‘The Truth has to appear only once…for it to be impossible for anything ever to prevent it from spreading
universally and setting everything ablaze’ Teilhard de Chardin…”Let Me Explain”

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Worthy Citizens’ Act of the Day

Send an e-mail to Bill Moyers exhorting him to devote a program to the idiocy of industrial agriculture and the promise of local, urban, and schoolyard farms and gardens.

Featuring: Grace Lee Boggs, Will Allen, Amy Goodman, Michael Pollan, Barbara Kinsolver

“Bill Moyers” <moyersonpbs@thirteen.org>

and cc Moyersalert@milwaukeerenaissance.com, por favor

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The KK River Bank. What we defended and why - in photos.

http://www.spondee.net/GardenOfEden/Rosedale.htm

http://share.ovi.com/search/Rosedale

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Open letter to Milwaukee Alderpersons, members of the Zoning Neighborhood and Development Committee of the Common Council

Ald. James N. Witkowiak, Chair
Ald. Willie C. Wade, Vice Chair
Ald. Michael J. Murphy
Ald. Robert J. Bauman
Ald. Tony Zielinski

Relative to your meeting of May 13, 9 a.m, Room 301B, City Hall

May 11, 2008

Zoning Neighborhood and Development Committee
Milwaukee Common Council
City of Milwaukee
200 E. Wells St.
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Dear Alderperson:

I object to the Empowerment Village proposal. Without taking green space, there is a way to resolve the Empowerment Village need for housing.

Both – the saving of the green space as well as a suggestion to the City how to bring these residents into our neighborhoods.

I have been part of the South East District Planning process sponsored by the Department of City Development. I write you from this position and what I have learned through the process.

I have also met with the Empowerment principals (at their invitation). Together we have searched for a resolution of the needs of their constituents. I have presented at the City Plan Commission on both February 11 and March 3. The developers have asked for compromise and I put forward at the March hearing my own opinion of a compromise (that I will repeat below).

I have not heard from the developers that they are interested in writing these gestures of compromise into their proposal which apparently they will present to you on May 13. I have received countless of personal assurances, but once the permits are pulled, construction will proceed regardless of assurances. Perhaps the Common Council could make some demands on the proposed construction.

The seriousness of selling green space is underscored in the daily press.

• The nation is talking Green like it has never done so before. Since December when this proposal was first put forward the discussion has changed, probably because of the price of gasoline and questions about ethanol and the rise in food costs. We must act in every little way, for the sake of people much more needy than anyone in this room. Food riots in the third world are an alarm we cannot ignore.

• The County Government has been prevented by the sheer will of our citizens from privatizing our Park assets. Recent elections have tightened that pressure. However, City government seems to be going in the opposite direction with several instances in recent years of selling green space for development.

The state of the world being what it is, if our City government plunges ahead with its old policies I would ask if you are tone deaf to what is going on in the world. It is becoming clear we must protect Green space; we must stop paving our soil with asphalt. And look to grow food locally as much as we possibly can.

Yes, there is a need for housing our less fortunate citizens. That, too, must be resolved. But it cannot be resolved in a meaningful way by pitting good citizens against one another as if we are in a zero sum game. I have three points to make.

First, the residents and their needs.

Second, my suggestions about any building on that river bank.

Third, about the failure of the City planning process – the failure which brings us together today.

I

I grew up in a household where I’m proud to say my father was the only citizen of Hales Corners to welcome next door a group home for citizens struggling with the problems of mental health. I am proud to continue that tradition in my family by making the same offer.

Cardinal Developers is national and perhaps they did not understand that Milwaukee is full of citizens of good will who are not interested in the old fears of mental illness. Most of us have seen mental illness up close; it is not something that we need to pretend does not exist. To get appropriate housing for these residents, you need to do what every community group does. Go first to the community; to the City as a LAST resort. Find in each community a core group of neighbors that understands the need of this population and make a plan with those citizens. Then take the plan to the churches, schools, associations of the neighborhood.

If you want something from a community, just ask us, not the alderman, not the city. Touch the people who can bring their neighbors to the table. First.

I also wish to mention the comments at the Dec. 11 hearing on this matter from a MPD lieutenant who spoke eloquently of the needs of these potential residents. She said that these folks are more likely to be victims of crime than its perpetrators; so, then, why are we setting them up for victim-hood in a building nearly a half mile from its nearest neighbors? Victims of a crime - more likely even in a isolated industrial backwater far from neighbors of any kind.

II

Secondly, about that building on a river bank. If you feel you must do that, the building itself should answer This Question.

The same question I, as a kid, raised when I first understood that Jones Island development was a crass lurch toward the almighty buck. This question will be asked by a child who visits this site long after you and I are gone.

The question is Why? Why did you let them do that? There? Or they might not ask IF they see the building as a gift to the environment.

At bare minimum the Empowerment Village building itself should answer this question.

Require the developers to retain architects worthy of an environmental sacred place. I attach an article from the current issue of the Milwaukee Business Journal, business writers praising the work of an architect who has beautified our City and State with sustainable, working buildings, who has garnered an award or two for a zero carbon emissions building, and designed the incredibly beautiful and functional Urban Ecology Center.

Wisconsin landscape inspires architect of Legacy Center —The Business Journal, May 9, 2008.

That same firm laid the ground work for sustainable development on the County Grounds.

The City needs to do more here than change a zoning code; it must make requirements of the building that are worthy of the CMAQ money that purchased that land. And, I say this as a bicyclist, CMAQ was not funded to increase bicycling; it was funded to keep our air clean, to discourage private gasoline-driven automobiles. 24 asphalted parking places is not an appropriate CMAQ expense. Nor is a bike path a sufficient reason to spend Air Quality funds while undercutting the very spirit of CMAQ.

III

About City Development’s gross failure here.

I call to mind a statement made to the Bay View Community on January 26, 2006. In front of us citizens, a 100 or so, Rocky Marcoux and Robert Greenstreet emphasized more than once to a skeptical audience, that the SE District Plan would be the work of the citizens; that the City had no hidden agenda and that our needs will be given the highest priority. The Planning process was to run 18 months, concluding the summer of 2007. In fact, the citizens took a serious interest in these meetings and became avid supporters of the process.

The plan should already have been completed on November 15, 2007, when I was sitting at a table with a Department of City Development map, magic markers, and neighbors, while consultants and city planners encouraged us to make notes on the map – what we thought was appropriate development in Our Community. Specifically I recall marking places for alternative housing; we understood the need to house people of all incomes in a city. We were not trying to make the world into Bay View, but to welcome the world into our neighborhood.

One such place we marked was an undeveloped piece of land near the Target shopping center on Chase, not far from this proposed site on Rosedale, near a bus route, but not on the river. The consensus among us was then that the river is ideally left green for walking and bicycling; while we worked this map we were familiar with the river charette that was conducted about one year previously, with wide citizen participation, offering simple green spaces that support bicycling and walking, and a green space that will encourage enlightened development nearby the revitalized river, but not on the river.

This river’s reputation today is one of the nation’s ten worst. It has been sorely depleted of its beauty by the crass decisions of our great grand parents who allowed factories, dumps and parking lots to ring this stream and pollute its waters. The SE District citizen planners understand the river as an asset. Listen to them. Nudge Cardinal Developers to retain an architect with the sensitivity of the SE District planners.

Less than a month after marking the map, on Dec. 11, I learned that the same DCD that handed me magic markers had been offering that same KK River bank for sale to Cardinal Developers. I hope you can imagine my chagrin at delays in the planning process that might have been concocted to give Cardinal an opening (we are a suspicious lot, we citizens), and my astonishment that DCD which could say one thing to us and while it was making an offer to a developer – the very thing that citizens originally suspected would happen when Mr. Marcoux cajoled us to believe it would not happen.

I hope that the Zoning Committee rejects this proposal as unsuitable to the long term interests of our city, and invites Cardinal to sit down with neighborhood groups. They will be meeting with friends of their constituents. We will find them a place in a neighborhood, preferably near my own home. They Are Welcome.

Bill Sell
Co-Founder Bay View Neighborhood Association
Member SE District Planning

William Butler Yeats described our rush to destruction as our passion for death:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

If we do not hold the center, if we surrender our moral highground as a civic body, we will destroy ourselves as we have given up the will to defend what is good and holy in our land.

Enc: Photos of the green space, 5th and Rosedale

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Audacious Vision of the Day: OK Players Wins Nobel Prize 2010

This list serve is comprised of some of the best and the brightest of the new generations, the planetary citizens bringing us the best of the Obama movement.

Is it not possible to imagine some of the participants of the OK Players national, even international, on-line conversation, inspiring Bill Moyers, Tavis Smiley, and Amy Goodman to devote a show each to Will Allen, Grace Lee Boggs, and Michael Pollan talking about the connections between good food, beauty, and justice.

Let’s start with Tavis Smiley: DPines@tavistalks.com

and Bill Moyers: moyersonpbs@thirteen.org

Ask them! If you have not been turned down 3 times each day, you have not asked enough of a loving universe with a benign presence. We are in the lap of an immense intelligence. It’s us when we’re inspired!

Having won a national show on the real food movement, OK Players can then inspire the Obama campaign to construct an urban farming and edible playground plank at the national convention.

What say!

Why not?

A Perfect Mother’s Day
Milwaukee, 2008

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Current Topics

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Introducing Urban Anthropology’s Old South Side Farmers Market

Urban Anthropology is developing a new public market—one that works to define the specific culture and history of the neighborhood.

Market Features 2008

THEME

WEEKLY ENTERTAINMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THE THEME

EDUCATIONAL FEATURES on the themes (all free and ongoing)

VENDORS

READY-MADE FOOD

PRODUCTS

THERE WILL BE TWO GRAND OPENINGS

The first will be June 15 and will focus on the Village residents themselves (and will include free plants given away to neighborhood people of the Village from the University Extension)

The second will be an official grand opening for city-wide exposure. We hope that the Mayor will join us there, and expect our local elected officials—Peggy West and James Witkowiak—for certain

Jill Florence Lackey, PhD

Jill Florence Lackey & Associates

Urban Anthropology Inc.
707 W. Lincoln Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53215

Phone or fax: (414) 271–9417

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

www.jflassociates.com

www.urban-anthropology.org
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Milwaukee Public Allies Class of 2008 Challenged to Win McArthur Genius Awards by 2045

With the power of the internet
And the visions inspired of late
By the aspect of The Movement
We call the Obama movement…

The Public Allies, Milwaukee 2008
May make enough history in their turn
As to be the first group to win
The McArthur Genius Award.

They may have committed today
To develop a web site
That tracks their individual and group
Hero quests and evolutionary experiments.

Here they are!
Milwaukee Public Allies, Class of 2008.

They may share their stories with us!
They might be among the leaders we’ve been waiting for!

I’d put my money on that proposition.

Milwaukee Elder
Bracing Spring Day, 2008

Public Allies Milwaukee 2008

One Public Allies Vision: Inspire Bill Moyers to Interview Will Allen With Grace Lee Boggs For “Victory Gardens—Now! Campaign”

Send an e-mail to Bill Moyers, at moyersalert@thirteen.org, asking that he have Grace Lee Boggs and Will Allen on his show to talk about the urban, local, and edible schoolyard agriculture movement percolating in the fields, backyards, and schools of our cities!

Victory Gardens—a Manifesto

Victory Gardens—a Manifesto

Near the beginning of the 21st century we humans find ourselves is an urgent struggle against tremendous destructive forces of our own making. We will, in the coming years, need to fight for our health, for our community, for our habitat, for our very survival. We have poisoned ourselves and our land and must now begin the process of cleaning and renewing our polluted planet.

This struggle will take great effort from our government, our industry, our schools, and our communities at every level. Brave and creative leadership will be necessary, as this struggle must be confronted on a scale larger than the individual: we need to join together and demand this sort of leadership and action.

But we must also undergo profound individual reorientations and must take action consistently and daily. We must revise and refine our values, goals, expectations, entitlements, tastes, even our recreation. We must reorient the way we house ourselves, clothe ourselves, transport ourselves and, most fundamentally, the way we feed ourselves.

We propose to aid this struggle on an individual level by each planting a garden, large or small.

Planting a garden can help restore our health with the sorts of fresh and wholesome foods humans evolved to need. Planting a garden can help cure our alienation from our bodies and from the physical work they were made to perform.

Planting a garden can help restore our environment, because our food is currently embedded with fossil fuels from the food’s production, transportation, and storage. By growing our own food, locally, in our yards and on our roofs, we can eliminate much of our food’s carbon footprint.

Planting a garden can help maintain the bio-diversity that has been destroyed by the monocultures of corn and soy, with which our snacks and fast-foods are packed. It can help us rediscover the fine and subtle tastes that have been drowned by sugars, oils, and processed grains.

Planting a garden can turn idle or wasted space into productive and cleansing bio-cultures. Let every spare space become a green space! The grass lawn that is soaked with pesticides or the roof that soaks up heat can become spaces of environmental renewal. Let every flat roof become a garden or farm, a prairie or thicket.

Planting a garden can help us achieve peace, because so many of our wars are fought over the fuel needed to produce and process our food. Our demands upon the world start, daily, with the way we eat. Our wars are fought so that we can maintain the domination and affluence that allows us to ship exotic foods from all over the planet—anything we want, any time we want it, fresh, frozen, or preserved. Our caloric abundance and disproportion is safeguarded by our policies, our violence, our disregard.

Planting a garden can help us restore our communities. “Culture” and “cultivate” share the same roots, and our human roots lie in the communal production of food and shelter. A garden can become a meeting place of work and joy and health and celebration.

This struggle of our generation is, most of all, not only a struggle to save a way of life (though many parts deserve to be saved); it is equally a struggle to change the way we live our lives. We have come to see ourselves primarily as consumers and this orientation has put our health and survival at risk. Planting a garden is a step, symbolic and actual, in changing this orientation—in seeing ourselves and acting instead as producers, as preservationists, conservationists and stewards, as cultivators, as growers. Without this orientation, our prospects are bleak. With this orientation, our prospects are rich indeed.

Let us call these gardens “Victory Gardens” and let our generation also be one that creates new freedoms and prosperity. Let it too be a “great” generation rather than a passive spectators of our ruin.

Photo Appendix

Reclamation Society’s Harambee Garden

Erik Lindberg and Jan Christensen at Start
Of Erik’s Victory Garden on His Building’s Roof

Erik Lindberg’s Family Farm Atop His Old Industrial Building in Milwaukee

Lindberg Proposal for Garden on Your Garage Roof

Attached is a proposal for roof top planter boxes. I envision two boxes of about 12′ long placed along the east edge of the garage roof. If kept at the edge, combined with the lightweight soil mix I’m recommending, there shouldn’t be any structural issues. You might also be able to place them along one of the other sides, but the east edge would be the most reliable.

The boxes as proposed are constructed of regular construction grade lumber and plywood. Like mine, I would line them with plastic so that the lumber isn’t soaked from the inside, but they still will get a little wet and will deteriorate over time. I expect that mine will last at least 5 years before they need significant maintenance, but that is just a projection without much solid evidence. For an increased cost they could be made from cedar. I could also make them out of pressure treated lumber. With the plastic lining, I wouldn’t expect any leaching of the chemicals, but I didn’t personally want to take that chance with my own. The other significant design detail is a drainage layer along the bottom. While it is customary to use gravel, to save weight I would use packing peanuts, which are then covered with landscape soil to keep them separate and to keep the soil from clogging the drains.

As for soil, I would make a mix of Growing Power compost, peat moss, and vermiculite, with a thin layer of topsoil on top (the compost tends to be clumpy, so a layer of topsoil helps make sowing easier. After the drainage layer and the bottom, there would be a minimum of 8″ of soil. This is enough for most vegetables and flowers, except, perhaps, beets and carrots—but they might also do just fine.

I didn’t include any stairs because an attached set of stairs would not meet code. I would either use a small ladder or I could devise some sort of temporary, removable stairs, but they aren’t included at this time.

Finally, this can be done without addressing the existing roof. The only drawback would be that when you do get the roof replaced some day, you’d have to empty the boxes to move them so that the roof work could be performed.

I’m too new at this to guarantee any specific results, but so far I’ve seen that the boxes designed like this, with this sort of soil, drain really well. My initial plantings seem to be doing very well so far. It is also easy to build a hoop-shaped covering to extend the growing season into the spring and fall.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Erik
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1st ANNUAL RALLY FOR COMPASSION

Read www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/KtRusch/TibetanUprising2008 for local article on Tibet uprising.

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Lena Taylor takes County Executive campaign to the bus. March 22. More…

Saving Milwaukee County Transit from the Walker cuts.
12th and Wisconsin, Saturday March 22

Lena Taylor took the County Executive election campaign to the bus to protest County Executive Scott Walker’s bus cutting.

We rode with Lena from 12th & Wisconsin, Route #20, in front of Gesu Church, through downtown and back.

Photos of the Ride, the Riders, and Lena Taylor talking to bus riders.

Route #20 is now gone. In 1999, the Milwaukee County Transit System was honored as America’s best mid-sized transit system. Lena said she would work bring it back Milwaukee Transit to what it used to be. It once connected the North and South sides of Milwaukee, running on what is now Caesar Chavez drive, north on 8th Street to the Brewers’ ball park (Borchert Field).

Her message: Elect Lena Taylor and we will rescue Transit in Milwaukee County.
Vote on April 1.

Save Our bus.
Ride Our bus.
And vote Our Lena.

More Photos

More about the campaign, the issues - Parks, Safety, Health - at www.lena2008.com

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6th annual St. Pat & St. Brigid All City Gathering

Violence and Nonviolence

(submitted by www.nonviolentworm.org)

New blog announced: the Milwaukee Homicide Report

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a new blog called the Milwaukee Homicide Report. In the words of that page: “With this Web log we hope to provide comprehensive coverage of Milwaukee murders in 2008 and present the faces, voices and emotions behind the statistics.”

This Homicide report will “attempt to follow these cases from arrest through conviction and, when possible, include photographs of the victims and interviews with their families.”

In other cities this kind of effort has proven an effective weapon in raising awareness of the human side of violence and putting a face on it. The blog plans “to include articles and links on subjects relating to homicide and, through our comments feature, we invite readers to join in an ongoing discussion about violence in Milwaukee.”

The site will only effectively work to decrease violence in Milwaukee if we read it, make comments, and contribute materials. So please check it out at Milwaukee Homicide Report, and contribute to it.

Nonviolent Resistance to the Military at Home.

On another front in the battle against violence, persons in the Milwaukee Metro area have been resisting military training at our local colleges and universities for over 40 years. To support this resistance, you can sign the petition, or better yet, join the nonviolent action at 12 noon, Saturday March 8th in front of the MU Memorial Alumni Union at 15th and Wisconsin, to demand that Marquette Be Faithful to the Gospel and No Longer Host Departments of Military Science.

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Community Building From The Ground Up—Feb 28- March 1

The Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Network announces its first annual “Pollinating Our Future: Urban Agriculture Conference” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin February 28 – March 1, 2008 at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center. Keynote speaker, Michael Ableman, award-winning urban farmer, author and educator heads a line-up of leading sustainability experts in presenting the revolutionary power of urban agriculture.

Conference speakers and attendees will address important and controversial issues facing cities today focused on Food Justice, Garden as Community, Policy and Planning and Enterprise Development with workshops, forums, film, exhibits, and Town Hall meeting.

Small Plot Intensive (SPIN) Farming, Urban Green Tours, including Walnut Way Conservation Corp, Opening Celebration and Slow Food feast with regional foods at Mitchell Park Conservatory Domes, Upper Midwest Food Policy Council Training and Growing Power’sComposting/Vermiculture Workshop provide additional opportunities to educate motivate and pollinate the future of urban agriculture.

A ‘SPIN Cities: Farming Where We Live’ workshop precedes the conference at the Mitchell Park Conservatory Domes February 28–29. Veteran urban farmer Wally Satzewich developed the SPIN-Farming (Small Plot Intensive) method to create city-based agricultural enterprise opportunities. “A sub-acre farmer can make the same living as a large-scale farmer with less stress and overhead and with more certainty of success year to year.”

Pollinating Our Future is co-hosted by Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI)andSlow Food Wisconsin Southeast. “Urban agriculture provides a huge opportunity to unite residents, city policy-makers and planners, entrepreneurs, community organizations and urban activists, educators, municipal utilities and health professionals in meaningful solutions to city needs, what we see as the critical process of social healing,” states Ron Doetch, Executive Director, MFAI.

Workshops include Youth Jobs Garden Program, Growing Food and Justice, Social Enterprise and Transitional Employment, Immigrant Farmers in the City, Transforming Ministry & Lives, Producing For Your Market, Eco-Cities and Global Warming, Designing Sustainable Cities and Up Against Goliath – How to Compete in the Marketplace.

Martha Davis Kipcak, leader of Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast, says, “We invite everyone interested in Urban Agriculture to join in exploring the benefits of urban agriculture for economic development, building community, creating healthier eco-systems, increasing food security and improving nutrition in our communities.”
For further information and registration http://growurban.org Questions? contact info@growurban.org

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Nonviolent Action — “The Main Enemy Is At Home!” Petition to sign

The web site NonviolentWorm.org, a child or “spin-off” site of The Milwaukee Renaissance.com, draws viewers daily to read Bob Graf’s Diary of a Worm, containing Bob’s observations on the interactions of Growing Power and Creative Nonviolence in daily life. The NonviolentWorm.org’s latest project is hosting a discussion and petition asking Marquette University to be faithful to the Gospel, and no longer host departments of military science — as it currently does for nine local colleges and universities. Bob says “Our inner-city high schools, and our colleges and universities are the new draft boards of our time. As we did in 1968 in the Milwaukee 14 action, it is time to stop the new-style draft of our young men and women for illegal, immoral and unjust wars like the one in Iraq.” You can support this effort by adding your name to the online MU Peace petition.

“At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)

“Love Your Enemy”

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Northeast Side Area Plan Open House

We hope to see you this Wednesday, February 27th, from 11:30 am - 2:00 pm or 5:00 - 7:30 pm at Alterra on Humboldt for the Northeast Side Plan Open House.

See attached flyer for details.

Please feel free to invite anyone you think may be interested.

Take care,
Sarah & Janet

Sarah Horn
Project Planner - Area Plans
City of Milwaukee - Dept. of City Development
809 N Broadway
Milwaukee, WI 53202–3617
sarah.horn@milwaukee.gov
P: 414.286.5620 F: 414.286.0730

Janet F. Grau AIA AICP
Dept. of City Development, Planning Division
809 N. Broadway
Milwaukee WI 53202–3617
phone: 414–286–5724 FAX: 414–286–0730
E-mail: jgrau@milwaukee.gov
Note e-mail change to milwaukee.gov

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Tribute to Martin Luther King

Dr. King’s vision was articulated most powerfully in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech delivered at Riverside Church in New York City. He gave the speech on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. He was quickly condemned by the NAACP, civil rights leaders, the Democratic Party (he had campaigned for Lyndon Johnson in 1964) and the mainstream media.

Listen…

“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born.

The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions.”

I would suggest that we revisit Dr. Kings words and read them in the light of the present day.

“…A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

Image by:John Goodwin
Source: GBGM Administration

Compiled by Michael J. Moynihan

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Fund Raising for the Zoological Society’s Bonobo Sustainability Project

Embedded Reporter plays for packed audience at The Coffee House

Here’s what people have to say about this event

Embedded Reporter had mega fun performing at the BIG BONOBO EXTRAVAGANZA. It was a thrill to see so many people in the audience; people of capacity and vision. It feels heartwarming to see Barbara Bell, Gay Reinartz, and Harry Prosen honored for their extraordinary work. -Ho

Dr. Gay Reiartz’ Thoughts on Bonobo Benefit at the Coffee House

For me, there has been NO event equal to the one last night at the CoffeeHouse! It was wonderful. It was a pleasure. It was cozy. It was fun. It was classy (according to my mother!). It was attended beyond expectations. The music lifted our spirits and added a pleasant aura and quality to our normal, otherwise rather dry venues. What a fine organization you have! The questions from the audience were intelligent, and the comments I received gave me hope that more people exist who care about what goes on beyond the limits of their daily lives. The attendees were among Milwaukee’s thinkers, writers and activists.

Unlike the other programs I’m invited to give each year, this one included colleagues Barbara Bell and Dr. Harry Prosen, whose first-hand experiences and expertise with bonobos at the Milwaukee County Zoo conveyed their apparent love and respect for our close cousins and the enormous challenges of caring for them in captivity. Combining their story with the Zoological Society’s efforts to conserve bonobos in their native Congo demonstrates that Milwaukee does more than any other city on earth to conserve this species at all levels. It is my fervent hope that this event will set an example and spawn further discussion about the holistic conservation program that Milwaukee gives to the world via the peace-loving bonobos. Toward that end you have helped us gain significant momentum in building public awareness about the need to improve captive habitat for the bonobos and to support conservation in Congo. On behalf of the Zoological Society of Milwaukee, for your attention, friendship, your wish to contribute and your activism, please accept our highest praise and thanks. As for me, you have honored me and charged my batteries for another round!

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Milwaukee Renaissance People’s History Project: Creating Our Own Culture

The renewal of historic Milwaukee is as much a question of spirit and imagination as it is of brick, mortar, planning, and capital, especially in the “eco-information” society we are constructing. The east coast and west coast culture industries, like industrial agriculture, are proving to be insufficient to our challenges and possibilities. The people of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Great Lakes/Upper Mississippi River Valley societies have much to gain by a conscious turn toward creating our own culture, attending to the creation of our communities closer at hand.

Eat local, locally grown food, locally grown culture!

To this end, we are proud to introduce the Milwaukee Renaissance People’s History Project. The stories of the heavy lifters and detail angels of our myriad movements will be the initial focus. Sometimes these stories have been written by the “renaissance workers” themselves, in the form of memoirs, novels, poetry, and plays. In other instances we will present interviews or essays developed by fledgling reporters and interns, or maybe professional reporters and writers!

Howard Hinterthuer’s “Phantom Pain” a Vietnam Era Memoir.

Our first memoir offering will be “Phantom Pain,” the Vietnam story of Ozaukee County’s Happy Green Warrior, Howard Hinterthuer. Howard was a clinical specialist/nurse back in that day. He experienced moments of joy and glory with his buddies, moments of tragedy and absurdity with the war in Vietnam and the “war at home.” We will be serializing Howard’s work, worth savoring and sharing.

You might also enjoy reading a bio sketch and an interview with Howard Hinterthuer, that focuses on the relationship between his musical career and his trail blazing environmental work these past 30 odd years.

Here is a brief sketch of Embedded Reporter, which will be joining Kt Rusch for a Growing Power benefit at the venerable Coffee House in the basement of Holy Redeemer Church, at 19th and Wisconsin, the east-side door leading to this basement haunt of artists and activists.

Embedded Reporter does lowbrow music for smart people. It is all over the map stylistically including folk, country rock, blues, Tin Pan Alley, roots, TV & Movie tunes, Broadway, Latin and more. “We’re a singer’s band,” says Howard Lewis, Band Grand Poobah By Default.

Expect rich lyrical content. Instrumentation is “acoustic” except the band plays through a PA and juices the sound on occasion. About half of the songs are inventions in the sense that Lewis wrote them. “Darrell has added the class,” he says, referring to Darrell Smith (violin, hand percussion). “Stylistically the original material is also all over the map. We are called Embedded Reporter because we sing about what we see wherever we go. It’s fair to say we have traveled far and wide.”

Howard Lewis has been performing for forty years, playing acoustic guitar primarily, and piano when pressed. His first band, Alberta Blue, toured the East Coast from 1971 to 1976 successfully avoiding incarceration. Subsequently Lewis performed solo or with others on an ad hoc basis until meeting Darrell Smith at Riveredge Nature Center four years ago. Lewis and Smith have been gigging together ever since in venues ranging from posh to pernicious.

“It’s all good,” says Lewis. “We’ll sing anywhere. Our music is egalitarian and approachable for everyone.”

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How the County Can Increase Transit Revenue.

66 Suggestions from riders:
Using Transit assets to multiply Transit Revenue
Convincing those new riders to ride again.
Promoting the County promotes the Bus.
— mostly without raising taxes.

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Renaissance Macedonian Farmers Come to Milwaukee!

Will Allen hosted the historic visit of 3 young Macedonian farmers to Milwaukee this weekend. Boris Shuperliski of Shu-Mi Bee Keeping Farm, Sasho Krcoski of Bastum Chicken Farm, and Igor Mishevski, regional manager of the Federation of the Farmers in the Republic of Macedonia(Boris and Sasho are board members of the Federation)came to Growing Power to learn about composting, vermiculture, and aquaponics. Their trip was sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Communities of Vermont, which has a local branch in Macedonia.

Kt Rusch, Boris, Igor, and Sasho at the compost pile they created by adding hundreds of pounds of duck “waste,” brewers yeast, cardboard, wood chips, coffee grounds, and veggie wastes.

Click here for the itinerary and other information!
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“London Farmers Come to Town”

The London Bridge is not falling down, falling down.
A bridge to London is Growing Power in Milwaukee,
Chicago, and partner projects in North America,
Africa, and Europe, for starters.

Here is a place to share the story of a new kind of farmer
Growing in the hearts of the great cities of the world.

Urban Farmers.

Growing Power Growing Urban Farmers For Earth’s Bio-regions.

Will Allen and his Growing Power Team are urban farmers hosting
A visit by distinguished guests from the London Urban Agriculture Movement,
Ben Reynolds, Catherine Miller, Tony Leach, and Colin Buttery.

Here is a place for all who wish to give expression to this grand moment.

The “Shepherd’s” Lisa Kaiser continues to discover and give fine expression to some of the great stories coming from the world of Will Allen and his Growing Power Team. Lisa has a fine piece in this week’s “Sherpherd” called “Growing Power Going Global.”

Ben Reynolds’ Milwaukee Growing Power Presentation, from London Food Link

Click here for the slides

Itinerary for US visit October 2007 12th – 19th October

Click here to view

Photos of the visit!

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The Fuel Cafe Now Protects 0ur Lovely Lungs and Hearts

The Fuel Cafe on Center in Riverwest,
An iconic destination for bohemians from all over,
Is now an avant-guard cafe with clean air, healthier workers and patrons.

Scott Johnson and his partners now offer great food, bakery, and drinks
In a fresh atmosphere filled with young and old now ready for the good fight…

To cleanse our air, our rivers and lakes, our land and houses,
Our bodies and souls.

Viva, the Fuel Cafe!

We will be collecting photos, opinions, and stories of the Fuel’s transformation into a healthy human friendly smoke free cafe. Send your response to Fuelcafe@Milwaukeerenaissance.com

There is a tendency in Milwaukee now working to spark
Blueberry Pancake Moments at the Fuel Cafe on Sunday Mornings,
Simultaneous with the Riverwest Co-op Cafe Blueberry Moments.
There are those who would wish to People’s Book Co-op
To have gatherings with books at the Fuel Cafe.

Fuel for our bodies!
Fuel for our minds!
Fuel for our souls!

Milwaukee Responds to Smoke Free Pubs/Restaurants

Ann Brummit:

The entire village of Shorewood is set to go smoke-free in 09.
Restaurants, bars, all public spaces-but not sure on parks.
I know the Oakcrest Tavern is smoke free already.

Kristine Hansen:

I actually think this is a good idea. If there are web sites devoted to
publishing local gasoline prices and restaurant menus, why not smoke-free
establishments? Building the list might lobby those “on the fence” to vow
to eliminate smoke, as part of a larger movement to reshape the city.

And outside of OnMilwaukee.com, consider Shepherd Express which now has a
web site. Or — sorry, my journalism stripes coming out now — try
pitching your efforts to build this list as a news story to my friend Lisa
Kaiser (news editor). She’s at lkaiser@shepherd-express.com.

Nicole Bickham:

I was involved in the smokefree restaurant campaign that resulted in an ordinance in Tosa, so this is an issue of interest for me.

There are some existing lists of smokefree restaurants, such as:
http://www.smokefreeworld.com/wisconsin.shtml#mil

It needs updating apparently. But it might make sense to build on the existing list rather than start a new one. Smokefree Wisconsin is involved in ordinances and campaigns around the state, so they seem to be a natural source/repository of that info. But I’m cc’ing a friend of mine who is very involved in the issue to see whether there is a better list she recommends.

Alice Wilson

It will be great to eat the yummy bakery at Fuel and not have it taste like it’s been injected with tar, tobacco, or nicotine! Mmmmm!

The benefits to smoke free restaurants

We estimate that every smoking customer will, over time, chase away five nonsmoking customers. Of course, the smokers keep returning and the nonsmokers do not, so restaurateurs are left with a false sense of where their majority customer base really is. The smaller the restaurant, the higher the price they will pay, but they all pay a price.

Historically, the tobacco industry has done an excellent job of convincing restaurant operators that since 25% of the population are smokers, going smoke-free would cost them 25% — even 30% — of their business. Clearly erroneous, but it is easy to see why operators would balk at making such a drastic change.

By allowing smoking at all, many restaurateurs have painted themselves into a corner by unwittingly catering to a declining population of smokers while those who are smoke free are expanding their marketplace.

If not becoming smoke-free, many restaurateurs are going to great costs to try to separate the smokers — while simply going smoke free would cost zero dollars. Clean air can be tolerated by everybody!

The facts are clear: if restaurants go smoke free the right way*, they will at least retain their current level of business, and will often increase it. Maybe only by 3–5%, but an increase nonetheless. No city with a smoke free ordinance, after studying the taxes paid by restaurants, has reported a decrease in restaurant revenues.

Go here to learn more

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Buses Are Green

Discussions daily on saving our buses - Bay View Matters
Subscribe: Bay View Matters

How the State Can Help County Transit

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Vision

Create a central park along the Milwaukee River upstream of the North Avenue footbridge to Silver Spring Drive. Preserve the wild aspect of the natural area while improving the habitat. Improve water quality. Restore native plant species while removing non-native invasive plants.

Improve public access to this urban natural resource.

View

Establish by municipal zoning a “viewshed” in the river valley that regulates new development on the river’s edge to control development on the slopes or valley perimeter that would visually intrude in this natural landscape .

Valley

Your valley. The land along the Milwaukee River in this area is mostly in public ownership. Milwaukee is now developing a North East Side plan to guide future development. Now is the time for residents to express their desires for the future of the valley

Information updated at…

www.protectmilwaukeeriver.org

Read the entire vision at

http://www.riverrevitalizationfoundation.org

http://www.riverwestneighborhood.org/

Write to to work on this project!

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Perception and Parity

by Patricia Obletz

   www.OilsByObletz.com

What’s your perception of people who have mental illnesses, particularly after the recent massacre at Virginia Tech? If you’re like “61 percent of Americans, you believe that (they) are likely to be dangerous to others.” The fact is that people who have mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, are 2.5 times more often victimized by violence than the majority of people.

It’s impossible to calculate how many people are victimized by shame, fear, denial, greed, and widespread ignorance, self-inflicted or imposed. After Virginia Tech, Robert Bernstein, psychologist and executive director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, said that the Center has won lawsuits for students against college administrations that have barred them from campus for receiving mental health services because the students were perceived to be “engaging in ‘endangering’ behavior.” The Center plans to release soon a model policy that would encourage students to seek treatment before their problems reach crisis proportions, as well as ensure that “any disciplinary action is based on dangerousness and not discrimination.” Dr. Bernstein also said that schools need to take actions to de-stigmatize mental illnesses, remove barriers to seeking treatment, and ensure that students will not be penalized when they do ask for help.

Please contact your congressional leaders and urge them to sponsor the Kennedy-Ramstad parity bill, in the Senate, S.558; in the House, HR 1367. It took me less than 60 seconds to do so at www.equitycampaign.net As their home page says, “Make history: Become a Citizen Co-Sponsor.” We the people have to make sure that affordable mental health check-ups and necessary treatment prevail from elementary school on up. We need to know what mental illness is and learn how to identify it and treat it, and learn how to maintain recovery (see list of disorders and symptoms here). Don’t let ignorance, shame or fear make you make the same mistake I did. I knew nothing about mental health before I lost mine and entered the most terrifying time of my life. Please help yourself by visiting http://www.samhsa.gov

Indefensible stigma also must be the explanation for the fact that health insurance agencies in the most powerful country on the planet are allowed to deny individuals with treatable illnesses the kind of help that will enable them to become contributing citizens.

=> =>Read More …

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Bucketworks is moving!

Many Milwaukee Renaissance contributors and visitors have been or are involved in Bucketworks, Milwaukee’s unique health and fitness club for the brain. Bucketworks will be moving by September 1st and is looking for assistance in many facets of this transition.

Visit the Bucketworks site for more information about how you can contribute or participate.

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Dismantling Racism in Milwaukee

For some inspiring evidence of this, check out the pictures just uploaded
that capture the spirit of St. Pat’s at Timbuktu on Center Street in Riverwest.

Pictures from St Pats at Timbuktu 2007

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Milwaukee’s part in the Global Day of Protest on the 4th Anniversary of the War

The word went out:

Bob Graf was among those who attended. In the day’s post to his “Diary of a Worm” (which is primarily about his Growing Power Home Garden), he wrote

Here are some of the pictures Bob took. Click through to view more. Add more if you have some.

Signs of Hope

John Gillman Veteran Peacemaker Congresswoman Moore addresses rally

Veteran Marchers The Rally George Martin addresses rally

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Raising awareness of the violent crime rate

And pressing for a Responsible Gun Ownership Bill

The group Mothers Against Gun Violence was founded by three Milwaukee women whose sons were shot in 2003 by a felon with a handgun obtained on the gray market. While it was illegal for the felon to own the gun, the gun sale itself was not illegal - the seller committed no crime in selling the gun to a felon.

Determined to close this loophole in the law, which “like a sewer pipe, pours firearms into our community,” on Tuesday March 6, 2007, State Senator Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee) introduced The Responsible Gun Ownership Bill (read more here), under which all handguns sold in Milwaukee County – including those on the secondary or gray market – would require purchasers to submit to a criminal background check before the sale could be completed. The schedule for the bill is as follows:

• Release for co-sponsors… Feb. 22nd-March 12th
• To Clerk’s Office… assign Bill number… March 12th-14th
• To Senate President… referral to committee… March 15th-19th
• Bill given public hearing… April 10th

As of this writing - 19 March - the following state legislatures in the Milwaukee Caucus are not co-sponsors of the Responsible Gun Ownership Bill. Please call them and ask them to support it. They are Rep.Colon, Rep.Cullen, Rep.Kessler, Rep.Kreuser, Rep.Krusick, Rep.Richards, Rep.Toles, Rep.Wasserman, Rep.Williams A, Rep.Young, Sen.Carpenter, Sen.Plale, Sen.Sullivan, Sen.Taylor and Milwaukee Republicans Sen.Darling, Sen.Lazich, Rep.Stone.
Ask your state legislators to co-sponsor and support it. Call Toll-free: 1–800–362–9472, in Madison: 608–266–9960, or fax: 608–282–3546. Find out who your state legislators are
Ask the Mayor and City Council to continue their support of The Responsible Gun Ownership Bill.

Here on the Milwaukee Renaissance site, the Mothers are posting information about the bill and its progress through the legislature, as they honor their sons and the hundreds of others who have been killed in the city of Milwaukee in recent years.

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Mental Health Awareness Campaign Launched in Milwaukee

We are privileged to announce another recent addition to the list of authors and artists among us on the Milwaukee Renaissance wiki — Patricia Obletz. Those of you who keep an eye on changes to the Current Contributors page, or who read Bob Graf’s “Diary of a Worm” may already be aware of Patricia’s contributions to Milwaukee and our Milwaukee Renaissance.

Patricia, a native of Buffalo, New York, has in recent years achieved wide media recognition for both her art and her mental health advocacy. She was awarded a state grant to found a quarterly newsletter and was editor-in-chief of Mental Health World, editions Winter 1992 through Spring 1999. She created and facilitates “Colorplay” (inspirational fun for all ages) and “Wordshops” (also intriguing and inspiring imagination, for everyone who can put words on paper, tape, cd). On her pages of the Milwaukee Renaissance wiki, she’s given us a startlingly frank depiction of her struggles with her own mental illness and the terminal cancers that took her parents and her sister. Patricia says:

On the Home Page of her mini-website here, she has spelled out for us the goals of her current project, the “Mental Health Awareness Campaign,” about which she says:

So watch the buses for Patricia’s signs, and join us in welcoming Patricia to the MilwRen and in thanking her for her contributions to the community.

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Young Voices of Milwaukee To Be Heard as John Gerlach, Tanya, and Partners Begin Community Newszine

It is our honor and pleasure to introduce the writing and the work of John Gerlach, fighting the good fight for the people, inspired to share his work with us by Hoodmomma, who wrote John’s introduction presented here.

In the middle of his life, John is an unwhite man living in Riverwest, Milwaukee. He is an educator to delinquents, dropouts, felons and MPS throwaways. He is the creator of The Provision School. It is the school that he built for himself when he realized there was no university suited for him. Today the headlines read that we have no schools, that the kids are bad, that the teachers are out of touch, so he offers his own school, The Provision School, which can succeed with the least of students and the least of resources. His school goes with him wherever he goes, but when he finds fellow outcasts who can admit their own desperation, he lays out his School; he puts down for others to pick up.

John Gerlach’s Milwaukee Renaissance offering includes his personal essays and poems, but most especially, it features the work of his students through the S.O.P.365 Report…(Summer of Peace 365). The S.O.P. 365 Report, a youth and young adult community newszine will debut in Feb. 2007 as a tool for sharing the young voices in our city in hopes that Milwaukee will have a better understanding of who they are and how they can and do contribute to positive change in our hoods.

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Internet Empowerment Trailblazers of Milwaukee

Two of the vanguard workers of the “internet empowerment movement” of Milwaukee met up for the first time at the 2nd Anniversary Party for Timbuktu. Tess Reiss, the key creator of the Riverwest e-mail network, and Donte McFadden, founder of “Milwaukee Events,” indulged my quest for folk art photos with a low quality camera that seek to bring forth the most perfect essence and highest expression of those so photographed.

Other bright lights and heavy lifters intent on spreading the power of the internet to all Milwaukee citizens and our youth include Bill Sell, young elder of the Bay View Matters yahoo group(now with about 700 households!); Tegan Dowling, wiki gnome for many everyday webmasters; James S. Carlson, the young “old soul” whose work at Bucketworks has been the source of wiki in Milwaukee; and Mary Glass, founder of CFNBA Innercity Wireless.

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West Side Newspapers

Washington Park Beat
Milwaukee Street Beacon

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The publishers of Milwaukee Renaissance warmly welcome a new writer, Tanya Cromartie-Twaddle. Her voice is authentic Milwaukee, rings with pain, passion for our children, and the fire of love.

Hoodmomma

Welcome to our virtual publication offering authentic voices from the women in the thick of the struggle. Hoodmommas hold the fort down. We bleed, sweat and sacrifice on the daily for the babies and street soldiers. We are not recognized politicians and executive directors of social service agencies. We are not paid movers & shakers. Yet we shake crooked foundations and move mountains because we naturally must…in order to feed our babies and strengthen our warriors for the fight. Too often we are forgotten. Our greatest resource in this Milwaukee fight for justice, civility and equality is everyday women, mothers, sisters, grandmothers and othermothers. We must sit at the table in great numbers with all the folks making decisions that affect our families. Milwaukee will not see a new day until women take their rightful places. Hoodmommas vow to take good care of themselves so that we can be strong warrior women. No, I am not a feminist. No, I do not believe women are born to be caretakers. I just know that we are great warriors and lovers and Milwaukee needs us to turn this madness around.

Hood…not meaning a bad place where poor black and brown people live. Hood…meaning family place…home.

Momma…not meaning woman who has birthed a baby. Momma…meaning community-builder and protector of life. Warrior.

—Tanya Cromatrie-Twaddle

More at Tanya writes

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For a special Milwaukee treat, try the Journey To Africa Cultural Education Field Trip offered by Club Timbuktu.

This combination of African buffet, cultural presentation, and activities is especially designed for out-of-classroom experiences, and appropriate for all age groups.
Details here.

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“Where will tomorrow’s playwrights come from?”

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and Pius XI High School celebrate aspiring adolescent playwrights. Three short, award-winning plays written by area students will be presented. Dan Mooney is directing Ryan Unsworth’s satirical GRANDMA, YOU CAN’T SHOOT THE PRESIDENT. Patrick Holland partners with Deanie Vallone on her dark morality tale, JUST ONE MORE. And Raeleen McMillion brings her sensitive direction to Tori Vertelka’s adolescent drama, WORDS.

Dec. 14–16: Black Box Theater, Pius XI High School, 135 N. 76th St., Milwaukee

Dec. 21–23: Studio Theatre, Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre

Tickets $12 adult; $6 student/senior

Call 414.290.8151 to reserve tickets. For more information, click here or send an e-mail .

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Celebrating Our Service Men and Women

Honoring Their Sacrifice for Our Life as Community

Join a Community Celebration…

Date: Thursday, December 7, 2006
Pearl Harbor Day

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Place: Cromwellness Health and Wellness Center
3353 North Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
(Next door to the QF&H Restaurant)

Event: Unveiling of a National Monument

A Program and Reception of Honor
Live Music, Good Food, and Good People

Come out and get to know some of the veterans in our community.

Witness the unveiling of the model of the national monument created in honor of military service to be installed on the grounds of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2007, presented by nationally acclaimed artist and sculptor Teju Ologboni.

On this remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day it is a time of healing for African American and other veterans of color, our community, our nation. This continues a century of advocacy for veterans of color led by the NAACP.

Veterans join this salute in your honor and feel free to wear your uniform

The Rebirth of Freedom is in partnership with the National Association for Black Veterans(NABVETS), the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP and a host committee.

You will have opportunity at the celebration to make a tax deductible donation for the monument and installation ceremony in the Fall of 2007. Donors will be acknowledged at the Rebirth of Freedom web site.

For more information email Cleo Pruitt

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The Keefe Building School Brainstorm

531 E. Keefe

Fish Farm, providing perch for fish broils atop the Reservoir on Friday evenings? Tasty, healthy food for local students and food pantries?

New Bucketworks?

Young Woman’s H.S.?

A few blocks from the Outpost, Art Bar, Garden Park, Snails Crossing, the Riverwest Commons, Club Timbuktu, the Riverwest Co-op, Kern Park, the cleansing Milwaukee River, Gordon Park, and two bus lines

Everyday Survival Skills

How about we assign one perfectly organized 15 by 15′ area to house

• minor and basic auto mechanics
• minor and basic body work on cars
• small appliance repairs
• floor sanding and repair
• tile work
• painting
• plastering
• drywalling
• window weatherizing
• window and storm repair
• siding options
• gutter systems
• roof systems
• masonry
• drainage

More at the…

Keefe Building

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Riverwest Co-op Celebrates 5 Year Anniversary

Outside Bench as Furniture Art Dedicated to Carl Hedman

Vince Bushell has promised a picture of this elegant outside art furniture in the very near future.

Carl Hedman, Father of New Milwaukee Co-op Movement

Carl Hedman is ratcheting down his active engagement with the Riverwest Coop. http://www.riverwestcoop.org/
His contribution has been critical. If you haven’t been there, please check it out. Beautiful store…great cafe…right across from Polish Falcons. A bench built to honor his work will be dedicated next Thursday evening. What started out to be a Flintstones bench evolved into the kind of seat his heroics for so long on behalf of Coops merit. It’s furniture, it’s a beauty…and it’s also over budget. White oak, used extensively in shipbuilding is expensive. The formidable labor has been donated by Todd Fillingham, Paul Atwater and Paul Seifert at the Fillingham precision furniture shop. (I think these are Paul Seifert’s apt descriptions).

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Internet Empowerment Symposium at MSOE

Organized by Mary Glass of CFNBA Innercity Wireless

This event, at the Todd Wehr Hall of Milwaukee School of Engineering, was inspiring to experience. It suggests that Milwaukee, insofar as the internet empowerment of its citizens, is at the edge of history. In the vanguard! This report is the first of what I hope will be many revisions, elaborations, and improvements. Tegan Dowling took extensive notes that can be seen at…

http://www.innercitywirelessbuddy.org/Symposium2006-11/HomePage

Mary Glass was able to spark and organize a day long symposium at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Thursday, November 30, 2006, that included an impressive and engaging group, including:

• State Representative Tamara Grigsby, District 18
• James Carlini, Columnist, IT Expert, Chicago, Il
• Gary Korb, Regional Educator, Waukesha-SEWRP
• Randy Gschwind, Chief Information Officer, City of Milwaukee
• Randall Brown, Junior-Pre-Engineering Student, Glendale H.S.
• Tegan Dowling, Wiki Gnome, Bucketworks

Learn about a movement to advance the cause of internet opportunity and empowerment for all of God’s Milwaukee children at…

http://www.cfnbainnercitywireless.biz

http://www.innercitywirelessbuddy.org

More on this event at Internet Buddies

Digital Inclusion Movement

Some are calling this the “digital inclusion movement.”

If the people at the symposium realize their visions, Milwaukee’s neighborhoods will all have access to wireless. In our libraries. In our schools. At our community centers, our churches, our cafes, and even some of our restaurants, pubs.

With wireless and some kind of laptop or advanced hand held devices coming along our way, we will be able to connect with the wider world in parks, on our sidewalks and stoops, parked at the curb, resting on a bench overlooking Lake Michigan. Every square city block could have one designated family equipped to receive information from the internet relevant to block promotions and defense. They could then make fliers every week that the youth of that block distributed to every family and household - maybe this could even be integrated into the city’s Block Watch program.

Carlini encouraged Milwaukee to become a leader in “previously used” internet hardware and software for its citizens. Why assume one needs a brand new super expensive computer when for $100 one can get operating with what was a top CEO’s choice 5 years ago! Tegan Dowling’s presentation gave rise to the notion of wiki webmasters for each neighborhood, even participatory wiki web sites for every block!

If you would like to participate in on-line brainstorming regarding the maximum empowerment of our fellow citizens and our great city, please send a note to Internetbuddies

If you would like to be a patron or sponsor of this “movement,” please let us know at Patrons

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Sandy Folaron to Blaze New Trails at “The Domes”.

It is a great day for Milwaukee as Sandy Folaron assumes the role of “Conservatory Director” at the Mitchell Park Domes.

Sandy has blazed trails in the renewal of the historic neighborhood of Washington Heights, Vliet Street, and Washington Park, as well as in small business entrepreneurship.

In my mind, Sandy Folaron has been “the” key inspiration and heavy lifter in the Save the Soldiers Home movement.

As “Conservatory Director” with a sizable and competent staff of over 10 people, it will be a great drama for our fair city to witness the preservation and transformation of our Domes, with Sandy at the helm.

In Sandy’s words…

I am thrilled with the opportunity to re-energize and bring in a new generation to use and appreciate one of Milwaukee’s gems!

The historical aspect, ecological significance and the educational possibilities are staggering. With great staff and Parks Director support, I am confident that we are going to make a difference and step into the future…imagine the possibilities….!

Sandy Folaron

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Our Lake Under Fire

Great Lakes Water Wars

Oppose the militarization of our Great Lakes!

No live fire war games in the Great Lakes!

But rather…

Aim for creating a new and increasingly green

Great Lakes Culture.

http://www.great-lakes.net/gis/maps/

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Vote NO on the proposed Constitutional Amendment

A letter to Seniors by Bill Sell

Dear Seniors,

For your own sake, please put aside