CROSSING BORDERS MUSIC
Tom Clowes has been teaching cello and Western-style music in Haitian summer music camps since 2000. Over the years, he witnessed a country nothing like the Haiti he saw in the media – a country rich in art, language, culture, religion, history, storytelling, and music. One of the biggest surprises was discovering a 130-year-old classical music composition tradition virtually unknown to all but a handful of scholars, even among Haitians. Clowes was captivated by it. So, he started putting on concert programs in the US so others could enjoy this largely ...
A WAY OUT OF NO WAY
“A Way Out of No Way: Women, Labor, and Justice Today” was the theme for The 17th Annual Faith-Labor Breakfast of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin, February 13th, at the Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison.
The meeting opened with a Responsive Prayer For Justice.
Pray for those who are hungry. Pray harder for those who will not feed them.
Pray for those who struggle each week to pay their bills. Pray harder for the wealthy who do not care.
Pray for those who are homeless. Pray harder for those who deny them shelter.
...
SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a ...
LIBERALS MADE AMERICA
“The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old and have disputed the possession of the world since it was made...”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Liberalism provided the founding principles of the United States. Liberals are the folks that made America what it is today. Without the political and social activism of liberals in the past our lives would be very different... and not for the better. Liberalism has guided all the advances in American society since 1776.
We should keep these facts in mind when reaction...
YES, GET OVER IT…..CONSTRUCTIVELY
(Denele Campbell blogs from Artkansas.)
Yesterday I attended a town hall meeting sponsored by Rep. Steve Womack (Republican) of our 3rd Congressional District (Northwest Arkansas). The room would comfortably hold thirty people. Over 200 showed up. With the hallways and doorways and standing room thronged, half the people ended up standing outside in the parking lot for the 1.5 hour event.
Womack could have taken charge of the situation by reconvening five blocks away in the much larger community center. He chose not to do so. He could have opened the meeting by ...
OPEN LETTER REGARDING POTENTIAL SELF-INSURANCE PLAN
OPEN LETTER TO WISCONSIN JOINT FINANCE COMMITTEE
REGARDING POTENTIAL SELF-INSURANCE PLAN
POWRS (Protect Our Wisconsin Retirement Security), February 19, 2017
Dear Joint Finance Committee Members:
POWRS has closely followed events leading to the Wisconsin Group Insurance Board (GIB) approval of the self-insurance program proposal. We have been and continue to be deeply skeptical of this proposal. We believe that since the health insurance marketplace is already in turmoil due to dismantling of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), conducting such a radical change ...
12 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO RESIST TRUMP AND DEFEND DEMOCRACY
Protest nonviolently. The women’s marches and the spontaneous rallies at the airports were great examples. Be creative and visual: Greenpeace’s “resist” sign behind the White House is a good example.
Join organizations that are under assault. Planned Parenthood. Council on American-Islamic Relations. Standing Rock protesters. Labor unions. Environmental groups. Immigrant rights groups.
Join organizations that are strategizing on how to resist. ACLU, Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, interfaith groups, and others.
Sign ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXIX: PUBLIC BANKING AND INFRASTRUCTURE
The last edition of Wealth and Money discussed how Public – Private investment schemes were likely to be used under the Trump administration to finance the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure. Due to 40 years of tax cuts for the rich and corporations, along with deregulation of the financial industry, our federal and state governments have been defunded. This massive transferal of the nation’s claim to wealth, money, to the richest .01 percent has left government in debt and opened the door for complete predation on the people of America. Rather than paying for ...
The Great Bamboozle Begins
If you read or listened to President Trump’s inaugural address you may have been surprised by what he had to say. At first blush it sounds progressive! He calls for returning power to the people. He says “a nation exists to serve its citizens.” He expresses concern for working people and calls for broadly sharing the wealth.
“For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished -- but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered -- but the jobs left, ...
C’mon Now – Let’s Work Together
Pledging to "drain the swamp" during a presidential campaign is an effective metaphor which captures the widespread frustration people have with our current political system. Now we’re all mad because our government is broken. Everyone sees that the big-money corruption in our election system is not serving us well. What has happened?
The Supreme Court has given constitutional rights meant only for individuals to artificial entities such as corporations and unions and has ruled that money spent to influence the political process cannot be limited. Thus, our government ...
