Political Books Are Rainbow's Pride
The Capital Times
Monday, February 5, 2007
Rob Thomas
For co-managers Allen Ruff and Marsha Rummel, working at Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative at 426 W. Gilman St. is a natural fusion of their love of their books and their commitment to social and political activism.
"People who have known me the longest say this is just such a natural fit for me," Ruff says. "My social and political outlook and my work as a historian -- I've always been around books."
Rainbow's economic foundation is textbook sales for UW students, and it prides itself on its extensive political and social science sections, with books of particular interest to Madison's progressive base.
"We have a section on Latin America, and anyone who comes in with an interest related to that will say we have one of the best sections in the country," Ruff says. "We have sections that you won't see in the run-of-the-mill general interest bookstore. We have a labor section, we have a sizable African-American studies section, and so on. We do have our specializations, but more and more we also find ways of getting those general interest books that are amenable to our projects."
An essential part of Rainbow's mission is outreach, whether it's having a book venue at the progressive Fighting Bob Fest every fall, or partnering with community organizations to bring speakers to town. Such projects satisfy the bookstore's mission of being an information resource for the progressive community, as well as its business goal of being known and identified in that community.
"We're always exploring different avenues and vehicles to increase our visibility in cooperation with the community, in the hope that we're providing information and resources," Ruff says. "And, in turn, people will support us."
Rummel says she was happy to see that sales last month matched those in January 2006, and that despite the fact that school started a little later in the month this year.
In adapting to the changing winds of the business, Rainbow made all of its inventory available for sale online last year. It's also starting a new monthly electronic newsletter to keep faithful customers in the loop about store events and related community activities.
Competing with Amazon is extremely tough for small independents, who don't deal in the volume necessary to offer the deep discounts that the online retailer does, Ruff says. Rainbow hopes that offering its own online component along with the personal attention of a local bricks-and-mortar store will prove attractive, especially to students.
Part of the challenge stores like Rainbow face is that the small independent and university presses that provide much of their inventory are also getting squeezed by market forces. Ruff says the presses are raising the prices of their books and cutting the percentage of revenue going to the bookstore. Some publishers have even added a "shipping surcharge" to account for rising transportation costs associated with gas prices.
"It's interesting in this age where there's a kind of anti-globalization, anti-corporate movement out there," Ruff says. "We face it on a daily basis."
Watada Has Supporters On Campus
The Capital Times
Monday, February 5, 2007
By Anita Weier The Capital Times
University of Wisconsin-Madison students planned actions throughout the day in support of Lt. Ehren Watada and other war resisters.
Five students braved sub-zero weather this morning to display a banner with pictures of war resisters during rush hour on the overpass across Campus Drive.
"Today is the date of Watada's court-martial. We wanted to show soldiers who resist that they have our support, and others who are thinking about resisting that they will have our support," said Chris Dols, a senior at the UW who is from New Haven, Conn. "I agree with Ehren Watada that this is an illegal war, and that it is right to refuse to carry out illegal orders. The U.S. was not acting in defense. This was an aggressive war based on lies."
Other actions have been planned on campus today, including handing out leaflets at the Memorial Union, making announcements in classrooms and perhaps displaying a banner during the afternoon rush hour, Dols said.
Click here to find out more!
Monica Goncze, 22, a graduate of Cornell College in Iowa who is now working in Madison, said she is also working with the Wisconsin Campus Anti-war Network in publicizing the group's efforts.
"Watada is really important. He sets a huge precedent for other soldiers who resist," Goncze said.
"We can't solve all that violence with violence," she said. "It is costing too many lives."
Learn more about Ly. Watada's case and how you can support war resisters at ThankYouLt.org
Coming Home
Hostile Attitudes, Online Records Don't Leep Ex-convict From Succeeding In Society
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: A1
Saturday, February 10, 2007
By Ben Popper Correspondent for The Capital Times\ The writer retains the copyright for this article
Jerome Dillard has close-cropped hair, a slow-breaking smile and a penchant for conservative, Cosby-style sweaters. When talking about his past, Dillard makes clear that he considers himself the lucky exception to the rule.
With his wife, Dillard owns a home, a car, and together they clear six figures a year. "Of course these days even that isn't saying much," chuckles Dillard, "but that's a whole different story."
Dillard is a re-entry counselor with the Madison Urban Ministry, and his wife is a doctor of pharmacy.
What makes the Dillards' middle-class lifestyle so exceptional is that, like many African-Americans in Wisconsin, Dillard has served time in prison. Wisconsin has proportionately more African-Americans in prison than any other state in the nation.
Despite constituting only 5 percent of Wisconsin's population, African-Americans make up 48 percent of the state's prison population, according to Census data.
Gov. Jim Doyle recently announced the creation of a panel to study the issue. "Far too many of our citizens, particularly African-American males, are serving time in our prisons rather than learning in our schools or succeeding in the workplace," the governor said.
The large number of prisoners who are returning to jail not for new crimes, but for parole or probation violations, highlights re-entry as one of the key areas that researchers say must be addressed by the city and state if this pattern is to be broken.
Since 1990, the rate of recidivism for parole or probation violation has more than tripled, according to research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by sociologist Pam Oliver. In Dane County, 75 percent of the African-American men who go to prison will return.
Compounding other trends such as declines in some manufacturing jobs, the loss of black middle-class neighborhoods and tougher attitudes toward incarceration, observers say that the ready availability of online court records in Wisconsin can mean that a single conviction can become a long-term obstacle.
Whether legal or not, returning prisoners often find that employers will dismiss applicants with a conviction out of hand, and finding that information has never been easier.
The state hosts extensive criminal records online at the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access' Consolidated Court Automation Programs, or as it is usually called, CCAP.
*
CCAP in action: Dillard came to Madison in 1993 from Chicago. Like many other travelers, Dillard quickly discovered the harsh reality of living in this state. "There is a saying among visitors from Illinois," said Linda Ketchum, director at Madison Urban Ministries, "Wisconsin -- come on vacation, leave on probation."
Dillard was imprisoned in Wisconsin after an August 1993 forgery charge, followed by bail jumping 10 months later.
Upon his release in 1995, Dillard looked for work, but as an ex-con he found few businesses would consider him. "I applied a lot of places, and once they found out about my record, a lot of doors were slammed in my face. I was lucky because I wasn't overwhelmed with debt or court fees like a lot of these guys."
Eventually he took the only job he could find, as a dishwasher earning $5 an hour, and then a telemarketer, for $7 per hour. His mother co-signed a lease, and Dillard moved into an apartment on the east side.
If Dillard were to be released today, his experience securing work and housing would be even more difficult. One of the principle obstacles the ex-convicts say they come up against today is CCAP.
Since its launch in 1999, the Circuit Court's records site has proved so popular -- drawing more than 1 million hits a day -- that its name has become a commonly used verb in many circles: to "C-Cap" someone is to look into their court record.
"These days when I talk to offenders," said Dillard, "I preach disclosure, disclosure, disclosure."
Workplace regulators don't want to see records obscured, but caution that this information -- now so easily available -- is often misapplied.
"Employers and landlords have a right to do business and keep their customers safe. However, I think CCAP is really dangerous," said David Lopez, an investigator with the city's Department of Civil Rights. "Employers treat it as though it was a carte blanche to dismiss an applicant, and it's not."
Ketchum also sees a problem with what amounts to marking people permanently with their court records.
"You go on CCAP, you will find everything anyone ever did, from a conviction, to an arrest, to a divorce," Ketchum said, adding that this is coupled with tougher prison sentences.
"There are a fair number of generally conservative lawmakers, who very publicly profess their Christian beliefs and value system, but have somehow missed the part about forgiveness in their own religion," she said. "They pass sentencing laws that make it more and more difficult to be forgiven."
The city of Madison has rules to prevent employers and landlords from discriminating against people with criminal convictions. An employer, for example, can legally only consider a conviction for three years after release, a landlord for two. And in order to reject a person, the crime must be substantially related to the job or housing in question.
But while a Madison employer can only consider convictions for three years after release, a felony can remain on a state Web site like CCAP for 20 years or more. "Basically what our state policy says is you can serve your time," said Ketchum, "but you are never done."
Furthermore, most ex-offenders, Lopez said, are unaware of their rights or afraid of losing future job opportunities if they invoke them.
"Unfortunately I think that these protections are some of Madison's best-kept secrets," said Lopez. "The disclaimer on CCAP has limited value. Until we get this message out to people, employers will continue to use it for illegal purposes."
*
A fateful question: Dillard kept the job as a dishwasher as well, but the real change in his life, he says, came from the support he found at the Fountain of Life Church.
He knew Madison was a unique opportunity to depart from his past. "I realized that back in Chicago I was running with people who treated anti-social behavior as normal."
The challenge of connecting with a network of professional African-Americans is one of the most important facing blacks in Madison, said Urban League CEO Scott Gray.
For Dillard, the church provided just such a network. "I watched them walk, how they dressed, and how they treated their families."
The men from the church embraced Dillard, supporting him for 18 months after his release. "That is huge for an individual who doesn't know any other way of living," Dillard said.
Dillard made the decision to stay in the city, but was tired of working jobs that left him living check to check. As he made forays into many of Madison's burgeoning white-collar sectors, he kept bumping up against his past.
"It was hard," Dillard said. "If an employer found out about my convictions, then I couldn't get past Square 1."
Eventually Dillard realized that he would have to change his tactics if he was going to get anywhere.
"When it came to that question, 'Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offense,' I began to skip it, not by lying, but I just wouldn't ... say yes or no."
It was a question Dillard skipped when he applied for a position with the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation in 1997. "I left that part of my past out, and you know what, they called to give me the job before I even got back home," Dillard said.
Apart from whether online records are readily available, the box that Dillard skipped on his application has become a hot button issue within the last year, as a number of cities face the challenge of a growing tide of returning prisoners.
Dillard, seeking a solution for Madison, points to a growing number of cities that are revising their hiring practices as part of a smart-on-crime agenda that seeks to help felons re-enter society.
In 2006, the Twin Cities, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and others have removed the question about convictions from their initial application, leaving it until after they determine if the applicant is qualified. This "ban the box" policy brings to mind Dillard's tough decision, not to lie on his application, but to skip that question.
A number of these cities have also revised their policies to weigh the type of crime and how applicants have spent their time since release.
The job at UW was an important step up for Dillard, and one that is crucial to the success of many African-Americans living in Madison.
"Right now we as African-Americans are in the position of outside looking in," Gray said. "You have these emerging sectors of biotech, health care, technology and construction. Look here in Madison, blacks make up less than 1 percent in any of these sectors."
Because Dillard was now working a job that paid more than a living wage, he was able to support his wife, Teresa, then his girlfriend, in her decision to leave a mid-level job at Covance, a pharmaceutical research and manufacturing company, and go back to earning her degree.
"She was my rock during those years, as I was learning to become a man, and not an adolescent in a grown man's body," Dillard said.
The two married in 1999.
Dillard worked at UW for four years and was then offered a job at Dean Health System.
"At both places I was either the only African-American male or one of very few," Dillard said.
William Brandt, a doctor at Dean's Riverside clinic in Janesville, said he met Dillard through a mutual friend at the Fountain of Life church. "Jerome is a truly remarkable man. He was certainly a valued employee at Dean," Brandt said.
Dillard worked at Dean for a year and half, left to start his own business, and was asked back by the company to fill a new position. During this time Dillard made a point of working in the community by joining the men from the Fountain of Life church who had helped him.
In late 2004, Dillard joined members of his congregation in the Allied Drive Community. "I was there to tell young men they don't have to live the way they do, don't have to sell drugs, don't have to let your past hold you down. We were shaking hands and wearing signs to let them know what we had struggled against in our lives. Some said 'ex-drunk,' another said 'fatherless child,' and I had a sign on that said 'ex-convict.' "
A news crew at the site happened to interview Dillard about what he had overcome. At Dean, someone from human resources saw Dillard on television. The next day he was called in and met by human resources representatives and a uniformed officer. For skipping the box on his application about prior convictions, Dillard was dismissed from his job.
"A lot of people at Dean were unhappy about it," Brandt said. "It had nothing to do with his race or his work. It was something Dean had to do. What is truly sad about it is that, if he checked that box, he would have had protected status against discrimination."
Dillard said, "Dean had completely legitimate cause to fire me." Unlike Brandt, however, Dillard acknowledges this doesn't change the fact that, like him, too many ex-cons find themselves in the same bind. "For many of those coming out, letting employers know about a conviction on your record becomes a Catch-22."
The way Dillard sees it the most important factor in preventing someone from returning to jail is living-wage employment.
"I had a guy come in, just released. After all his debts, man they gave him a $4 check on a 40-hour week. Guys look at that and say what the hell am I working for?"
The story of how Dillard worked his way up the ladder illustrates the opportunities and obstacles facing so many of Madison's returning residents. It is these realities that make Dillard passionate about his work at Madison Urban Ministry and the nonprofit Voices Beyond Bars, helping other ex-cons to rejoin society and avoid the all-too-common fate of another trip to prison.
"I came to the conclusion years ago that this is a human rights issue," Dillard said. "These days so many folks think of incarceration as a fact of life, and it's not so."
Take A Cue From St. Valentine To Celebrate The Holiday
The Capital Times
Monday, February 12, 2007
Jean McElhaney Lone Rock
Dear Editor: For an alternative way to think of Valentine's Day, consider one story of St. Valentine.
Emperor Claudius II of Rome was having a hard time getting enough men to join up for his military campaigns. He outlawed marriage, thinking more men would sign up if they didn't have wives and families to leave behind. St. Valentine was imprisoned because he kept marrying people anyway. He was a political prisoner, acting for love despite a leader bent on war.
So perhaps there is more to his legacy than chocolates and sentimental cards. Another way to celebrate might be to help prisoners, including (but not only) prisoners of conscience.
Close to home, one could support Madison-area Urban Ministry (www.emum.org) with its program to support newly released prisoners in successfully staying out.
A more international approach could involve writing letters for Amnesty International, which works to prevent torture and free prisoners of conscience (www.amnesty.org).
Or contact U.S. officials about the people being held at Guantanamo Bay without any legal rights.
In the U.S. today, people are in prison because they took action when their country's policies favored militarism over love. They love humanity enough to nonviolently act for peace. They include protesters of the Iraq war, nuclear weapons and the School of the Americas. We can write them letters of support or even take action ourselves. (For example, check out Voices for Creative Nonviolence, www.vcnv.org, or the Declaration of Peace, www.declarationofpeace.org, for information about the current nonviolent campaign to end the war.)
We can think of St. Valentine's civil disobedience and ask ourselves: What are we willing to do for love? In the meantime, don't forget the chocolate and sentimental cards!
Dalai Lama Returning Here In May
>The Capital Times
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
By Mary Bergin The Capital Times
The Dalai Lama will be here May 2-5 to give a public talk at the Kohl Center, teach a four-session class at the Alliant Energy Center Coliseum and bless construction of a new temple at Deer Park Buddhist Center near Oregon.
These efforts also will raise money for the temple work, which began in 2005.
The spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhism and the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke in Madison in 1998, before an audience of more than 12,000 at the Kohl Center. He also came to Madison in May 2001 for a two-day academic conference on meditation research at the UW.
Tickets for his speech will cost $25, although 4,000 free tickets will be distributed to UW-Madison students. There also are $200 to $1,000 per person sponsorships that allow access to more exclusive events, such as preferential seating and an invitation-only reception with the Dalai Lama.
Deer Park, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at 4548 Schneider Road, wants to raise at least $6.1 million in building capital and set up a $10 million endowment fund. It has received $1.6 million in donations, and an additional $900,000 has been pledged.
Tickets to the Dalai Lama's 2:30 p.m. talk on May 4 at the Kohl Center will go on sale at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 27, through the Athletic Ticket Office (www.gobadgers.com, 262-1440).
Admission to Teachings and Empowerment, the classes, are $100 to $175 for all four sessions ($50 for ages 15 and younger). The classes will begin at 1:30 p.m. on May 2, 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on May 3 and 9:30 a.m. on May 4 at the Coliseum.
Tickets are on sale at the Coliseum box office and through www.ticketmaster.com. Single-class tickets are not being sold. Group discounts are available with the purchase of 10 tickets.
The Dalai Lama is expected to return to Deer Park in July 2008, after temple construction is completed. The monastery's original temple is historically significant because it was the first Western world site where a kalachraka initiation ceremony was performed by the spiritual leader.
For more about the events and Deer Park project: www.deerparkcenter.org.
\ E-mail: mbergin@madison.com
Stoughton To Vote On Troops, Impeachment
The Capital Times
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
By Karyn Saemann Correspondent for The Capital Times
The writer retains the copyright for this article
Stoughton voters will be asked April 3 whether U.S. troops should be immediately withdrawn from Iraq and whether George Bush and Dick Cheney should be impeached.
The Stoughton City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday night, with three abstentions, to indefinitely table a request by citizens to put the two questions on the ballot.
Under the state's direction legislation law, if the council fails to vote up or down on the request by Feb. 20, it automatically goes on the April 3 ballot. The decision to table it Tuesday night, at the last regular council meeting before Feb. 20, amounted to putting the question on the ballot.
The troop withdrawal petition had the signatures of 986 Stoughton citizens, and an impeachment petition had 855 signatures. The two issues will be listed on the ballot as separate questions.
City Council President Ron Christianson said there was no discussion prior to the vote. Christianson said he didn't believe such a discussion was appropriate at the council level.
The end result, however, is that the right of petitioners has been recognized and "it allows voters their privacy. They can vote their opinion in the voting booth," Christianson said.
"And we can go on from here," Christianson said. "Hopefully, things like this won't come to us again in the future."
Speaking for the statewide Wisconsin Impeachment/Bring Our Troops Home Coalition, Stoughton resident Buzz Davis said that "we're real pleased" with the council's move. "The most important thing is that they are on the ballot."
Davis said a series of town hall-style meetings will be scheduled between now and April to give citizens a chance to learn about the questions. He said upfront that the meetings will be one-sided, with opponents not expected to be invited to participate in panel discussions and other activities.
"I will let them do their own meetings," Davis said.
Ald. Gary Locke, one of the two dissenters Tuesday night, said he would have preferred that the council directly adopt a troop withdrawal resolution that would have been passed on to the state's congressional delegation. That way, he said, there would have been an opportunity to include a cover letter expressing support for troops currently in Iraq, and a wish that they return safely.
"None of that is included, and I think that is a very important part of the process," Locke said.
The one line that will appear on the ballot, "The United States should begin an immediate withdrawal of all military personnel from Iraq," had to remain exactly the way it appeared on the petition, Locke said.
"I'm afraid the language isn't adequate enough for my taste," Locke said. "The one line doesn't really express the way I feel personally about how it should be handled."
Ald. Patrick Schneider also voted no to tabling the issue.
Davis said this is the first community in Wisconsin to put both questions together on a ballot. And, it is only the third Wisconsin community to ask voters about impeachment.
Wisconsin Rapids and Pittsville had impeachment questions on the November 2006 ballot. In both places the questions were defeated, with about one-third of voters supportive.
In November 2006, nine communities and Ozaukee County had troop withdrawal questions on the ballot. All of them passed.
In April 2006, 32 Wisconsin communities had troop withdrawal questions on the ballot; in 24 places, the referendum was successful.
Stoughton to vote on troops, impeachment
by Karyn Saemann
Correspondent for The Capital Times
STOUGHTON - Stoughton voters will be asked April 3 whether U.S. troops should be immediately withdrawn from Iraq and whether George Bush and Dick Cheney should be impeached.
The Stoughton City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday night, with three abstentions, to indefinitely table a request by citizens to put the two questions on the ballot.
Under the state's direction legislation law, if the council fails to vote up or down on the request by Feb. 20, it automatically goes on the April 3 ballot. The decision to table it Tuesday night, at the last regular council meeting before Feb. 20, amounted to putting the question on the ballot.
The troop withdrawal petition had the signatures of 986 Stoughton citizens, and an impeachment petition had 855 signatures. The two issues will be listed on the ballot as separate questions.
City Council President Ron Christianson said there was no discussion prior to the vote. Christianson said he didn't believe such a discussion was appropriate at the council level.
The end result, however, is that the right of petitioners has been recognized and "it allows voters their privacy. They can vote their opinion in the voting booth," Christianson said.
"And we can go on from here," Christianson said. "Hopefully, things like this won't come to us again in the future."
Speaking for the statewide Wisconsin Impeachment/Bring Our Troops Home Coalition, Stoughton resident Buzz Davis said that "we're real pleased" with the council's move. "The most important thing is that they are on the ballot."
Davis said a series of town hall-style meetings will be scheduled between now and April to give citizens a chance to learn about the questions. He said upfront that the meetings will be one-sided, with opponents not expected to be invited to participate in panel discussions and other activities.
"I will let them do their own meetings," Davis said.
Ald. Gary Locke, one of the two dissenters Tuesday night, said he would have preferred that the council directly adopt a troop withdrawal resolution that would have been passed on to the state's congressional delegation. That way, he said, there would have been an opportunity to include a cover letter expressing support for troops currently in Iraq, and a wish that they return safely.
"None of that is included, and I think that is a very important part of the process," Locke said.
The one line that will appear on the ballot, "The United States should begin an immediate withdrawal of all military personnel from Iraq," had to remain exactly the way it appeared on the petition, Locke said.
"I'm afraid the language isn't adequate enough for my taste," Locke said. "The one line doesn't really express the way I feel personally about how it should be handled."
Ald. Patrick Schneider also voted no to tabling the issue.
Davis said this is the first community in Wisconsin to put both questions together on a ballot. And, it is only the third Wisconsin community to ask voters about impeachment.
Wisconsin Rapids and Pittsville had impeachment questions on the November 2006 ballot. In both places the questions were defeated, with about one-third of voters supportive.
In November 2006, nine communities and Ozaukee County had troop withdrawal questions on the ballot. All of them passed.
In April 2006, 32 Wisconsin communities had troop withdrawal questions on the ballot; in 24 places, the referendum was successful.
War Protesters Get Community Service
They Blocked Traffic Near Kohl's Office
The Capital Times
Friday, February 23, 2007
By Katrin Madayag The Capital Times
Six peace activists who were arrested and ticketed for lying in the street in front of U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl's downtown Madison office were found guilty Thursday of a city ordinance violation.
Municipal Judge Daniel Koval sentenced the protesters to 11 hours of community service.
About a half-dozen people showed up at the trial at the Municipal Courthouse to support defendants Cassandra Dixon, Bonita Sitter, Bonnie Block, Deb Mulligan, Jennifer First and Joy First. They held an hour-long vigil in front of the courthouse before the trial.
The women had pleaded not guilty, stating that they had peacefully resisted out of necessity. As citizens, they said, it was their duty to protest what they saw as an illegal war in Iraq.
The protesters said they were trying to get a response from Kohl, who they say has been lukewarm in his opposition to the war.
"We've tried and tried and tried to talk to Sen. Kohl," Joy First said before the trial.
The protesters said they've tried vigils, writing letters and meeting with Kohl's staff, then decided to switch to more confrontational tactics, she said.
On Nov. 2 at about 2:30 p.m., about 25 local peace activists with the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance gathered in front of Kohl's Mifflin Street office. Eight of them wore red gloves, symbolizing the blood on American hands, as they laid in the road. They held stop signs and chanted against the war. Madison police arrested them peacefully and ticketed them for obstructing traffic.
Each woman gave a statement in court defending her actions, with five of them wearing the red gloves. They emphasized that their actions were necessary to protest a dishonest government that had violated the Nuremberg Principles and international law.
Mulligan read her prepared statement with emotion, saying that as an attorney she had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. By protesting the "illegal and immoral acts" of the U.S., she was defending the Constitution's principles.
"I kept my promise as a U.S. citizen and attorney," she said.
Sitter, whose stepson is serving in Iraq, said that Americans have forgotten that the government needs consent of the people to work properly, she said.
Koval said the city may be sympathetic to the cause, but the law was clear. Blocking traffic is a violation of municipal law, he said.
Because they were cooperative with the police, Assistant City Attorney Marci Paulsen recommended the minimum fine of $109, which the judge imposed.
Each woman requested and received community service in lieu of the fine.
They have 20 days to appeal the decision.
Another protester, Susan Spahn, also had been ticketed but had paid the fine before the trial. Protester Steve Burns did not appear and received a default verdict of guilty.
Mr. Meyer Goes To Washington
The Capital Times
Saturday, February 24, 2007
One of Madison's most determined campaigners for peace and justice, Alfred Meyer, is going to try his hand at cleaning up the mess in Washington. While we are sorry to see him go, we know that the world will be a better place for his willingness to up the activist ante.
Meyer, the longtime head of the Madison chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the chairman of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and a consistent heavy lifter with the United Nations Association of Dane County and the Madison Institute, is taking over as the Washington-based program director for the National Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a nationwide umbrella organization of 35 groups that is working to reduce the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
In addition to Meyer, retiring WNPJ Treasurer Sheila Spear and retiring WNPJ Vice Chairman Cecil Findley will be honored at an event at 5:30 p.m. today at the Red Gym on the UW-Madison campus.
War Protesters Arrested For Occupying Obey's Office
The Capital Times
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Three people were arrested after refusing to leave a congressman's hometown office where their group urged that he should be more vigorous in opposing the Iraq war, police said.
The three were part of the group led by former Green Party congressional candidate Mike Miles, who met Monday afternoon with a member of U.S. Rep. David Obey's staff and called on Obey to be a stronger opponent of the war.
Police Lt. Ben Bliven said the three then refused to leave the office, saying they wanted to speak directly to the congressman. The man and two women picked up for disorderly conduct were released on signature bonds Monday evening.
Obey, who has been a strong critic of the Iraq war, spoke out last month against President Bush's plan to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq, saying the administration's policy there "has essentially produced an incredible disaster in that region of the world that will not be correctable for years to come."
The People Have Spoken
St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
February 17, 2007
Residents of Amery, Wis. weren't paying much attention Friday as the U.S. House repudiated Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. After all, they voted to withdraw all forces a year ago...
JOHN BREWER
As folks in Amery, Wis., went about their business Friday afternoon -- eating lunch, drinking beer, working -- they were not watching the action in Washington, D.C.
Maybe they didn't have to. The U.S. House debate and vote on the Iraq war was one that this city went through last spring.
"There's a huge lag between where the public is and where their so-called representatives are," said Steve Burns, program coordinator for the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.
His group helped the state's Green Party organize the first referendum on the Iraq war, when more than 30 Wisconsin communities -- including Amery, Frederic and Osceola -- voted on withdrawing troops. Since then, 90 cities, towns, villages and legislative districts in Wisconsin, Illinois and Massachusetts have taken up the cause.
The score is 82 to 8 in favor of the nonbinding measure, Burns said.
"It's definitely had its effect in terms of reflecting public opinion and even moving public opinion," he said.
More votes are scheduled for another referendum this April, including measures that call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Friday's vote in the House didn't go that far but sent a message that the war isn't working. It's the same message Amery already sent, and the same one some of its residents still espouse.
"I don't know anybody that wants this war," said Deanne Sasselli.
The former flight attendant for a military-chartered airline ate lunch with a friend Friday afternoon at Hart's Bakery and Restaurant. She said that during her few years traveling to and from the Middle East, she saw the toll the conflict took on the soldiers.
"The day the war started, we flew into Kuwait. I took a picture of the three guys in my exit row. You can tell in their faces that they were depressed," she said.
She corresponded with the three for six months and then never heard another word from them. She doesn't know their fates.
Joyce Katelhut, Sasselli's friend, extends her criticism of the war to Bush's most-recent claims that Iran is supplying weapons to anti-U.S. forces in Iraq.
"I wouldn't believe him," she said. "He was lying the first time."
Next door, Joyce Kessler stood behind the counter of her jewelry store. The activist isn't afraid to speak her mind, she said, and has protested the war in locations from Luck, Wis., to the bridge between Taylors Falls and St. Croix Falls, Wis., and even in New York City.
Kessler, who helped to collect signatures to get the Amery referendum on the ballot last spring, was bemused that Wisconsin Public Radio wasn't broadcasting the House debate and vote. At the same time, she didn't know what impact the resolution would have.
"Is it actually going to persuade Bush to not send the troops? I don't know how much power they (the U.S. representatives) have," she said, adding that the good part of the vote is that the dissatisfaction with the war "is coming out, getting talked about, getting awareness."
Across the main street, Bob Holm and Jerry Gust took up the war issue inside Uncle Bob's bar.
"We've got no business refereeing a civil war," said Gust, co-owner of Uncle Bob's.
Holm, the bar's manager and namesake, gave more credit to the president's troop surge plan.
"Send more troops for a six-month deal, anyway," he said. "If the Iraqi army can't take over, start withdrawing."
Gust didn't see the point of even a short surge.
"It takes our troops six months to go through basic training, and they're pretty much ready to go," he said. "We've been training these Iraqi troops for four years, and they're still not ready to fight."