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Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will be in town to speak about the issues aired in his PBS documentary, "African American Lives."
The Nellie Y. McKay Lecture in the Humanities
March 24, 2011 @ 7:30 pm
Mills Hall, Mosse Humanities Building
Despite a decades-long career in academia, he is surely best known to most Americans for resisting a police response to a suspected burglar - at his own home.
A Talk by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. - UW-Madison Arts on Campus ...
Showing posts with label Civil Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil Rights. Show all posts
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The Week That Still Is
OK, so I've only lived in Wisconsin since 1979, but this past week's pro-union protests have been the most remarkable event of the past thirty years (I'm leaving aside all the sports-related celebrations, which are after all in the toy department.).
Isthmus has quite a good section of coverage including the Ken Lonnquist song that I just posted here from You Tube. Likewise, Madison.com's coverage. As has the Milwaukee JS. This afternoon, JS Online carries the not-exactly-news, but still disappointing report that Walker rejects any attempt at compromise despite concessions by Democrats and state unions.
The WAPO has some good coverage as well.
The always excellent Doug Henwood at the LBO News has really terrific and fresh stuff. The tastefully-named Henwood was in town this week and posted some observations and photos. By the way, Henwood talked to UW Professor Joel Rogers (professor of law, political science, public affairs, and sociology):
LBO News by Doug Henwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
An interesting hypothesis, if perhaps incomplete (what about the Catholic voters in south Milwaukee and the rest of SE Wisconsin?). Anyway, if Rogers is correct, that suggests that Archbishop Listecki's support for the public sector unions may be politically significant.
By the way, it's refreshing to read commentary from a different professorial UW voice than Charles Franklin and Mordecai Lee.
Small note to the conservative whiners: I would bet dollars-to-donuts that all of the public employees at the rallies took vacation time to be there (except the teachers, obviously, who put themselves in at least some jeopardy by doing a sick-out). I did when I attended the rally on Tuesday.
If I may be excused one moment of inarticulate frustration: this guy Chris Rickert who writes for the WSJ. I don't like him. Or rather I don't like the way he expresses his opinions; perhaps in real life he's not as callow as his writing. (I have now edited this paragraph twice to remove the nasty, but now it's to the point of why bother.) You can find his column on the madison.com website and form your own opinion.
(OK, here's one example. In today's column, he opines that "government workers may well be a coddled bunch" based on the fact that some protesters held up signs referencing Mubarak. No, that would be evidence that somebody held up a possibly dumb sign ('dumb' depending on whether you think the sign-maker meant to compare Egypt and Wisconsin or merely expressed the sign-maker's desire for Walker to resign like Mubarak.)
The likely end result of this battle seems pretty clear, the question is how will we get from here to there? Will the impending snowstorm impose a break in the protests that causes them to lose steam? Will a Democrat weaken and return home? (Any guesses who? And would said Dem be likely to switch parties?) The Governor could end the standoff by meeting Dem and union concessions with some of his own, but it's clear that's not going to happen.
For the Boomers and other aging folks, yes, the title of this post is a nod to the 60's TV show, That Was The Week That Was, a satirical news show featuring David Frost.
Isthmus has quite a good section of coverage including the Ken Lonnquist song that I just posted here from You Tube. Likewise, Madison.com's coverage. As has the Milwaukee JS. This afternoon, JS Online carries the not-exactly-news, but still disappointing report that Walker rejects any attempt at compromise despite concessions by Democrats and state unions.
The WAPO has some good coverage as well.
The always excellent Doug Henwood at the LBO News has really terrific and fresh stuff. The tastefully-named Henwood was in town this week and posted some observations and photos. By the way, Henwood talked to UW Professor Joel Rogers (professor of law, political science, public affairs, and sociology):
To outsiders, it’s mysterious that the same state could have spawned Joe McCarthy and Robert LaFollette, or Scott Walker and Russ Feingold. Rogers explained that politics in Wisconsin has historically been driven by an alliance of industrial workers and capital-intensive dairy farmers on the left, opposed on the right by a mainly Catholic rural population. They’re pretty evenly divided, thus the contrasting figures and tight elections.
LBO News by Doug Henwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
An interesting hypothesis, if perhaps incomplete (what about the Catholic voters in south Milwaukee and the rest of SE Wisconsin?). Anyway, if Rogers is correct, that suggests that Archbishop Listecki's support for the public sector unions may be politically significant.
By the way, it's refreshing to read commentary from a different professorial UW voice than Charles Franklin and Mordecai Lee.
***
Small note to the conservative whiners: I would bet dollars-to-donuts that all of the public employees at the rallies took vacation time to be there (except the teachers, obviously, who put themselves in at least some jeopardy by doing a sick-out). I did when I attended the rally on Tuesday.
***
If I may be excused one moment of inarticulate frustration: this guy Chris Rickert who writes for the WSJ. I don't like him. Or rather I don't like the way he expresses his opinions; perhaps in real life he's not as callow as his writing. (I have now edited this paragraph twice to remove the nasty, but now it's to the point of why bother.) You can find his column on the madison.com website and form your own opinion.
(OK, here's one example. In today's column, he opines that "government workers may well be a coddled bunch" based on the fact that some protesters held up signs referencing Mubarak. No, that would be evidence that somebody held up a possibly dumb sign ('dumb' depending on whether you think the sign-maker meant to compare Egypt and Wisconsin or merely expressed the sign-maker's desire for Walker to resign like Mubarak.)
***
The likely end result of this battle seems pretty clear, the question is how will we get from here to there? Will the impending snowstorm impose a break in the protests that causes them to lose steam? Will a Democrat weaken and return home? (Any guesses who? And would said Dem be likely to switch parties?) The Governor could end the standoff by meeting Dem and union concessions with some of his own, but it's clear that's not going to happen.
***
For the Boomers and other aging folks, yes, the title of this post is a nod to the 60's TV show, That Was The Week That Was, a satirical news show featuring David Frost.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Best Protest Signs
OK, here is a link to a bunch of signs from the State Capital protests.
Some of them are in bad taste, but 'so be it.'
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-protest-signs-at-the-wisconsin-capitol
Some of them are in bad taste, but 'so be it.'
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-protest-signs-at-the-wisconsin-capitol
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Speak Up for FAIRness
Labels:
Budget,
Civil Rights,
Dane County,
Wisconsin
A message from Fair Wisconsin (www.fairwisconsin.com/ )
As we told you in February (http://fairwisconsin.blogspot.com/2009/02/katies-inaugural-blog-post.html), we've got a lot of work to do to ensure that the proposed domestic partnership protections remain in Governor Doyle's budget.
The first step we need to take is speaking out in support of Governor Doyle's proposed domestic partnership protections at the budget hearings held statewide over the next few weeks. This is an opportunity for regular citizens to speak directly to lawmakers about what direction they think Wisconsin should be moving. On Friday, April 3, the Joint Finance Committee will be holding a budget hearing in Cambridge.
(Location: Friday April 3 from 10 AM to 4 PM at the Amundson Community Center, Cambridge Municipal Building, 200 Spring Street, Cambridge.)
Fair Wisconsin needs supporters like you to attend and explain how these domestic partnership protections will positively impact your life or the lives of your loved ones! It's not a pop quiz on how much you know about the budget or the committee, only explaining what basic protections a caring, committed couple should be able to enjoy. After all, these protections are not about being gay or straight, but about being fair and decent.
If you have something to say in defense of fairness and equality, make your voice heard! Please contact me for more details.
In Fairness,
Tim Ewing
Outreach Coordinator, Fair Wisconsin
608.441.0143 ext. 313
tim.ewing@fairwisconsin.com
For the Joint Committee On Finance hearing schedule and location:
Budget Hearings
Week of March 23 (Sparta, West Allis, Eau Claire)
Week of March 30 (Racine, Appleton, Cambridge
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sunny Violates First Rule of Holes
Labels:
Civil Rights,
Humor,
Monona,
Transportation
She may not have originated the saying, but the late great Molly Ivins (Molly Ivins, 1944-2007 AlterNet) certainly popularized it. The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging.
First, in a recent column Sunny claimed traffic engineering was a fake profession. And then this week she broke out the garden tools again....
Monona Ald. Doug Wood, in his blog, and his daughter, Lindsay Wood Davis, in last week's letters to the editor, have been ragging on me for saying that traffic engineers aren't real engineers. They say traffic engineering is a subset of transportation engineering, which is a subset of civil engineering.
Oh, dear. Where to begin? I do indeed have a daughter named Lindsay, but she's not married to anyone named Davis or to anyone at all for that matter. She firmly denies having written any letters-to-the-editor.
The actual letter writing Lindsay Wood Davis, on the other hand, is not my daughter, which is good being as how that Lindsay is a he not a she. He is also a full-growed man, an expert in broadcasting, and Chairman of the Board for the River Alliance of Wisconsin.
Step away from the shovel, my friend.
(Picture is of Sunny's dad Franz Schubert).
***
Sunny's boo-boo gave me cause to look up Molly Ivins and I found this great quote:
Molly believed so strongly about defending our freedoms and our liberties....that she named the ACLU in her will, and she encouraged others to do the same. "I am writing to you on the cheerful topic of croaking," she began a 2004 letter to ACLU members. "Think about the hell the ACLU can raise with your money. They'll be out there beating those in power over the head with the Bill of Rights when we all lie a-moldering. I can't think of anything I'd rather do with my worldly goods than fund folks who will be a pain in the ass to whatever powers come to be."
From the Nation's Remembering Molly Ivins
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