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Ohio Statehouse Provides Gathering Place for International Demonstrations

photo of Ethiopian protests
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

The Statehouse is often used as a gathering place for people with a variety of viewpoints and representing many causes – even if they seem to have nothing to do with Ohio government. 

About 100 people born in Ethiopia or of Ethiopian descent waved flags and signs in the shadow of the Rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse. But they were calling on the federal government to cut off funding to the dominant political party, which they claim is terrorizing the Ethiopian people. 

Organizer Asheber Belayneh says there are some 15,000 Ethiopians in Columbus alone, and he hopes the event will raise awareness of what’s happening in their homeland.

“We are law abiding people. We are hard-working people. At the same time, we are defending democracy here in the United States as well as in Africa.”

A few days before, residents of Indian descent came to the Statehouse to celebrate India’s independence day – and also to draw attention to the presence of that community in Ohio.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.