Our 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Art Heitzer of Milwaukee
Art, you are well-known as an outstanding employment and labor attorney.
But your additional work with the National Lawyers Guild, ACLU, Milwaukee Turners, immigrant groups, and a myriad of community and worldwide peace and justice groups shows your outstanding contribution to our community.
When you see injustice you use all your tools to achieve change, whether through direct action, assisting groups on bests steps in demonstrations, defending travel to Cuba, recognition of an unsung heroine, or gathering groups together to seek community rehabilitation to replace mass incarceration.
Your leadership as President of the Milwaukee Turners has helped it to move further from a population of mostly German immigrants to a most welcoming, multi-ethnic place in largely segregated Milwaukee.
When I asked you, Art, if there was an animal or plant that you admire or feel a connection with, you were quick to tell me that you especially appreciate the owl. The owl is a bird that many traditions find wise, intelligent and forward leaning. In fact, the owl is a symbol taken by Milwaukee Turners with their theme of Sound Minds in Sound Bodies.
This wonderful owl photo was taken by my sister Rosann Baum Milius of a Great Horned Owl who hung out near her Oshkosh home. It is a great photo because owls are seldom seen in daylight. The Great Horned is one of the largest owls – can be two feet tall. And it is the most common owl in Wisconsin.
Owls are nocturnal and see objects at night many times better than we humans. Owls see what most of us do not see. For this they are often called wise and “free thinkers”. Art, you are an example of seeing what is truth and what needs to be heard.
Also, like an owl not backing off from a wolf who attacks it, you do not back off despite difficult obstacles in the way. You have been arrested, you have been ridiculed, but you hold true to your convictions, despite harassment from naysayers. And you achieve change by working well with other organizations.
We thank you for your lifetime of achieving peace and justice and most of all we thank you for bringing people together to achieve such peace and justice.
11/13/2022 Compiled by Co-Chair Mary Kay Baum marykbaum@gmail.com
Here is the video of Julie Enslow of Peace Action WI introducing Art Heitzer at the 2022 Fall Assembly, along with Tynnetta Jackson and Mary Kay Baum.