Culture


Water Protectors

Water Protectors: The H.E.L.P. Campaign to Save the Penokees You need to read this book. The H.E.L.P. Campaign to save the Penokees is still powerful in showing what grassroots organizing can do and what community activism looks like. Back in 2013 I arrived in Mellen with several others from the Wausau area. We were greeted by none other than the author of this book, Nick Vander Puy. Along with him were Penokee Pete and Paul DeMain, and several others. It was an educational day for me up there, one of many that would follow. That day in Mellen at the Penokee ...

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Right Wing Think Tanks Are Who Is Really Behind Bias Reporting On College Campuses

Free speech on college campuses is being stifled, however the push to limit free speech was not started by some woke left wing mob. Oh no. It was started by a right wing organization that calls itself Students For Academic Freedom, which is a bit of a misnomer because their key goal is to strip academic freedom from faculty they disagree with. This stifling of free speech did not start all that recently; it can be traced back to the early aughts. I was attending graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2005 when I first became aware of this ...

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His Inner Search

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, an exodus from the cities brought hundreds of new settlers to the Arkansas Ozarks. Their personal stories are testaments to an awakening shared by many of the Baby Boom generation, personal and communal. This interview is one of 32 personal stories gathered in 1999-2000, and published in Aquarian Revolution: Back to the Land. I didn’t like the way I was treated as a kid. I was beaten regularly. I don’t think I’ve cried since I was seven years old, because if I cried, they would beat me with a leather strap until I stopped ...

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2022 Central Wisconsin Indigenous Peoples’ Day


Opposition to Mining

The Ho-Chunk Nation opposes the request by Green Light Metals for an exploratory drilling permit, and any future efforts to engage in gold mining near the Dells of the Eau Claire River in Marathon County. The staff of Middle Wisconsin expresses their thanks to the Ho Chunk Nation.

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Save the Menominee River

The 2nd Annual Water Celebration is in the books! We are very proud of the Coalition! Everyone was geared up and ready to handle the masses. We witnessed an outpouring of work, shouldering of responsibilities, and labor of love for the Menominee River that filled our hearts with appreciation for everyone's assistance for the Coalition's major fundraiser. We look forward to the 5K Walk-A-Thon on August 28th for our next large event. It was heartwarming to present "Trailblazer" awards to Ron and Carol Henriksen (Front 40) and Mary Hansen, recognizing ...

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The Choice on Guns

Bad thinking and misinformation about guns is common in our country. Apologists for our crazy gun culture often use misleading statistics. Their arguments sound reasonable or appear to be supported by facts and numbers. But statistics can be misleading when they are misused, out of context or interpreted incorrectly. I recently read a letter-to-the-editor that claimed mass shootings were not a problem because they are a very small percentage of the 45,000 gun related deaths each year. The author  accused gun control advocates of exaggerating the issue. It is true that ...

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WISCONSIN: PETRI DISH FOR THE NATION

For generations Wisconsin has been the home of my ancestors and relatives.  They were among the first to “pioneer” the state coming from Pennsylvania where generations before had befriended Indigenous peoples and lived in harmony with them after fleeing autocracies in other countries.  Their humble message has always passed down through generations:  ALWAYS KEEP SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE .  It is my earliest recollection of what I heard over and over at family reunions. Other ancestors came from Norway. Those Wisconsinites always emphasized working ...

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Central Wisconsin Indigenous People’s Day


The Poor People’s Campaign Heads to the Polls With an Agenda to lift From the Bottom

Campaign demands meeting with Biden, pledges to register poor & low-income voters, will return to DC in September Following a powerful and passionate march and moral assembly of poor and low-wage workers and faith leaders that drew thousands of people from every state in the nation, the Poor People’s Campaign has announced its plans for the midterm elections in November. The Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls was Saturday with the U.S. Capitol in the background. People gathered on Pennsylva...

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