Honoring the Peacemakers
The U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation (www.uspeacememorial.org). The Foundation was created to honor peacemakers by building a memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Dr. Michael Knox, the founder, says “Our society should be as proud of those who fight for alternatives to war as it is of those who fight wars.”
All across our country there are many monuments honoring the sacrifice of those who served in the military and fought in our many wars. But rarely do you find memorials for those who sacrificed to promote peace. The foundation is working to “promote a ...
This is Not a Credible Offer
For more than a decade, Wisconsinites have been asking for a transparent, independent, nonpartisan redistricting process to create voting maps. No amount of claims by Robin Vos that he has finally seen the wisdom of our request will make these most recent GOP shenanigans credible.
AB415 is a ploy to manipulate the system and have folks believe that it is the solution to Wisconsin’s extreme partisan gerrymander.
The evidence of their contempt for the people of Wisconsin is in the biennial budget and other bills that have passed this session that DO NOT address the ...
HO CHUNK POW WOW
We are so fortunate to have an event that promotes culture in our area. This was a celebration of Indigenous People's Day. Our Rights of Nature group had a table at the event to help educate on the dangers of sulfide mining. There has never been a sulfide mine that does not pollute. Here in Marathon County, we are grateful for the help of the Ho Chunk who provided a resolution against mining to the Marathon County Board in 2022. A grand day of celebrating, feasting, and dancing.
Anniversary of the Crandon Mine
It will be an honor to attend the 20th anniversary event of the Crandon Mine. Although this is the twenty-year anniversary of the end, the battle of the Crandon Mine itself started decades earlier when I was still in high school.
Even though I was barely old enough to be an activist at that time, something stuck within me hearing those words Crandon Mine every day on the radio news.
Last year those words took hold when I learned at our Earth Day rallies of the potential for drilling at the Reef Deposit in Marathon County where I live. Gathering forces with those who ...
KNOWING HEARTBREAK
Dr. Gabor Mate, a Jewish survivor of the Nazi holocaust, is now a physician in Canada.
Please take 12 minutes to listen to Dr. Mate speak about Palestine and Israel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6_GDDa4bmI&t=757s
https://youtu.be/N6_GDDa4bmI?si=E5leofXgspNuzwhZ
Looking for Monarch Butterflies
Where my wife and I used to count twenty or more Monarch caterpillars per mile feeding on milkweed along the country road we live on, not so this year. This past summer the most we counted in a one mile stretch was three. Often there have been none. While disappointing, it's not a huge surprise. Monarch numbers are crashing, dropping by 85% in just the last two decades according to The Center for Biological Diversity. There were around a billion of these delightful orange and black pollinators in 1996. Today the Eastern Monarch is considered endangered by ...
No More Weapons
The world's leading weapons dealer, the U.S. government, urgently needs to hear from the people of the United States and the world.
President Joe Biden has told the U.S. Congress that he will ask for funding to send huge piles of free weapons to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, to prolong two wars and help start a third -- and possibly the world's last. Biden reportedly intends to combine weapons for these three wars, plus additional weapons for further militarizing the U.S. border with Mexico, all in one piece of legislation. The strategic thinking is that various ...
A TRIP TO CAPITOL HILL
Last week I traveled to Washington D.C. with my fellow union retirees in AFSCME. We had a wonderful week of camaraderie and learning to craft our own message to take to our representatives regarding the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 597 / H.R. 82).
H.R. 82 would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) that deprive more than 2.5 million public employees of Social Security benefits they have earned.
How the Government Pension Offset (GPO) Works – Social Security pays benefits to the spouse of retired and disabled ...
THE TOTALLY AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY
In 2014, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, and then U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, with the approval of then Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, orchestrated the violent coup that overthrew the democratically elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, because Yanukovych wanted to keep Ukraine neutral, out of NATO, and on friendly terms with Russia.
The following 5-minute video is the intercepted phone call between Nuland and Pyatt as they plan and choose the people to replace Yanukovych after he is overthrown. Nuland...