmaking bodies? (Hint: Republican House Speaker John Boehner is from Ohio.)

But the folks in Yellow Springs aren’t giving up. They’re a determined lot. The town’s newspaper reports that a drilling awareness group organizer said, “It’s important to establish that we have a right to be in charge of our own health and welfare.”

That sounds as if it could almost be a Republican opinion. Unless, of course, some friend or contributor to Republican causes could make a buck by making sure people have no control over their own health.

How big will the frackfight get?

• Will Yellow Springs and several other Ohio municipalities that had their anti-fracking laws squashed by the state join together and fight this fracking sucker in court?

• Will the case get up to the U.S. Supreme Court?

• Will the court decide that big government is bad unless it’s Republican and give the finger to Ohioans who don’t want to be poisoned through their faucets?

• Or will there be another Roberts surprise?

But I’m getting years ahead of myself. The story is just beginning to percolate up, even as oil companies prepare to percolate poison down into the local drinking water. Go read the account, here. I’d say this David and Goliath story is worthy of attention from the national news media. Or of a Hollywood movie starring some spiritual successor to Jimmy Stewart.

But what the hell do I know? 

Evil Step Mother, 21st Century Version

Excerpted from a blog post by Lauren Heaton in the Yellow Springs, Ohio, NEWS (and you should read the rest and retch):

I'm not a mom, but I am a step-mom. I’m a step-mom who likes to cook all manner of new and surprising dishes and try them out on my captive consumers. Well, actually they wouldn’t eat it any other way.

The first dinner I ever made for “the kids” occurred shortly after we met. None of us knew anything about step-relationships, let alone how our individual personalities would mesh. If I was going to be part of the crew they were going to have to turn the kitchen pretty much entirely over to me, and I didn’t want to create false hopes that they would be seeing Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese and boiled peas every night. So I made the kids, ages 4, 7, 10 and 12, vegan shabu shabu, a Japanese hot pot with nappa cabbage, tofu and cellophane noodles in a citrus-soy fish broth.

Look, I'm as much a fan of quirky Yellow Springs as anyone else, but enough is enough! Have a heart, lady! Give the kids a cheeseburger!

Antioch Univer-SUE-ty. It can’t run a college but it sure can sue-sue-sue. Guess who the trustees are threatening to sue now?

Just when you think you’ve milked the last there is to milk out of the subject of Antioch University’s high-handed trustees and chancellor, who put a great college out of business after letting it slide to the brink of bankruptcy, the trustees come up with yet another whack-a-doodle legal maneuver to demonstrate that their ineptitude and mindless dudgeon have no bottom.

But first take note that:

•The trustees are already involved in a lawsuit with college faculty in Yellow Springs, Ohio, who were fired despite their tenure. And further...

•The trustees have also threatened some alumni and faculty of Antioch College and Yellow Springs with lawsuits for “trademark infringement,” after those groups founded an organization called Antioch Nonstop to continue teaching college courses that once were taught on the defunct campus. The supporters of Antioch College’s survival coined a slogan, “Be ashamed to let it die,” based on founder Horace Mann’s slogan, “Be ashamed to die until you’ve won some victory for humanity.”

There was unintentional irony in this trustees’ threat of a suit, in the name of “trademark protection.” It came from group that had overseen the college’s financial “failure,” deliberately shut down the college, contributed big time to the destruction of the college’s reputation, and refused millions of dollars in pledges from alumni who wanted to save the college.

The trustees’ lawyer had the gall to write, that use of the name Nonstop Antioch “…is likely to deceive the public with respect to Antioch’s trademarks and associated services and dilute the distinctiveness of the well-known Antioch marks and logos. The unauthorized use of Antioch’s valuable trademarks will cause confusion and improperly benefit you to the detriment of Antioch.”

Valuable trademarks? Valuable as what? Thanks to the trustees and their chancellor, the Antioch name these days is as vauable as an odiferous quart of month-old milk, with flies buzzing around the open container. But I’m getting off the topic here.

Here we go again – another
threatened trustee law suit

On Thursday, the Yellow Springs (Ohio) News revealed that the University is now threatening to sue the Village of Yellow Springs over an air conditioner that is reportedly creating an ongoing noise nuisance to its residential neighbors and that the village says was built without the required permits.

According to the website The Antioch Papers, even the air conditioner’s manufacturer says the unit in question is “not suitable for residential areas.” Oh, and by the way, the trustees are also threatening to sue The Antioch Papers.

Twisted reasoning

You wouldn’t believe the University’s twisted reasoning for refusing to turn off an obnoxiously loud and neighborhood-disrupting air conditioner in an empty college. They make the prima facie insane claim that the Village of Yellow Springs is trying to make the college re-open by suing it to turn off its noisy, code-violating air conditioner.

This mad dog legal defense of an obnoxious machine has been going on for four years! The University seems to lack the money to run a once-great college, but evidently has plenty of dough in its war chest to spend on foaming-at-the-mouth legal trivia concerning illegal air conditioners, “protecting” a trademark that its own actions made worthless, and other nonsense.

Quick, somebody call the
men with butterfly nets

Why is this sounding more and more to me like certifiable insanity? Are the trustees and chancellor suffering a collective mental meltdown?

There ought to be a law requiring Antioch University trustees and their chancellor to pass a mental competency exam. And if they flunk it, they ought to be carted off to the looney bin, which more and more is where they are demonstrating they belong.

Antioch College is dead, thanks to its untrustworthy trustees. Is the wonderfully quirky town of Yellow Springs, Ohio, next?

Antioch College, founded in 1852, is now officially a goner.

I’m not going into the whole history of the collapse here because it makes my blood boil. Suffice it to say that the trustees, who allowed this once great institution to sink into decline for more than 25 years, decided to close it while keeping open a chain of far flung, second rate, essentially adult education schools bearing the Antioch name.

Killing the college
to protect trustee power

Alumni came up with millions to save the college. But the trustees were more interested in their own power than the survival of the institution. They finally declared the alumni were “too late.” Goodbye Antioch.

The town that won’t conform

Likeliest to suffer will be the town of Yellow Springs, Ohio, home of the now-dead liberal arts college. For years Yellow Springs has collected a population of interesting, quirky, individualists attracted by the college, which itself was a magnet for nonconformists.

You can tell this place is not normal
just by reading the local weekly newspaper

Without the college, Yellow Springs, too, is likely to decline into ordinariness while it loses its college-based economy. What was extraordinary about the Yellow Springs? Well, just consider these items, from classifieds to community announcements, appearing in this week’s Yellow Springs News:

The landlord’s not interested in your
credit history, just your attitude

ROOM TO RENT: opportunity to live cooperatively—lighten the load on Mother Earth, available now. Must be willing and able to communicate; have weekly house meetings; share upkeep of common space; accept and offer affirmations; practice acceptance of human differences regarding food, spirituality, age, race, gender, etc. Rent is $300, including utilities. Contact Laurie Dreamspinner, 767-9435.

Actually, in Yellow Springs
the moon is always full

The Grandmother Drum Healing Circle will celebrate the sacredness of the full moon with meditation, drummers, dancers and friends, Saturday, Feb. 23, 6–9 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meetinghouse, on U.S. 68 just south of Yellow Springs.

Participants are asked to wear appropriate clothing for outdoors and bring the following: a drum or musical instrument to share; a friendly voice to sing or recite; finger foods and non-alcoholic drinks to share; and thoughts or insights to share. For further information, call Grandmother Wolfheart, 767-9331 or e-mail: mkoebernic@aol.com.

Holy holism, Bat Man!

Local holistic health and wellness practitioners are invited to participate in a focus group exploring the role of local holistic practitioners in marketing the whole village as a health and wellness resource at Antioch McGregor, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 22, Monday, Feb. 25 or Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Become sacred. No experience necessary!

Lynnell Lewis, of Richmond, Ind., having returned from six months in India, will lead an evening of sacred chanting Saturday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m., at the Yellow Springs Dharma Center. With Indian tambura accompaniment, she will teach chants from all Buddhist traditions, as well as Vedanta, Sufi, Christian and African. No experience is necessary and everyone is invited to this free event. For more information, call Ken at 767-1022.

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha to you. Happy
Ayyam-i-Ha to you. Happy...oh, nevermind!

The Rays of the Sun children’s class will host their annual Ayyam-i-Ha party. The program, to be held Saturday, Feb. 23, 1:30–4:30 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church, Westminster Hall, will include music, singing, dancing and cooperative games. All are welcome at no charge. For more information, call Linden Qualls at 937-767-7079.

Just because it's a totally private party
doesn't mean that the whole world isn't invited.

CONNIE CROCKETT’S CAMPAIGN for State Representative will celebrate St._Patrick's with a beer and wine tasting at The Emporium in downtown_Yellow Springs on Saturday, March 15, from 7:30 until 9:30 p.m. This is a_private party to which you are invited. Live local music, fun and_refreshments provided. $10 minimum asked at the door. Donations to_Crockett4Ohio are fully TAX DEDUCTIBLE for state residents up to $50_per individual, $100 per couple. Join us for a givin' of the green_ and help us elect Connie!

Hydrogen?...Check! Oxygen?...Check! Lithium?...Check!
Okay! Now, let’s play spin-the-bottle!

Elemental Circle meeting, 1:30 p.m., UUF meetinghouse.

Honestly, it's not a secret Huckabee society.

Course in Miracles, 9 a.m., Friends Care Assisted Living

Yes, but in this town can you be odd enough?

ARE YOU A PERSON of good moral character? Do you believe in friendship, love and truth?Are you ready to give back to the community? Are you ready for some fellowship? Then join the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Yellow Springs. 937-266-6351 or 937-450-6675.