Category: Abolition

The Sin of Incrementalism

Money and fear. They’re a bad combination. When money is used to sway people to take positions that are counter to their benefit, there’s no other word than “evil” to describe the intent and the outcome. Fear is the hammer and money is the force behind the swing. People who don’t even know the meaning of socialism are now obsessed with decrying it. Forget the facts that most of our society has thrived because of socialized principles. For those whose number one enemy is socialism, stop cheering on the Packers. Don’t call your fire department and definitely don’t cash that social security check.

We’re losing every safety net that was consciously created by human beings who cared for one another and hoped the best for future generations. Roosevelt’s New Deal carried bold visions for economic, social and political reforms. We have squandered that capital – and wait until more of the “big beautiful bill” comes due later this year. Rural hospitals will pay that price. And now we have republicans and republican light vying for control. How much change do you think is going to come down that corridor?What kind of change? Who will benefit?

It won’t be Black or Brown people. It won’t be Trans and Gays. It won’t be those of lessor means.

Congress has ensured ICE and detention centers will thrive while too many of our children go hungry. They’ve walked lock step with militarism and supporting genocide while our schools flounder and health care is diminished.

I hate politics. Please don’t tell me “Vote blue no matter who”. That is the very thinking that keeps us on this merry -go -round. The “blue” we keep electing are incrementalists.  The ones who placate us with “it will take a bit more time and a bit more money” while we continue paying the price.

We blew some chances Wisconsin, but the game ain’t over. Stand up and fight.

If Crowley can in fact beat Tiffany in November it will be with the help of 311,475 Hong supporters. In order for disenfranchised voters, independents and people tired of politics as usual to cross over in support of a “moderate centrist” some things will need to be addressed. If Crowley doesn’t want his name to follow the stupendous losses of Clinton and Harris, he will have to move the centrist needle left.

Here is a partial ask: state clearly the need for a moratorium on data centers in Wisconsin; address the health care needs for all without kicking the can for another time; and let us know how ICE will be dealt with by police in our state – will 287g be outlawed as Illinois has done? Let’s also get police out of our schools and address the lack of equity in voucher programs. But here is the absolute litmus test: Crowley must answer questions he dodged by his last minute refusal to attend the forum held by the Wisconsin Muslim Community Alliance in July. Is what is occurring to Palestinians in Gaza a genocide by Israel? Yes or no. At this point in time, if a candidate cannot answer that question, many of us will be taking a hard pass. Human life can not be subject to our incrementalism.

And that goes for Rebecca Cooke who hopes to unseat Derrick Van Orden in the third congressional district. No more kicking the can. Don’t let the primary win fool you. Cooke will not win if she continues on with Third Way mindsets.

Hold their feet to the fire. It’s still ours to win.

Never Pass On A Chance To Be Human

Hummingbirds buzz me daily now. I have come to realize they are letting me know it’s time to refill their feeders. The old sheep can’t quite make it to the orchard, but they wait eagerly for the little green apples trees are letting go. Chicks follow me, expecting treats and their insistence is charming. The young saplings look weary from the heat and I feel their relief when I get to them with water. These are tiny acts of love and kindness that fill my cup and keep me human. In a world that challenges compassion and ridicules empathy, it is delicious to discover that our humanity has not been erased.

There is an opportunity that waits for us every day and really every moment, if we have the eyes for it. It’s the chance to be human. I’ve come to acknowledge that being human is not automatic. It requires something more than merely being alive. It is a conscious choice and a practice. 

I have found that I am most weary, not from the labors of my day, but of the missed opportunities to share my humanity and to delight in another’s. 

The shocking and horrid death of Corey Ruiz at the hands of the state brought new challenges. Accusations that this violence was inevitable and deserved played heavily and heartlessly. It was salt in our woundedness as human beings. It takes a tremendous effort to overcome the depth of sorrow that we feel and to seek the clarity needed for this moment.

And what is this needed clarity? It is the ability to walk in pain, sorrow and anger and not be swallowed by the abyss of hatred. It is the courage to find within us the determination to rise again. It is the choice to be human.

There is an outpouring of love and concern for the family and the community in Madison at this time of grief. The vigil continues there and the demands remain. From Wisconsin Bailout the People Movement.

This is Echo Valley Hope’s Board Statement:

Echo Valley Hope Board’s response to the killing of Corey Ruiz by Madison police on July 22. Echo Valley Hope will continue to support efforts to eradicate racism and violence in the systems that were created for our protection. The execution of Corey Ruiz, a Black man, by Madison police and witnessed by bystanders demands our united voices for change. We support voices demanding the abolishment of deadly force. We demand an independent investigation into this murder. We will continue to work to restore human dignity. Racism and violence must be abolished from our systems. No more excuses

For more statements from member groups of WNPJ on the killing of Corey Ruiz, visit the Facebook page.

We’ve Had Enough

The $tate of the Union is scheduled for Tuesday, February 24. Groundswells of people, including Congressional members, will be tuning it out. What better way to steal the thunder of one who feasts on false accolades than to ignore him? Media will be paid to record, regurgitate and correct or bolster every line, saving us our precious time. After the speech we will be force fed false stories of grandiose exceptionalism as they desperately try to have us not look behind the curtain of illusion. Bets could and should be made on how many times the Epstein files are mentioned. Odds are not at all. And there will unlikely be no mention of our “peace” president’s blockade on Cuba that is crippling that sovereign nation. Nor will we learn any more clarity on the possibility of going to war with Iran and what role Israel plays in our ongoing militarism. 

And this administration has refused to reel in the inhuman acts of the mercenaries called ICE, paid for by the “big beautiful bill” with Congressional approval. Our tax dollars are funding Department of Homeland Security detention centers that are essentially prisons, and one must wonder, if criminal deportation is the point, why are so many prisons necessary?

We live in an imperialist and racist nation. One that hid the truth of Native American genocide and the anguishes of slavery. We’ve allowed the myths of grandeur to cloud our vision and to promote this grotesque new normal we are living in. 

But as the realities of child rape and sex trafficking through the elite world cabal comes to light, surely, we are ready to say, “We’ve had enough”. 

It’s time for a revolution of kindness. Kindness to ourselves, to our children and to the children and people throughout the world harmed by imperialism, environmental extraction and debauchery. 

It’s time for a worldwide human revolution. Let’s stop letting ignorance lead. Do something meaningful during the $tate of the Union that will help bring power to its knees. Not listening to there $tate of the Union is a start. Create a new narrative of love, community, diversity and joy. Because we can.

Lies On Steroids

Our collective history is filled with violence. When white settlers arrived on these shores they carried with them vestiges of what had been done to them. They brought persecution, conquering, and a kind of capitalism that requires a lower rung. Class struggle, theft of land, and when all else failed, the ultimate silencing of people who deemed to be different, or were different by design. The attempted cover-ups and twisting of history are not new. They’re simply now on steroids.

We refuse to believe what we know to be true: that we live on stolen land, that enslaved and impoverished people built this country and that the cowardice displayed from Congress to ICE is nothing more than a last-ditch effort to keep the LIE afloat.

When I drive through rural towns and see confederate flags, I want to yell, “Wisconsin was a Union state”. But I’m really thinking: “Your ignorance is showing”. And ignorance is more than not knowing history. The kind of ignorance we deal with today is deeper. We’ve lost a sense of self. We’ve lost human dignity. And unless and until we rediscover it within ourselves, we’ll never see it in the “other”. 

We’ve lost our sense of belonging to something greater. In doing so we cling to whatever flag suites us, whatever belief empowers us, or so we think. External power is an empty game, when you are hollow inside. That’s why it never works. People will be martyred and treated inhumanely, but power must succumb to benevolence, if only when we take our last breath. Recognizing our mutual humanity, acknowledging our history and refusing to carry it on are the solutions available to us.

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Listen to my conversation with Fatemeh Jamalpour on her new book For the Sun After Long Nights. For The Sun After Long Nights by two acclaimed Iranian female journalists, depicts the oppression of ethnic minorities and particularly of women since the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom Movement. It was an honor to be given a glimpse into the courage and deep love of their homeland and their sisterhood. Co-authored by Nilo Tabrizy. It will also air on WDRT, Wednesday, Sept 10 at 5 pm CST.

And if you are in the area: On Sunday, Sept 21 from noon to 5pm we will host Reclaiming Peace: A Community Celebration at Echo Valley Farm

Changing the Rules of Engagement

If you are speculating on how dire things will be and not taking action to stop the harm, you are missing an intrinsic reality: This is still within our power to change. 

Most recently I learned of the president of Namibia, who let it be known that western travelers and others will now be required to pass through a visa process to enter her country. The 72-year-old is changing the rules of engagement and requesting dignity for her people. I was heartened by the clarity of the declaration. It was not made in retaliation. It was made in reclaiming humanity that has been in imbalance far too long.

It has long been said that patriarchy is in its waning days and we should expect a backlash. I guess we are in the midst of that backlash at this moment. But it does not make it right, nor does it mean we have to surrender our values and all that we have come to learn. We do not have to bow and grovel before ignorance.

This is a time that requires a fierce trust in humanity’s best angels. It requires a courage that withstands the grotesque distortion of values and remains resolute to higher truth.

It demands that we reach the reachable. And what should we invite them to consider? I would argue that we need not try indoctrination into a political party, or another religion. We should invite people to discover the strengths that we each hold, encourage everyone to celebrate their uniqueness and to honor the earth, our collective home. We need to beat the drums of our mutual humanity and call for the reachable to come back to the simplest of truths. We are alive and the power of peace is still available. 

In her new book Defund, Black Lives, Policing and Safety for All, Sandy Hudson invites us to re-examine our understanding of policing and to consider what gains can be made as we re-invest in humanity with dignity for all. This is a lively and compelling conversation that highlights the necessity for change. Take time to listen here.

You can find more of my podcasts on the transition to restore humanity at Changing the Narrative on WDRT. Thanks for listening and sharing.

Until Humanity Wins

Cori Booker spoke for twenty-five hours on the Senate floor in a speech that outlasted the now second longest speech by Strom Thurmon in 1957. Thurmond, a segregationist, spoke against the Civil Rights Act. His speech proved useless and President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Bill into law two weeks later. Booker spoke against Trump policies. He covered social security and Medicare, education, immigration, public safety, national security and foreign policy, housing, the environment and farmers’ issues. He spoke at length about defending Democracy. But nowhere have I found that Senator Booker mentioned the slaughter of Palestinians or the Israeli theft of land that the United States government supports.

If I missed it, please let me know, but it seems the Democratic Party is still intent on the ill-conceived dedication to Netanyahu’s Israel that President Biden so devotedly upheld. 

I don’t get it. We’re still supplying weapons to Israel. Some accounts say we are supplying even more deadly weapons. Through the entire month of Ramadan, we watched as Israeli forces prohibited food distribution to starving people. We learned of bombed tents and more children murdered. Any thinking person, any feeling person knows this is a genocide, but we allow that debate to rage on. Our empathy and compassion have been dismantled by outrageous remarks of ignorance and inhumanity streaming from the White House and the rest of the crusaders. 

The Christian Right’s belief of “End Times” – of how it is foretold that Israel will triumph and everyone will be whisked to the pearly gates – bolsters a president hell bent on creating a resort from a genocide. How long will Christian Nationalists be pawns in this power grab? 

Me? I prefer peace now to pie in the sky. And I’m holding out for Humanity to win.

Only 15 Senators Back Sanders Bid to Block Arms to Israel

I didn’t know this when I wrote this. Booker was not one of them. And Tammy Baldwin again abstained.

The democrats are failing miserably. We need a new direction.

A New Day is Upon Us

Black youth in ten different states received personalized messages telling them they will be taken to plantations to pick cotton. If you want to learn more about this check news outlets for details – while you still can, of course. News agencies, who challenge the incoming administration, are preparing for cuts in funding and diminished licensing. 

Married gay couples are seeking legal advice to protect their union, and trans people, the prime escape goats for heterosexual fear, are being bullied and far worse.  Calls to suicide hot lines for LGBTQ+ youth are up as much as 700%.  And let’s not forget about the round up of our neighbors and friends as deportations begin.

And maybe you didn’t see this coming. Maybe you feel safe in a white and sanitized world. Maybe you believed no one could be “chosen” and cause so much harm. But here we are. 

Because a “promise made is a promise kept” says the incoming 47th president. So, let’s see what else has been promised that will unite us and help the healing of this country. As the divide and conquer continues unchecked and the majority of the MAGA world seems content with prayers, I doubt many will speak up when they come for our neighbors. Just like old time Germany and how did that poem go? First they came for the Catholics, but I wasn’t Catholic, so I did nothing. They came for the gays, but I wasn’t gay, so I did nothing. I wasn’t Jewish, so when they came for them, I did nothing. And there was no one to help when they came for me. 

There are consequences when we give away empathy and compassion; consequences when leaders are permitted to act out of vendetta; and there are consequences when our humanity and individual sovereignty are relinquished.

It might all be hyperbole. The rantings of an old man drunk with power. But what about us? What choices will we make in this new day? Our choices or lack thereof brought us here. It will be our choices – and our humanity – that will save us.

Israel Must Stop

No War with Iran. Let Palestinians live in dignity. 

I wake in the night and listen to BBC. It’s their morning and I hope, as I have hoped for the past year, that the new day will deliver humanity from insanity. I long for an end to the nightmare, I am weary of the lies and excuses used to continue genocide and land theft. I’m bored with political arguments that offer no relief; only more distraction from this precipice of horror.

And I wonder what it will take for people to Remember.

I heard a chicken farmer speak of how he could not let his chickens starve to death. That had been the solution afforded him by his buyers. Instead, he took out a loan to save them. “They’re good chickens”, he said. Juxtapose that with news from Israel. Palestinians are told to leave their makeshift shelters once more or they will be starved. They will be starved. Intentionally deprived of food and water. Men, women, children. Human beings who have been tortured and witness to atrocities for the past year. And so much longer.

I’m horrified. But I refuse to be numb. Our government has, without reservation, supported the madmen of Israel. Our leaders have been bought by pro-Israel organizations and our media has forced fed us Oct 7th and antisemitic storylines, hiding the genocide. 

The new lie is that Pro-Palestinian organizations are terrorists. This, as the “Right” is bolstered by an unhinged authoritarian, the “Middle” is lost by a President who refuses to stop the military industrial complex, and the “Left” who are scattered and divided over an election.

The Nobel Peace Prize was given to Japanese survivors of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And I wonder what it will take for people to Remember.

Our Red Line

Will the fiery massacre of displaced civilians in Rafah be the assault that drives our citizenry to demand ceasefire? The slaughter of over 36,000 human beings has not done it. The arrests of over 3,000 students demonstrating for divestment has not done it. The rulings of the International Court of Justice and the potential arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders by the ICC did not do it. In fact, every time there has been a request for Israel to halt or slow its offensive, the opposite has occurred. 

For seven months, world opinion has moved against Israel. Only the United States and a few allies have supported the bombing of civilians.

Our willingness to support the annihilation of Palestinian people and their way of life is intertwined in our economy. The U.S. spends hundreds of billions yearly on the war industry, reaping the benefits of global conflicts in the name of securing our interests. 

Students and watchdogs alert us to lobbying money paid to legislators to keep the war industry booming and Israeli interests as top priority.  Polls show a rising number of people will not vote for Biden or other Democratic candidates. Yet the arrogance of power refuses to bend towards the will of the people.   

We’ve overcome great lies to arrive at this red line. We were told all Palestinians are terrorists, and all Jews are Zionist. Neither are true.

What is true is that people want peace.

What is true is there will be no peace without the majority of people demanding it.

We need a very bold step towards peace. We must find the courage to rise to this urgent moment and say, “No more.” This is our red line.

Compassion for Rafah.

red line. noun  a limit beyond which someone’s behavior is no longer acceptable: 

Weary of War

The United States will again hinder the course of international justice and challenge universal standards of morality. Biden has denounced the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli officials and Hamas leaders. 

Since its inception, the International Criminal Court has strived to establish rules of engagement for war and peace – a monumental undertaking given the diversity of thought that exists in the world.  Driven by a desire for human dignity to prevail, the court seeks to create a system of justice that would offer solace to victims and direct the course of human interactions towards peace.

The United States is a non-member of the ICC, and has supported the International Court when the Court has sought to employ justice against its foes, but has balked when the same Court has attempted to enact jurisdiction over the United States or its allies. Perhaps it’s time we evaluate our relationship to power and militarism and attempt peace keeping through diplomacy.  

The United Nation’s effort to establish peace among nations is repeatedly hindered by the United States. We’re often the first to veto efforts to rein in aggression. This we have seen throughout Israel’s inhuman assault on Gaza. Even our allies are turning toward peacebuilding and away from supporting arms sales to Israel.

And in a major turn of events, Norway, Ireland and Spain have begun to recognize the statehood of Palestine. As the three countries united in this action, they expressed it as a step towards peace – for both sides of the conflict. 

Many of us are weary of the normalization of war and the devastation of human life and the environment. Polls are bearing this out. 

Those fearing Biden will lose the election would do well to push him towards peace. 

Countries that recognize the statehood of Palestine.