Brook Trout in the Coal Mine

To say that I come from a long line of fisherfolk requires something to measure that line by, so let's see what a brief glance at Google suggests.  Though not as helpful as I'd supposed the lineage of fishers clearly goes back a long, long way.  Somewhere between two hundred thousand and forty thousand years ago is the scientific range, forty thousand being the first time clear evidence of a heavy fish diet shows up in skeletal analysis.  He's known as Tianyuan man, and chemistry of his bones tell us he fished in eastern Asia and ate his catch regularly.   So ...

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A Special Primer on Peace Initiatives Between Israel and Palestine

Please Join Our Peace Dialogue Group For A Special Primer on Peace Initiatives Between Israel and Palestine   Tuesday, July 25 6 to 7 pm Marathon County Library Meeting Room   Featured Speakers:  Karen and Tom Getman, Lifelong Activists and Humanitarians from Washington, DC   We are honored to have Karen and Tom Getman visiting Wausau this July.  Tom was the Director of World Vision for 25 years. Tom and Karen have lived and worked in South Africa, Palestine, Israel and Geneva, Switzerland supporting social justice and humanitarian ...

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The Rights of Nature

We are happy to share a project that has been in the works most of this year by our Rights of Nature group. At the bottom, you may click to see page two as well. https://  

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The Jefferson Project: Thomas Jefferson’s Death Day and a Fourth of July Remembrance

Back in the mid-1980s, an outfit called Anvil Press published a book of mine. Its title was—still is—Nature’s Unruly Mob: Farming and the Crisis in Rural Culture. The topic (or its urgency) hasn’t gone away. Anvil Press printed the book as a special issue of its occasional quarterly magazine, North Country Anvil. The magazine was full of larger-issue farm news and analysis, and it made the Anvil shop a hub and gathering spot for farm activists—all this in southeastern Minnesota, in a village called Millville, nestled below limestone bluffs, through which the ...

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Wisconsin Education Issues

Education is an essential component of modern societies. It is self-evident that virtually everything in our current social, economic, political, and technological world is impacted by education. Given this obvious reality, it is inexplicable to me that education – especially universal public education – is under attack in so many ways. Funding for K-12 schools, tech colleges, and universities is inadequate and being eroded by inflation. Students are being expected to pay for higher education with student loan debt. School “choice” and vouchers divert public money ...

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Sophia’s Second Annual Communityy Cultural Fair


Indigenous Marketplace


Profiles in Patriotism

In my writing I have frequently questioned the false narratives and harmful beliefs fostered by politicians and the media on our patriotic holidays. Why is patriotism considered the highest virtue? Why is military service always portrayed as the ultimate in patriotism? Why are other public servants who sacrifice for others not honored as patriots? Why is constructive criticism of our country branded as unpatriotic? Why isn't patriotic fervor used to mobilize people for good change instead of wars? Historian Howard Zinn taught us that “dissent is the highest form of ...

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JUST MONEY FOUR

Money and wealth are not the same thing. Money is simply a medium of exchange – a legally accepted claim to wealth. Money doesn’t exist in nature and is generally created out of thin air by the central governments of nations. In our modern world 97% of money doesn’t physically exist. It’s just record keeping on computer screens. The distribution of money – who possesses it – determines the allocation and distribution of the wealth of a nation. Wealth is the physical ability to provide for the wellbeing of the people of a society. Wealth is food, clothing, ...

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Anaem Omot

Congratulations to the Menominee Tribe! Anaem Omot is a sacred and historically important area that deserves national recognition and protection from threats like the Back Forty Mine. In the photograph within a ceremonial dance ring L-R are Dr David Overstreet, David "Nahwahquaw" Grignon, Tony Brown, Kahkamahut Waupekenay, Glen Miller, Lupi Corn, Lois Turney, Aaliyah Webster, and Dawn Wilber.   The Anaem Omot or Sixty Islands area of the Menominee River is located about 16 miles east of Stephenson, Michigan. The settlement remains date back roughly 10,000 ...

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