Culture
A DAY WITHOUT MUSIC
One day. That’s all I ask. One day for us to recognize how much we’ve come to depend on and simultaneously disregard music. And to think about life without it.
One day without music in the doctor’s waiting room, the supermarket, the car repair shop. One day in silence while driving, while eating lunch at our favorite café, while having our hair cut. One day to live without a buffer against other people’s conversations, without music’s unique ability to suspend us in our own cocoon while noises of our increasingly crowded world batter us on all sides.
Think ...
A DAY WITHOUT MUSIC
One day. That’s all I ask. One day for us to recognize how much we’ve come to depend on and simultaneously disregard music. And to think about life without it.
One day without music in the doctor’s waiting room, the supermarket, the car repair shop. One day in silence while driving, while eating lunch at our favorite café, while having our hair cut. One day to live without a buffer against other people’s conversations, without music’s unique ability to suspend us in our own cocoon while noises of our increasingly crowded world batter us on all sides.
Think ...
Most Influential Person in 2017? Women
One year ago, Donald Trump became our president. The day after that momentous event, women by the hundreds of thousands assembled to march in mass protest.
They sang, laughed, talked, and shared their elation and sorrows right there in the nation’s capital. Marchers in 161 other U.S. cities and towns and in 81 other countries joined their protest. With one voice, they announced their opposition to the new president’s implied and stated goals. They also denounced his obvious delight in bullying, and exploiting others. Whether it was financial, emotional, or sexual ...
AMERICA’S NEW GREATNESS
It’s been a crushing year. One after another, hard-won social advancements have been blocked or dismantled in the rush to “Make American Great Again.” But what does that even mean?
Exactly when was America greater? When everyone used outdoor toilets? When women couldn’t work outside the home? When skin color decided who could marry whom, or vote, or eat at a lunch counter?
Is ‘great again’ a worthy goal, the best we should expect? Is the conservative mantra right, that free enterprise and individual liberty “under limited government” was and ...
Somewhere to Begin
There is nothing like some good music to bring in the new year. Sitting by the fire, with a good hot toddy, I am reminded of a number of songs that provide encouragement in these dark and troubled times. These songs remind me that if changes are to come, there are things that must be done to make things better. This is a process – not an event - and has been going on for many years. We don't always win the battles but we have to keep trying. And we CAN do it if everyone would lend a hand. I'd like to share with you a few songs for the new year.
Let’s begin with ...
Guns in Our Communities 2017
Once again a mass shorting is in the news. In California an angry white man shot up a small rural community apparently over employment and domestic problems. Last week in Texas, an angry white man killed 26 in a small rural church apparently because of a dispute with his mother-in-law. Before that in Las Vegas an angry, rich white man killed 59 and wounded 527 for no apparent reason at all. And the list goes on and on and on....
The common denominator in all these tragedies is the easy availability of guns, specifically military style weapons with high capacity magazi...
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Back when … well, whenever, things were better. Right? People loved each other more, spent more time with family. Life was simpler.
Exactly when was that?
Was it the 1950s, Back when the U. S. and Russia detonated nuclear weapons above ground, when milk tested positive for radiation? When school kids routinely practiced scuttling under their desks in case of a nuclear attack?
When everyone smoked cigarettes?
When women had to find a back alley abortionist to end an unwanted pregnancy and the only means of birth control were condoms and diaphragms? (Okay, ...
Bribe Games By the Number
“Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” Ambrose Bierce
Bribing companies to create jobs is not an effective way to promote economic development. It is not a comprehensive way to promote prosperity. The primary, and often only, result of business development tax incentives is simply reduced tax collections from the favored businesses. Everyone else pays for the incentives provided for the few.
In Wisconsin the job creation numbers provide proof. Citizen Action of Wisconsin has ...
WHO ELECTED THIS WHITE MAN?
Who elected this white man to the office of the POTUS?
In her much discussed book The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker, political scientist Katherine Cramer locates voters' discontent in the disconnect between rural and urban worlds.
She says very little about racial resentment, focusing instead on rural citizens' perceived lack of power and resources (those goodies flow to the larger cities of Madison and Milwaukee) and their perceived lack of respect from the elites in power.
No doubt her research has some ...
TOWARD ONE WAUSAU
Do you view Wausau as warm and welcoming? Or are people of different backgrounds viewed differently – maybe negatively? Here’s your chance to voice your thoughts at the final Toward One Wausau community dialogue on September 18 at the UW Center for Civic Engagement, 625 Stewart Avenue, Wausau.
Since last fall, over 200 people participated in one or more community dialogues, providing valuable feedback on diversity issues in the Wausau area. Using a small-group setting, with people sitting together, participants will begin by sharing individual stories of what ...
