Save Remaining KK River Greenspace by Founder of Milwaukee Earth Poets Jeff Poniewaz

Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee aldermen to help try to save the Kinnickinnic River greenspace that they’ll pass judgment on after the ZND Committee’s public hearing to be held

*Tuesday May 13 at 9:00 A.M. in City Hall room 301-B.

If a majority of the ZND Committee’s five aldermen vote Tuesday in favor of building on that KK River greenspace, the issue will go before the entire Common Council, which would then likely approve this unwise development proposal. Jeff

Emails for Aldermen on the Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee:

JAMES WITKOWIAK, CHAIR jwitko@milwaukee.gov

WILLIE WADE, VICE CHAIR wwade@milwaukee.gov

MICHAEL MURPHY mmurph@milwaukee.gov

ROBERT BAUMAN rjbauma@milwaukee.gov

ANTHONY ZIELINSKI azieli@milwaukee.gov

Phone #s for aldermen: 286–2221

Save Remaining KK River Greenspace

A plea to preserve every bit of the very little greenspace that still remains along the Kinnickinnic River, presented to Milwaukee’s Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee on May 9, 2008

by Jeff Poniewaz, who grew up where S. 4th St. dead-ends at the KK River

Last summer the Common Council wisely granted a moratorium on development along the Milwaukee River north of North Ave., recognizing the environmental quality value of that narrow yet magical fringe of greenspace through which our city’s namesake river runs. Very little greenspace remains along the Kinnickinnic River, but it too deserves to be preserved. If there were a Department of City Environment equal to the Department of City Development, citizens wouldn’t have to go to hearings to explain these things.

Milwaukee’s name means “Meeting Place of the Waters” because it is situated where three rivers converge. For too many years, like other major river cities, Milwaukee horribly abused its rivers, using them as overflow receptacles for its sewers and industrial wastes. Now, like other major river cities, it is beginning to realize the blindness of its past ways--is beginning to SEE its rivers for the blessings they truly are. It is working to clean them up to improve water quality and quality of life. Citizen groups have led this change of heart and regard for our rivers. The City government should not do anything to undermine this renaissance of river appreciation.

The building being proposed to eclipse a portion of the very little greenspace along the KK River between 6th St. and Chase Ave. is a noble enterprise of civic compassion. Unfortunately it is being proposed for the wrong location. What if building anything on any part of that greenspace were off-limits? That wouldn’t mean that that building couldn’t be built. It only means that it would have to be built on an appropriate location somewhere else. Well, that’s exactly what should be done.

For the first 15 years of my life I lived along the Kinnickinnic River and got my first inklings of Nature on the stretch of river land between 6th St. and Chase Ave. that is now being eyed for development. Since 1989 I have taught “Literature of Ecological Vision” via UWM. I was in the vanguard of activists who secured preservation of the wild riverward side of Riverside Park on the east bank of the Milwaukee River south of Locust Street and I was on the first board of directors of Riverside Nature Center, now known as the Urban Ecology Center.

But for my first fifteen years I lived on one of those extremely rare blocks “where the sidewalk ends”—like in that children’s poem by Shel Silverstein:
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And there the sun shines bright
And there the grass grows soft
And the bird rests from its flight …
Let us leave where the smoke blows black
And the streets stretch in endless rows
For the children they mark, and the children they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

I speak to you as the adult that Kinnickinnic River child became on behalf of the city children of today, who have a right to discover Nature along that stretch of the Kinnickinnic River as I did. It was there I discovered dragonflies, grasshoppers and grass-snakes, which I later discovered were called “Butler’s garter snake,” designated a threatened species in 1997. We kids called it “the crick” back then and its banks and bluffs were a magic place despite the fact the creek sometimes reeked of gasoline and sewage, and the natural scent of the field atop the bluffs was sometimes tainted by the adjacent train yard.

Psychological studies have shown and psychotherapists have counseled that urban greenspace is conducive to mental health. For instance, Googling “mental health and urban greenspace” I found the website of the University of Manchester titled “Psychological and mental health from nature and urban greenspace.” A couple sentences from that website: “Access to good quality greenspace provides an effective population-wide strategy for the promotion of good health, well-being and quality of life. Exposure to natural scenes reduces stress. For many the greatest value of urban woodlands and natural vegetation is as an escape or refuge away from urban life and human activity. Clear evidence exists that there are positive benefits for mental health and well-being to be gained from both active and passive involvement with natural areas in towns and cities.”

Therefore the irony couldn’t be greater: that supposedly sane people would consider eclipsing any bit of the very little greenspace that remains along the KK River with a mental health building. Surely the elected officials of the City of Milwaukee are too sane a group of people to allow something so crazy to happen. The greenspace can continue to exist along the KK River, and the mental health building can be built on some other location that is not more valuable to preserve as greenspace. The KK River should be kept natural between 6th St. and Chase Ave. to beneficially influence the mental health of ALL the citizens of Milwaukee and not be built upon for the benefit of a relatively few recovering mental patients.

I have total sympathy for the need to find a suitable location for a building whose noble purpose is to help the mentally ill re-integrate into the general population. But that project could and should be located on some more appropriate location, while at the same time good mental health conditions for the general population should be promoted by preserving our little remaining riverbank greenspace. It’s not an either/or situation.

After many decades of river abuse, we owe it to our rivers to restore them to healthy condition. The health of a river city is profoundly connected to the health of its rivers. The very little that’s left of the Kinnickinnic River greenway deserves the same protections the Common Council recently accorded the Milwaukee River greenway. The same principle applies to both rivers. Please don’t thwart the Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers’ efforts to revitalize the health of our rivers and their greenways.

The banks of the KK River west of 6th St were paved to minimize flooding of basements of buildings that were built foolishly too close to the river. Paving those riverbanks created a dangerous situation for neighborhood children during big rain events with their resulting flashfloods. The Deep Tunnel Project is Milwaukee’s monument to its longtime obliviousness to the wonderful fact of three rivers converging on Lake Michigan, nourishing a city that can either be environmentally sensitive or environmentally obtuse. Our rivers are freeways of life-giving water lined by a fringe of consoling green. Our rivers are freeways that are no less important than the freeways that carry our pollution-mobiles to their myriad destinations.

I urge you to read “The Geography of Childhood—Why Children Need Wild Places” by Gary Paul Nabhan and “The Last Child in the Woods—Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv. They show how important it is that city children be able to discover and bond with Nature. Our natural resources are not only physical resources; they are also spiritual and psychotherapeutic resources for the entire city, especially its children.

Respectfully, Jeff Poniewaz
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The Milwaukee River: Paradise in Our Own Back Yard

By Lisa Kaiser and Aisha Motlani
http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/article-2048-the-milwaukee-river.html

There’s no need to haul canoes, hiking shoes or mountain bikes Up North. Milwaukeeans have paradise in our own back yard. The Milwaukee River valley—home to factories and condos, as well as endangered but vibrant plants, animals and birds—has the potential to become the city’s Central Park. Much like New York City’s famed landmark, the Milwaukee River corridor is a natural oasis in the midst of a highly urban community. While standing on the river’s shores, it’s easy to forget the pressure and traffic of modern Milwaukee.

A 797-acre ribbon of green and blue running from North Avenue to Silver Spring Drive is in the process of being preserved by a group of concerned citizens who are seeking formal protection from the city of Milwaukee, Glendale and Shorewood.

Dubbed the Milwaukee River Work Group (MRWG), it’s a loose but committed coalition of neighborhood leaders and residents, affected businesses, as well as dog walkers, mountain bikers, birders and anyone else who wants to protect the river from potentially damaging development.
Read the rest at the Shepherd Express.
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She Would Have Been 50: Remembering Feminist, Progressive Activist, and Community Builder Janet Oldenburg

Some 22 years after she wrote the following words, they, like so much else of what she said, did, and lived, still speak best for her. Originally submitted to but never printed by The Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee’s then leading daily newspaper, the following letter then appeared in the June 1986 issue of the West Suburban Milwaukee National Organization for Women chapter newsletter:

-o0o-

In the Sunday [Mother’s Day 1986] edition of your paper my name appears in the pro-choice ad coordinated by the Milwaukee area chapters of the National Organization for Women. I want to explain why I am included.

After eight years of marriage my parents had their first child—me. Those eight years were not due to any infertility problems, but eight years of family planning. My parents spent that time saving money, purchasing a home, and eagerly awaiting my arrival. When my newborn self was brought home from the hospital on Mother’s day [lowercase in original], it was to that home—full of happy grandparents, aunts and uncles. Those loving relatives also had been waiting for me those same eight years.

My mother and father made a choice—to plan their family. I look forward to the day when I choose to begin my family like they did. But until that day, I don’t want anyone, the church or the government, deciding for me. I want to be like my mother, and choose motherhood when the time is right. I want the security of knowing that all forms of contraceptives are available to me. But I also want all women to be able to choose the time for their motherhood. Because of that belief, I want all contraceptive methods, including abortion, available to everyone. Not everyone has the knowledge and access to other methods and they deserve the opportunity to choose abortion. Yes, I’m pro-choice, pro-motherhood, and pro-abortion. And it’s my mother who taught me, and I hope to be just like her.

— Janet Oldenburg

-o0o-

In so many ways, that mother’s daughter taught me, and I hoped to be just like that daughter, and always will.

On May 7, Janet Kay Oldenburg would have turned 50. She’ll be 38 forever. And in so many important ways, her spirit and her legacy live and speak to us all today.

Janet—former Wisconsin NOW state co-president and president, my predecessor as West Suburban Milwaukee NOW chapter president, truly great and giving teacher, role model, “shero,” kindred spirit, and sister, and even greater human being and friend—unfortunately never got the chance to decide for herself regarding motherhood. On June 22, 1996, after years of ill health dating back to her contracting a rare form of hepatitis of unknown origin at 19 and including a hysterectomy due to cancer at 32, she died—ironically, right near the end of the liver-transplant operation she and those of us who loved her hoped would save or at least prolong her life.

She described herself as a “political junkie” who, in the words of former Wisconsin NOW state president Margaret McMurray, “work[ed] hard at electing women and men to public office who support women’s issues.” Janet was also the first person in the history of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to earn a master’s degree in women’s studies from that school. As McMurray noted, Janet “loved women’s history and was always reminding [others in NOW] of the lessons we could learn from our foremothers.”

In addition to her wonderful record of volunteer activism with NOW and other progressive organizations, Janet’s paid jobs included work as campaign manager to former Milwaukee County circuit judge Frederick Kessler; project manager for the Milwaukee County Service Corps, which sought to link young people with community-supportive jobs; and as a field representative for former Wisconsin Congressperson Jim Moody.

Brilliant intellectually, Janet’s passion for women’s issues and women’s history took form in her work as an activist, speaker, writer, thinker, organizer, strategist, and advocate and networker deluxe. She was also incredibly gifted in many other ways, including sewing, quilting, and other crafts; interior decorating; gardening; and cooking (it was noted at her funeral that people would pay $15 for one of her legendary pies, which were often sold as fund-raising items at auctions for her causes!). When she was younger, Janet loved to sing and play the guitar. As eclectic as her tastes in music were, her tastes in reading were even more so—and even more encompassing. Her record collection, which took up several shelves in the living room of her beautiful Sherman Park-area upper flat, was fairly large—but was dwarfed by her packed bookshelves.

Often stoic and seeking self-sufficiency as much as possible, she seemed to dislike what she considered emotional displays, or any form of sympathy. Only in her last year or so, as her health declined frighteningly, did Janet start to accept help from others—at first only reluctantly.

I had always tried to be at least half as good a chapter president and feminist as she was, always hoping she’d be proud of me as her successor—a strange thing to say, perhaps, of someone born a month or so after I was, but respect is ageless. Janet, I know, at least once told someone else that I was her “right hand”; she was my right arm. She was my best friend in NOW and feminism.

Most of you, I know, never met or knew this remarkably intelligent, talented, caring, and giving woman, or knew her only by name and/or memories of those of us who did know her (I did for just over 12 years; only my mother’s death has affected me more than Janet’s); some of you, I know, did have the honor of having done so.

With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein, one generally only need change the gender and the tense of their song Something Wonderful (from The King and I) to describe Janet. Most of all:

“. . . She had a thousand dreams
That won’t come true
But you know that she believed in them
—and that was good enough for you.

“You’d often go along,
Defend her right or wrong,
And then when she was strong
She was wonderful! . . .”

She transplanted; she sustains.

If you want to honor Janet, her memory, her legacy, and her ideals, to help make some of her fondest dreams realities, sign an organ-donor card and tell your family of your decision—and then get at least ten people to do the same. And carry on, as she would have wished you and I would and and should continue to, with strong political and social action for feminism and feminist issues and social justice and progress in your and our community, state, nation, and world.

— Scott Enk

-o0o-

[If you were among those fortunate enough to have met, known, and/or worked with Janet, what are your memories of her? Please share them (including photos of her; the one here is one I took of her in mid-1984, during her days as a new NOW chapter co-president) with us all here! —S. E.]

Church has plot to tackle food prices

Waukesha parish would like to turn lawn into gardens

By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ
denriquez@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 4, 2008
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=746716

Waukesha - Southminster Presbyterian Church of Waukesha, trying to blunt rising grocery prices, is hoping to convert a spacious and picturesque area - its own front lawn - into garden plots for members and neighbors.

“With the cost of food going up, it certainly is a good time to do this,” said the Rev. Tom Launius, pastor of Southminster, which was founded in 1965 and has 460 members. “I think we’re going to see more and more of this.”

Food and beverage prices in March were up 4% from the same time last year, according to the latest Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Urban garden plots are not a new concept. Many cities and counties offer sites on various public properties. The environmental movement and a brief economic downturn of the early 1970s brought vegetable plots to prominence, and they can be traced back to the Victory Gardens of World War II.

But it’s rare that a church will offer its front lawn for gardening. Launius said recent increases in grain and fuel costs have sparked a new interest in planting, watering, weeding and reaping among the congregation.

Pesticide use will not be permitted in the church gardens, and a watering system will be established that directs storm water from hard surfaces, such as rooftops, into the gardens, Launius said.

Two Milwaukee churches - Trinity Presbyterian and West Granville Presbyterian - have garden plots available to the public, but neither is located directly on church grounds, as the Southminster plan proposes.

The Rev. Dee Anderson of West Granville said his church has operated an off-site growing area for about a year with the help of Growing Power, a local firm that specializes in organic urban farming.

Anderson called the partnership a success, and the church expects to offer organic vegetable baskets this year.

Southminster member and Sunday School teacher Walter Sadler said the planned 28 plots there will provide gardeners with a choice of how much they pay for some foods and where they get it.

“You don’t have to eat food from California or Chile,” Sadler said. “You’re in control of what you’re eating and the price.”

The Southminster plan took hold in an adult Sunday school class that had read about gardening organic food, Sadler said.

But before a shovel is put in the ground, city officials who were caught a bit off-guard by Southminster’s plan must give their blessings to the concept.

Gardening usually is done in the backyard, where it’s out of sight. Southminster’s garden would be in full view at the front of the church, creating zoning and setback issues that might be easily resolved, said David Kopp, a city planner.

To grow vegetable gardens instead of grass, Southminster must get a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals on Monday and a conditional use permit from the Plan Commission on May 14.

Some neighbors might speak in opposition, saying the gardens will be unsightly and decrease property values, Kopp said. The permits will be only temporary, he said.

Church officials intend to build a decorative fence around the garden and also put in landscaping, Kopp said.

“If the church decides in a year or two that the garden isn’t working out, it can go back to lawn,” Kopp said. “Nobody’s done this in Waukesha as far as I know.”
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Bucketworks Victory Gardens and Edible Playgrounds

From: James Godsil godsil.james@gmail.com
Date: May 2, 2008 9:04 AM
Subject: Bucketworks Victory Gardens and Edible Playgrounds
To: James Carlson j@bucketworks.org

Dear James,

We will bring…

*wood

*brick

*carpentry and masonry tools

*artisan mentors, e.g. Erik Lindberg,
Josh Fraundorf, Norman Dunkelberger,
for starters

Or you and yours bring…

*wood

*brick

*carpentry and masonry tools

*artist/artisan mentors...

To design and build…

Raised bed garden structures…

As art…

As craft…

As structures for life giving food gardens…

At Bucketworks…

Coming soon…
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Great Lakes Water Institute & 10,000 Yellow Perch to Growing Power

Full story with some glorious pictures at…

http://www.glwi.uwm.edu/features/news/WATERNewsGrowingPowerperch04-30-08.php

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MBA’s Discover “Agriburbia”

The Agriburbia™ Concept

http://www.agriburbia.com/

Agriburbia™ is an innovative and growing design movement that integrates aspects of agrarianism with land development. Agriburbia™ includes characteristics of New Urbanism, modernism and historic preservation, and other environmentally sustainable principles of real estate development.

Agriburbia™ combines the positive social, cultural, physical and financial characteristics from both the urban and rural lifestyles to create an entirely new landuse concept. Agriburbia™ integrates food production as an integral element in the community design, social network, and financial viability of the neighborhood.

Agriburbia™ promotes and supports the following policies and principles in each mixed-use community:

• Agricultural Production: No loss of agricultural value or revenue (“Green Fields” development), or production of 30% of dietary requirements of the project or equivalent cash from sales crops, or combination thereof.

• Locally Grown Food: Production of a significant portion (30 to 50%) of dietary requirements grown within or in the immediate surrounding area of the community

• Conserves and Promotes Natural Resources: Appropriate and efficient use of natural resources to provide housing, transportation, recreation and fresh food through creative, harmonious land planning and landscape architecture for the community. This includes use of alternative energy sources as well as land and water.

• Self Sufficiency: Provide a commercially viable opportunity for enhanced self- sufficiency for community residents, tenants, and guests.

• Sustainable Energy Practices: Integrate solar and geothermal technology to provide sustainable energy sources for the community.

• Financing: Incorporate established entities (Metropolitan Districts, HOAs) to finance both traditional infrastructure (streets, water, sewer) and environmentally friendly agricultural infrastructure (drip irrigation)

Example Agriburbia™ Design Project

An example of the Agriburbia™ land planning design is this 640-acre parcel in Southern Weld County, Colorado. It includes for 980 homes, including multi-family town homes to two (2) acre permaculture home sites.

Each Agriburbia™ mixed-use campus is centered on an agrarian concept where traditional suburban landscaping and open space is replaced with orchards, vineyards, and other perennial crops for the benefit of the neighborhood and surrounding communities. A limited amount of active recreation area is provided. The balance of the open space is designed as productive organic agricultural landscape. These lands will be owned and actively managed by the Home Owner’s Association (HOA) or Metropolitan Districts. Private farm contracts will be awarded for these prime, organic agricultural parcels. It is anticipated that Agriburbia™ will provide agricultural opportunities within and outside the community.

In addition to this shared resource, each mixed-use campus is designed to have a significant number of home sites capable of useful agricultural production. Infrastructure such as non-potable water will be provided for these privates home sites. The home owner will have the option to participate in the community agriculture production. The positive and productive results of and Agriburbia™ mixed-use campus will be the combination of public and private production of agricultural products for the community and neighboring communities.

---------------------------------------------

Please 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.

“Bill Moyers” <moyersonpbs@thirteen.org>

and cc Moyersalert@milwaukeerenaissance.com, por favor
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Entrepreneurs See Opportunity Down on the Yard Farm

Posted by Kelly Spors
April 22, 2008, 10:31 am
http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/04/22/entrepreneurs

Think “farm,” and vast green pastures and red barns come to mind. Now erase that image, and think barbecues and garden hoses.
In the Journal today, I write about a new crop of suburban farmers plowing up their back and front yards to grow minifarms of bok choy, garlic and other veggies and fruits. These entrepreneurially-minded folks are meeting the demand for locally-grown organic food from neighbors and restauranteurs. And some are even finding neighbors glad to lend their yards to the cause — in exchange for fresh produce.

Kipp Nash of Boulder, Colo., grossed $6,000 from his yard farms last year. He’s expanding his venture and planting farms in eight neighbors’ yards and expects to churn $15,000. Next year? He hopes to find even more neighbors’ yards to farm.
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Why Are Presidential Candidates Silent re Industrial Food System’s Devolutionary Implications?

Perhaps 100 e-mails to Bill Moyers around this theme might make a difference.
Moyers probably understands what the local organic food movements is all about.

moyersonpbs@thirteen.org)

Dear All,

Does anyone have any thoughts that would help explain to a simple roofer
And apprentice city micro-farmer and edible schoolyard activist…

The silence of our presidential candidates regarding the
Idiocy of industrial commercial agriculture
And its de-volutionary implications?

There have been New York Times article about every week
These past few years that support to dire warnings of
Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver,
And Grace Lee Boggs’ visions of community garden’s central role
In “re-spiriting” our cities and building beloved communities…

But, to my knowledge, not one of the democratic or republican candidates
Has given any attention to the promise of local, organic agriculture,
Urban farming, and edible schoolyards.

Why not?

Why don’t we entertain a vision of 100 “urban agrarians”
Sending a request to Bill Moyers to use his wonderful show
And national standing to

Win attention to what we are about in the
Real food movements?

If you would like to be on record as having been one of the 100
Who might do this, send an e-mail to
Moyersalert@milwaukeerenaissance.com.

Viva, urban agrarians!

Cold spring day in Milwaukee, 2008
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Springtime in Milwaukee 2008: Some Photos of Our Movements and “People of Capacity”

Youth & Elder Summer Hostels in the Holy City of the Sweet Water Seas Dear All, Might any of you know sweet ones of the Holy City Who would make a room at their home available To a worthy and pleasing elder or youth Who would barter gardening, fix-up, Child care, cooking, boy/girl friday, or movement labor For room and board? Six Months of Glorious Weather Awaiting Us! Back to top The Agora and Green Weekly Web Platforms at the Renaissance Are Your On Line Bulletin Boards & Kiosks Dear All, If you would like to offer information, visions, research, articles, poems, whatever, to the Agora, Green Weekly, and Growing Power web platforms of the Renaissance please send your offering to “Tyler Schuster” <catofmanyfaces@gmail.com> and cc myself at “James Godsil” <godsil.james@gmail.com>. There are 200 unique visitors to the Renaissance each day these days, the largest number of whom stop at the Agora, Growing Power, and/or Green Weekly sites. They are for you to advance your/the cause(s). And your friends too! Invite them to take advance of the incredibly democratizing power of wiki, e-mail, and google. Viva Wiki! Viva E-Mail! Viva Google! Olde Back to top ”Bushmeat Hunting” Reduced When Fish Supply Plentiful Dear Gay, On Channel 10 last night was a young man studying depletion of wild life in Africa, especially methinks Ghana. He found direct correlation b/t poaching and supply of fish. When fish hard to come by, the people will hunt for their protein. Will Allen is on the verge of another major contribution to food security. His aquaponic system is perfect for Congo and everywhere! Bio-diversity and urban farming mighty collaborations! Today’s call for focus on urban agriculture. Next one the linking of bio-diversity with urban agrarian activists! Internationalizing the Community Garden/Urban Agriculture Movement Dear All, If you would be interested in brainstorming the development of an international yahoo group to advance the cause of organic, urban, and schoolyard farms and gardens, please send an e-mail to godsil.james@gmail.com. The organizers of a “national” conference on urban agriculture in Milwaukee this winter were astonished to find that the power and reach of the internet transformed “Pollinating Our Future” into an international conference! http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/MilwaukeeInternationalUrbanAgricultureConference/HomePage Board members and supporters of Will Allen’s Growing Power have been witness to Will’s urban farming methods being replicated and experimented with in Europe, Africa, and pretty soon Asia and Latin America. Will addressed the Royal Society in London last year; the BBC carried his interviews across the planet; the state department sent news of Will’s work to all U.S. embassies, and then helped finance a visit by four top urban agrarians to the USA who published “Edible Cities,” currently making its way to every Anglophone country wherever. http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/EdibleCities Will is already working to replicate Growing Power’s recently acclaimed fish farming model in Ghana, Tanzania, and beyond. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=741286 London Urban Agrarians Ready to Help Develop International Yahoo Group One member of the team that wrote “Edible Cities,” Ben Reynolds, has explicitly committed to work to draw upon London’s wide net of urban agrarians connections in the Commonwealth and European community to partner with U.S. urban agriculture supporters to develop an international yahoo group to advance the cause. Ben Reynolds (Network Director) http://www.sustainweb.org/page.php?id=71 Ben Reynolds worked on Sustain’s London Food Link project for several years, helping to coordinate a programme of work to develop a sustainable, local food system for London. In 2008, he was appointed as Sustain’s Network Director. Before joining Sustain, Ben worked for the Thames Estuary Partnership as a Research Assistant, primarily creating an online library containing all research relevant to the Thames Estuary including anything ranging from Agriculture through to Archaeology. Prior to this Ben was volunteering at Sustain on the Organic Targets Bill and other agricultural issues whilst studying for an MSc in the Public Understanding of Environmental Change at UCL. North American Founding Members And the USA has a group ready to spend some time brainstorming the development of an international yahoo group advancing the cause of organic, urban, and schoolyard farms and gardens. “Diana Liu” <diana1127@sbcglobal.net> Master Gardener Trainee Common Ground Garden Program University of California Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles County http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/Common_Ground_Garden_Program/ “Venice Williams” <venicewb@msn.com> Executive Director SeedFolks Youth Ministry, Milwaukee www.lutheransonline.com/lo/Kuji “Greta Gladney” <ggladney@therenaissanceproject.la> Tyler Omand <Tyler_Omand@umit.maine.edu> “Helen Loughrey MSW”<helenloughrey@comcast.net> Executive Consultant Annapolis Community Food Gardens www.annapolisfoodgardens.com “Howard Hinterthuer” <hhinterthuer@hotmail.com> Development Director, Growing Power “Martha Davis Kipcak”<mdk@bricofund.org> The KITCHEN TABLE PROJECT Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast www.slowfoodwise.org “Young Kim”<young@fondymarket.org> Executive Director Fondy Farmers Market http://www.fondymarket.org/ “Grau, Janet” <Jgrau@milwaukee.gov> Neighborhood Planner, Milwaukee Department of City Development Story Swapping Without Borders and Political Power Would not the cause in each of our nations accelerate with support from beyond our respective national borders! What say? Why not! Godsil P.S. Extending Invitations to the Wider World My daughter Bridie was able to upload about 50 web sites per hour in google search of “urban agriculture Minneapolis,” “urban agriculture “St. Louis,” etc. We could do the same for other cities of the world. Once web sites discovered, e-mail invitations to staff, board, etc. could begin! http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/InternationalUrbanAgriculture#toc14 Minneapolis www.nextstep.state.mn.us/res_detail.cfm?id=826 www.co.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/urbanPortal/tables/FishCycleITable.xls www.cityfarmer.org/subbooksmedia.html - 37k www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/23593 www.obesityprevention.umn.edu/img/assets/15421/HealthyFoodsUrbanCmty1.pdf www.fao.org/docrep/005/t1680e/T1680E09.html www.tcdailyplanet.net/ www.tndtownpaper.com/Volume8/urban_agriculture.htm Dubuque, Iowa www.preserveamerica.gov/PAcommunity-dubuqueIA.html www.nyc.cce.cornell.edu/downloads/environment/UE%20Bib%200207.pdf Quad Cities(Iowa) www.thestop.org/agriculture.php www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/02/08/features/home_garden/doc47acbab8908cd255081119.txt St. Louis www.cityfarmer.org/restrictanimals.html www.alternet.org/envirohealth/49000/ www.ruaf.org/node/500 www.mofarmersmarket.blogspot.com/2008/03/kc-center-for-urban-agriculture-is.html www.zinfullydelicious.com/urban_agriculture/index.html www.nyc.cce.cornell.edu/downloads/environment/UE%20Bib%200207.pdf www.attrainternships.ncat.org/internDetail2.asp?id=971 Memphis www.cityfarmer.org/surveyresults.html www.smartcitymemphis.blogspot.com/2007/03/unanimous-vote-shapes-new-future-for.html Baton Rouge, Louisiana www.greenlaws.lsu.edu/WHOWHO.HTM www.ldaf.state.la.us/divisions/forestry/default.asp www.connection.ebscohost.com/content/article/1021267588.html;jsessionid=EFC845F8FC5EB6B7CDB14A6BDD07B034.ehctc1 www.louisianaurbanforestry.org/winter2000.pdf www.links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0004-5608(194103)31%3A1%3C55%3ATAAOPB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G New Orleans www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/AFSIC_pubs/urbanag.htm www.blog.nola.com/judywalker/2007/08/urban_agriculture_the_fruits_v.html www.ruaf.org/taxonomy/term/64?from=70 www.urbanagriculture-news.com/urban-systems.news www.nyc.cce.cornell.edu/downloads/environment/UE%20Bib%200207.pdf Midwest Cincinnatti www.urbanagriculture-news.com/urban-systems.news www.archinect.com/schoolblog/blog.php?id=C0_357_39 www.crdi.ca/pure/ev-31817-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html www.lhds.bcu.ac.uk/strategicdevelopment/joe-nasr www.communitygarden.org/connect/links.php www.uc.edu/cdc/projects/cinci_food_congress.html www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc_num=ucin1179348306 www.links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0095(194704)23%3A2%3C130%3ASOAEAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P Indianapolis www.nuvo.net/article.php?title=cultivating_food_security www.urbanagriculture-news.com/environmental-development.news www.idrc.ca/en/ev-103775-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html www.cababstractsplus.org/google/abstract.asp?AcNo=20043152566 www.haworthpress.com/store/E-Text/View_EText.asp?sid=CP87UUDH2M6N9JX1R03SGVLBLVR0AV15&a=3&s=J108… www.creativecompositions.net/ISFA/resources.htm East Coast Boston www.thefoodproject.org/agriculture/index.asp www.thefoodproject.org/agriculture/Internal1.asp?ID=97 www.blog.thefoodproject.org/2006/urban-agriculture-conference-call-for-abstracts/ www.cityfarmer.org/booksales.html www.inthesetimes.com/article/3297/ www.davidjhess.org/BostonCG.pdf www.job-search-engine.com/keyword/urban-agriculture New York City www.justfood.org/jf/ www.nycwatershed.org/ www.agclassroom.org/kids/stats/newyork.pdf www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/03/070903fa_fact_gopnik www.agmkt.state.ny.us/ad/release.asp?ReleaseID=1403 Baltimore www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.beef06nov06,0,4308112.story www.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Industry+&+Agriculture/S-MD/T-Baltimore/ www.baltimorecountymd.gov/News/releases/0320natagday.html www.nass.usda.gov/census/census02/profiles/md/cp24005.PDF Washington,D.C. www.einnews.com/washingtondc/newsfeed-washington-dc-agriculture www.fb.org/ www.agriculture.einnews.com/washingtondc/ www.uscollegesearch.org/washington-dc-agriculture-colleges.html www.clagettfarm.org/ Back to top Journal Article on Growing Power Fish Industry Breakthrough Perched on the edge of a comeback Project aims to establish indoor habitat for tasty fish By KAREN HERZOG kherzog@journalsentinel.com http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=741286 Posted: April 18, 2008 A longtime sweetheart of the Friday night fish fry that fell on hard times a decade ago may be making a comeback in experimental waters a few miles off Lake Michigan. It seemed only fitting that 10,000 young perch would be released on a Friday into their new home at Growing Power. As biologists dumped the wriggling yellow perch from 30-gallon buckets into an 80,000-gallon, 4-foot-deep raceway, the fish quickly disappeared into an innovative system designed to mimic nature inside a greenhouse. The nonprofit urban farm on Milwaukee’s north side is in business to promote methods for growing affordable food. The farm hopes to help make perch affordable again by establishing an indoor, eco-friendly fish farming system that’s inexpensive to build and maintain, and can easily be replicated elsewhere, Growing Power founder and CEO Will Allen said. “Here in Wisconsin, we’ve had a lot of displaced farmers,” Allen said as he admired the young perch with yellowish heads and dark vertical stripes. “We have a lot of vacant barns. The cost of building this system is a fraction of what it costs (to farm fish) commercially. Imagine 50,000-gallon raceways raising perch in barns on farms.” Growing Power co-director Jay Salinas said it cost about $1,500 to build the system primarily out of lumberyard plywood. Once routinely hauled out of Lake Michigan by commercial fishermen, perch were plentiful in Wisconsin lakes until the 1990s. The fish with a sweet, mild flavor had ruled fish fries in corner taverns and church basements for decades. Then, for reasons biologists still don’t completely understand, perch fisheries collapsed, said Fred Binkowski, a senior scientist with the Great Lakes WATER Institute and a fisheries biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ocean cod was still plentiful and cheap, so it replaced perch as the fish fry staple. Perch remains a fish fry favorite for many, but it costs more than cod or haddock because it is primarily farm-raised. “Perch were born to be fried,” Binkowski said. “Perch is the best-tasting fish we have access to in Wisconsin.” Perch was selling for $13.50 a pound at Empire Fish Co. in Wauwatosa on Friday, nearly $2 more per pound than cod. Perch sold at Empire is wild-caught in Canadian Great Lakes waters, said Mary Kopplin, retail store supervisor. Perch served at the popular Serb Hall fish fries on Milwaukee’s south side is farm-raised in Canada. Binkowski said the 2-month-old fingerlings released at Growing Power, at N. 55th St. and W. Silver Spring Drive, weigh about a gram apiece, and will grow to about 120 grams - or three fish per pound - before they go into any frying pan. They’ll be fed a high-protein diet until they reach maturity. To keep the fish healthy, Growing Power’s enclosed system circulates water from the bottom raceway containing the fish through two shallow tiers above with the help of a pump. The middle tier holds watercress and gravel to capture solid waste from the fish. Salad greens such as arugula and dandelion greens are in the top water level of the system in drainage pots filled with composted soil enriched by worms. The plants and other living filter materials extract and use nitrates and solid wastes from the fish. The worms “are like little soldiers” to help keep the water clean and safe, Binkowski said. Allen hopes the worms also may become a source of inexpensive, high-protein fish food. A 90-day trial at Growing Power last year using older perch produced 800 plate-size perch. This trial, expected to last a year, will raise the 10,000 perch from fingerling to maturity. The same system has been used for 12 years to raise tilapia. Perch like cooler water than tilapia. The water doesn’t have to be heated because it absorbs enough ambient heat from the greenhouse, Binkowski said. Back to top Urban Anthropology Seeks Out-Of-The-Way Architectural Jewels for Kosciuszko Park Photo Series: Cultural Back Streets We at Urban Anthropology Inc. are opening the Old South Side Farmers Market on June 15 at Kosciuszko Park. This market will be historic and cultural in that we’ll feature a ton of vendors/products and free stuff that focus on the history and culture of Milwaukee. One such feature will be a photo series called the Cultural Back Street series. We’ve identified some incredible “finds” in terms of buildings/homes that have great historic and cultural significance (e.g., a Kashube home in Lincoln Village that had been removed from the Island in 1922). I’m interested to see what “back street” finds your group might nominate for this series. We are not interested in the usual architectural wonders, but more those out-of-the way jewels. I’d love to hear from anyone. Send suggestions to JFLanthropologist@sbcglobal.net. Jill Florence Lackey, PhD Jill Florence Lackey & Associates Urban Anthropology Inc. 707 W. Lincoln Avenue Milwaukee, WI 53215 Back to top Making Green the New Black - Video of Talk by South Bronx Activist, Majora Carter… about fighting for environmental justice, creating a green ghetto, and creating green jobs in under-served communities; a good “case study” for Milwaukee’s Inner Core. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/53 Howard Back to top The GREEN Issue (NYTs Magazine) Hi, everyone. For your leisure reading. Have a wonderful Sunday. The GREEN Issue (NYTs Magazine) http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html ACT! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Act-t.html EAT! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Eat-t.html INVENT! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20invent-t.html LEARN! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Learn-btext.html LIVE! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Live-a-t.html MOVE! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Move-body-t.html BUILD! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Build-text.html ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao Tzu ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Back to top Earth Poet Peddler Thanks Alderman Kovac for City Proclamation! Dear Alderman Kovac, Thank you for the blinding speed with which you were able to win a City Proclamation in honor of the Earth Poet’s 20th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration and for your much appreciated attendance at last night’s events at the Urban Ecology Center! At the first international urban agriculture conference in Milwaukee Winter 2008 DCD Commissioner Rocky Marcoux committed, on behalf of Mayor Barrett, to making Milwaukee “the greenest city in the nation” and announced a program to turn 220 empty lots into community gardens. Your longstanding commitment to the greening of Milwaukee will add a much needed “force” at the Common Council for this vision! There is now a site at the Milwaukee Renaissance to track your work during your first year as the greater eastside alderman. http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/KovacsFirstYear I hope someone will send me photos of you at last night’s event to enter into this site. Viva, Alderman Kovac! Viva, Earth Poets! Godsil Back to top Green Collar Jobs: An Analysis Please send an e-mail to Godsil.james@gmail.com if you would like the full report. Green job corps case study online Posted November 29th, 2007 by Tom in Innovative Solutions San Francisco State University Prof. Raquel Pinderhughes has completed a case study of implementing a green job corps in Berkeley, CA - GREEN COLLAR JOBS: An Analysis of the Capacity of Green Businesses to Provide High Quality Jobs for Men and Women with Barriers to Employment. The study can be used as a guide for developing Green Job Corps programs in other cities across the countries. Dr. Pinderhughes had spoken with me earlier this year about this research as part of her work developing a green collar job corps with the Ella Baker Center’s Reclaim the Future initiative. Green collar jobs are “blue collar jobs in green businesses, manual labor jobs in businesses whose products and services directly improve environmental quality.” This report shows that “preparing men and women with barriers to employment for entry level green collar jobs, and ensuring that these jobs are consistently made available to them, are very effective ways to bring the opportunities and benefits associated with green economic development to low-income residents and communities in the Bay Area.” The study addresses seven major questions: 1.To what extent are green collar jobs good jobs? 2.To what extent are green collar jobs suitable for people with barriers to employment? 3.To what extent are people with barriers to employment interested in green collar jobs? 4.Are green business owners willing to hire workers with barriers to employment for green collar jobs? 5.To what extent are the green collar job business sectors growing? 6.What strategies are needed to grow the number of green collar jobs? 7.What strategies are needed to ensure that workers with barriers to employment can gain access to green collar jobs? The study is a great example of collaboration between city planners, academics and local environmental justice advocates and can serve as a planning tool for extending green collar workforce development to other communities across the country. - Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. ~Mother Teresa Back to top Great Lakes WATER Institute, Growing Power, and the Urban Aquaculture Center Partnership Will Provide the Foundation for Urban Aquaculture Industry. GROWING POWER 5500 W. Silver Spring Drive Milwaukee, WI 53216 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Howard Hinterthuer Growing Power (414) 527–1546 or (262) 573–0325 Here is reassuring news for all of us who are fans of the Wisconsin fish fry in general and the gloriously delicious yellow perch in particular. Growing Power (55th and Silver Spring), with assistance from the Great Lakes Water Institute, is raising yellow perch in an aquaponic system that mimics nature. As a follow-up to a successful 2007 90-day trial at Growing Power that produced 800 plate size perch, the group will release 10,000 fish into Growing Power’s system on Friday, April 18th between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. to begin a more aggressive 90-day trial. To keep the fish happy and healthy, Growing Power’s enclosed system circulates the water through aquatic plants, edible garden plants, and other living filter materials that extract and use the nitrates and solid wastes from the fish. “It’s a system that closely replicates nature,” says Will Allen, CEO and founder of Growing Power. “In this instance there is a symbiotic relationship between the fish and the plants. The plants function in much the same way as a wetland, filtering the water and making the nutrients available to plants. We have been able to build a functioning system inside of our greenhouses, and effectively increase our overall production of food. We’ve been raising tilapia (Nile tilapia, O. niloticus) using this method for twelve years. The only difference is the perch like cooler water.” The system is of great interest to other potential perch producers. According to Leon Todd, who with Jon Bales, is striving to launch an urban aquaculture center in Milwaukee , “Such business venture systems can replenish lake perch for the dinner table… and fill up empty buildings, providing employment in Milwaukee and elsewhere.” Based upon the Growing Power model, the Urban Aquaculture Center hopes to offer aquaculture training to entrepreneurs who wish to produce fish, and educational opportunities to school groups and others with regard to natural systems, working with nature, and sustainable strategies. Todd, Bales, the Great Lakes Water Institute and others are interested in the work at Growing Power because it is providing “proof of concept” data. Says Bales of the first Growing Power trial, “Not only did the perch survive this ecologically designed system but, from one who knows, the fish tasted just great!” Here is some background from Fred Binkowski of the Great Lakes Water Institute: Aquaculture related commerce within the US Great Lakes locality continues to be an emerging industry. This region is home to approximately 29% of the US population that consumes more than one billion pounds of seafood products per year. However, the commercial aquaculture industry in this region generates less than 4% of all US production. This raises the obvious question: What are the constraints that are limiting aquaculture production within the US Great Lakes locality, and what action is required to address this problem? The Great Lakes Aquaculture Center (GLAC) at the UW Great Lakes WATER Institute has been conducting fundamental and applied research as a function of improving aquaculture technology for Great Lakes species production. This research encompasses a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines including reproduction, engineering, nutrition, fish health, genetics, and animal husbandry principles. In addition, the GLAC has been a leader in an aquaculture Training/Outreach/Education program relative to workshops, providing resource information, on-site assistance, technology transfer, etc. In cooperation with Growing Power Inc, we propose to demonstrate the potential of utilizing the existing and current urban greenhouse aquaponic systems to allow for year-round and cost-effective fish production for human consumption in a northern climate in conjunction with herb and vegetable production in a bio-secured system. This technological approach can be applied to a rural location and within an urban community. Urban aquaculture can reduce shipping costs, place the product at the center of consumer demand, and create jobs in economically deprived urban areas. We are confident that the cooperative effort between the Great Lakes WATER Institute, Growing Power, and the Urban Aquaculture Center will provide the foundation for the establishment of an urban aquaculture industry. Specific Study Parameters The “Growing Power” approach to aquaponics intentionally minimizes its reliance on the mechanically complex and higher cost system components used for indoor and year-round production Measure water quality parameters to establish the baseline environmental conditions Introduce about 10,000 young yellow perch (fingerlings) into the “Greenhouse System” Monitor the biological, physical, and chemical elements during the 7–10 day acclimation period Daily monitor: fish behavior, feeding, and water temperature Weekly measure: water quality parameters (oxygen, total ammonia nitrogen, nitrite, pH, etc.). Monthly measure and evaluate: growth performance, condition factor (plumpness), survival, and estimate food conversion Critical study parameters are: fish growth and survival, maintaining optimal environmental conditions, and production cost We believe our efforts will result in Milwaukee being recognized as “The” urban aquaculture city in America. Back to top RALLY FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS TORCH RELAY EVENT: RALLY FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS TORCH RELAY WHERE: MILWAUKEE’S CITY HALL WHEN: APRIL 16, 2008 TIME: 4:00 pm SUPPORT FROM LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Proclamation from Mayor Tom Barrett Resolution from the Milwaukee County City Counsel Speakers at the event include: Alderman Joseph Bauman State Senator Lena Taylor Julie Enslow, Peace Action Steve Watrous, Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition Andy Gralton, Sierra Club Jon Royal, Faith Community for Worker’s Justice Clarence Monteclaro, C0-President of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association-MCW Paula Simmons, former founder of Darfur Action Coalition KT reading a Tibetan Monk letter from Tibet to our Milwaukee event Tina Samuels on Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhinseng imprisoned for writing our Senators and Congress in the USA on not supporting the Olympic Games in China (he is still missing to this day). Speakers and music till 5pm then lighting of the torch followed by a procession down Wisconsin Ave. then back to City Hall with more music from KT Universal Love Band. *****Possible lighting of torch by Mayor Tom Barrett***** www.humanrightstorch.org Contact: Lisa Sim, 414–379–6275, lisa@futuregreen.net Back to top Toward A Planetary Real Food Movement From: James Godsil Date: Apr 14, 2008 9:08 AM Subject: Toward A Planetary Real Food Movement To: blueberrypancakemoments@googlegroups.com Dear All, The American Community Garden Association List Serve may well find Its members thrilled to serve as one on-line conversation Among the urban agrarians of Mother Earth! Why not? Sunny Spring Day in Milwaukee From: Ellen Kirby Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 1:31 PM To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Community_garden Digest, Vol 329, Issue 1 Dear Friends, I like Amy’s suggestion that we be reminded of listserve etiquette. I also like reading all the responses. It reminds me that I forget sometimes that the listserve purpose is to expand the base of people and issues engaged by all of us. It’s probably a challenge for new people to just jump into some of these conversations. In addition to the “etiquette”, here’s my list of guidelines. Maybe we can all add our own and see where we come out, remembering the purpose of this list serve. I’m sure there are other gardening list serves but this one helps me the most in looking at the social dimensions of gardening as well as public policies, etc. At the same time, the horticulture aspects are central to my interest. Perhaps a good New Year’s resolution if for all of us to try to make the site more helpful and substantive for our common cause, to advance community gardening around the world. I also wonder sometimes if our commentaries are US-centric. I would like to hear more from folks in other parts of the world. I know you are out there. Let us know what you are doing. Here are my personal guidelins to supplement what has already been suggested: 1. Keep on community garden topics (with a very wide concept of community gardening) as much as possible; any question is appropriate and participants will continue to be as generous as possible in helping others. Usually if the topic goes too far out, someone will shift the discussion and move to another topic. 2. Find ways to be supportive, just by listening, suggesting, writing letters, etc. Use the site to build the network and show that we have clout. Find ways to keep folks on the list serve from feeling isolated. This seems to really work with the listserve. 2. Know that community gardening includes as vast array of related topics INCLUDING public policy, politics, human relations, etc. 4. Use the delete button when you aren’t interested or don’t care about a particular topic. 5. Try to keep expanding the base 6. Give good info about horticulture 6. Support ACGA by joining the organization that makes the listserve and lots of other services available. Go to http://www.communitygardening.org to sign up 7. Give us a chance to laugh. Happy New Year. Ellen Kirby The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org Back to top Community Discussion on Quality Education “Does Education Matter Anymore?” Join friends of Milwaukee youth for good food, good people and good discussion about the role of education in the lives of our children. These festive, colorful events will be held at the Milwaukee Public Libraries: “Popular Culture and Education” How can we commit to learning? Thursday, April 17, 2008 6:00 P.M. Center Street Library 2727 W. Fond du lac Ave. 414. 286. 3090 “Media and Our Kids” How does media and technology impact learning? Thursday, April 24, 2008 6:00 P.M. Washington Park Library 2121 N. Sherman Blvd. 414. 286. 3066 “Our Kids’ Perspective on Education” Kids speak out on what is useful and how parents and teachers can help. Saturday May 3, 2008 3:00 P.M. Mill Road Library 6431 N. 76th St. 414. 286. 3088 Come to express your interests and exchange facts on quality education. Back to top Tucson Citizens Build Garden In Path of Proposed Roadway Tucson, Arizona: Community builds autonomous garden in path of proposed roadway On Sunday morning the intersection of North 9th Avenue and 6th Street was witness to the unusual sight of approximately 30 volunteer workers digging holes, planting plants, and installing park benches on some vacant ground just north of downtown. Consisting of a variety of concerned people, including neighborhood residents, staff of nearby businesses and non-profits, and visiting youth, the group spent most of the day building what a new sign announces to be the “Ramona-Magon Memorial Garden and Autonomous Community Park.” Created without city involvement, the new garden is meant, according to one participant, to be a protest and obstacle to the city’s proposed, and highly controversial, Downtown Links project. Downtown Links is the latest plan to connect the Barraza-Aviation Parkway to Interstate 10, a highly contested and ever-changing scheme that has been in progress for decades. The project would include a 4-lane, high-traffic road, and the newest alignment for the road would call for it cutting right through the vacant land where the new garden is now installed. Neighborhood stakeholders are upset because this road would evict several local organizations and businesses, including BICAS (the nonprofit bicycle education organization), in addition to cutting off and isolating the Dunbar-Spring neighborhood from downtown. Discussion and argument continue between planners, officials, and stakeholders. One Dunbar-Spring resident stated after a March 11 meeting on the issue “The way this process is happening is totally disrespectful of downtown residents and this might mean we need to make more noise…. The City Council is making the decision. They need to hear from us… how many neighborhoods, businesses, and individuals are against the new alignment and the process that created it. Meanwhile, the volunteer gardeners plan to return to the site regularly to add to and maintain the plants, and they strongly encourage community use of and involvement in the garden. More information about Downtown Links can be found on the city of Tucson’s Downtown Links website, http://downtownlinks.info for photos see http://www.flickr.com/photos/steev/sets/72157604329360028/ Back to top Reclaiming Vacant Lots: A Philadelphia Green Guide http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/phlgreen/vacantland.html Back to top Meeting to Plan for 220 Vacant Lots Hopefully Transformed into Urban Food Gardens, April 24 Land Tenure Meeting ‘hosted by Milwaukee Urban Gardens’ MISSION STATEMENT: Milwaukee Urban Gardens acquires and preserves land and partners with neighborhood residents to develop and maintain community gardens to enhance the quality of life. MUG was formed in 2000 by a group of individuals who lost their community gardens to public and private development projects. Frustrated by loss of their community gardens and many others in Milwaukee, the founders of MUG created a land trust in order to purchase and develop vacant land for community gardens. As a land trust, MUG is able to ensure the long-term protection of land for public benefit. Since 2000, MUG has led the development, preservation and beautification efforts of ten sites in the city of Milwaukee. MUG now holds title to four properties, including Greenfolks Garden in Riverwest, Village Roots Garden in Bay View, and Hocking Heritage and Spencer Gardens located in Milwaukee’s Northwest side. WHEN: Thursday, April 24, 2008 4:00pm WHERE: Milwaukee Environmental Consortium 1845 N. Farwell Ave., Ste. 100 Milwaukee, WI 53202 AGENDA Objective: The purpose of the meeting is to develop a 'Vacant Land Use Manual' to present to the City of Milwaukee. The manual will address concerns, such as: settling ownership issues, developing a site plan, and creating a long-term maintenance strategy for vacant land parcels. - Land Tenure Committee Structure - Vacant lots in Milwaukee Breakdown by neighborhoods Who currently owns the land -Define Land Tenure vs. Land Stewardship. - Research Materials: Community Garden in Milwaukee, Procedures for Their Long-Term Stability & Their Importance to the City, produced by the Department of Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, May 13, 2003, prepared for Milwaukee Urban Gardens Managing Vacant Land in Philadelphia: A Key Step Toward Neighborhood Revitalization Reclaiming Vacant Lots: A Philadelphia Green Guide http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/phlgreen/vacantland.html Gather other examples and city policies regarding the use of vacant land. Explore green city strategies (Portland, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia) -220 Lots: Document the location and condition of each property listed on the 220 (Vacant Lots, Available – Adjoining Owners) List. Photograph and start a file for each property. Erin Kanuckel Community Garden Coordinator Milwaukee Urban Gardens 1845 N. Farwell Ave., Suite 100 Milwaukee, WI 53202 p: (414)−431–1585 f: (414)−273–7293 erin@milwaukeeurbangardens.org www.milwaukeeurbangardens.org Back to top Call for Artists - Rain Barrel Exhibit & Auction Artists and friends of Sustain Dane are invited to participate in a unique event: Rain Barrel Exhibit & Auction. Artists are asked to use their creative talents to decorate a Sustain Dane RainReserve™ rain barrel. A committee will select eight finalists by April 18th to display their rain barrels with artist information at the 2008 Art Fair on the “Green” Square put on by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Saturday, July 12th and Sunday, July 13th. The projected audience for this event is 200,000 individuals. After Art Fair on the “Green” Square, all entries will be sold via an online auction to raise money in support of Sustain Dane’s efforts. For more information visit: http://www.sustaindane.org/Files/CallforEntries.pdf Bryant Moroder Executive Director t: (608) 819–0689 e: bryant@sustaindane.org www.sustaindane.org Back to top 20TH ANNIVERSARY PERFORMANCES of the EARTH POETS and MUSICIANS, April 18 and 19th 20TH ANNIVERSARY PERFORMANCES of the EARTH POETS and MUSICIANS, April 18 and 19th For their 20th Anniversary Performances, four of the original poets, Jeff Poniewaz, Louisa Loveridge-Gallas, Suzanne Rosenblatt, and Harvey Taylor, and the two musician members of the group, Jahmes Finlayson and Holly Haebig, will continue to transform inconvenient truths into conscientious action. The performances will also feature a special guest, activist and poet James Godsil (www.milwaukeerenaissance.com). FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2008 7 P.M. Interactive Poetry and Music for the Whole Family 8 P.M. Earth Poets and Musicians Jahmes Finlayson, Louisa Loveridge-Gallas, Holly Haebig, Jeff Poniewaz, Suzanne Rosenblatt, Harvey Taylor, and SPECIAL GUEST: James Godsil URBAN ECOLOGY CENTER 1500 E. Park Place $5.00 Per Person, $10.00 Per Family, UEC Members Free www.urbanecologycenter.org/ SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2008 8 P.M. (same performers) THE COFFEE HOUSE 631 N. 19th Street (Just South of Wisconsin Ave) www.the-coffee-house.com/ Donation: $5.00: Proceeds to benefit the Earth Poets and Musicians Outreach Project and website on milwaukeerenaissance.com Click here for more info and to visit the Earth Poets home page. Back to top The Death of Dr. King In The Words of Robert Kennedy Robert Kennedy’s speech the night Martin Luther King was killed. As you watch it is easy to discern that he was not working from notes, but from his heart. Some say, this is one of the most important political speeches of our times. The last two minutes of this Video is sound track from Kennedy’s own assassination 2 months later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPYNb4ex6Ko Back to top Calm — and Hope — in Indianapolis By Ron Klain Ron Klain was a member of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign policy and debate preparation staff. (Full biography.) As a Hoosier, it’s exciting for me that the Indiana primary — for the first time in a long time — will be an important part of the Democratic nomination contest. With so many people despairing of the long and hard-fought Democratic primary campaign this year, it’s worth remembering what happened 40 years ago, on April 4, 1968, during the last time that the Indiana primary was this significant. On that night, Robert F. Kennedy was scheduled to give a campaign speech in downtown Indianapolis, when news of the assassination of Martin Luther King reached him. Rejecting the advice of many around him, Kennedy continued toward the inner-city playground where he was to give his speech, undeterred by a police warning that they could not provide him with protection if things got out of control. There, a raucous, happy crowd — unaware of the tragedy in Memphis — waited for the candidate to arrive. Kennedy informed the gathering of King’s death, and an audible wail of agony rose from the crowd. (You can see a home movie of the dramatic event by clicking here.) He then delivered, extemporaneously, one of the great speeches in American history. Some of the words from that speech are etched near Robert Kennedy’s grave site at Arlington National Cemetery; they still speak to us today: What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. Riots, fires and violence broke out in more than 100 cities in the United States that night — but not in Indianapolis. A park and a memorial to nonviolence now stand at the spot where Kennedy’s words made such an incredible difference that night. His widow, Ethel Kennedy, is scheduled to appear there on Friday, as part of a campaign swing through Indiana on behalf of Barack Obama. For me, the story of this event isn’t only historical, it’s personal. A few weeks before that fateful night, during an earlier swing through Indiana, the Kennedy campaign was looking to film a TV commercial at a small business that was operating in an “urban renewal” area. The advance staff found its way to a family-owned plumbing supply company downtown, near the site where Kennedy later gave his April 4 remarks. That plumbing supply business was my father’s, and on that March day, 40 years ago, when I was 7 years old, I met Robert Kennedy — a meeting that fired my interest in politics and changed my life. A photo taken that day of Kennedy and my family still hangs in our house, a treasured political relic. In the days after April 4, 1968, my father explained to me that — unlike a lot of other small businesses in other urban areas around the country — his business remained standing and undamaged because of the man we had met. Ultimately, the “ripple of hope” that Robert F. Kennedy launched that night failed to achieve its full potential because he was assassinated just two months later, but the power of words, of the best that campaigns have to offer, were impressed on me for good. Forty years later, whenever I hear people say that a politician’s speeches don’t matter, that campaigns are a waste and that the sort of conflict we have in the 2008 Democratic primary is “destructive,” I think of Robert Kennedy’s words in Indianapolis that night — a speech that would have never happened but for the hard-fought, highly competitive 1968 primary campaign — and the millions of people like me who were inspired by them and their impact on that city. For all the complexity and conflict in the 2008 race, the anniversary of the Kennedy speech reminds us that campaigns can leave lasting legacies of activism and idealism. I see it in my own children this year, a son who is a rabid “Obamafan,” and a teenage daughter who is a devoted “Hillarista.” They are part of a new generation, for whom the 2008 campaign will be their “1968″ — the start of a lifetime of involvement and participation in politics. With the Democratic Party set to nominate the first-ever major party African-American or female candidate this year, we are not just remembering history — and the vision of social change that Robert Kennedy so brilliantly set forth on April 4, 1968 — we are living it. Back to top Some Children Are Better Taught by Their Parents Some children are better taught by their parents, Like it’s been for the previous 3,000 generations Of village life. It’s only in the past 3 to 5 generations, in the main, That children have been thought to acquire more From formal educators than their mothers and fathers, Aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas. Certain kinds of children, the more spirited, The more sensitive, the more exuberant ones, Might be especially deprived by the lack of parental mentors, And the presence of employee teachers in bureaucratic settings, Who really are not meant to “deal” with these kinds of youth. A lot of our so-called ADD kids would do just fine Working with their parents in certain kinds of Personalized work study dramas Tailored for each unique child, As only a parent can do! Rainy Day in Milwaukee March 31, 2008 Back to top David Luce Race Stories from 1940s to 21st Century USA This is from a highly respected Milwaukee professor(retired). The “Al” I’m writing to is a retired professor living in Oregon. He and Maria had been classmates at the Hollabunner Gymnasium, in Austria. Al was distressed by the highly publicized statements made by Senator Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and I wrote the letter you see, below, as a way of expressing my own view of the matter. It turned out to be a rather personal narrative, including some rough language. I hope no one is offended Dear Al, I promised to write you to explain how racism and racial segregation and dis crimination in the United States have touched my life -- indeed, have in some measure shaped my life. I have thereby acquired attitudes, different from yours, relating to the recently publicized statements about race by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. I can agree that those statements were badly phrased and impolitic. But they hardly deserve the blast of negative publicity they have been receiving. The statements point to important truths about Americans and American history -- and beyond that, to truths about democracy and the human condition, and to a truth that Calvinist and other Christian traditions call “Original Sin.” (Wright’s denomination has Calvinist roots.) The thesis I would urge is this: A good many well-meaning white Americans can honestly say that as far as they themselves, personally, are concerned, they have good intentions (or are indifferent) on matters of race. But they also think that as good neighbors (or as good citizens, or as legitimately concerned businessmen, etc.), they have to recognize, and defer to, the strong negative feelings about race that “others” have. And it is that deference that determines their conduct. Let me explain my personal connections with the matter. I could begin with my parents -- good people, if not better than average. But when I brought one of my high school buddies home with me on the school bus, so that we could listen to 78 rpm records and continue our never-ending argument as to who was the greater, Gene Krupa or Duke Ellington -- my parents were concerned. He was black. Their worry was, “What if his parents should invite *us* to *their* house? While still in high school I enlisted in the U.S. Navy. I was called to active duty in August, 1944. It was there, at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, that I had my first encounter with official government-enforced segregation: an all-black unit in training -- “hup, two, hup two” -- right across the street from the main entrance. A year and a half later I was stationed in Key West. On my way back to Key West after a holiday leave, I had another disturbing encounter with segregation. The train from New York made its first Florida stop in St. Augustine. Almost everyone in the car I had been traveling in went out on the platform for the fresh balmy air. But a lady who had been quietly sitting across the aisle from me all the way from New York was not allowed to return. The conductor stopped her and told her to get her things and move to “the car for colored people,” newly attached to the end of the train. I really felt bad. I wanted to do something. But I felt so helpless! It was clear that no one on the platform was at all inclined to intervene. No one rebuked the conductor. No one demanded that the woman be allowed to return to her seat. I had another encounter with segregation on my very last day in Key West. It had a happier resolution. I and a buddy were on our way to our respective discharge centers: mine in Boston, his in Baltimore. The first leg of the journey for both of us was the bus trip to Miami. Our conversation in the waiting room was disrupted by a sharp command addressed to my buddy, “Boy, the waiting room for coloreds is over there.” Well, at that point we didn’t want to challenge The System by attempting to integrate the Colored Waiting Room. (In uniform or not, we might get arrested.) So I said to my buddy, “Let’s wait outside,” which we did. No further problem. It was not too long a wait. Hanover, New Hampshire, two or three years later. Dartmouth. I’m taking a sociology course on race relations in the United States. Our assigned readings are the various studies that entered into Gunnar Myrdal’s great work, *The Negro in America*, then fresh off the press. There is one student (not a member of the class) whom I enjoy teasing. He’s from the deep south: a nice guy, but a staunch supporter of the segregation he was brought up in -- and not very well informed about it. I put a question about voting rights to him, but I can predict his answer. Yes, that very response is forthcoming: “But they’re not ready for it.” Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1955. A nice liberal college town, right? Well, not according to the long-time black residents. And I have two stories. One is a grim story of finding an apartment for myself and a black roommate. I had been evicted from my apartment downtown when my black friend moved in. But it was summer, and there were many “Apartments for Rent” notices. I didn’t think there would be a problem. Each time I checked out a notice, though, I would ask the landlord or landlady -- before concluding the deal -- whether the fact that my roommate was a Black American made any difference. And time and time again I would get the response: “Oh! I’m afraid that does make a difference. I’m not prejudiced, you understand. I love people of all races and colors. But I have to think of my neighbors and how they might react. I’m afraid I cannot rent you these rooms.” (One lawyer with an apartment to rent behind his office told me, “The clients visiting my office might see him!”) All this, of course, was several decades before “Fair Housing” rules became routine in many localities. (I’m pleased to think that here in Milwaukee, my marching with Father Groppi had made a difference. I remember the great time when I and my two boys celebrated communion around the altar at St. Boniface with Father Groppi officiating. He was celebrating his release from jail -- he had disrupted a session of the State Legislature. It had been an act of civil disobedience and he had been duly punished.) The fun story from my Ann Arbor days involves a factory on the edge of town. (Small towns in Michigan often have their auto parts factories. Many of the workers come from the Appalachian regions, where factory work is scarce. The migrants I came to know were all white; it could be that the factories just didn’t hire black workers.) It sounds hard to believe, now, but I was almost thirty years of age, working in one of those auto-parts factories, when I heard, for the first time, a woman use the word “shit.” She was from Tennessee, and she stretched the word into a full three syllables: “Oh, shee-yit!” (I’m sorry, but at this point my story, to be rightly told, has to include some even rougher language.) The guy sharing my work-station, on the left, was from Kentucky. We didn’t have many common interests. But at one point he turned to me and asked, “Didja ever fuck a nigger?” The question startled me but I allowed that I had not. He assured me that he could make the arrangements, if I’d like to try it. I just let it all pass. But it occurred to me how utterly shocked that fellow from Kentucky would be, if I told him something that was in fact true: that at that very time I was dating a young black woman, a student studying Art at the University. This nasty talk makes me think of one of my drinking companions in Key West -- Leroy Sims, as he would proudly introduce himself -- Leroy Sims, from Anniston, Alabama. “I’m from the South,” he would add. One time the conversation around the beer table turned to sex. (Surprise!) Someone asked Leroy if he’d ever had sex with a Negro. “What!” said Leroy. “I’m from the South, and you ask me if I’ve ever had sex with a Negro!” (Actually, the words used were the common vulgar verb and the equally vulgar noun.) Leroy went on to describe the time he was left at home alone with the housemaid -- the rest of the family was out shopping -- and he took the housemaid upstairs and raped her. “Rape” was not the word Leroy used, but rape it surely was: resistance, or any complaint from her, and she loses her job. If she goes to the police, the police will hear Leroy’s denial and she -- if she persists -- will be accused of bringing false charges against an upright young man. So here you have something of my background, Al. But stay with me: racial segregation Southern style was to hit me even harder. The account of my Arkansas adventure that follows is from a letter I wrote to the Philosophy Department at the University of Michigan on December 9, 2004. In 1957 I received my degree and happily went off to my first job, at the University of Arkansas -- in Fayetteville, northwest corner of the state, some 250 miles from Little Rock. But I found that all the talk there, in Fayetteville, was about Little Rock. The Arkansas NAACP won a lawsuit asking for the de-segregation of the public schools in Little Rock. The de-segregation of Central High School was the first step. A small group of black students were to be admitted in September. Community groups all over the city had been working hard to ease the strains and the tensions of de-segregation. The prevailing view was that it would be accomplished without violence. But Orval Faubus was Governor, and he was of a different mind. As you probably know, he called out Arkansas’ National Guard to *prevent* the de-segregation of Central High. The segregationists discovered they had a friend in a very high place, and the political situation wholly unraveled. In the course of the year that followed, the Arkansas Legislature investigated the NAACP and officially declared it to be a subversive organization. It implemented its finding with a statute prohibiting any agency receiving State funds from employing any member of the NAACP. The statute had teeth: the head of the agency would have to reimburse the state out of his or her own pocket if any salary money went to members of the NAACP. But how do you recognize members of the NAACP? The legislature solved that problem easily. It enacted another statute (“Act 10″) requiring all public school teachers (the language included university professors) to file affidavits listing all the organizations that they were members of, or contributed to, or had belonged to or contributed to within the past five years. (Act 10 had one loop-hole: it said nothing about the organizations that one’s *spouse* belonged to. In fact many faculty wives at the University of Arkansas belonged to the NAACP.) The U. of A. Chapter of the AAUP led the battle against Act 10, and the national AAUP carried the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The AAUP won: “Shelton v. Tucker”, 364 U.S. 479(1960). (See AAUP Bulletin for September 1959, March 1960, December 1963.) But to us in the U. of A. Philosophy Department in 1958, that ultimate Supreme Court victory was of no avail. Two of the three senior professors in the Department had mortgages on their homes and kids they were sending to college. They would sign the affidavits. The third senior professor was planning to retire in two years, and had just purchased a farmhouse on a hill-top as the place where he and his wife could spend their final years. But Fritz Friedman knew oppression. He was a German Jew. When Hitler came to power he moved to Italy. He found some degree of security there — one of his students was the son of the head of Mussolini’s secret police. (Fritz enjoyed telling that story.) But then the Anti-Semitic laws were passed, and Fritz had to get out his student’s connections made it possible. When he arrived in England, however, World War II had already begun; he carried a German passport; and he and his family were thrown into a concentration camp as enemy aliens. Well, he and his family did manage to make it to the United States. He found the security he wanted at the University of Arkansas. But he was not going to sign that Act 10 affidavit! So we three younger persons in the Philosophy Department had a model to follow. If Fritz was willing to put at risk his job, his pension, and that farm, what excuse could we have, with so much less at stake! In the summer of 1959 there were dismissals and the six-person Philosophy Department was reduced to two. I had it easy, however. Through correspondence with Herbert Feigl I managed to get a temporary 1-year appointment at the University of Minnesota. So I was able to resign my position at Arkansas “before push came to shove.” (This ends the excerpt from my letter of 12/9/04) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - And in the actions of the Arkansas legislature one sees democracy rampant: majority rule unchecked by law, majority rule unchecked by concerns about human rights, majority rule unchecked by the sense of outrage felt by the rest of the world. Isn’t this the occasion for speaking of Original Sin? (Is it the temptations of the flesh that are so dangerous? The glorification of Race and Nation seem much more dangerous.) One point to make is that Democracy is not a self-correcting enterprise. If the great mass of the citizenry become obsessed by some passion -- be it a fear of witches or a lust for war, the maintenance of a slave system or a hatred of foreigners -- one cannot rely upon the system itself to curb the passion. The officials who occupy the high places are popularly elected. Their power, their authority, and their influence depend precisely upon the popular support they can muster -- and the ability to win an election is a significant measure of that support. So even “the good guys” have to be politicians. They have to be willing to compromise their positions, to make the necessary trade-offs, to do the wheeling and dealing. (Who are the good guys? Well, we might be able to agree on Lincoln and FDR, we might be able to agree on Jefferson and others among the Founding Fathers -- but I think of the late Senator William J. Fullbright, from Arkansas. He did so much in his time to ease the strains of the Cold War -- but had to sit on his hands on civil rights issues, if he was to accomplish anything at all. Of course, the American system is not a straight majority-rule democracy. The Constitution puts constraints on what majorities can do; there is a recognized concept of Law; and there is, especially, the principle of an independent judiciary -- a system of courts that is not the tool of any transient majority, a system of courts where Reason has some chance of prevailing. But how secure is tnat “independent judiciary?” The people hate it: it thwarts their will. We have evidence of this in the resistance to the school desegregation decisions that we saw in the 1950s, we have evidence of this in the angry howls of “judicial activism!” that we heard when state courts (Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey) ruled that the equal-treatment-under-the-law principles embedded in their respective constitutions trump both tradition and the popular will with respect to gay rights and same-sex unions. So there is a real question about the courts’ ability to enforce their rulings when wide-spread hostility exists. In the federal sysem, the Supreme Court has neither the power of the purse (which belongs to Congress) nor the power of the sword (which belongs to the Executive Branch). How then can the rule of law prevail?) The only long-run solution that I can think of is for persons of good-will everywhere, in all walks of life, to recognize everyone’s obligation to reach out to their neighbors, to resist hurtful passions, and to insist always on sound principles of Justice and Fair Play. To put on a mask of neutrality or indifference is to walk away from the duties of citizenship. Thanks for reading this far, Al. Dave Luce Back to top Project for a Directory of Artists of Color in Wisconsin Back to top ”Growing Your Community Food System: From the Ground Up” Workshop April 19 & 20 There are still openings available for those wishing to participate in this successful program (Scholarships are also available) Growing Power, Inc in conjunction with The USDA Risk Management Agency SARE: Sustainable Ag. Research and Education “Growing Your Community Food System” is an intensive, hands on training workshop offering diverse groups the opportunity to learn, plan, develop, operate, and sustain community food projects. Project participants leave the workshop with improved skills that they can take back into their communities and pass on to others. These workshops are for both rural and urban projects. These workshops put organizations, projects, and food producers in touch with each other to help build collaborations and long-term sustainable partnerships. COST: $300 (cost includes 5 meals) for the Saturday and Sunday workshop. Limited scholarships are available. Workshop Sessions include: Aquaculture/Aquaponics Bee Keeping Community Project Design Living Biological Worm Systems Ethnic Marketing & Distribution Animal Health Click here to download more information, as well as a schedule and an application. Back to top Seeing Green: Art, Ecology, and Activism: Digital Arts and Culture at UWM Seeing Green: Art, Ecology, and Activism opens Saturday, April 12, 5:00–9:00pm at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, WI. Seeing Green encourages artists to leave the confines of the studio and take an active role with the community, to collaborate and address issues of the environment, and to open a dialog with the public. Guest curator Nicolas Lampert invited over 40 local artists to work on a project for the duration of eight months. During the month of April, 2008 the show will be exhibited at Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the gallery will serve as a hub space, informing the viewer and the public of the many environmental projects taking place throughout the city, exhibiting visual work and books, screening films and holding discussions and events based around the exhibition. Calendar: Seeing Green opens at Woodland Pattern Book Center (720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, WI.) on Saturday, April 12, 2008, 5:00–9:00pm Additional events: Reading by California author Rebecca Solnit, Sunday, March 30th, 2:00pm Curator talk by Nicolas Lampert 4:30–6:00 / Film Screening, Wednesday, April 16th, 7:00–9:00pm (Screening of 5 minute films and videos on urban ecology issues by: Lane Hall, Lisa Moline, Lindsay Holden, Brandon Bauer, Ray Chi, Laura Klein, Eddee Daniel, Suzanne Rosenblatt, Spencer Tepper, Zachary Nesgoda). Artist/Scientist/Community Activist talk, Wednesday, April 23rd, 7:00–9:00pm (presentations by Susan Simensky-Bietila, Chris Cornelius, RiverPulse) Artist/Scientist/Community Activist talk, Wednesday, April 30th, 7:00–9:00pm (presentations by Raoul Deal and Larry Adams; Mary Osmundsen, Andrea Fuentes, Jose’ Medina, Monica Gonzalez and Adolfo Garcia; Lane Hall, Lisa Moline and Dr. Rudi Strickler) Seeing Green is co-sponsored by UWM Cultures and Communities/Institute for Service Learning Co-Sponsorship Award, the Milwaukee Arts Board, and the Windhover Foundation. http://seeinggreenartshow.wordpress.com/ Back to top Useful Checklists for Starting Your First Business” Monday, March 17, 2008 by Becky McCray http://www.smallbizsurvival.com/2008/03/checklists-for-starting-your-first.html “I just got my first paying side gig! Now what? Am I a business? What do I have to file? How does all this work?” If you are active in the world of social and creative media, you may find yourself with an unexpected offer to accept advertising, do some consulting work, or speak for pay. If you don’t have a business of your own, or are new to starting businesses, you’re probably at a loss for some of the details of what you need to do. So let’s work them out, keeping everything as simple as possible. How do I ‘become’ a business? You set up a structure. If the business is just you, or will be just you for a while before expanding, then a sole proprietorship is probably best. There’s nothing you need to do in advance, nothing special to file until tax time, and you can now deduct many new expenses. You can always change structures later, in case you grow. In the USA, a sole proprietorship just means you add two new pages to your annual tax return. That would be a Schedule C to show your income and expenses, and a Schedule SE to figure your self-employment tax. You also need to establish your start date. This can be the point when you actively started trying to get clients, or the point when you agreed to your first paid gig if it was a total surprise. From that point forward, any expense that qualifies is deductible. What qualifies as deductible? Any reasonable and necessary expenses related to your business. So any money spent to connect with clients or potential clients, to do your work, or to get necessary equipment to run the business. For example, you can deduct: web hosting, web design, domain names, etc. the business percent of your cell phone, including data plan part or all of your home internet service, based on how much you use it for business business cards or any other business promo items computer equipment software used in the business paper, ink cartridges, and office supplies ipod, etc. (if it’s related to your line of business, like podcasting) camera, etc. (once again, if it’s reasonable) contract labor or subcontractors professional fees, like legal or accounting meals and entertainment with clients if you discuss business before, during or after conference registrations mileage driven for business tolls and parking fees for business trips other business travel expenses, including motel and airfare Miles are deducted on a flat rate, currently 50.5 cents per mile. That flat rate includes fuel and vehicle repairs, so you don’t need to track those separately. (No need to save gas receipts!) Each January 1, record your current odometer reading, so you can figure your total miles driven. Mileage as a whole is a complex topic. Commuting isn’t covered, but driving to a meeting with a collaborator or to a client’s site is. You might want to read more info on mileage expenses. The whole point is that you probably have enough qualifying expenses to offset your income, so you won’t owe any self employment tax. Records Make a business folder, accordion file, box, what have you, for receipts and records. Receipts: original receipts are best note the business purpose right on the receipt on meals and entertainment, note who was with you if you are missing some receipts, go online, and print out replacements from the vendor or your credit card track expenses by category on a spreadsheet For a bit more about expense tracking, read Simplified accounting for side businesses. Calendar Your calendar is an important business record. It helps support where you were and when and who with, and that’s important to establishing what is deductible. So keep it complete, and be sure to print out a copy at the end of the month and put it with your other records. note client meetings and meals note all business travel, including miles driven Banking As a sole proprietor, there is no requirement that you have a separate bank account. It’s much better from a record-keeping perspective, but not required. The bank account will still use your social security number, but you can put your business name on it. Licenses Now, don’t tell anyone I told you this, but it’s pretty unlikely that you need to file any business licenses if you are just consulting, speaking, writing, podcasting, etc. If you aren’t selling any taxable services and aren’t having walk-in business traffic, you might not even be required to file anything. Some jurisdictions may require a general business license or DBA (doing business as) filing. Ask around with others in your area, because this varies significantly from place to place. Contracts When you work on your own, you’ll find yourself signing frequent contracts. Most times, you’ll have to start with what the client provides, but don’t sign blindly. Now is a good time to line up a legal adviser who can quickly read and respond to any contracts you receive. If you’ll be providing contracts for your clients to sign, ask some other independent pros in your field for a copy of theirs. That will be the best starting point. Insurance Any business includes some liability. I recommend you read Insurance and the Home Based Business for an introduction. What else? That should get you started. It’s inevitable that you’ll have questions! Feel free to post them here, and Maesz (who contributed a bunch to this article) and I will put together some follow up articles on the next most important topics. Back to top ”Human Urine As A Safe, Inexpensive Fertilizer For Food Crops” ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2007) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008093608.htm Despite the ‘yuk!’ factor, urine from healthy individuals is virtually sterile, free of bacteria or viruses. Naturally rich in nitrogen and other nutrients, urine has been used as fertilizer since ancient times. Urine fertilization is rare today. However, it has gained attention in some areas as farmers embrace organic production methods and try to reduce use of synthetic fertilizers. In the new study, Surendra K. Pradhan and colleagues collected human urine from private homes and used it to fertilize cabbage crops. Then they compared the urine-fertilized crops with those grown with conventional industrial fertilizer and no fertilizer. (Read the rest at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008093608.htm) Back to top Apprentice Urban Farmer Suggests College Degree Not Only Way to the Good Life Higher education is not always useful I think the nation would be better served were we to face up to a basic fact: College education for some, for many, is not the way to the good life. In fact, the myth of college education as the way to the good life considerably contributes to “surplus suffering.” Many parents chain themselves to dehumanizing work situations to pay for college education for their children, many of whom profit little or nothing from the experience. Many parents torture those of their children who are not college-inclined and pressure them into spending big bucks and lots of time on an “educational experience” the children don’t want and often can’t use. How many of us know friends who majored in a hot subject only to find upon graduation and big loans that the hot subject was now overpopulated and next to worthless in the job market? How many of us know friends who got generalist degrees conferring insights and a sensibility they could have picked up by an experience of self-education with street/pub/work/Google mentors without enduring the costs of a college degree? Why not recognize that certain young people’s personality or life situation precludes college but not on-the-job education and self-teaching of the kind that marked much of humanity over the centuries? Apprenticeships with artists, artisans, knowledge workers, small business owners and the like is, for certain young and older people, a much more likely source of career and life “success” than the college route. We do ourselves a disservice assuming there is only one road to Rome. James Godsil Apprentice Milwaukee urban farmer Milwaukee Click here for the original Milwaukee Journal Sentinel page. Responses Alright godsil! There are many ways to get an education. I dropped out of high school b/c of adolescent difficulties and sheer boredom. I took another route to education, which benefited me far more than most of my college-educated peers (except in that bigotry against non-degree holders in certain realms of the workforce remains a big problem). Here’s to creative ways to educate ourselves, our children and our community! si se puede! Sura Faraj Back to top Rain Garden Workshops/Plants for Root/Pike Watershed Citizens/Groups FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.rootpikewin.org/RainGardenInfo.pdf The Root-Pike Watershed Initiative is launching a new Rain Garden Initiative this spring. Our goal is to sponsor the installation of at least 25 rain gardens. Thanks to funding from SC Johnson Fund, Racine Community Foundation, E.C. Styberg Foundation and Wisconsin Energy Foundation, Root-Pike WIN will fund 100 percent of the cost of native plants for a Demonstration Rain Garden that is open to the public, and 50 percent for private Homeowner Rain Gardens, both up to 300 square footage in size. Rain gardens are just what they sound like, gardens that soak up rain water, mainly from a roof, but also from a driveway and lawn. The garden fills up with a few inches of water that slowly filters into the ground rather than running off to storm sewers. According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, one rain garden on a quarter-acre lot can reduce annual runoff by 25 percent. By reducing runoff, rain gardens can be valuable part of improving water quality in our streams, rivers and lakes, reducing flooding and replenishing groundwater. Rain garden hosts can be homeowners, schools, fire stations, churches—any entity with a site that can capture rainwater from a downspout, parking lot or driveway. We are offering Grant for Plants, free Rain Garden Workshops, and more. Sign-up for a Rain Garden Workshop & get free native plants Pre-registration required Sign-up for one of four free workshops, including a hands-on workshop where you will build a rain garden. You’ll learn about planning for a rain garden, selecting a good site, designing the garden, choosing plants, excavating the site, planting, maintenance and more. Participants will receive a coupon for free native plants. Register your rain garden Get free native plants! We want to keep track of the rain gardens in our watershed so we can calculate their impact on storm water runoff and water quality. If you have built a rain garden on your own, you’ll get six free native plants for taking the time to register it with Root-Pike WIN. Apply for a rain garden grant We will fund 100 percent of the cost of native plants for a Demonstration Rain Garden that is open to the public, and 50 percent for private Homeowner Rain Gardens, both up to 300 square footage. New Direction for Root-Pike WIN The Rain Garden Initiative represents a new direction for the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network. This is first time that Root-Pike WIN, a granting organization, will implement its own project. However, we will have a lot of help from UW-Extension, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wild Ones-Root River Chapter, and the many other organizations and individuals who have inspired us to take the lead on a project to address polluted storm water runoff in our watershed. [[#top/Back to Top}} ”Growing Power 2008 Highlights” February 11th to March 10th Tuesday February 12 – Growing Food and Justice Initiative Large Group Call Wednesday February 13 – Will meeting with Kate Halfwassen for her Green Roof project Will tour with the Neighborhood House to talk about future project Friday February 15 – Shorewood High’s Global Action Committee Tour at GP February 15 - 17 – Growing Power March Workshop “Urban Agriculture/From the Ground Up” Special speaker for Saturday dinner: Dr. Barry Colley Monday February 18 – Will with Toronto group who attend the workshop Tuesday February 19 – Becky from the Green Pages interview with Will for story with the Journal Sentinel Will Tour with Marcia Caton Campbell group Wednesday February 20 – Will Interview/Video for Outposts “Farmer of the Month” Will meeting with Kate Halfwassen (Green Roof Project) February 21 – 23 – Will at The Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference Will was a speaker on Friday March 22 February 23 - 26 – Will in Florida for the NIFI Meeting to develop NIFI as an independent organization Wednesday February 27 – Will interview with Exclusively Yours magazine Article to appear in the next issue Thursday February 28 – Tour with the Lisbon Ave Neighborhood Center/Urban Waldorf School kids (50 kids) February 28 – March 1 – “Pollinating Our Future” Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Conference Friday 29th Compost Workshop/Tour at Growing Power Saturday at the Hilton –Growing Power Booth Presentations by Will, GFJI and GP Chicago Tuesday March 4 – GFJI steering committee call Will tour with UAC- Argosy Foundation Wednesday March 5 – Will meeting with Kate Halfwassen (Green Roof Project) Meeting with Discovery World Thursday March 6 – Will meeting with Wilbert St Julien to discuss future Volunteer Op Jay on Panel discussion at UWM (Organic Farming in Wisconsin) Friday March 7 – Will workshop with Hank Lynch group (Akron Ohio) Will meeting with Shawn Perrin and Sam Macklem Saturday March 8 – Hiram College arrives to work for one week Back to top Vets4Peace/Winter Soldier I think Winter Soldier - Afghanistan and Iraq is likely to become as much a part of history as the original Winter Soldier hearings on what really happened in Vietnam. It’s hard for the Generals to glorify the war and tell how well everything is going when the Privates who do the actual work are saying it’s a bloody mess and we’re losing. IVAW will send live streaming video and audio of the Winter Soldier testimony through their web site http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier/howtowatch Peace Action will be projecting the video at their office on Keefe and Weil in Milwaukee - it would be good to have a vet or two there for any questions or comments. I will be in DC to help prevent disruptions. John Zutz Patriot missiles: Iraq Veterans Against the War. After Vietnam, American veterans testified to the atrocities they witnessed. Now soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are about to do the same http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3444835.ece March 2, 2008 Ariel Leve Some of them will be okay. They will live with the secrets. They can dissociate from what happened in combat because it was part of the job. It was what they signed up for. They will keep the secrets out of duty – the silence is part of a code, and they honour that code above all else. But for others, the secrets they keep are like a poison, slowly releasing toxins of shame and remorse. Who can they tell anyway? They talk to each other – other veterans who have seen what they’ve seen, done what they’ve done, and who can relate to the burden of carrying these secrets for the rest of their lives. In 1971, the protest group Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered at a hotel in Detroit. More than 100 veterans talked about the atrocities they had witnessed in southeast Asia. The event lasted for three days and was named Winter Soldier after Thomas Paine’s famous article. “These are the times that try men’s souls,” he wrote of the terrible winter of 1776, when Washington’s ragtag, demoralized army turned the tide of the War of Independence. The Vietnam vets, spurred on by the court martial of Lt William Calley, who had ordered the infamous My Lai massacre, wanted to turn a tide too – against public opinion, to demonstrate that the execution of hundreds of innocent villagers in 1968 was not an isolated incident as so many believed. The Winter Soldier event received little coverage in America, but was the subject of an internationally acclaimed documentary of the same name. This month, for four days in Washington, DC, beginning on March 13, there will be a second Winter Soldier gathering – 37 years after the first. Organized by the protest group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan since the 9/11 attack on New York will testify about their experiences. They will present photographs and videos, recorded with mobile phones and digital cameras, to back up their allegations – of brutality, torture and murder. The veterans are not against the military and seek not to indict it – instead they seek to shine a light on the bigger picture: that the Abu Ghraib prison regime and the Haditha massacre of innocent Iraqis are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “bad seeds” as the military suggests, but evidence of an endemic problem. They will say they were tasked to do terrible things and point the finger up the chain of command, which ignores, diminishes or covers up routine abuse and atrocities. Some see it as their responsibility to speak out – like Jason Washburn, a US marine who did two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq; Logan Laituri, a US Army forward observer in Iraq; and Perry O’Brien, an army medic deployed to Afghanistan in 2003. They believe that, as veterans, they are the most credible sources of information. They say they were put in immoral and often illegal positions. They will speak about what they saw, and what they were asked to do. Jason Washburn, 28, grew up in San Diego, California. He always wanted to do something to make a difference, and he enlisted in the US marines in December 2001. He wasn’t itching to go into combat, but he wanted the training. He fought in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 where, he says, he met little resistance. Most people were surrendering. “There were massive amounts of artillery strikes before we even invaded. We saw the results of that. Streets full of bodies – women and children – body parts, extremely indiscriminate. I’m talking about rolling through villages here, not military encampments.” He was told there was a military structure in one village. “I didn’t see it. I didn’t see any army uniforms. Or weapons. All I saw were civilians.” Washburn speaks slowly and with obvious discomfort. This was his introduction to Iraq. “I still believed everything we were force-fed: weapons of mass destruction and possibly even a nuclear weapon. We felt, like, we’re going to go in, overthrow this evil dictator and give these people some peace, finally. We thought we were doing a good thing.” Over the course of his three tours, there were more home raids than Washburn can remember. He explains how it worked. “Usually it was based on a tip – we’re told someone in the home is an insurgent. We would pick up people who had nothing to do with anything, keep them locked up until they came up with something.” He is glad that he didn’t witness some of the techniques used to get them to talk. “That’s not something I want on my conscience.” It was not a scientific process. Most tips came from people with personal grudges. Washburn and his platoon would kick down the doors in the middle of the night. He was warned not to be complacent. There could be weapons in the children’s beds. In all of the home raids, too many to count, he never found children with weapons. They would take the father away and they never knew what would happen after that. By the time Washburn served in Haditha he was on his third combat tour. He was there on November 19, 2005, the day of the massacre when 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed, including women and children. “My squad was doing medivacs out of the town. I was not there to witness the shooting, but I know many marines who were.” It was a squad in his unit that went on the rampage after their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED). “I have a lot of feelings about this incident. A friend of mine from my first two tours was in that squad. He was the guy they gave immunity to to testify against the squad leader. “The people on the ground are looking at serious prison time. Like life. The people who were giving orders were only relieved of command. And I don’t think that’s right.” Washburn says Haditha was not an isolated incident. “It’s the one that just happened to be uncovered.” The establishment view is that war is hell and terrible things happen for the greater good. That killing is necessary. That there are those individuals acting on their own who will always smear the honourable actions of the military – men like Washburn, traumatised by war, who are emotional casualties whose testimony is to be mistrusted. Some regard him and the Winter Soldiers of 2008 as traitors for daring to question their commanders and for prosecution of the war. But there are too many like Washburn to shout down. Many of the orders that combat soldiers were given were not written – but they were understood. At the Winter Soldier event, veterans’ stories will be corroborated by other veterans; backed up by the volume of testifiers who have witnessed the same things – in different units, years apart and in different countries. There will be up to 100 veterans and, at present, 80 of them have submitted testimonies. Most will be enlisted men and women: privates and sergeants. They have been made aware of the consequences of taking part. Not just that they are likely to be denounced by their fellow veterans, but the psychological and perhaps legal consequences they may face by admitting to witnessing, or even perpetrating, war crimes. The National Lawyers Guild, an organization of civil-rights attorneys, has volunteered to offer advice. Mental-health professionals will also be on hand to offer counsellings. Organizers stress that the goal is to hold the policy makers accountable, not their immediate commanding officers. Nobody is permitted to name anyone below the rank of captain. After the hearings, all the testimonies will be entered into the congressional record. There will be a live video stream on the web. There will also be panels of journalists and scholars to provide context and history. Perry O’ Brien, who served as a medic in Afghanistan in 2003, is one of the Winter Soldiers on the verification team, which will ensure the testimonies are watertight, lest falsehood undermine the message. The order that O’Brien’s team is hearing most from the testifiers is the “shovel order”. “Anyone carrying a shovel or any sort of implement that could be used to bury an IED could be considered a target,” he says. “After dark, you can shoot anyone who is outside. Or anyone who puts anything on the side of the road can be considered a target. You won’t find it in writing, but it’s an order indicated to soldiers.” If not in writing, how can it be proven? “If we have enough soldiers testifying, it will be.” Washburn says the most dangerous job in Iraq “has to be a taxi driver”. He tells two stories of taxi drivers being shot, both innocent victims. One driver was deaf and didn’t hear the command to halt. The other was at a checkpoint in the Haditha area. “It was the mayor of one of the towns who was driving, and he was shot and killed. They found out after they shot him. My squad had to apologise to the family. We paid reparations. I don’t know the exact amount. But let’s see: money or a dead husband and father and mayor? People weren’t happy about that.” During Washburn’s first Iraq deployment in 2003, his unit was told to capture a “rabble rouser”. “We kick down the door and all we find are a few women holding babies and a couple of kids. We were ordered to take the babies away and put sandbags on the women’s heads, tie their hands behind their backs, put them on their knees facing the wall. Here I am zip-tying these women, and my buddy is standing next to me holding these babies asking what do I do with these kids? We stood there, like, oh shit, what do we do? The squad leader came in and shouted, ‘Everybody is bagged and tagged – everybody!’ So we did it.” The babies were put down on the floor. After a few hours everyone was untied. Inappropriate and immoral actions weren’t just aimed at Iraqi civilians. There was frequent hazing – the mistreatment of soldiers by their comrades. Some were exercises in pure humiliation, common in most military units, like singing I’m a Little Teapot while others stand around laughing. But some were brutal physical punishments, such as calisthenics in a sleeping bag with a gas mask on in scorching heat. “It’s one thing to do 20 push-ups. It’s another to burn us to the point of exhaustion in combat theatre. There were guys that tried to speak out about it and that made it worse. That would get punished more.” The futility of speaking out was bolstered by knowledge that complaints would get as far as the commanding officer of the company and no further. “They kept everything in-house.” Another incident he describes was a step beyond hazing. He and another marine had had a disagreement. The punishment was that they were tied together – and sent out on patrol. “Outside of the camp, in a war zone tied together, patrolling? Insane,” he says. Washburn’s anger comes from a feeling of betrayal. “I thought I was signing up to do something honourable. “What happened at Abu Ghraib,” Washburn says, “is those orders came from the top. If the policy makers and the commanders can dehumanise their own troops, why wouldn’t they dehumanize the Iraqi people?” So far, the most vocal opposition to the Winter Soldier event has not been from the government, but from pro-war groups such as Vets for Freedom, the largest veterans’ organization in America. Their executive director, Pete Hegseth, a veteran who served in Baghdad and Samarra with the 101st Airborne Division, has criticized the Winter Soldier event. In an article in The Washington Independent, he asks: “Did your company commander tell you to shoot women and children, or to maximize casualties? No! We don’t do that. To talk about systematic brutality is essentially indicting the military as being complicit in war crimes.” But, as we shall see, there are ways to encourage illegal actions other than direct orders. Hegseth suggests that speaking out might have more serious consequences: homes in the Middle East have internet access, this kind of information will reach them and affect the attitude towards US troops still over there. But Perry O’Brien doubts that speaking out will foster more anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan and Iraq than the killing of civilians and the dismantling of the infrastructure. After serving in Afghanistan for eight months, there was a slow revelation that triggered his shift. “Everything that we were doing seemed almost designed to create more terrorists. To turn people against America. I couldn’t understand how we were liberating anyone. But I could understand how an Afghan person who was ambivalent about America could easily become an extremist based on their interaction with American soldiers.” Resolute pro-war organizations such as Gathering of Eagles are gearing up, getting ready to make their presence felt. They are chartering bus-loads of protesters to show up at the event to confront and harass the “traitors”. The veterans who will be testifying at Winter Soldier are prepared for their integrity and credibility to be called into question. Before anyone can testify, they must go through the verification process and be interviewed by a team of combat veterans whom they hope will be able to instinctively detect lies. IVAW is particularly vigilant since Jesse Macbeth joined in 2006 and represented them publicly at various events. Macbeth’s accounts of military service as a veteran of Iraq were false, which he admitted in federal court in 2007. Since then the organization has demanded proof of service, and every member must have a DD-214 – their Pentagon-issued personal-service record, which proves where and with whom they have served. Members are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire. Under the heading Killing or Wounding Noncombatants, Prisoners or Unarmed Combatants, they are asked: “Did you witness or participate in any of the following: Civilians hurt or killed at checkpoints? Purposeful killing of civilians or unarmed combatants? Killing or wounding of prisoners? If yes, was this unit SOP [standard operating procedure] or common practice?” Some other headings include: Mishandling and Mutilation of War Dead; Torture or Abuse; Rape, Sexual Assault or Harassment; Theft or Fraud. When the testimonies begin on March 13, we shall discover how damaging or revelatory their stories will be. Perry O’Brien has confidence in the process. “Someone coming into our organization and trying to pretend they observed something they didn’t – they can only maintain that for so long.” Once the stories are told, each is to be researched by interviewing other members of the soldier’s unit. The verification team has recently decided that anyone fabricating their experience or pretending to be a veteran will be handed over to the authorities and charged with violating the Stolen Valor Act, a law signed by President Bush in 2006. Perry O’Brien admits that he had hero fantasies. He was born on March 24, 1982, and grew up on a small island off the coast of Maine. After two years studying philosophy at university, he decided to enlist in the army as a medic in 2001 – two weeks before 9/11. It was a coming- of-age-ritual, influenced by the movies. He had the romantic idea that he wanted to save lives. He did not come from a military background. His father works at a hardware store and his mother writes and illustrates children’s books. In January 2003, O’Brien was deployed to Afghanistan for eight months. While he was there, he had many experiences that made him uncomfortable. Several times he witnessed an Afghan civilian die on the operating table after treatment from a mobile military surgical unit. Rather than prepare the corpse for the family, O’Brien witnessed the surgeons and the medics use the body to practice on. “One doctor said, ‘Come up and feel his heart!’ This is what a heart feels like.’ “ Half the platoon, if not more, participated. Daniel Paulsen, 27, was there and corroborates this story. There are photographs as well. Someone had grabbed O’Brien’s digital camera and taken photographs of the heart and the medics walking around and poking it. These photographs were taken for fun. Eventually the chest of the corpse was closed up. “It was a total violation of our medical oath to use a corpse for medical training,” says O’Brien. “What’s particularly terrible is that these were all doctors that had practices back home – they were familiar with the law and the Hippocratic oath. There was such a huge disconnect between the way they treated Afghans and the way they treated American patients. “When Americans died, the corpses became these sacred objects that were treated with tremendous care. There was this solemn funerary attitude around them. When an Afghan died, it was [as if they were] treating them like they weren’t human. “My goal is to expose that these things are happening. And that they are the result of military leadership – part of an unofficial policy of dehumanization.” In 2004, while still on active duty, O’Brien attended a protest at Fort Bragg. There he met Mike Hoffman (a founder of IVAW) and joined the organization shortly after leaving the army. He felt relieved. “Suddenly I knew that I wasn’t the only veteran who was questioning what I had seen and done.” Kelly Dougherty, 29, is a co-founder and executive director of IVAW. In 1996 she enlisted in the National Guard as a medic while she read biology at the University of Colorado. On January 10, 2003, she received a call; she had been transferred to a military police unit – and she was being deployed to Iraq. Dougherty was opposed to the war and surprised by her deployment. In February 2003, she arrived in Kuwait and then moved to Iraq in March. Her unit was stationed in the south near Nasiriyah, where she often did convoy escorts and patrols. “You put it out of your mind when you’re over there. And then you get back and reflect on it… “The soldiers and marines are just doing their jobs, doing what they were trained for or what they were told to do when they got over there. Things that seem really horrible just become routine – and they are implicitly or explicitly condoned, or encouraged, by the commanders and the policy-makers.” The offices of IVAW in Philadelphia are humble but busy. The group now has more than 700 members in 49 states, Washington, DC, Canada, and on military bases overseas. I meet Logan Laituri there one afternoon and we sit down over a soft drink to talk. He has a gentle and sensitive manner. His enlistment wasn’t a patriotic stand, but more of a pragmatic decision. He didn’t know what else to do. He became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg. “I had no accomplishments outside the military. I didn’t feel that I would be missing out on much.” There was also a financial incentive. “Every soldier knows that you earn a crap-load of money in combat. Above and beyond my pay cheque I earned $800 a month – and all that’s tax-free. And everything is paid for in Iraq. You can save every single penny. That’s a lot of money you can save for your future.” He was deployed to Iraq in January 2004, having switched to the 25th Infantry Division. When Laituri got to Samarra, they kicked down the doors of a building and found a police officer in uniform. “Through his interpreter he was telling us that he’d been waiting, and he had all the records. I thought to myself it was great initiative and it displayed insight. “We handcuffed him and someone took it upon themselves to punch him in the stomach – what made me feel worse was watching it and not doing anything about it.” As he talks, Laituri seems visibly troubled that he stood by watching this man beaten up. And he admits that so many of his feelings of being in Iraq are wrapped up in what he didn’t do: “What I saw happen and I didn’t say or I didn’t correct. I survived at the expense of Iraqis. I could have said something.” But the fear of being isolated from the platoon prevailed. Beating up prisoners, abusing the bodies of Afghans, innocents shot dead in the crossfire of fear and threat – these things get lost in the mayhem of war – but other acts, if they become institutionalized, can “try the souls of men” and cannot be so easily dismissed. Laituri was in Fort Irwin, California in May 2006 during a pep talk at the National Training Center. He alleges that a commander made a speech to his company, and that he “made it clear to us that if an innocent person was shot he would stage a scene to protect us”. The explicit message was: “We would make sure there was a weapon found at the scene.” Units go into combat believing that they will be protected from any repercussions. They feel like they have a license to kill and often they do. In 2007, the officer was relieved of his command after a death on June 23 last year in the vicinity of Kirkuk. He is not currently a suspect and was never charged – but two soldiers who were under his command have been charged with premeditated murder. Last month a top army sniper testified in military court – under immunity – that he had ordered a subordinate to kill an unarmed Iraqi man, then planted an AK-47 assault rifle near the body to back up a false claim of returned fire. But who is ultimately responsible: the individual or the officer? The combatant or the culture? And why is it always the junior ranks who are charged? On a February morning at a cafe in Brooklyn, New York, Perry O’Brien is explaining the difference between the “book way” and the “real way”, and the significance of the “three-stomp signal” that is used to differentiate between the two. “If someone is giving a briefing and they stomp their foot three times after what they are saying, it means ‘disregard what I just said’. For instance, ‘Make every effort to avoid civilian property damage,’ stomp stomp stomp – (means) ignore that. The idea is that when you get back (from combat), anything that you did the book way can be spoken about – but not what was done the real way.” It isn’t just between the book way and the real way, he says; it’s become between the honorable way and the immoral way. Perhaps even more tragic is that now, for many, these lines have blurred. “People join the military wanting to be honorable. They follow a code of conduct – they have to. It’s what separates them from mercenaries.” The common denominator that links all of these veterans’ stories is a profound disillusionment about the war. All of these soldiers signed up with a belief that what they were doing was noble. Despite the lessons of Vietnam, or maybe because of them, they wanted to participate. “The book way was we treat everyone the same…” Perry smiles and taps his foot three times. “You are ordered to do things that are clear violations of our conscience and what we know to be moral. It’s not even what’s prescribed by the Geneva conventions. It’s what every human being knows to be right and wrong. We’re asked to do things that violate that and told it’s about the war, but you can never tell anyone because we need to protect them from that. “I think that certainly it’s our duty to protect American civilians from the physical reality of wars. That’s our goal. To prevent the American public from having to participate in war and get hurt and put their lives at risk. That’s what we volunteer to do. “But I don’t think we’re protecting America if we’re not telling our stories and keeping what we do secret.” Back to top Global Climate Change Conference, Milwaukee UW-Milwaukee is planning a conference on Global Climate Change and Sustainable Development, at the DoubleTree Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisc., April 24 & 25, 2008. Registration fees for this two-day conference is only $95, thanks to sponsors and co-sponsors of this conference (Lafarge, We energies, Headwaters, ACAA, UWM Graduate School, UWM College of Letters & Science, UWM Lubar School of Business, UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and UWM Center for By-Products Utilization). I would like to invite you to come to this conference. Featured speakers include Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, Chairman of Governor Doyle’s Task Force on Global Warming (also CEO, Wisconsin Public Power Inc.) Roy Thilly, UWM Provost and Vice Chancellor Rita Cheng, and UWM Vice Chancellor Colin Scanes. Attached here is the latest program for this conference. You will find detailed information at the Internet site http://www.cbu.uwm.edu Over 35 speakers are scheduled for this two-day conference. The following sessions are planned: Effects of climate change on ecological systems (Gretchen Meyer); Urban planning for CO2 reduction (Nancy Frank); Global climate change and health (Anne Banda); Concrete, the green building material for the 21st century (Tarun Naik); Impact and opportunities of climate change (Marc Haines); The promises of renewable energy (David Yu); International energy dimensions of climate change (Hamid Mohtadi); Carbon neutral architecture in light of 2030 challenge (Jim Wasley); Great Lakes responses to climate change (Harvey Bootsma). Each of these nine sessions has three or four speakers. A Poster Session about current research is also being organized. We would welcome additional presentation of posters. I will very much welcome and appreciate your help in spreading the word also. Please distribute the announcement to your colleagues/co-workers and any other people interested in knowing about this conference. Please feel free to post this announcement at your Internet site too. Hope to see you in next month. Cheers, Tarun Tarun R. Naik, Ph. D., P. E. Research Professor and Academic Program Director, UWM Center for By-Products Utilization Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanics College of Engineering & Applied Science University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 3200 North Cramer Street Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211 USA http://www.cbu.uwm.edu Back to top Local Food… Local Fish! Milwaukee Urban Fish Production March 2008 11 http://www.riverwestcurrents.org by Jon Bales Jon Bales is founder of a new Milwaukee organization, the Urban Aquaculture Center, dedicated to demonstrating how urban fish production can become a sustainable food producing industry. Milwaukee has an unprecedented opportunity to remove itself from its rustbelt city image and move in a purposeful direction using a new set of tools. It can do this by embracing the latest in green innovation and becoming recognized as a leader in urban agriculture. Many local organizations are working tirelessly to bring the local food movement into the city with new urban ideas, encouraging future generations to get back to the land and grow and eat close to home, rather than importing from places far off. “Pollinating our Future,” a conference at the end of February, sponsored by the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, addresses barriers to urban agriculture and brings together a diverse group of urban agriculture presenters. The Urban Aquaculture Center, a proposed large-scale production and educational facility, is hoping to bring Milwaukee into the twenty-first century in terms of fish production and to provide an innovative solution to several environmental problems involved with fish. Past “Peak Fish” The first humans were pushed out of being hunters and gatherers because of changing conditions. Anthropologists tell us that the Neolithic Era began when the human population replaced hunting and gathering with farming practices, which became a more practical means of ensuring a consistent food supply. An exception to this new practice of farming was gathering fish from the oceans and lakes all over the world. When it comes to fisheries, we are still hunting and gathering with modern efficiencies that have put the earth past “peak fish.” A team of North American and European marine biologists and economists reports that at the current rate, our ocean’s fisheries will collapse by 2048. It is now evident that this practice of gathering fish is unsustainable. Marine capture fisheries have reached a ceiling, and we humans must now contemplate the alternative and refine our fish farming skills. As aquaculture continues to feel the pressure to expand, research and development must keep up to minimize the difficulties inherent with this emerging industry. Proper design, analysis, and implementation of an urban fish farm are necessary to insure its success. This means a thorough feasibility study is needed by the stakeholders, including the public. Generally, a government’s commitment to provide increased support to the aquaculture sector is a prerequisite for the sector’s sustainable development. Farming fish as an urban enterprise needs to be developed with the best management practices available. Sushi Anyone? The United States lags behind Asia, particularly China, which accounts for over 90% of the world’s aquaculture. We import fish from far-away countries which results in a seafood trade deficit of over $8 billion annually. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which makes a comprehensive study of the state of the world’s aquaculture every two years, the US, Canada and Mexico combined account for only 1.3% of the world’s aquaculture. China leads the world as the largest producer and consumer of farmed seafood, accounting for almost 70% of the total. Viable cities of the future will require a consistent, clean source of protein, produced locally, under secure conditions. We cannot be surprised if in the future we see a ban on the harvesting of fish from the wild for all purposes other than recreational fishing in order to preserve what remains in the world’s depleted oceans. Thinking in Cycles Within ten years, the industry of aquaculture will supply most of the fish protein consumed in the world. The reason will be that we simply cannot sustain the wild capture of fish where sizes and numbers are diminishing, and whose bodies contain increasing amounts of undesirable pollutants such as mercury and PCBs. Aquaculture systems involving organic polyculture or using water to grow top-of-the-food-chain species, and then reusing it in descending order by less dominant marine species such as shrimp and snails, is more sustainable than a monoculture system. Finally, the nutrient-rich effluent water is used by plants to mimic the same carbon cycle begun billions of years ago. Plants thrive on the waste products of other plants and animals. Cities need to begin farming fish for a variety of reasons. Foremost is the shortage of certain well-known favorites such as yellow perch, which has declined substantially from Lake Michigan. Cities are where the market and labor pool are, and in Milwaukee there are plenty of vacant buildings and plenty of fresh water. In a recirculating system, the water can be cleaned up, possibly by plants, and reused. With a bio-mimicking technique, fish farming could be combined with growing plants and made into a profitable urban industry. Urban Aquaculture The Urban Aquaculture Center was founded with the idea of demonstrating how urban fish production can occur in a sustainable manner. The Urban Aquaculture Center is currently seeking funding and a location where it can house an educational campus to showcase sustainable urban fish farming practices. http://www.urbanaquaculturecenter.org Back to top 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 Back to top National/Local Guests: 4th Street Forum_FARMERS IN THE CITY: BACK TO THE FUTURE? People in cities are planting gardens again. It’s called Urban Agriculture. Some think the gardens might help alleviate poverty and other social problems. Do they? Each forum is taped in front of a live audience for later broadcast on Milwaukee Public Television, Channels 10/36. The forums are free and open to the public. Come and be a part of the discussion. Participate by asking questions of the panelists. Bring your lunch or purchase it from Historic Turner Restaurant. FORUM DATE AND TIME: FEBRUARY 29, NOON - Special Recording on FRIDAY WHERE: Milwaukee Turner Hall, 2nd Floor, 1034 N. 4th Street (4th and Highland) CAN’T ATTEND? Milwaukee Public Television will broadcast this forum on Friday, FEBRUARY 29, Channel 10, 10PM and Sunday, MARCH 2, Channel 36, 3PM. It will also run on Time Warner’s, “Wisconsin on Demand,” (WIOD), Channel 1111. All programs will be available for checkout from your local public library. Podcasts of the programs will be posted after broadcast at www.4thStreetForum.org. MODERATOR: ENRIQUE FIGUEROA, Ph.D., Director, Roberto Hernández Center, UW-Milwaukee GUESTS SHARON ADAMS is the co-founder of Walnut Way Conservation Corp, located in the Milwaukee central city neighborhood of Walnut Way. Their members have rebuilt houses and transformed vacant lots into productive gardens and orchards. By doing so, they have decreased crime and increased job-training opportunities. MARCIA CATON CAMPBELL is the Milwaukee project manager for the Center for Resilient Cities. Ms. Caton Campbell works in collaboration with the Milwaukee County Parks, the City of Milwaukee, and community groups to revitalize blighted outdoor spaces, including playgrounds. JAC SMIT is the president of The Urban Agriculture Network (TUAN), which is based in Washington DC. As an international spokesperson for urban agriculture, Mr. Smit has lectured on the topic in over thirty countries. CHUKOU THAO is the director of the National Hmong American Farmers (NHAF), located in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Mr. Thao works with immigrant and minority farmers – Hmong, Hispanic, African American, Cambodian, Vietnamese – to find the right markets for their crops and to help them receive a fair price for what they grow. THE WEEKS AHEAD: We’ll be on a short break but will return the 3rd week in March. MARCH 20 - TRANSPORTATION GRIDLOCK: GOING NOWHERE IN THE 21st CENTURY? MARCH 26 (special recording on WEDNESDAY) - MILWAUKEE’S NEXT COUNTY EXECUTIVE Who has the vision, the capability, to run Milwaukee County? Lena Taylor or Scott Walker? Tune in is as the candidates present their plans for Milwaukee County’s future. Check our website for updates. QUESTIONS? Deidre A. Martin Director 4th Street Forum 414–272–2833 4thStreetForum@gmail.com www.4thStreetForum.org 4th Street Forum is sponsored by the Milwaukee Turners, co-sponsored by Milwaukee Public Television, and in collaboration with UWM Milwaukee Idea. Back to top Modjeska Youth Theatre presents Fiddler on the Roof March 7th through the 16th Back to top Max Samson’s Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre presents

Thank you,

Max Samson
414–975–2669

Max Samson’s Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre to Perform The Ballad of Josef K at Vogel Hall March 28-April 13, 2008

Milwaukee, WI—February 16, 2008—The Ballad of Josef K, adapted from Franz Kafka’s The Trial, will be performed at Vogel Hall, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts Thursdays through Sundays, March 28-April 13, 2008. Following the Milwaukee engagement, the show will play at the Illusion Theatre in Minneapolis from April 8th through 18th. Life size puppets perform the tale of Joseph K, a bank clerk who finds himself accused of unknown crimes. As he struggles to discover the nature of the charges against him and establish his innocence, he only becomes further entangled in the inexplicable, world of a secret court.

Original music and lyrics, written and performed by recording artists Thunder in the Valley, capture the circus-like terror of Josef K’s world. The Ballad is written by John Schneider, a founding member of Theatre X, and will be directed by Rob Goodman, founder of First Stage Children’s Theatre. The puppet Josef K will be acted by Jonathan Wainwright; the cast includes Flora Coker, Brian Miracle, Michael Pettit, Tom Reed, Desi Rosas, John Schneider and Tom Weisgerber.

In the wake of the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act and successive episodes of illegal wiretapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition, Kafka’s tale has powerful resonance for our times. The Ballad of Josef K dramatizes that the degree to which a society restricts individual rights and privacy has psychological, sociological, spiritual and aesthetic consequences for the entire culture.

To address the issues raised by the play a symposium will be held Saturday March 29, 2008 at 8:30am at UWM’s Zelazo Center, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee, WI. Senator Russ Feingold will give the keynote address. An interdisciplinary panel and plenary session will follow. For a full description, visit http://www.balladofjosefk.com/Symposium.htm.

Milwaukee Show Schedule (Vogel Hall)
Thursdays through Sundays, March 27th – April 13th

PREVIEW: Thursday, March 27, 2008, 7:30 p.m. (NOTE: Guests to “pay what they can” at the door.)

Thursdays: April 3rd, April 10th, 7:30 p.m.

Fridays: March 28th, April 4th, April 11th, 8:00 p.m.

Saturdays: March 29th, April 5th, April 12th, 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

Sundays: March 30th, April 6th, April 13th, 2:00 p.m.

Ticket Prices

Performances on Thursday, Saturday at 4:00 p.m., and Sunday: $19.00, Students & Seniors $12.00

Performances on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m.: $24.00, Students & Seniors $17.00

NOTE: Groups of ten or more should contact the box office to receive a 20% discount.

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets are available through the Marcus Center Box Office (414–273–7206 or www.marcuscenter.org) or Ticketmaster (414–276–4545 and at all Ticketmaster locations).

Background on the Milwaukee Mask and Puppet Theatre and Key Personnel
Max Samson’s Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre presents The Ballad of Josef K, adapted from Franz Kafka’s The Trial.

Background: The Milwaukee Mask and Puppet Theatre
In recent years, The Milwaukee Mask and Puppet Theatre has collaborated with Theatre X (Loss of Breath: The Unfinished Life and Death of Edgar Allan Poe, and The Apollo of Bellac), with First Stage Children’s Theatre (Einstein: Hero of the Mind , Stones of Wisdom, and Smoldering Fires), with the Milwaukee Public Theater (The Dream Carnival), and with the Milwaukee Dance Theatre (Fair and Balanced). Over the last decade, they have toured extensively in the Milwaukee area. Their shows are eclectic, featuring many styles of puppets including hand puppets, small 12-inch to enormous 18-foot rod puppets, 10- to 15-foot tall backpack mounted puppets, marionettes, and modified tabletop bunraku and full sized bunraku puppets and varied masks.

Background: Max Samson (Artistic Director of Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre)
Max Samson joined the Bread and Puppet Theatre of New York in 1969. In 1972–73 he built puppet shows while living in Israel where he founded the Heavy Bulky Puppet Company and performed throughout Israel and toured Europe performing The Epic Saga of Captain Classic. He returned to Milwaukee in 1973 and was a founding partner of Century Hall where he did theater with Paul Sills and puppetry with the Carnicus festival. He retired from a career in the business sector to devote himself to playing with dolls, and for the past 15 years he has been Artistic Director of Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre.

Background: Rob Goodman (Director)
Rob Goodman founded First Stage Children’s Theater, Wisconsin’s premiere professional theater for young people and families, in 1987 as the Producing Director. Before starting First Stage, he directed at a number of theaters around the country including Playmakers Repertory Theatre in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for two years, and he spent eight years at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Rob’s directing work at the Milwaukee Rep focused on new play development in their Court Street Theater. He has continued the development of new plays at First Stage by commissioning over 25 new plays and working with playwrights James DeVita, Kermit Frazier, Stephen Dietz, Kevin Kling and Y York directing her play, River Rat and Cat at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City. Rob received an MFA in directing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served as Vice President of ASSITEJ-USA, the national organization of professional theatres for young audiences, and is a member of Actors Equity Association and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Background: John Schneider (Writer)
John Schneider is a founding member of Theatre X, the experimental theatre which closed at the end of 2004 after 35 years of internationally acclaimed productions. He was the company’s artistic leader, resident playwright, and frequent director. He is the founder and director of Project Non-Violence, in which he guides inner city teenagers to create original plays for their peers on subjects of consequence to their lives. Since 1999, he has been a part-time faculty member of the Theatre Program of Marquette University, teaching advanced scene study, playwriting, play analysis, theatre history, and disciplines of movement. He directs, acts, and writes for Marquette. Since 2000, he has received an Artist in Communities grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board, an Edward D. Simmons grant and a Dean’s Award from Marquette, a President’s Award from St. Norbert College, and an Outstanding Crime Prevention Award from the Milwaukee Exchange Club for Project Non-Violence.

Background: Dean Holzman (Scenic Design and Construction)
Dean Holzman is designer-in-residence at the Illusion Theatre and a sculptural artist.

Background: Thunder in the Valley (Band)
Thunder in the Valley band is writing and performing the music for this show. They recently returned from a national performing tour and have released three CDs.

Senator Russ Feingold to Keynote Interdisciplinary Symposium at
UW-M on “Civil Liberties Through the Prism of Franz Kafka’s The Trial”

Milwaukee, WI—February 16, 2008—In the wake of the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act and successive episodes of illegal wiretapping and extraordinary rendition, this symposium convenes on the occasion of the Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre’s presentation of The Ballad of Josef K, an adapted version of Franz Kafka’s The Trial at Vogel Hall, on March 28-April 13, 2008. Kafka’s tale of a man arrested and executed on charges, which are never revealed to him, has powerful resonance for our times. The Ballad of Josef K dramatizes that the degree to which a society restricts individual rights and privacy has psychological, sociological, spiritual and aesthetic consequences for the entire culture. This symposium proposes to investigate the complex outcomes from the imposition of “necessary” restrictions on individual liberties. The symposium integrates theatrical expression with scholarly and public policy analysis of the tension between individual liberty and collective security.

The symposium convenes with an address by the Honorable Senator Russell Feingold, lone dissenter on the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001. Following Senator Feingold’s address, there will be an interdisciplinary panel made up of scholarly commentators from numerous disciplines addressing the issues raised by the tension between civil liberties/privacy and national security. Finally, a plenary session will bring academic participants together with members of the Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre and the audience to discuss the central issues that have been raised.

Senator Feingold will be introduced by Rita Cheng, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The symposium is sponsored by UWM Comparative Ethnic Studies Program and The Milwaukee Mask & Puppet Theatre.

The panel presentations include:

Biographical Information

Background: The Ballad of Josef K at Vogel Hall
Max Samson’s Milwaukee Mask and Puppet Theatre presents The Ballad of Josef K, adapted from Franz Kafka’s The Trial and performed at Vogel Hall, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts Thursdays through Sundays, March 28-April 13, 2008. Following the Milwaukee engagement, the show will play at the Illusion Theatre in Minneapolis from April 8th through 18th. Life size puppets perform the tale of Joseph K, a bank clerk who finds himself accused of unknown crimes. As he struggles to discover the nature of the charges against him and establish his innocence, he only becomes further entangled in the inexplicable, world of a secret court.
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2008 GREAT AMERICAN CLEANUP!

Sweet Red Cherry Tomatoes From Your Harambee Garden

Have you ever wished to venture forth beyond
Your primal ancestral circles
And see what’s up in the village
Across the river from your own?

Have you ever longed for sweet red cherry tomatoes
So fresh and juicy the old world
Protestant or Catholic in you worries that
Eating them might be some kind of carnal sin?

Have you ever felt the joy of sacred fatigue
At the end of a workout in rich soil
Hands in the dirt, good sweat, and

Joyous work laughter moments with friends?

Have you ever imagined that…

Your nation gave rise to a movement
With other nations you are learning to love,

With an eye, strong body, and heart
Fixed on the prize of
Ten thousand backyard city farms.

With 4 chickens (no rooster) each
(Roosters visit from the early rising towns)

Eyes on the prize of…

Ten Thousand community farms and gardens,
In old industrial city neighborhoods,

Transforming themselves into

Planetary villages of grace, beauty, and health?

And the nation chose a leader
Who could understand all this!

Olde
Too Much Snow and Rain to Roof 2008

Stephanie Philipps, founder of the Harambee Reclamation Garden, meets with one of the initiators of Shorewood High School’s Parking Lot Into Urban Farm Demonstration Project, Eric Gietzen

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Please join us for the Northeast Side Plan Open House

Date: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Time: 11:30 am - 2:00 pm or 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Location: Alterra Cafe, 2999 N Humboldt Blvd

The event is open to anyone who lives, works, or has a vital interest in the future of the Northeast Side. We’ll kick off each session with a presentation about key concepts and catalytic projects. A draft of the plan will be available for comment. We hope to see you there.

http://www.mkedcd.org/planning/plans/Northeast/index.html
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Protect Lake Michigan: Help Promote Medicine Collection Day

Medicine Collection Day …a prescription for clean water & safe kids for Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine and Washington County residents
(Due to funding, ONLY use the collection sites in your county)

Help protect Lake Michigan
Prevent childhood poisonings
Reduce substance abuse

Never flush or pour unused medicine down the drain. Bring it to Medicine Collection Day.

April 19, 2008 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

For locations and more information, click on the link below:
http://www.mmsd.com/images/programs/MedicineCollection_041908.pdf
Bill Graffin
MMSD Public Information Manager
(414) 225–2077

How can you help protect Lake Michigan?
Find out at: www.mmsd.com
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Milwaukee’s Northeast Area Plan Adopts Urban Farming Plank!

Urban Farming is in the Northeast Area Plan. If you read the Draft, Chapter 3: Policies and Strategies, Page 4. This is in the draft:

1. Support urban farming (small scale intensive farming, an updated modern version of “victory gardens”) in residential and mixed use neighborhoods as a way to:
   1. Build self reliance for those who grow healthy, fresh food for themselves and their families.
   2. Provide extra family income for those who create food for sale in neighborhood farmers markets.
   3. Advance community building, as neighbors enjoy the beauty of urban farms and gardens, participate in growing community and food together, and provide gainful work for neighborhood residents, especially the young and the old.

Click here to view the rest of the plan
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Looking Like Bridie’s Found Her Harvard

She has spent about 5 half-days with me this past couple of weeks,
Some of them in bitter cold,
Others requiring some mind/body/hand precision,
Like shooting basketballs,
Which she does so well!

A total pleasure to be with these past couple of weeks in my work rounds.
She has a peddler’s aspect the truck will serve,
E.g. buying, selling, bartering, and delivering things from
Craig’s List Milwaukee Emporium.

Looking like Bridie’s found her Harvard.

Part of her “folk” Harvard adventure will be presented at
www.twogirlsandatruck.com
A wiki web site master wiki gnome Tegan Dowling
Will be creating for Bridie’s 20th Birthday,
The Friend willing!

In the way that I pray, I pray the tragectory of Bridie’s last 3 seasons,
Remains with her for the next 320!

She is one of the reasons I can weep for joy
At an inside table with food and warmth for my babies,
With promise of nice bedrooms for the evening.

Dreaming of 3 generation homes for my sweet ones,
With lots of grand children picking summer raspberries
And sweet red cherry tomatoes.

Olde Godsil

Happy Birthday to Bridie!
Highlights of 20th Birthday Week

Bridie Godsil with Morrey of Crown Hardware and new roofing tools
Rainbow Roofing

Leaning How To Nail Fasten Metal Flashings
And Heat Weld Membrane Seams

----------------------------------------

Two Girls and a 3/4 Ton Truck
Ready to Haul Your Stuff

Viva, Bridie Wines Godsil!

Happy 20th Birthday!

What a great and good adventure
You are making of your life!

What a joy to be part of
Bridie Rose Wines Godsil’s Life!

What fine people love you!

And thank The Friend
That you were born!

Olde Godsil
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Urban Farming, Our Broken Health System, and The Western Diseases

Michael Pollan has re-introduced the concept “Western Diseases” in his brilliant new book, “In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto.”

“In the early decades of the 20th century,’ he writes, “a handful of dauntless European and American medical professionals working with a wide variety of native populations around the world began noticing the almost complete absence of the chronic diseases that had recently become commonplace in the west. Albert Schweitzer and Denis P. Burkitt in Africa, Robert McCarrison in India, Samuel Hutton among the Eskimos in Labrador, the anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka among Native Americans, and the dentist Weston A. Price among a dozen different groups all over the world(including Peruvian Indians, Australian Aborigenes, and Swiss mountaineers) sent back much the same news. The compiled lists, many of which appeared in medical journals, of the common diseases they’d been hard pressed to find in the native populations they had treated or studied: little or no heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, hypertension, or stroke; no appendicitis, diverticulitis, malformed dental arches, or tooth decay; no varicose veins, ulcers, or hemorrhoids.

Several of these researchers were on hand to witness the arrival of the Western diseases in isolated populations…Some noted that the Western disease followed closely on the heels of the arrival of Western foods, particularly refined flour and sugar and other kinds of 'store food.'

Pollan on today’s western diet: “Instead of food, we’re consuming ‘edible foodlike substances’—no longer the products of nature but of food science.

Pollan’s Response to the Diet Based Western Diseases: Eat Real, Well-Grown, Unprocessed Food, and Mostly Plants!

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants…real food—the sort of food our great grandmothers would recognize as food…real, well-grown, and unprocessed food.”

“Our personal health cannot be divorced form the health of the food chains of which we are a part.”

Natural Next Step to Repair Our Broken Health System? Replace Our Toxic Food Systems!

And one way to start?

Urban Farming!

Edible Playgrounds!

In the Democratic Platform for 2008!

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/ObamaCampaign

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/GrowingPower/HomePage

If you would like to advance this cause, send an e-mail to

UrbanFarming@milwaukeerenaissance.com
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Rally the Locavores

I hope you will team up with 100 locavores
To awaken the nation to the promise of urban farming
To address some of the problems of our
Broken Health and Toxic Food Systems.

Ideas include the following:

Join Yahoo Group on Urban Farming

Rally Friends to Send E-Mails to:

(l) Mayor Daley of Chicago

(2) Mayor Barrett and President Hines of Milwaukee

(3) Convener of the Obama Urban Policy Team

Action Steps

(l) Send e-mail to your friends asking them to send e-mail supporting urban farming for the national campaigns of both parties to

UrbanFarming@milwaukeerenaissance.com

(2) These e-mails will be put into a web site at this location:

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/WisconsinPresidentialPrimary

(3) They will also be bundled and forwarded to Mayor Daley, Barrett, President Hines, and Rachel Godsil, Convener of the Obama Urban Policy Team

Viva, Urban Farming!

Godsil
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Wisconsin African American Women’s Center Presentation on “Great African Women”

Click here to download the flier (it’s in .doc format)
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Another Excellent Essay by Conservative David Brooks on Obama: “The Kennedy Mystique”

The Kennedy Mystique

By DAVID BROOKS

Published: January 29, 2008

Something fundamental has shifted in the Democratic Party.

David Brooks

Last week there was the widespread revulsion at the Clintons’ toxic attempts to ghettoize Barack Obama. In private and occasionally in public, leading Democrats lost patience with the hyperpartisan style of politics — the distortion of facts, the demonizing of foes, the secret admiration for brass-knuckle brawling and the ever-present assumption that it’s necessary to pollute the public sphere to win. All the suppressed suspicions of Clintonian narcissism came back to the fore. Are these people really serving the larger cause of the Democratic Party, or are they using the party as a vehicle for themselves?

And then Monday, something equally astonishing happened. A throng of Kennedys came to the Bender Arena at American University in Washington to endorse Obama. Caroline Kennedy evoked her father. Senator Edward Kennedy’s slightly hunched form carried with it the recent history of the Democratic Party.

The Kennedy endorsements will help among working-class Democrats, Catholics and the millions of Americans who have followed Caroline’s path to maturity. Furthermore, here was Senator Kennedy, the consummate legislative craftsman, vouching for the fact that Obama is ready to be president on Day One.

But the event was striking for another reason, having to do with the confluence of themes and generations. The Kennedys and Obama hit the same contrasts again and again in their speeches: the high road versus the low road; inspiration versus calculation; future versus the past; and most of all, service versus selfishness.

“With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion,” Senator Kennedy declared. “With Barack Obama, there is a new national leader who has given America a different kind of campaign — a campaign not just about himself, but about all of us,” he said.

The Clintons started this fight, and in his grand and graceful way, Kennedy returned the volley with added speed.

Kennedy went on to talk about the 1960s. But he didn’t talk much about the late-60s, when Bill and Hillary came to political activism. He talked about the early-60s, and the idealism of the generation that had seen World War II, the idealism of the generation that marched in jacket and ties, the idealism of a generation whose activism was relatively unmarked by drug use and self-indulgence.

Then, in the speech’s most striking passage, he set Bill Clinton afloat on the receding tide of memory. “There was another time,” Kennedy said, “when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a New Frontier.” But, he continued, another former Democratic president, Harry Truman, said he should have patience. He said he lacked experience. John Kennedy replied: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do!”

The audience at American University roared. It was mostly young people, and to them, the Clintons are as old as the Trumans were in 1960. And in the students’ rapture for Kennedy’s message, you began to see the folding over of generations, the service generation of John and Robert Kennedy united with the service generation of the One Campaign. The grandparents and children united against the parents.

How could the septuagenarian Kennedy cast the younger Clintons into the past? He could do it because he evoked the New Frontier, which again seems fresh. He could do it because he himself has come to live a life of service.

After his callow youth, Kennedy came to realize that life would not give him the chance to be president. But life did ask him to be a senator, and he has embraced that role and served that institution with more distinction than anyone else now living — as any of his colleagues, Republican or Democrat, will tell you. And he could do it because culture really does have rhythms. The respect for institutions that was prevalent during the early ‘60s is prevalent with the young again today. The earnest industriousness that was common then is back today. The awareness that we are not self-made individualists, free to be you and me, but emerge as parts of networks, webs and communities; that awareness is back again today.

Sept. 11th really did leave a residue — an unconsummated desire for sacrifice and service. The old Clintonian style of politics clashes with that desire. When Sidney Blumenthal expresses the Clinton creed by telling George Packer of The New Yorker, “It’s not a question of transcending partisanship. It’s a question of fulfilling it,” that clashes with the desire as well.

It’s not clear how far this altered public mood will carry Obama in this election. But there was something important and memorable about the way the 75-year-old Kennedy communed and bonded with a rapturous crowd half a century his junior.

The old guy stole the show.
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Marquette University Students Visit Hope in Tanzania Project!

Following is the link to Channel 12′s story, followed by a website, log-in and password for the place these students have posted trip pics to. They are some incredible images that really show the experience these young minds had.

Channel 12 story:

www.wisn.com/video/15157524/index.html

Trip Picture website: www.snapfish.com

Log-in name: hitmarquette@hotmail.com

password: Morogoro (case sensitive)

Enjoy!
Ryan

Ryan Skaife, Director
The Hope in Tanzania Foundation, Inc.
2547 S. Shore Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53207
(414) 763–1858
www.hopeintanzania.org
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MMSD Hosts Financing Green Infrastructure Webcast Tuesday, January 29th

This is very short notice, but MMSD has recently become aware of the following webcast and has registered to host it. Please mark it on your calendars and attend if you are interested from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 29, 2008.

WEBCAST: “Green Infrastructure: Financing and Local Strategies” January 29, 2008, 3:00–4:30pm ET, will highlight ways local governments can implement and finance green infrastructure strategies. Organized by the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP).

This webcast will be held at MMSD HQ; 260 W. Seeboth St., Milwaukee. Please inform anyone that you think may be interested.
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Historic Preservation Summit

• Saturday, February 2, 2008 9:15AM-12:00PM

• At The Milwaukee Public Library 814 W. Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee , WI 53233

• In the First Floor Meeting Room

“This preservation summit, sponsored by the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, will focus on the current state of historic preservation in Milwaukee; discuss what is going right… and wrong with preservation in Milwaukee; and determine what needs to happen to advance and foster a historic preservation ethic in our city, both in the public and private sectors.

Facilitating this Historic Preservation Summit is Royce Yeater, Regional Director for the Midwest Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Genell Scheurell, Program Officer from the National Trust’s Midwest Office.”

Please spread the word.
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An Open Letter to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation by Milwaukee’s Activist of the Year, 2007: Why No Support for Commuter Rail to Chicago?

The plans to widen the freeway between Milwaukee and Illinois will miss a once-in-a-generation opportunity that the Department of Transportation needs to embrace. And the failure will not be about money, it will be about political will.

A proposal for commuter rail has languished politically because State transportation thinking has limited itself to highways, in spite of the facts.

The facts are that cities that adopt rail find tax revenues increasing because of rail-inspired development. Fixed path transportation, embedded in concrete mounted on rail is a signal to developers that the government is now serious - identifying in concrete and steel those neighborhoods about to be economic engines.

There is revenue in rails. Other cities know this. Wisconsin DOT has used tired slogans to fend off this discussion. But development money is too important to ignore - particularly in the face of a multi-billion dollar re-do of a highway.

Rail serves communities far away from train stations because rail associated development drives tax revenue, filling a desperate need for the entire state.

The simple decision to set a rail corridor begins a flurry of development proposals. Rail is not only about the passengers. Rail is about enterprise, wider job markets, wider employment markets, finding the correct skills in a wider population, bringing investment money to precisely located areas, while leaving our countryside less vulnerable to sprawl.

The folks who moved to western Racine or far flung Jefferson County to “get away from it all” - if the facts of rail are explained by WisDOT - should be wildly supportive of rail that serves big cities because rail will concentrate residential development far away from the open space of farm counties. The price for Rail and for getting Transit off of the property tax will benefit everyone. Rail and transit add to the economy.

What we need is modest development to kick start rail. The tracks are already in place. Stations will be built locally. KRM has a wide range of political support from both parties, particularly from the business interests of downtown Milwaukee. Downtown Milwaukee is an economic engine unlike any other in the state. It can be stronger with the proper infrastructure.

Rail will offer more jobs to folks who cannot find work on local bus routes. Rail will bring more workers from out of the city into our enterprises. Given all that, it’s amazing that State “Transportation” thinking is so married to the limits of the automobile - slower, and much more expensive to support than rail. Heavily depended on many foreign interests.

The critics of Milwaukee Transit have called the empty bus the “air bus.” Which in fact is what most commuter cars are. Air Cars, inhabited mostly by one person, taking up the space on a freeway of a football team.

It’s time for economical Rail to lighten our load. It’s time for Transportation to mean moving large numbers of people compactly, not just moving around empty cars.

Sincerely
William Sell
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

respectfully submitted January 25, 2008.
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An Open Letter to Milwaukee Preservation Alliance Calling for the Marriage of Urban Farming, Internet Empowerment, and Historic Preservation

Dear All,

The Milwaukee Preservation worked small miracles in the historic preservation movement of Milwaukee
From about 2002 until our glorious blocking of the Pabst City plan,
Paving the way for the Zilber team to preserve and make history these past couple of years.

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Godsil/MilwaukeePreservationAllianceMPA

I received a warm thank-you letter from Joe Zilber for our work re the Pabst!

We played a huge role in mobilizing over 800 people to oppose the battleship at our lakefront!
A number of venerable and sacred buildings are saved for the generations
Because of the work of Donna Schlieman, the MPA, and others.

Donna, Jean Eske, Carlin, Paul, Sandy, Virginia, Geoff should be interviewed
To preserve these stories of grass roots success
Without much backing from the traditional upper class families
Normally key to preservation victories.

The MPA manifest the “creative working classes”
Making grass roots history and…a Milwaukee Renaissance!

What has happened to the MPA?

When was the last open meeting?

When is the next open meeting?

When will there be elections for officers?

We should we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
When the city is increasingly poised to understand and support
The vision of the founders, heavy lifters, and detail angels of
The Milwaukee Preservation Alliance?

Were we to marry urban agriculture, working class internet empowerment, and historic preservation,
A new “Wisconsin Idea” would set the stage for transformative public policy
For self-reliance, community building, and sustainable development.

I would like to imagine some on-line conversation with a re-awakened MPA
Debating the incorporation of urban farming, internet empowerment and green development
Into the preservation movement.

Here is the campaign platform I would try to inspire some young people
Running for office at MPA to adopt:

The Mouse and the Worm Transformed Milwaukee
There was a time when everyday people
Were too disconnected to intensely engage and prevail
In turf and other struggles with the commercial classes.

But then the mouse of the internet connected them so well
That powerful visions spread like prairie fire
And quite “small” people became quite large
And began to prevail and save sacred buildings and sacred spaces
In the face of outraged opposition from the commercial classes.

There was also a time when everyday people
Were too disconnected from their ancestral power
To grow healthy and tasty food in their yards and ‘hoods.

But then the worms of Will Allen’s Growing Power
Were spread so widely to the four season kitchen and community
Gardens that Milwaukee awakened to the folly of reliance on
Food from distant places grown primarily for profit and often
With frightening disregard for health, safety, and evolution.

And 10,000 gardens blossomed in neighborhoods once written off
As ghetto and violent and ugly, and the people reconnected with
Nature, used waste products for radiant energy,
Became strong and sure enough to ask neighbors for favors
And found themselves walking the sidewalks and biking the streets
Past corner community gardens of beauty and conviviality.

The mouse helped connect people in the realm of mind.
The worms helped connect people in the realm of body.
The mouse and the worms helped connect people in the realm of …Soul!

What say?

Why not?

Godsil
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transcript of the interview with Grace Lee Boggs on Obama

AMY GOODMAN: Grace Lee Boggs, there has been a debate over the last few weeks among the presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, about the power of King. Also, last night they debated in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For the first half, they were really going at it. Then they sat down, and they agreed on a lot of things. And one of the things that Barack Obama said when asked whether—you know, who would Dr. King endorse, something like that—the debate happening on Dr. King Day—Barack Obama said he wouldn’t endorse any of us. He was speaking as a presidential candidate. He said he would be leading a movement to pressure us. Can you talk about how you’ve seen this debate play out over the last few weeks and where you stand?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, I think that—I think it’s wonderful, by the way, that both Hillary and Obama are running and that they’re frontrunners in this campaign, because I think they help us to see that it’s not a question of race or gender, it’s a question of whether we encourage the movement and unleash the movement of people from below or whether we try to run things from above, from the White House. And though I consider myself a feminist, I have to look at what Hillary stands for in terms of top-down leadership. And I have to understand—have to look at Obama and see that younger people, a new generation is emerging and looking for the kind of healing that this country needs, that he has unleashed that, though his policies are not that different from Clinton’s. But he has unleashed an energy in the young people particularly, which has great promise.

And he has also helped to unfreeze the unity that existed among blacks. He has helped us to see that all blacks are not the same. I think that people have become—that in the interest of unity, blacks who have not actually been in the same place—some of them are in the White House and some of them are in the Supreme Court and some of them are in the Congress, and others are groping with very fundamental questions of daily life. And that that split actually exists in the country, that it actually exists in the community, but this campaign has helped us to see, to begin to grapple with that difference.

AMY GOODMAN: Grace Lee Boggs, you’re not—

GRACE LEE BOGGS: That’s a very important development, not just for the black community, but for this country. There was an unfreezing that began to take place in the Jackson administration when the Federalist Party died, and we had the beginning of the birth of the Democrats. That same kind of unfreezing is going on right now.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Grace Lee Boggs. She is in Detroit, Michigan. You are not usually deeply involved in electoral politics, yet here you are deeply believing in the significance of what’s happening this year. What has changed? And did you ever have hope in other electoral years, in other presidential—times of presidential elections?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: I’ve never had this much hope. I’ve never had—because I think this one is unique. You know, policy-wise, I think Dennis Kucinich is much more on the right track. In fact, I support him. But he does not have that particular combination of a Kenyan father and a Kansas mother that can help unleash different energies. You know, sometimes—he can’t help it, of course, but sometimes it takes a certain person to do that. And I don’t think—it’s not—to me, it’s not so important, the electoral politics. How they will develop, I don’t know. But when I felt that energy of young people, and I feel it around here, and I think of what Fanon said about each generation emerging out of obscurity must define its mission and fulfill or betray it. We’re living at one of those tide times.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think are the key issues right now? And for people who are grassroots activists, as you are, what do you think their role is in this year of a presidential race that you think is so key?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, Barack Obama used a phrase in his speech at Ebenezer, which I think we have to sort of embrace. He said we have to lead “by example.” That’s what we have to do. He can do it—maybe he can. I don’t know. But we had charismatic leaders in the ‘60s, and they almost all got gunned down. And if we depend so much on charismatic leaders, not only are they in danger, but we do not exercise our capacities in relationship to our situations to create the world anew. And that’s where we are. If you want—

AMY GOODMAN: What about Barack Obama’s stance on healthcare, which is not very different from Hillary Clinton or John Edwards?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Oh, not at all. I mean, his is just as much in sort of the box of the insurance companies as Hillary’s. That’s why I think that Kucinich’s policy of a single-payer system is much more progressive, not only for the health of our bodies, but for the health of our minds and our spirits.

But that—it’s not a question. This is not a question. We are not at a time where we debate policy. I remember when I was in the radical movement, how we’d debate policies, how we had this phrase “critical support.” And we were actually trying to vie with other people for leadership. And I don’t think that’s where we are now. I think we’re redefining leadership. We’re understanding that leadership has within it the complexities of followship and that followship is not what we need, that we have to become the leaders we’re looking for in relationship to our local daily circumstances.

AMY GOODMAN: Last night in the debate in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton said to Barack Obama, “Yes, you admirably opposed the war in 2002, yet you took the speech that you gave in your fierce opposition to the war off your website, and then you ultimately voted again and again for funding for this war.” Your response to that, Grace Lee Boggs?

GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, that’s the sort of thing that, if I were concerned with Obama and supporting him, that’s one—also if I were competing with him—that’s the sort of thing I would do, too. But I’m not. What I’m trying to do is encourage the capacities, the energy, the creativity, the imagination, that exists in people at the grassroots to redefine and rebuild our society. If we want to live in freedom from terror, we have to begin looking at ourselves, redefining who we are, redefining who this country is and reassessing what it is within our capacity to do.
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On Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” Grace Lee Boggs Exhorts Us To Understand Deeper Meaning of Obama Phenomenon

Last night on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now Grace Lee Boggs urged the nation to awaken to the vast possibilities for positive change sparked by Obama’s charismatic appeal to new young voters. She exhorted us to partner with the Obama movement, even if our policies, like hers, are closer to Kucinich. Obama has something special this country needs: the ability to inspire, mobilize, and heal! But most importantly, to support movements that will find people becoming their own leaders…the leaders we are waiting for are us! Obama “gets that!”

Had she a bit more time she would have also urged Obama’s key staffers and policy advisers to read this essay and incorporate urban farming for self-reliance and community building into his platform!

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/ObamaCampaign will have link to this speech.

Or, google “Democracy Now” and you will find it there!
Perhaps Milwaukee’s trailblazing role in the emerging urban agriculture and locavore movements will find Obama shaking hands with Will Allen at his magical urban farm at 55th & Silver Spring, drawing attention from the world entiere!

http://milwaukeerenaissance.com/GrowingPower/HomePage

Obama Urban Policy Platform Cries Out for Urban Agriculture for Millions of Locavore Voters
The “Quiet Revolution” in Detroit

By Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen, Aug. 12–18, 2007

It’s three years since I’ve been on the August Garden Tour. At that time we only needed two buses. This year there were so many participants and so many gardens that it took six buses, some visiting gardens on the west side of the city and others on the east side. It also included a bike tour.

The Westside garden tour , according to a young woman who has lived here only one year, included a lot of the city’s newer gardens that really showcased the growingtrend in community gardening, the different aspects of organizing that are incorporated into gardening, and the involvement of everyone across racial and ethnic lines and across age groups. It was amazing to see so many youth proudly explaining the work they had done on their garden and interacting with elders who are still excited about learning! The entire experience was truly inspiring and served to remind many of the tour participants why we love Detroit.

The first stop was the Brightmoor Community Garden, which was started just one year ago in the Northwest corner of the city. Tour participants were in awe of the gardener’s own expansive personal garden, with everything from bees and melons to tomatoes and flowers, but even more impressed by the positive transformation of vacant land into a space where community members beautified abandoned houses adjacent to the garden and have successfully deterred criminal activity. The “D-Town Farm” garden is also new, just under two months old! The gardeners of this Black Community Food Security Network Garden seek to address food insecurity issues in Detroit’s black community by providing fresh vegetables and fruit. It was here that I learned from another tour participant about unique ways to grow potatoes in stacks of tires!

Romanowski Farm Park is an amazing collaborative effort between the Greening of Detroit, MSU Extension, Capuchin Soup Kitchen, American Indian Health and Family Services, Latino Soccer League, and two neighboring public schools! An Americorps volunteer who coordinates the effort remarked that some youngsters recalled that just three years ago,there was nothing there. Now there are apple and pear trees, beautiful sunflowers, and vegetables and fruit ranging from okra to collards! One girl who lives in the neighborhood and attends the nearby school gave a few of us an informal mini-tour of some of her favorite parts of the community garden. She proudly informed us that anyone can help and eat from the garden! She remembers when she was just in third grade and, through her class, started to help out with the garden.

We drove by the garden at American Indian Health and Family Services,which features berries used in coming-of-age ceremonies and tobacco used to educate youth about health issues. Our final stop was the Birdtown Garden in Cass Corridor, where we were greeted by chickens, samples of honey, and yet another inspiring story of community members coming together.

A Detroiter who retired recently from her job in the City County Building was on an Eastside bus. “I got a sense,” she told me, “of how important community gardens are to our city and how we need to replicate them all over the city. They reduce neighborhood blight, build self-esteem among young people, provide them with structured activities from which they can see results, build leadership skills, provide healthy food and a community base for economic development, People, especially young people, not only learn where food comes from but how to prepare healthy food.

“We drove down one street where the residents had contacted the Detroit Agricultural Network about the vacant lots on the block. Now, after planting a community garden, the grass is cut on every lawn. There is no litter on the street. People have become more neighborly The garden brought the children together and the adults together. They had discovered a new use for the Land.

“One community garden, grown without pesticides, provides enough healthy food for 25.families. There were a lot of young people on our bus and I thought of the many young people who say they have nothing to do and who only eat fast food.”

“I see this as the ‘Quiet Revolution.’ It is a revolution for self-determination taking place quietly in Detroit.”
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Grace Lee Boggs Interview With Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman

Legendary Detroit Activist Inspired by Obama’s Electrifying Impact on Youth of America

Calls For Us To Influence Obama’s Policy and Work With New Political Actors He’s Mobilizing

Click here to go to video
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Dialogue With Obama Campaign by Creating Your City’s Obama Campaign Yahoo Group

Help Obama Team Learn From the Grass Roots, Especially the Urban Organic Food Movements

Locavore’s Awaken Obama to Horror and Stupidity of Oil Based Industrial Agriculture Industry

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Alex’s Ginger, Tofu, Noodle Soup for Obama’s Milwaukee Staffers

No More Fast, Junk Food Poisoning Core Citizen Activists

Sponsor a $6 Quart of Healthy, Tasty Food for Obama’s Milwaukee Staffers

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Honor Dr. King, Join, “Does Education Matter Anymore?” Jan 24, 26, 31

“Does Education Matter Anymore?”

Milwaukee ranks 28 among 50 largest U. S. School districts in graduation rates*
The United States has gone from #1 in education to 24th among 30 Nations in a generation**
*The council of Great City Schools **30-Nation, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Join Friends of Milwaukee Youth for good food, good people, and good discussion about the role of education in the lives of our children.

Cleo C. Pruitt
Auburn Sky LLC
2821 North Fourth Street Suite 308
Milwaukee, WI 53212
414.372.1888
(H) 414.967.0683
cleopruitt@yahoo.com
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Marcia Lee Offers Video of MLK Speeches

10 other things MLK said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIFTNmOOLmk&eurl=http://nahright.com/news/2008/01/21/
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Grace Lee Boggs On Obama, MLK, and Ourselves

Grace Lee Boggs is a legendary Detroit activist who, At 92, has been in the center of Detroit’s social movements Since the 1950s, including civil rights, peace, nbd. development, And now urban farms and gardens.

Bill Moyers interviewed her in 2007.
I met her at Growing Power in 2005 or 2006.

LIVING FOR CHANGE
OBAMA & MLK
By Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen, Jan.20–26 , 2008

The new energies being unleashed by Barack Obama hold great promise.In his person and prose Obama embodies the achievements of the movements of the 20th century and the hope that we can become the change we want to see in the 21st century.

To build the movement for change will not be easy. The challenges we face demand profound changes not only in our institutions but in ourselves. To become part of the solution, we must recognize that we are a large part of the problem.

That means we can’t leave it all to Obama. Instead of being followers of a charismatic leader, we must be the leaders we’ve been looking for. This is the best way to make Obama less vulnerable to corporate funders and lobbyists. It is also the best way to protect him from the assassins who gunned down so many charismatic leaders in the 1960s.

We don’t have to start from scratch. As we celebrate Dr.King’s birthday this month and commemorate the 40th anniversary of his assassination this year,we can look to the vision that he was creating at the height of his awareness before he was taken from us.

In the last three years of his life Dr. King recognized that “the war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit. We are on the wrong side of a world revolution because we refuse to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.”

“We have come to value things more than people. Our technological development has outrun our spiritual development. We have lost our sense of community, of interconnection and participation.”

In order to get on the right side of that revolution, he said, we must undergo a radical revolution of values against the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism.

“A true revolution of values will look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth… It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: ‘This is not just.’ The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach and nothing to learn is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’ A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

The urban rebellions had also made King acutely aware of the needs of young people. “This generation,” he said, “is engaged in a cold war with the earlier generation. It is not the normal hostility of the young groping for independence. It has a new quality of bitter antagonism and confused anger which suggests basic values are being contested.”

“The source of this alienation is that our society has made material growth and technological advance an end in itself, robbing people of participation.”

To overcome this alienation we need to change our priorities. Instead of pursuing economic productivity, we need to expand our uniquely human powers, especially our capacity for the Love that is ready to go to any length to restore community.

This Love, King insisted, is not some sentimental weakness. “We can learn its practical meaning from the young people who joined the civil rights movement, … putting on overalls to work in the isolated rural South because they felt the need for more direct ways of learning that would strengthen both society and themselves.”

What we need now “in our dying cities,” King said,are ways to provide young people with similar opportunities to engage in self-transforming and structure-transforming direct action.

King was assassinated before he could discover and implement ways to nurture this two-sided transformation. Forty years later, that is the mission of a new generation.

We have to create the momentum for these changes at the grassroots level. Instead of being seduced by Walmart’s low prices, refusing to acknowledge that these bargains exist because multinational corporations outsource U.S. jobs to Chinese sweatshops, we need to create local sustainable economies that not only reduce carbon emissions but provide more opportunities for our young people to be of use. Instead of viewing success in terms of more consumer goods, we need to devise ways to live more simply and cooperatively, thereby not only making it possible for others to simply live but also discovering positive and even joyful ways to grapple with our own increasing economic hardships.

Because Detroit has been so devastated by deindustrialization, we have embarked on a five year Detroit City of Hope campaign. Out of necessity we are becoming the kind of leadership by example which is now needed.

Obama can become a great President only if we become a great people. We must grow together.
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Conserving the Bonobo: a struggle between two worlds

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Proposal targets invasive species in the Great Lakes

Posted January 17, 2008

Proposal targets invasive species in the Great Lakes

Vessels using seaway would have to flush all ballast tanks

By ELLYN FERGUSON
Press-Gazette Washington bureau eferguson@greenbaypressgazette.com

WASHINGTON — To curtail the influx of invasive species into the Great Lakes, the federal government wants oceangoing ships using the St. Lawrence Seaway to flush even empty ballast tanks with saltwater to kill stowaway organisms.

The tank cleanout would have to take place 200 nautical miles from any North American shore. U.S. and Canadian ships would not be affected by the rule.

“Things that are not good can live in the sediment of a tank that doesn’t have any ballast water in it,” Collister “Terry” Johnson, administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., said Wednesday. The seaway is a 2,340-mile system that provides ships on the Atlantic Ocean access to inland ports on the Great Lakes.

Canada and the United States, which jointly operate the seaway, already require the so-called “swish and spit” practice for oceangoing ships with full ballast tanks.

More than 180 invasive aquatic species live in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration estimates non-native species such as zebra mussels, sea lamprey, round goby and others cost the region $5 billion a year in lost tourism and lower commercial fishing revenue.

A June 2007 study found that the organisms picked up at freshwater European ports where ships took on ballast managed to live in ballast tanks even after the water was discharged. The study was funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund in Chicago.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concluded that a limited amount of saltwater in a tank provides a “salinity shock” to freshwater organisms.

“This is not a panacea,” Johnson said.

However, he called it “a very responsible way” to protect the Great Lakes.

In 2006, the Canadian government began requiring oceangoing ships with empty or nearly empty ballast tanks to flush the tanks with saltwater before heading to Canadian ports on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Johnson said the proposed rule would make U.S. and Canadian requirements the same.

He said the two countries will increase the number of ballast tank inspections they now conduct in Montreal, the first port on the seaway.

In Montreal, ships that have not done a saltwater flush would either return to the open ocean to do so or be barred from discharging ballast water it picks up while in the Great Lakes on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Ships could be fined as much as $36,325 for each violation.

All ships entering the seaway would be required to measure salinity levels in their ballast tanks to make sure the concentration of saltwater remains high enough to kill invasive species.

Johnson said a final rule should be ready by the start of the 2008 shipping season in either late March or early April.

The rule, if adopted, would not preclude Congress from passing legislation to regulate ballast water, Johnson said.

The public has until Jan. 30 to submit comments on the proposed rule.

— Tony Walter/Press-Gazette

How to comment on the proposal

To submit written remarks on the rule proposal, include the name of the agency, the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., and the docket number, SLSDC2007−0005.

To submit comments online, go to www.Regulations.gov and follow instructions.

To submit comments by fax, dial (202) 493–2251.

To submit by mail, send comments to Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140, Washington, D.C. 20590–001.
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Fast and Real Slow Food from Organic Food Mobiles?

Sara Beam, Brydie Godsil, and James Godsil are responding to Michael Pollan’s call for “fast slow food outlets” and Megan Jeyifo’s call for the development of “Orgnaic Food Mobiles.”

Here is the first memo:

Here is a list of ingredients to make a great veggie dish
For the campaign workers at the Obama Wisconsin Headquarters.

Bridie wrote the memo.
Sara will be going to Outpost for the ingredients,
She will sautee these veggies today in virgin olive oil and fresh cut garlic
Put that into plastic bags.
Later we’ll add rice, pasta, spices, and other goodies.

$5

• Green Peppers
• Red Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Onions
• Carrots
• Ziploc Bags and bigger ones
• Oranges
• Apples
• Vanilla Granola
• TP

$3

• Fresh cut garlic

We’re going to start this experiment by creating tasty veggie meals for the campaign staffers of the Obama for President Campaign.

Sara Beam cut and bagged these Growing Power, Outpost, and Riverwest Co-op veggies to be used for a fast slow meal that’s tasty and healthy for the Obama campaign workers.
Carrots, onions, green and red peppers, mushrooms, and garlic will be sautted in virgin olive oil, then mixed with brown rice and cabbage kimchee.

Veggies sautted in virgin olive oil and garlic, mixed with brown rice and Kimchee

Sara Beam, Bridie Godsil, and Megan Godsil Jeyifo celebrating the end of the first day of the Fast Slow Food and Organic Food Mobile for presidential campaign worker experiment.

Here is the veggie/rice/kimchee dish to be delivered to the Obama staffers the day after the Grand Opening of the Obama Wisconsin Primary Campaign Office.

There is a “Shepherd Express” iconic issue which introduced Milwaukee to the great work of Will Allen and his Growing Power team in front of the fast slow food dish.

Will has figured out how to grow fresh cold weather veggies year round in outside hoop houses heated by composting and winter sun.
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Best Selling Real Food Writer, Michael Pollan, Dev estating Critique of Industrial Agriculture for 600 At Alverno College Who Braved the Cold

Says Only Obama Campaign Has Contacted Him to Learn About “The Human Omnivore,” “An Eater’s Manifesto” and Local, Organic Food Movements

Dear All,

I just came from an inspiring speech by Michael Pollan on his new best selling book, “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” to a near sell-out crowd of 600 plus at Alverno College tonight, despite the bitter cold! Schwartz Book Store’s Nancy Quinn was the key organizer of this great event.

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/DailyAgoraAnnouncements/HomePage , or,
http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates
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Milwaukee’s Urban Agriculture Movement Has Mayor Barret’s “Ear”

Does Pollan ‘Have the Ear” of Any Presidential Candidates?

I tried to ask this question before the audience: “Will Allen’s Growing Power, the Urban Ecology Center, Slow Foods, UW-Extension, Mary Ann Ihm’s Wellspring, Jerry and Larry Adams’ Walnut Way, Kim Lee’s Foundy’s Market, the Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Network(MUAN), Outpost Natural Foods, the Riverwest Food Co-op, and others have earned the Milwaukee local organic urban farm movement “the ear” of Mayor Barrett, who is on board this great movement!

Do you and the movements you are connected with across the country have the ear of any of the current presidential candidates? Have any of them tried to connect with you and learn what you have to say?

There was not time for this question before the assembled throng, but I did get to ask it of Michael during the book signing period(for $30 we got the speech plus his new book personally signed).

Only Obama Campaign Has Called Pollan!

Pollan’s answer: Only the Obama people have called me.

I did not get to speak with him any more than that so I don’t know what happened as a result of that call.

But I do know that I very much hope that the Obama campaign will learn about Milwaukee’s trail-blazing role in sparking an urban farm movement in North America and helping spark as much as well in Africa, Europe, and pretty soon the entire planet.

One Million “Locavore” Voters Await a Candidate Who “Gets” the Buy Local Organic and Slow Food Movements

It is my deep conviction that one million votes across the country would go instantly to the candidate who goes to the last city farm in Milwaukee, Will Allen’s Growing Power, on 55th & Silver Spring, and witnesses the magic made by tons of urban waste products, e.g. brewers’ yeast from Lakefront Brewery, coffee grounds from Alterra, veggie wastes from grocers, wood chips from the Department of Public Works, cardboard from wherever, composted, fed to worms, processed, turned into black gold, the richest soil in the world, fertile enough to sustain four season veggie harvests in hoop houses only warmed by compost heat!

Veterans Invite Civilians to “Party With the Heroes!”

PARTY WITH THE HERO’S
Please join us for a fun filled evening of Dinner/Dancing and Door
Prizes at the
“Bluemound Gardens”
11703 W Bluemound Road
January 26, 2008.
This is a Veterans Fundraiser, and monies raised will be used for
Veterans events & Veterans Org.’s.
Thank You

Some who will be honored: Leonard Ponath (one of 19 survivors from the USS Dorchester (Chapel of Four Chaplains); 1st Sgt Goodloe, from Fox 2/24, who is retiring; 34 members of Badger Detachment, Marine Corps League Funeral Honor Team; many others, etc.

PLEASE CONTACT TIM BARANZYK
414–604–2366; CELL: 414–628–7081
FOR TICKETS

MAKE MONIES/CHECKS TO: BLUEMOND GARDENS

SEE YOU THERE

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Milwaukee’s Obama Presidential Campaign Office Open House, Wednesday 6 p.m.

633 South Hawley Road

Meet the Staff, Learn What You Can Do, Enjoy This Movement!

Nick Meyer and Megan Smith are heading up Oboma’s Milwaukee campaign staff, which also includes Dave Vorland, Hy Safran, and Mike Reynetson, all victorious veterans of the historic Iowa campaign! Come meet this excellent team and become a member!

Kelners Co-Op Organizing Underway.

30 Riverwest residents meet at Polish Falcons Hall and create organizing work teams.

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Renowned Poet/Naturalist Poniewaz UWM Course: Literature of Ecological Vision

Jeff Poniewaz is a brilliant poet/educator/activist who gives his heart and soul to his students and subject.

LITERATURE OF ECOLOGICAL VISION, a UWM off-campus course taught by Jeff Poniewaz, meets Tuesdays from 6:00 to 8:40 beginning Jan. 22 at Shorewood High School on Oakland & Capital. For enrollment info call 229–6209.

This introductory survey will explore some of the key examples of nature writing which also qualify as great literature, including breakthrough texts conducive to resolving the conflict between the human realm and the natural world- a conflict that threatens human life as well as the overall vital diversity of life-forms on this rare life-sustaining planet. We will read and discuss selections from Thoreau, Whitman, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey and others. This course features a special section on the eco output of Beat writers.

English 247, Lec 102.
For enrollment information call 229–6209.
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Riverwest Food Co-op Cafe Manager Greg Jacobson’s Last Day at Co-op

Moving on to Hawaii to manage a farm!

We are hoping to interview Greg over the years about his adventures!

Milwaukee to Host North American Urban Agricultural Conference

Organization: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Slow Food WI Southeast
Email: info@growurban.org
Contact: Mary Lou Lamonda
Phone: 414–372–5136
Location: Milwaukee, WI,
Website: http://growurban.org

IMMEDIATE RELEASE- JANUARY 8th - 2008

Milwaukee is poised to be a leader in the urban agricultural movement across North America. Join us February 28 – March 1st for Pollinating Our Future; three full days of urban agricultural events.

The purpose of these events is to educate, motivate and pollinate the ideas of urban agriculture to the local and national community and become a recognized leader in urban agriculture in the North American continent. An excellent representation of national and international leaders will be presenting to local and national participants (over 500) on the power of urban agriculture to create economic development, build community, create a healthier eco-system, and increase food security in our communities.

Activities include

• Two day production workshop for potential or existing urban farmers (SPIN Farming)
• Training on Developing Food Policy Councils by Community Food Security Coalition
• Tours of local urban agricultural initiatives
• Composting and Vermiculture Workshop at Growing Power
• 4th Street Forum; ,Milwaukee Public TV, Channel 10, live audience: The future of urban agriculture
• Opening Celebration at the Domes Conservatory Park, WI Slow Food Chefs prepare local foods for and regional feast. Meet writer, photographer, urban farmer, Michael Ableman, and enjoy live music and ethnic dancers.
• Full day of workshops and forums by national and local presenters on the successes of urban agriculture and how to address the barriers to urban agriculture.
• Town Hall Meeting and regional foods prepared for a closing celebratory dinner.

This is an opportunity to bring local leaders, urban planners and activists, farmers and potential farmers, consumers, chefs, educators and researchers, entrepreneurs and organizations together for creative thought and positive actions to promote urban agriculture.

Please check out the presenters and the schedule.
Website http://growurban.org

Contact info@growurban.org, (414–372–5136) to arrange interviews with presenters or community partners.

PARTNERS
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute- http://www.michaelfieldsaginst.org
Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast - http://www.slowfoodwise.org
Kitchen Table Project
Milwaukee County Parks-Mitchell Park Domes
Fondy Food Center – www.fondymarket.org
Growing Power – www.growingpower.org
UW Cooperative Extension – www.uwex.edu
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center – www.sschc.org
Community Food Security Coalition – www.foodsecurity.org
Milwaukee, Office of Environmental Sustainability - http://www.city.milwaukee.gov
Urban Ecology Center - www.urbanecologycenter.org
MUAN, Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Network - www.mkeurbanag.org

###

WHY URBAN AGRICULTURE?

There is a quiet revolution stirring in our food system. It is not happening so much on the distant farms that still provide us with the majority of our food; it is happening in cities, neighborhoods, and towns. It has evolved out of the basic need that every person has to know their food, and to have some sense of control over its safety and security. It is a revolution that is providing poor people with an important safety net where they can grow some nourishment and income for themselves and their families. And it is providing an oasis for the human spirit where urban people can gather, preserve something of their culture through native seeds and foods, and teach their children about food and the earth. The revolution is taking place in small gardens, next to railroad tracks and power lines, on rooftops, at farmers’ markets, and in the most unlikely of places. It is a movement that has the potential to address a multitude of issues: economic, environmental, personal health, and cultural.”
Michael Ableman (keynote speaker at the conference)

• Urban agriculture addresses issues of food security in impoverished neighborhoods.
• UA provides employment opportunities and economic growth.
• UA creates ways to turn urban waste into a productive resource.
• UA offers a viable strategy for a local, sustainable food system.
• UA provides environmental restoration and remediation.
• UA promotes the garden as a classroom for schools and communities.
• UA offers diversity through agrarian and culinary traditions.
• UA offers land use and city planning with green alternatives.
• UA encourages consensus-building communities.

WHY MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN?

As the largest city in Wisconsin, Milwaukee is poised to take a strong stand for Urban Agriculture as a valuable strategy to address food needs, hunger, poverty, urban waste, a fragile ecosystem, urban planning and community development. In Milwaukee’s history, the city took the credo “Milwaukee feeds and supplies the world.” Perhaps it is time to revisit the credo as the world has changed, and cities find it difficult to healthfully feed themselves, much less the world.

Wisconsin maintains a place of leadership in the agriculture industry with the largest organic dairy operation in the country, the largest farming cooperatives and one of the oldest agricultural universities in the U.S. in the University of Wisconsin Madison. The state recently passed Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin as a funded initiative to support sustainable farming developments, eco-tourism in Wisconsin and the promotion of local food as a commitment to Wisconsin’s economy.

“To grow your own food gives you a sort of power and it gives people dignity. You know exactly what you’re eating because you grew it. It’s good, it’s nourishing and you did this for yourself, your family and your community.” Karen Washington
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Re-enchantment of Agriculture project meeting

Where: Amaranth Bakery 3329 West Lisbon, Milwaukee WI
When: Thursday Jan 10, 5:30 PM
Who: Wormfarm Institute, a not for profit organization that works to reintegrate culture and agriculture & Wisconsin Humanities Council
What: a public informational meeting

Project summary: The Re-enchantment of Agriculture will take a new look at farming in Wisconsin—examining the place where human imagination, experiments in agricultural sustainability, community well-being, and creative excitement converge. Through this project we will explore what happens at the intersection of agriculture, the humanities and the arts, and how what happens there might help us to reevaluate, illuminate, and celebrate the vital process of growing and sharing food.

This will be a statewide project in three target locations one of which is inner city Milwaukee. We are looking for project partners - individuals and organizations who are already doing something at this intersection and would like to build on it. We are also looking for agricultural groups who would be willing to collaborate with artists/ writers/ filmmakers; and arts, humanities groups interested in exploring land/food/ sustainability issues.

Timeline: fall 2008 – fall 2009
Questions? Email Donna at wormfarm@jvlnet.com
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Bonobo Benefit at Coffee House, Jan 13, 7 p.m., 19th & Wisconsin, east basement entrance to Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church

Music by Embedded Reporter: “Low Brow Music for Smart People”

Milwaukee is blessed with the two world renowned protectors, Barbara Bell and Dr. Gay Reinartz, of the endangered species and our primate cousins—the bonobos! We share over 98% of our DNA inheritance with the bonobos, who have never left the primordeal forests of Africa. Milwaukee County’s Zoo and the Milwaukee Zoological society have been supporting the work of our renowned pioneers for years. The bonobos in captivity and the bonobos in Africa are profiting greatly from these efforts, recently given widespread publicity in the “Shepherd Express” and elsewhere. See http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Bonobos/HomePage.

There will be a benefit for the bonobos at the venerable Coffee House on January 13, 7 p.m., located in the basement of Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church, at 19th and Wisconsin. The benefit will feature the music of Howard Lewis’ “Embedded Reporter” and possibly Kt Rusch’s “Universal Love.” See http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/EmbeddedReporter/HomePage and http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/KtRusch/HomePage .

Donations of $5 and up will win an evening of excellent music, information about the bonobos(including a copy of the “Shepherd” cover story, to be a collectors item), and encounters with good people.

We are looking for individuals and organizations to join in the support of this event and the bonobos project in general. Sponsoring organizations and individuals will be given on-line recognition at the bonobos web site and become part of a network making history in the vital area of bonobos survival and bio-diversity organizing. Send an e-mail to bonobos@milwaukeerenaissance if you would like to join in!

Bonobos are social beings who enjoy one another.

She is alpha because she has groomed the best and the most.
She can best mediate “contradictions” among the monkeys.
She carries herself with a confidence and poise that wins respect.
A nod from her can spring a group of sisters into action,
In the face of an obnoxious bonobo, fancy on the outside,
But lacking interior grace.

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Blueberry Pancake Moments Grew From Bonobo Survival Project at the Riverwest Co-op Cafe in 2007

I am always surprised by how many great conversations
That come my way at the Riverwest Co-op Cafe.

People from the major movements of our day
Show up for healthy food and talk
Showing some of the ways
Milwaukee is creating something vibrant and new
And becoming a center of light at a new
Great Lakes culture in the making!

The Blueberry Pancake Moments on Sunday mornings around 10 to noon
Are taking advantage of the natural arrival of heavy lifters and detail angel
Of Milwaukee’s re-birthing drama.
The urban farming and bonobo survival projects are among the movements
Given a great boost by the sweet ones of the Blueberry Pancake Moments
At the Riverwest Co-op Cafe.

Here’s what Dr. Gay Reinartz of the Bonobo Survival and Congo Bio-Diversity Project has to say about these moments:

“There are activists, artists, poets, philosophers, roofers, builders, freaks, geeks, cats and dogs, goers and comers — but the kindness and collective talent is inspiring”

Here is a link and some pics:

http://milwaukeerenaissance.com/BlueberryPancakeMomentsAtRiverwestCafeCo-opAmpFuelCafe/HomePage

Andre Lee Ellis, director of March on Milwaukee, Howard Leu, Historic Milwaukee, Fathi Zabaar, Restorative Justice

A good-bye to Restorative Justice Jurist Fathi Zabaar, with Angie, Andre, Howard Hinterthuer of Embedded Reporter, and Howard Lue

Homestead Housing Director John Worm, French Teacher Judy Worm,
Bucketworks Director James Carlson,
Eastside Candidates Sura Faraj & Nik Kovac

People’s Priests Bill Sell & Bob Pavlik

Dr. Gay Reinartz’s Bonobo Survival Project Inspired First Blueberry Pancake Moment
(Gay is on far right of this picture), along w. John and Joel Worm, Nik Kovak, Ernie Pruitt

Riverwest Cycling Services to Blueberry Pancake Moments

Transportation to Blueberry Pancake Moments at Riverwest Co-op Cafe

Fenton Dooley in center, with Howard Hinterthuer on the left and James Godsil on the right, celebrating, at the Blueberry Pancake Moments of the Riverwest Co-op Cafe, Fenton’s swearing in as a member of the Bar of the State of Wisconsin, to occur in Madison, Judge Prosser presiding. Congratulations!

Kt Rusch of Universal Love on way to India, Heaher Baker of UWM Sustainability Groupu, Howard Hinterthuer of Embedded Reporter, Alex and Nik Montezon, Jessica Ochalek, and more

Godsil, Gay, Sura.

Blueberry Pancake at the Co-op Bribe: But You Must Buy Your Own Coffee
Toward a Great Lakes Culture of City Farms

Please join in at the Blueberry Pancake Moment at the Riverwest Co-op,
At Fratney and Clarke, in Riverwest,
Across the Street from the Polish Falcolns, Bowling in the basement,
Down the street from St. Casmir’s, which has a new roof,
And the “Riverwest Currents” and “Vital Source,”
Across the street from the Cream City Collective,
A bit south of Club Timbuktu(on Center and Booth),
A brisk 5 minute walk to Milwaukee’s Central Park and Milwaukee River.
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Daughter of Riverwest’s Last Day at Renown Palo Alto’s “Coupa Cafe”

Here are some pictures of Megan Godsil Jeyifo and staff on her last day as manager of Palo Alto’s glorious Coupa Cafe. Megan and her husband Ok will be returning to Chicago and Milwaukee the first week of January, 2008.

Learn more about the Coupa Cafe
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”Journal Sentinel’s” Jesse Garza’s Great Gift to Milwaukee!

Dear Jesse,

You have given Milwaukee a great gift
Which will ripple through the civil society
For many years to come!

You are the first mainstream reporter
To give clear focus to the possibilities
Of harnessing the power of the internet
For advancing the cause of
Suffering, enduring, and, with
Help from friends like yourself…

Transcending humanity!

Viva, Jesse Garza!

Godsil
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After a death, they remember

Web site pays tribute to those lost to violence in Milwaukee

By JESSE GARZA
jgarza@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 30, 2007

Mothers Against Gun Violence
Annette Bass (left) sings at a vigil for Milwaukee’s homicide victims Sunday at St. Gabriel’s Church of God in Christ, alongside the family of Waylon Joe Holland, who died Sept. 17

The first two killings in Milwaukee in 2007 started with arguments and ended in gunfire.

The first victim was Anthony L. Russell, 24, shot to death in the 1300 block of S. 15th Place early New Year’s morning. Around the corner less than 12 hours later, Larry C. Williams, 20, was fatally shot in a home in the 1400 block of W. Greenfield Ave.

More than 100 others would follow Russell and Williams into the ranks of Milwaukee’s homicide victims of 2007 and onto the Web site of Mothers Against Gun Violence.

The names of all the victims were read aloud Sunday evening during a candlelight vigil at a north side church. They also are now listed on the Mothers Web site, which marked its one-year Internet anniversary Saturday.

The victims add to the list of all those who have met violent deaths in Milwaukee since 1999, a list that now numbers more than 1,100.

And despite the best efforts of the organization that grew out of a triple homicide four years ago, it’s a list that continues to grow.

“You hear little passages about them in the newspaper and then it seems like they’re forgotten,” says Marna Winbush, who co-founded Mothers Against Gun Violence with Beverly Anderson and Debra L. Fifer after the 2003 murders of their sons - respectively, DeShaun Winbush, 22; Carl Hall, 24; and Kirk Bickham Jr., 22.

“So many mothers, fathers and families are losing their loved ones,” Winbush says. “We want people to remember them.

“We want people to be aware of what’s going on in this city.”

Sunday’s vigil, held by a number of community groups, including Mothers Against Gun Violence, took place at St. Gabriel’s Church of God In Christ, 5375 N. 37th St.

The 122 victims listed on the Mothers site for 2007 include those not counted among the 104 homicides recorded as of Sunday by the Milwaukee Police Department, which follows FBI Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines.

The Mothers site, which is a part of the Milwaukee Renaissance Web site, also counts drunken driving and hit-and-run fatalities, people killed by police, fetuses lost during homicides and victims killed on county grounds in the city of Milwaukee.

Among victims recorded by both this year, the oldest victim was a 90-year-old woman who police believe died in an arson fire after being beaten by her 46-year-old grandson, who also died in the blaze.

The youngest was a 19-month-old girl whose mother’s boyfriend is charged with suffocating the toddler.

Photographs of victims, makeshift memorials and grieving relatives embracing at prayer vigils are also included on the site, maintained by Winbush and Bob Graf.

Graf, along with Milwaukee Renaissance Webmaster Tegan Dowling, assisted Winbush in setting up the Mothers site.

“We make no judgments about any of the victims or people who committed the crimes. We pray for all of them,” says Graf, whose photographs of prayer vigils for the victims appear on the site.

The vigils are organized by Holy Ground, an effort by Milwaukee Innercity Congregations Allied for Hope to designate and consecrate areas in the city where violence occurs.

When Holy Ground becomes aware of a homicide, a vigil at the crime scene is organized and attendees are notified via telephone tree, Graf says.

When the victims are officially identified by police, their names and information on their deaths are posted to the site by either Winbush or Graf.

“We have other mothers who send things to the Web site, or children who send us little poems,” Winbush says of the personal tributes to the slain submitted by their loved ones.

“There’s a lot of stuff now that we still have to get in.”

Space on Milwaukee Renaissance is provided to help grassroots community groups such as Mothers keep their message at the forefront, says site co-founder James Godsil.

The Mothers site serves as a spiritual expression of both grief and hope, Godsil says.

“As I watch Marna, day by day, entering those names . . . ,” he says, “I’m inspired by the grit and power of human spirit to face up to life’s tragedies and carry on.”
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Milwaukee’s UrbAn Anthropology 2007 Year In Review

Accomplishments this year—successes and challenges—See details below

1. Cultural Connect Program
2. Home Town Ties Program (including Farmers Market)
3. Boat tours
4. Old South Side Settlement Museum
5. Bronzeville and Harbor Museums
6. Maxi tours
7. Documentaries
8. Speakers Bureau
9. Marquette programs at UrbAn
10. Ongoing studies
11. Artist Guild
12. Community collaborations (Greening, Mercy Housing, writing grants, block club)

Programs that began development this year—see details below

1. Indian exhibit at SS museum
2. KK River Cultural Development
3. Working on restoring skating at Kozy Park
4. Old South Side Monthly Newspaper
5. Community Development Resource
6. MPS study

ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS YEAR

1. Cultural Connect program.
Through a grant from the Bader Fdn., UrbAn brought information, games, and our own films on local cultural groups to Milwaukee area schools. These monthly programs (also including our museum tour) were presented in 2–3 semester formats to Riley Elementary School, Clarke St. School, Metcalf School, Bay View High, Riverside High, Notre Dame Middle School, and Yeshiva Elementary School.

SUCCESSES: While the program began with a number of challenges, it is closing with overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers and students. Our pretest/posttest results show that the youth went from scores on cultural groups of less than 40% to scores far exceeding 70% (and at times in the high eighties percentiles). We also used the grant money to create permanent program curricula for schools, including all necessary content, supplies, films, and games. This way the program can become a permanent fixture in Milwaukee area schools. Erin Malcolm deserves the accolades for much of the development of this program.

CHALLENGES: None, except getting the permanent program disseminated.

2. Home Town Ties Program, including Farmers Market
Through a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the Ties program was developed to provide more exposure to our museums, while developing and demonstrating ties among various Milwaukee neighborhoods. Among the goals was providing presentations and museum tours to 27 school and youth groups, contacting various adult groups and travel agencies about our resources, developing print media that highlighted the museums and neighborhoods, and developing the Old South Side Market at Kozy Park as a way to expand all the “home town ties.” Rick Petrie deserves a huge pat on the back for never giving up in creating these connections.

SUCCESSES: Our school tours and presentations are right on target. We have produced over 50 “editions” of the Old South Side News (that connects neighborhood information) to be distributed at the market and museums. A 2009 calendar is also being created that highlights the museums and historic neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Rick has worked to form coalitions with other small museums and has contacted all major travel agencies in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. We have contacted over 90 potential vendors for the Old South Side Farmers Market. The feedback on our museum tours by both the adult and youth groups has been nothing short of phenomenal. There is NO QUESTION that people (from ages 6 to 90) are delighted with the museum tours.

CHALLENGES. We do not know if school groups will continue to use the museums once they have to pay for the tours and/or provide their own transportation. The market is due to open this spring and we cannot guarantee that we will be successful in getting enough of the 90 potential vendors to rent space to make it pay for itself.

3. Boat tours.
This was the fourth year of our Milwaukee tours and is completely self-sufficient. This year we offered two boat/walking tours: The People Nobody Knew—The Kashubes of Jones Island, and The River Cultures—A Rustic Cruise. The tours included information provided by our cultural anthropologists, an ethnic meal, our documentaries on the cultural groups, and boat rides around the targeted areas. Kathrin Schmid deserves most of the kudos for giving absolutely perfect tours for the past several years.

SUCCESSES: We have gradually increased our tour numbers to sell-out rates. This year most of the tours were sold out by mid-summer, and we have no reason to believe we won’t continue to draw large numbers. Our evaluations of the tours have remained consistently strong. We are considering adding an Old South Side tour, which will include a horse/carriage ride around the area this coming year or the next.

CHALLENGES: Kathrin is not available to do the tours this coming year, which is a huge challenge. Whoever replaces her must have great presentation skills, weekend availability, and know much, much about Milwaukee and its ethnic groups and history. We also have ongoing problems with some of the restaurant owners keeping their commitments.

4. Old South Side Settlement Museum
The OSSSM was funded by the Greater Milwaukee Fdn. and the Bradley Fdn. and is now working on becoming self-sufficient. Our museum offers weekly and group tours to interested visitors. We are currently entirely supported by the tour fees. The museum celebrates the immigrant families that settled this Old South Side neighborhood. The museum is also used as an intimate community center

SUCCESSES: There is simply no visitor taking our museum tours that doesn’t rave about the museum or the tour. We have large numbers of community meetings that take place in the museum. At times we have a community meeting every day of the week.

CHALLENGES: Despite the great feedback, our visitor numbers are very low. We are less than 50% of our “break even” totals for our first full year. While we have done nearly everything possible to market our museum, we need to look creatively at other options for paying our expenses here. We need to be able to offer some free tours to groups that cannot afford to pay. We surely expect to increase numbers if the market is successful and as the years go by (and this happened with the boat tours). But for the next several years, we need to look at ways to collect indirect costs on our community initiatives to apply to our museum rent and utilities.

5. Bronzeville and Harbor Museums
We are working in collaboration with the Lapham Park Community Center to continue developing the Lower Walnut Street exhibits that celebrate the now extinct African American community of Bronzeville. We are creating rooms from old Bronzeville and are recreating the great works of the Pleasant Company Needle Craft Club. We are also working in collaboration with the Bay View Historical Society in creating a Harbor museum to celebrate many of the great harbor cultures in the city’s past and present. Our collaborating partners will operate the museums, once we create them. Our interns have done great work in helping us research these communities that comprise the museums.

SUCCESSES: While we had times where we believed we simply could not get the information we needed to develop these sites, we now have enough to continue moving forward. We expect completion of the Bronzeville site within the year, with the Harbor museum slated for the following year or beyond.

CHALLENGES: Funding, but we expect to get more of this.

6. Maxi tours
We developed one tour this year that links the local Polonia/Jones Island area to northern Poland and the Hel Peninsula. The self-supported tour is a collaboration between UrbAn Anthropology Inc. and a Polish tourist agency. The first tour is scheduled for May 2008. We developed a second maxi tour that will include a range of ethnic villages in Wisconsin. The groups covered include the Amish, Menominee Indians, Polish, Norwegian, prehistoric populations, and Germans. No date is yet set for the first tour.

SUCCESSES: Our collaborations have been great. [=UrbAn=] staff took the pilot tours and the sites are transformational. One of the Elder Hostels is interested in the Wisconsin tour.

CHALLENGES: We do not yet have enough information to know if we will be able to book enough travelers to break even on the tours.

7. Documentaries
About half of our films have been funded by the Fleck Foundation and half have been self-supported. We completed our 12th and 13th documentary this year. One is the German Socialist Movement in Milwaukee and the other is on our Riverwest Neighborhood. We are close to completing the one on the Sherman Park neighborhood and will also update the Old South Side documentary in the coming months. We are also doing one documentary in collaboration with Marquette University on the subject of homelessness, where students will take on identities of people working at jobs paying $7-$8 an hour and will attempt to remain in housing.

SUCCESSES: Channel 14 plays our documentaries daily. PBS broadcasts them at least once. They are continuously used in our cultural programming, employed as educational tools at schools and universities, and rented out at libraries.

CHALLENGES: None, really. In our early days of creating documentaries we were not seeing much use of these. Now they are used in multiple venues, and continuously.

8. Speakers Bureau
Speakers with specific expertise bring information based on UrbAn research to community groups. This is a fully self-supported venture. We have been indebted to Sumaiyah Clark for much work on the Bureau this year.

SUCCESSES: The bureau speakers have been booked at the approximate rate we had hoped.

CHALLENGES: Our former coordinator left the position without notice and many talks she had booked were abandoned. Fortunately Sumaiyah Clark picked up much of the slack and fulfilled the obligations. We are asking the board to turn over the coordinator’s role to her this coming year.

9. Marquette programs at UrbAn
We have run an UrbAn certificate program in Applied Anthropology out of Marquette University for three years. We also have a graduate program in Applied Anthropology in development.

SUCCESSES: Nearly all of the graduates of the certificate program were successful in getting consultant or employment work in fields related to applied anthropology.

CHALLENGES: Marquette has done a poor job in its role in recruiting students and all the recruitment to date has been done by UrbAn. We are working with the University to make the work more equitable. Changes in Marquette’s hierarchy have also resulted in postponement of further development of the graduate program.

10. Ongoing studies ua10?
This program is entirely self-supported. UrbAn anthropologists and university interns assigned to UrbAn have completed over 30 community studies to date. Many of these result in documentaries. Those currently in development include (a)additional information about the Old South Side, (b)the Third Ward neighborhood, and ©indigenous African communities in Milwaukee.

SUCCESSES: We have never had a semester without interns in our decade in operation, and that includes summer semesters. We cannot overemphasize the importance of our interns in making our community studies a reality. Ultimately books and cross-cultural documentaries will result from the totality of this work.

CHALLENGES: None. This has been a strength from the onset.

11. Artist Guild ua11?
This new effort is self-supporting. UrbAn developed the Milwaukee South Side Artists and Writers Guild this year. The goals are to exhibit the work of artists and writers living or working on the South Side. A secondary goal is to draw artists to the Lincoln Village neighborhood.

SUCCESSES: While the effort is only a few months old, we already have between 15 and 20 members. The artists will be able to exhibit their art at the Farmers Market and the Old South Side Settlement Museum.

CHALLENGES: None, but ultimately we might be looking for free space to develop an artist incubator.

12. (Other) Community collaborations
These have all been done with no outside funding. We worked with the Extension Community Gardens program and the Lincoln Village Business Association to create over 50 large flowering planters along Lincoln Ave. this year. We conducted a community survey of 109 neighborhood residents and businesses around Lincoln Ave. to determine their future wishes for the neighborhood (they chose a farmers market, which we are developing for them). We developed a very active block club around Kosciuszko Park. We are working with the Ace Boxing Club, helping them with fundraising and possibly a Native museum at their site. We are developing a collaboration with Mercy Housing over homeless issues. We collected nearly 1000 petitions urging development of homeless housing at the VA center grounds and worked with Feingold’s office on that.

PROGRAMS THAT ARE IN THE INCUBATOR STAGE

1. Indian exhibit at the Old South Side Settlement Museum
We wrote several grants to fund an exhibit to honor the contributions of Wisconsin Indians to the Old South Side. This exhibit will be in the back yard of the SS museum. It will feature the contributions of Del Porter and the Ace Boxing Club.

SUCCESSES: We commissioned sculptors at the Milwaukee Public Museum to create a bronze bust of Del Porter, which has been completed.

CHALLENGES: Funding.

2. KK River Cultural Development
We are in the early stages of collecting data on the kinds of cultural development South Side residents want along the Lincoln Village area of the Kinnickinnic River. The developments will promote area esthetics, public use, and free family access to the riverbank resources. We are collaborating with several agencies interested in river development.
‘’‘
SUCCESSES:’‘’ We have the resources to collect a lot of data quickly.

CHALLENGES: Ultimately - funding.

3. Working on restoring skating to Kozy Park
We have hopes that there may be some way of restoring skating to the Kosciuszko Park lagoon. All our data to date support the residents’ desire to see this restored.

SUCCESSES: We have collected data on the desirability of this resource.

CHALLENGES: The logistics. We need to work with the local representatives and park officials to get an understanding of what would be required to make this happen.

4. Old South Side Monthly Newspaper
We are working on creating a monthly newspaper much like the Bay View Compass or the Riverwest Currents that highlight the activities of the Old South Side (mainly Lincoln Village neighborhood). We wish this newspaper to be a resource for the locals, but even more importantly, to offer information that will bring people to the Lincoln Village neighborhood (as business consumers, entrepreneurs, and as homeowners). The newspaper will be circulated both within and outside of the neighborhood—10,000-circulation goal.

SUCCESSES: We have the right staff with the right experience to develop this.

CHALLENGES: Start-up funding.

5. Community Development Resource
UrbAn Anthropology, in its short time in the neighborhood, has become a community-contributing resource in the south side area. The SS museum has become a major meeting hall for community groups. We wish to formalize our role with funding that will help us to expand our services so we can write grants or become fiscal agents to all small groups hoping to add improvements to the neighborhood. We hope to develop a series of block clubs and landlord pacts.

SUCCESSES: We have a good site for this work and the right staff in all our members and interns.

CHALLENGES: Funding.

6. MPS study
We have noted that there are excellent schools among so many uneven ones in the MPS system. We will be conducting an ethnographic study of some of these successful schools in order to inform the process of what can work to improve District education and community relations. This will be entirely self-supported.

SUCCESSES: We have as much experience with MPS schools as any organization in the city. We did a pilot of this a summer ago and know it can be accomplished. We also have the right staff and interns to conduct the study.

CHALLENGES: None, except getting access from MPS, which should not be overly problematic.

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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Amity with Tibetan monk sets woman on path to India

By ANNYSA JOHNSON
anjohnson@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 28, 2007

For 14 years, KT Rusch has sent a modest stipend to support the spiritual education of a Tibetan Buddhist monk at the Drepung Loseling Monastery in southern India.

KT Rusch
After corresponding with Buddhist monk Kunchok Chophel for 14 years, KT Rusch will meet him and attend a ceremony led by the Dalai Lama.
A whimsical Christmas card sent to KT Rusch from the Tibetan enclave near Hubli, India, pairs a pack-toting Santa Claus with an escort of diminutive Buddhist monks.
Kunchok Chophel

And for 14 years, Kunchok Chophel’s letters of thanks have given her a glimpse of his ascetic life in a world she could only imagine.

Until now.

Rusch will meet Chophel for the first time next week when she travels to Karnataka state for the dedication of the monastery’s new prayer hall. The ceremony, which will be presided over by the Dalai Lama, is expected to draw thousands of faithful and visitors from around the world.

The prospect is humbling for Rusch, herself a Catholic, who draws inspiration from the Buddhist tenets of non-violence and compassion in her work as an artist and musician.

“I’m not a Buddhist scholar by any means,” said the Mequon mother of three who plays bass in the local Universal Love Band and teaches art and music to at-risk youths through the nonprofit Express Yourself Milwaukee.

“But that connection comes through to me,” she said. “It’s what I’m trying to do with my art, and my service. To me, the example of universal love is right there.”

Rusch was among hundreds of Americans invited to the ceremony because of their contributions to the monastery, the largest Tibetan monastic institution in exile and the spiritual home of the Dalai Lama, who fled from Tibet for India after the Chinese invaded his Himalayan homeland in 1959.

“There are about 50 who have officially registered to attend,” said Tsepak Rigzin, assistant director for cultural preservation at the Atlanta-based Drepung Loseling Monastery Inc., the North American seat of the Dalai Lama.

Rusch said she’s long had an interest in Asian religions, having studied them at Dominican High School and later in college. She began contributing to the education fund after seeing the monastery’s touring “Sacred Music Sacred Dance” performance at the Pabst Theater in 1993.

Rusch’s gift wasn’t that much, she said, just $20 a month. Still, it was tough some years.

“But we really wanted to come up with the money, to figure out a way to do it,” she said.

When she received the invitation - in English and Sanskrit - this summer, she knew she wanted to go but wasn’t sure how her family could swing it. The airline ticket alone was $1,500.

But the next day, she received an order for 600 CDs of her band’s music, a sign, she thought, that it was meant to be.

Rusch will leave Jan. 3 for what is expected to be an arduous trip, with six days spent traveling to and from the monastery.

She’ll fly from New York through Mumbai and into Hubli, India, near the coast of the Arabian Sea, then ride - she’s not sure in what or with whom - about 30 kilometers to the monastery. Along with a visa and passport, she required a “restricted area permit” to visit the Tibetan settlement there, with 14,000 people, the largest community of Tibetans outside their homeland.

“It’s a bit of a leap of faith,” said Rusch, who as recently as Thursday wasn’t sure where she would stay once she gets there.

While at the monastery, Rusch will have an opportunity to sit in on teachings by the Dalai Lama, described by Rigzin as “empowerments” and “very precious, very rare.”

In addition to clothes, food and other gifts for the monks and refugees, she is bringing a prayer scroll - it features the names and intentions of people in Wisconsin - which she plans to read in the prayer hall.

And she’s taking an art project begun by a group of Milwaukee children, hoping to finish it with their Tibetan counterparts in India.

“When we were painting it, we were contemplating peace in our lives and reading poetry,” Rusch said of the project begun with teenagers from the Milwaukee County Detention Center.

“And I’m hoping to do the same thing with children over there.”

Just as important, she said, will be to spend time with Chophel, learning more about his life, his escape from Tibet across the Himalayas and the spiritual growth that has taken him from student to teacher.

“I can’t wait to hear his story,” said Rusch, who keeps a photograph of the monk on her refrigerator and treasures the letters he’s sent over the years.

“He wrote a beautiful letter a few years ago, saying he couldn’t believe he’d known us for 12 years. He said he had all of the pictures of our family on his altar.”
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Wiki Websites: A Communications Resource for Visionary Connectors, Associations, Institutions, & Local Enterprises

We have been experimenting with e-mail mobilizing and now open-source web site organizing for about 10 years in Milwaukee. I could spin a good and quite true story of the value in harnessing internet resources for the movements of our time, grounded in some of the following stories:

• naming a street after local civil rights, tenant organizing, ant-freeway activist Ted Seaver

• initiating Milwaukee’s foremost historic preservation organization, the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, which blocked a Big Box 24 hour Walgreens from Historic Blvd., saved many historic buildings from the wrecking ball, including the soon-to-be renowned renewal of the giant Pabst Complex

• paying proper tribute to the Father of Wisconsin Civil Rights, Lloyd Barbee

• helped launch or support community e-mail networks or yahoo groups, including the 800 family strong Bay_View_Matters yahoo group, critical to the formation of the very progressive, powerful, and effective Bay View Nbd. Association

• helped block a giant battleship from despoiling our Lakefront

• helped win major media attention to Milwaukee’s first African music and culture venue, the NAACP national convention, a tribute to Black Vets at the Soldiers Home, the threat to privatize the Soldiers Home, African American artists, Riverwest’s diversity is strength community building, and more

• helped accelerate the community food movement, especially Growing Power

• helped advance the cause of biodiversity and bonobo survival

• provided web platforms for many small businesses, social enterprises, movement poets, writers, and artists

• advance the cause of cooperatives, especially the Riverwest Food Co-op and the People’s Books Co-op.

• promoted de-stigmatization of mental health issues

• promoted the protection of the Milwaukee River from short-sited developers and their political allies

There are by now a few thousand pages at this “on-line magazine and movement resource… News that we’re co-creating!”

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/HomePage

“Projects of the Moment” captures many of the above efforts

The Green Weekly Updates and Daily Agora announcements have won quite a bit of attention from heavy lifters and detail angels of many connectors and associational leaders/activists.

I would be happy to participate in on-line brainstorms and more regarding the diffusion of this communications technology, which has the promise of reducing to a considerable extent the pernicious consequences of the “iron law of oligarchy” rooted in information hording.

Sincerely,

Godsil
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The Mouse and the Worm Transformed Milwaukee

There was a time when everyday people
Were too disconnected to intensely engage and prevail
In turf and other struggles with the commercial classes.

But then the mouse of the internet connected them so well
That powerful visions spread like prairie fire
And quite “small” people became quite large
And began to prevail and save sacred buildings and sacred spaces
In the face of outraged opposition from the commercial classes.

There was also a time when everyday people
Were too disconnected from their ancestral power
To grow healthy and tasty food in their yards and ‘hoods.

But then the worms of Will Allen’s Growing Power
Were spread so widely to the four season kitchen and community
Gardens that Milwaukee awakened to the folly of reliance on
Food from distant places grown primarily for profit and often
With frightening disregard for health, safety, and evolution.

And 10,000 gardens blossomed in neighborhoods once written off
As ghetto and violent and ugly, and the people reconnected with
Nature, used waste products for radiant energy,
Became strong and sure enough to ask neighbors for favors
And found themselves walking the sidewalks and biking the streets
Past corner community gardens of beauty and conviviality.

The mouse helped connect people in the realm of mind.
The worms helped connect people in the realm of body.
The mouse and the worms helped connect people in the realm of …Soul!
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Our Growing Power

Worms and People Unite!
From the shores of Bay View to the shores of Door County!
Rise Up Great Lakes Culture!
Realize our Growing Power!

From the ancient mound builders
To the urban farmers
Our new world soil
Has sustained thousands.

Worms, Fertile Land and People
In partnerships
Giving up a
Bountiful Harvest of
Corn, Beans and Squash
Apples, Cherries, Willow Bark
White Pines, Red Pines
A cornucopia of
Food, Fuel, Medicine and Shelter.

People Rise Up!
Get to know your food source.
Understand the land.
Learn about the worms.
The Great Lakes Basin
Holds golden treasures
Of history, culture, and gifts of Nature.
Rise Up Great Lakes Culture!
Realize our Growing Power!
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Paul Taldone and Michelle Dettloff Riverwest Co-op Baby Shower Pics

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People’s Books Community Gathering Jan. 1, noon to 6 p.m.

Dear Member of People’s Books Cooperative,

Over two weeks have passed since our Grand Opening celebration in November. My apologies for this untimely note, but thank you for making our first community gathering a success. We filled the day with smiles, laughter, music, poetry, good food, and drink. Most important, though, we gathered to build community and to strengthen Milwaukee’s cultural Renaissance. A special thanks to Chris Christie for coordinating such a successful event.

Our next community gathering is January 1, 2008 from 12–6pm at the bookstore. Keeping Chris Chiu’s tradition, we intend to once again open our doors to gather the public. Refreshments will be provided as well as the showing of a movie. Past movies shown have commented on issues such as army recruitment, media, political families, war, food, and oil. Please join us with friends and family as we ring in the New Year.

Amidst this holiday season, please also keep People’s Books in mind. We currently have new titles arriving in the store as well as some classics that make great gifts. We also offer calendars, journals, and fair trade gifts for stocking stuffers. Gift certificates are available and we can special order most books for the holiday.

Lastly, as a new member, we encourage you to take the next step and become a volunteer. Volunteer duties include many projects within the store such as working the register and attending meetings. The next Board meeting is December 13th 7pm at the bookstore. There are also many opportunities to volunteer outside the store such as leafleting your neighborhood or talking with friends and family. You can apply any of your individual strengths to sustaining our cooperative endeavor. Stop into the store and talk with any of the volunteer staff to learn more.

For the co-op,

Jim Draeger

--
Jim Draeger
Coordinator
People’s Books Cooperative
2122 E. Locust St.
Milwaukee, WI 53211
phone/fax: 414.962.0575
mobile: 262.370.7709
info@peoplesbookscoop.org
textbooks@peoplesbookscoop.org
onlinebooks@peoplesbookscoop.org

Wealth is the number of things one can do without.
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Milwaukee meets Drepung Loseling Tibetan Monastery: A Cultural Exchange

I have been invited to Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Drepung Loseling in India for the inauguration of the new assembly hall with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama in January 2008. I have been a supporter of their educational fund for the last thirteen years. Why? Because I believe in the freedoms of religion, speech and rights to assemble and receive an education. Under the present Chinese occupation of Tibet, monasteries which function for both religious and educational purposes were destroyed. Only a handful of more than 6000 remain. Tibetan refugee communities in exile are re-building their culture in India and elsewhere. Imagine an occupying power on US soil burning down all our schools and churches. H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama is not only the religious and political leader of Tibet, but a world-wide living symbol of peaceful, compassionate, logical, and respectful way of life on our planet. The “promotion of human affection” is not just Buddhist morality but a universal theme that all of us can reflect on and promote in our individual lives.

To honor my Milwaukee roots and share this experience with a wider circle, I am compiling a prayer scroll. If you wish your name or intention to be listed on the scroll, please e-mail me or stop by an upcoming show. A small donation to the Drepung Educational Fund is appreciated. I will read the scroll in the sacred space at Drepung on behalf of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Great Lakes Culture.

Consider this: Write your name or the name of your loved ones, family, friends, significant people in your life or maybe even the name of an enemy, someone you resent or one you wish to reconcile with.

Contemplate some of these when you write your names or intentions:
Freedom for people in Tibet,
Freedom for all people in exile,
Safety and long life for H.H. The Dalai Lama,
Safety and long life for spiritual leaders, teachers and healers on our planet,
Freedom of Speech for All
Freedom of Religion for All
Freedom to Assemble for All

E-mail me at krusch@wi.rr.com or pass on your written intention at an upcoming show by January 1, 2008.
Upcoming Shows:
Mali Blues NOV 3 Club Timbuktu
Mali Blues NOV 23 Bay Shore Mall Atrium
Universal Love Band DEC 9 The Coffee House benefit for Growing Power
www.ktruschmusic.net for show details

Be a Part of the Milwaukee - Drepung Prayer Scroll.
I am honored to be your personal messenger to an Inauguration of a historic world cultural sacred site!

Another Reason to Be Involved
Most of us have busy, hectic lives for many reasons. We may not have much time for contemplative practices. The entire community of Drepung is meditating and promoting peace, kindness and universal essence of love for us. For each one of us. It is so very thoughtful of them to be thinking of us here in Milwaukee. They have time, space and energy to send us positive vibes. A very generous group of Tibetans!

Some more details:

About fifteen Americans are making the journey to Southwestern, India in January. I am the only Wisconsinite as far as I know. In another Wisconsin exchange, I will be bringing a cloth that we have painted with the youth at The Milwaukee County Juvenile Detention Center. We have left the center of the cloth blank and I hope to complete the cloth with Tibetan youth on this journey. This cloth will be part of our annual performance of Express Yourself Milwaukee at Marquette University in May 2008. There will also be a written account of this cloth in the performance program describing the art, the journey and the exchange with youth Drepung Monastery. At Express Yourself, our goal is to share healing arts with youth and this cloth will be a symbol of positive expressions of global exchange and peace. I am currently seeking permission from the abbot at Drepung for this project

I also hope to share any knowledge of composting, vermiculture and what goes on at Milwaukee’s own amazing forward-thinking farm: Growing Power. Maybe there is a future exchange that can be facilitated with Tibetan refugee farmers. They have had to adapt to a completely different environment, altitude, soil quality and way of growing and acquiring food.

On a personal level – I will be attending the inauguration ceremonies, attending teachings on three ancient Buddhist texts with H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama, participating in an empowerment ceremony and long-life ceremony for H.H. and attendees. And finally meeting Kunchok Chophel in person – we have been exchanging letters for about 13 years. He is the ‘honorary’ recipient of the donation we have sent to support the exile community. All donations are spread equally among all who live and attend the monastery — which supports childhood through university level education.

Here is more information on Drepung Loseling Monastery in exile.

Drepung Loseling Monastery in India

Drepung Loseling Monastery was one of Tibet’s largest monastic universities. Located in the hills on the northern outskirts of Lhasa, it was established in 1416 as an institute of higher Buddhist education by Khenpo Lekden, a direct disciple of Lama Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), founder of the eclectic Geluk School. The First Dalai Lama was also a disciple of Lama Tsongkhapa, and the Second Dalai Lama built a residence in Drepung, called the Ganden Potrang, which remained a hereditary seat of all subsequent Dalai Lamas. At its zenith Drepung Loseling housed some ten thousand monk students. These were drawn not only from Tibet, but also from China, Himalayan India, Mongolia, and the Mongol regions of Eastern Russia.

The Mission of Drepung Loseling Institute

Following the legacy of Drepung Loseling Monastery, India, and with the patronage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Drepung Loseling Institute, is dedicated to the study and preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of wisdom and compassion. A center for the cultivation of both heart and intellect, it provides a sanctuary for the nurturance of inner peace and kindness, community understanding, and global healing.
In implementing this vision, Drepung Loseling Institute, has two main objectives:
To contribute to North American culture by providing theoretical knowledge and practical training in Tibetan Buddhist scholarly traditions for Western students, scholars and the general public; and
To help preserve the endangered Tibetan culture, which today leads a fragile existence in the exiled refugee communities in India and Nepal. www.drepung.org

The Drepung Loseling Educational Fund

The Drepung Loseling Educational Fund was established in 1988 to preserve traditional Tibetan culture by sponsoring a monk in training at Drepung Loseling. Conditions in the Tibetan refugee camps in India are basic, and the average family is poor.
Young monks born in India have little parental support, and depend almost entirely upon the production of our small farm. Over half of our population is comprised of recent refugees whose parents remain in Chinese occupied Tibet; therefore, they cannot provide them with support. We also have a number of young monks who are orphans.

The Monastery accepts all sincere candidates regardless of their financial situation and must support them by means of the proceeds of the same small parcel of land provided to the original 216 Loseling refugee monks. The Fund helps provide for the basic needs of food, health care and education for these monks.
Keep up with Kt’s projects, including this one, here
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”Shepherd” Best of Milwaukee 2007 - ACTIVIST Bill Sell

His An Urban Manifesto spells out exactly why Milwaukee loves Bill Sell: “CLAIM: I am Milwaukee. I am the face of Milwaukee, its fellow worker, its lover, its dinner companion. I believe in neighbors, that people were evolved to live close, and work near their children. I gladly share this pen with the person I meet on the bus. He writes a phone number and so it may be that the city works for him. I gladly share my house, garden and sidewalk, my alley, county park and freeway. I believe in public space which, enjoyed, is the guarantor of my private space, my right to speak and play.”

Sell is Milwaukee’s champion of mass transit, of biking the Hoan Bridge, of ending gun violence and of being a good neighbor. And we’re glad the city recognizes him as our Best Activist. (L.K.)
Click here for the full article
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All 5 Shepherd Links for Congo Reports

Dr. Gay Reinartz has given us elegant and inspiring accounts of her bonobo surival and bio-diversity initiative in the Congo this Fall of 2007.

A quick recap for those who missed them the first time around, here are the links from earliest, to most recent.

http://www.shepherd-express.com/permalink.lasso?ei|178786.113121|Protecting_the_Bonobos

http://www.shepherd-express.com/permalink.lasso?ei|178854.113121|Dispatches_from_the_Congo

http://www.shepherd-express.com/permalink.lasso?ei|178925.113121|Dispatches_from_the_Congo

http://www.shepherd-express.com/permalink.lasso?ei|178993.113121|Dispatches_from_the_Congo

http://shepherd-express.com/permalink.lasso?ei|179052.113121|Dispatches_from_the_Congo
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Greening Shorewood Charrette to Transform 2 Acre Parking Lot into Demonstration City Farm

Last night about 25 citizens were privileged to participate in a design charrette led by 3 Shorewood High School seniors and Professor of Architecture Mark Keane.

Kim Forbeck will be the point person for people interested in helping create an urban agriculture demonstration project, water harvesting and rooftop gardens, and hopefully wind and solar energy sources.
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Growing Food & Justice for All

Strategic Planning Session
September 15–16 ,2007 - Growing Power, Inc., Milwaukee, WI

Vision
Core Principals

The Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative, hosted by Growing Power, Inc. is a new comprehensive network that views dismantling racism as a core principle that brings together social change agents from diverse sectors working to bring about new, healthy and sustainable food systems and supporting and building multicultural leadership in impoverished communities throughout the world.

Vision
We want to work together with a shared vision of dismantling racism via network building, shared leadership, economic growth and community food systems toward these ends:

• Every neighborhood in low-income communities and communities of color have full access to fresh, healthy, local, affordable, culturally appropriate food every day through a variety of retail channels ranging from farmer’s markets to locally-owned, small corner stores and supermarkets.

• In every neighborhood in low-income communities and communities of color the residents of the neighborhood own and operate the small businesses that produce, distribute and sell the fresh, healthy food consumed in the neighborhood.

• Through ownership and operation of the local food system. every neighborhood in low-income communities and communities of color provides opportunity for its children to develop business skills and leadership capacity offering hope that each child, every family and the community itself can achieve its self-determined destiny.

Mission Statement
We want to establish a powerful, multicultural network of individuals, organizations and community-based entities working toward a food secure and just world.

Action Strategies

Developing Multicultural Leadership

• Support local, national and international networking sessions among members

• Provide Skill based trainings. First phase is to train a core of members who will train local groups. second phase is to branch out and involve more members

• Establish Steering committee whose members have a vote and would participate in calls and annual conference. This would be the same for members who were conveners in their own regions.

• Establish a leadership training and mentoring program that promotes and grows leaders of color and under-represented voices.

Creating a Strong Network
Membership Outline:

• Fee structure: $25/individuals, $100/organizations

• clear definition of what the $25 and $100 memberships will mean

• Benefactor membership could be $1000

Membership outreach strategies:

• Initial outreach focusing on food system advocates and then expanding to parallel social justice oriented movements.

• Create system to compute sweat equity vs. money for membership dues.

• Voting & Non-voting - for who makes these types of decisions like we are doing now.

• Foods, restaurants, individuals, schools… other representatives from the food system. Having representation from the whole of the food system.

• List the benefits and responsibilities of becoming a member.

• To have a larger group of people that acts as a network and feels somewhat connected. Maybe they just attend a workshop. Maybe they spread the word in their own community.

• To have multiple layers of members. We could have regional representation and then also have the larger membership. The regional representatives might be the leaders in their area.

• To define what each level of membership does - what their level of responsibility and role in the organization is.

• Decentralize the expertise - attend a core goup of members to do training and then build on our own expertise and assets. Train the trainers. Supports core action of building multi-cultural leaderships.

%center&Benefits of membership

Annual conference/summit

• designed to share informations, strategies and to build a collective platform for the year and take action.
  • Piggyback on already existing conferences to save meeting and travel time.

Host monthly teleconference calls for committees

Publish quarterly newsletter

• that features information on DR, social justice, privilege awareness and policy and information relevant to members.

• opportunity for members to promote programs, activities, share viewpoints and write articles.

Establish and maintain an interactive website for initiative

• Being on a committee is a benefit of membership

• Leadership trainings.

• Newsletter

• Networking

• Resource list of trainers and DR type consultants.

• Provide information so that we can be informed and effective advocates.

• Help set the agenda-trainings, advocacy targets.

Responsibilities and Expectations of GFJA Members:

• Beacon, community liaison.

• Attending, dismantling racism trainings would be a mandatory part of becoming a member.

• Be an ear on the ground and report back needs of your community.

• Be invested in the initiative.

• Replicate what you learn from trainings and invest it into your community - like host a training in your community based on what you learned.

• Be an advocate in our communities.

• Give so many hours of work to working groups a quarter.

Grassroots Advocacy

• Establish a voice and presence in the formation of policies that support justice, economic opportunity and equity reflecting the values and integrity of GFJA members.

(Outline still in progress)

Expanding Dismantling Racism Work

• Provide administrative support for members to host dismantling racism, policy building and technical assistance activities.

• Weave in the concept of privilege awareness in addition to dismantling racism throughout the document.

• DR principles are always practiced and modeled in our work.

• Find ways to communicate about DR in our local communities (explore language that invites people into the conversation, create fact sheets, etc.)

• Build our own DR and privilege awareness training team with the support of consultants when needed.

Operating Structure & Resource Alignment

STRUCTURE

• Distribute survey to find out who is at the table so that we can do some outreach for folks that are not yet participating.

• Form a Core group of nationally vested folks, with a steering group of 4 or 5 people that lead it. The larger core group of say 30–51) is the decision making body. First year - maybe just focus on that group for the first year. Then in year two start to do more outreach in our regional area.

• Steering committee of 10- 12 people that get together and suggest some structure - meet over phone and in person. Then come up with vision and mission statements and disseminate to the larger group.

• Important to make sure that the advisory group represents everybody. So it is okay to have it be larger. The advisory group cou1d then have committees.

• Structure needs to be fluid so that everyone can participate - so that the initiative cannot become marginalized aid so that not all the work falls on a few people.

Decision Making Process to be developed by steering committee in YEAR ONE

• Steering committee represents everyone geogaphcally and acts as a leadership taem

• Staff support to facilitate -GrowingPower will start to fund this. (Daniel’s been doing about 15 hours/week)

• Subcommittees - Work Groups
  • Outreach committee

  • Education/PR/Food Literacy {food justice/social justice education, elevator pitch, graphics, funder outreach)

  • Educate the funders
    • ID who the funders are

    • Consciousness of who the funders are

  • Fund raising committee

  • Communications (digest/newsletter, website)

  • DR Train the Trainers/Conference (possibly added onto an annual conference - maybe 1 day)

  • One-pager education tool

• Develop a Member list to start

• Set date for nexT call -mid-November

• Interim steering committee Team- Sarah, Erika, Diane, Heather, Maureen, Jeanette, Will.

• Diane will send out list of attendees.

Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative Strategic meeting
September 15–14, 2007 - Milwaukee, WI

Participants in planning:

• Leona Long - works with Catholic Charities with immigrant farmers
• Matt Koshka - Revision Urban Farm in Boston, providing jobs for homeless women
• Jay Salinas - Milwaukee Growing Power
• Joseph James - Columbia, SC economic development professional, Corp for Economic Opportunity
• Tracy Collins - Growing Power Financial Manager
• Melvin Giles - peaceful love warrior, St. Paul
• Raika Banerjee - St. Paul and California - urbal ag & environmental ed.
• Metric Giles - Minnesota Twin Cities
• Dorothy Barker - Oxford NC, Operation Spring Plant, representing small African American family farmers
• Ken Knetzger - Growing Power and teacher of physiology and nutrition
• Chris Gorman - Iowa State student
• Kathryn Murray (‘Thryn) - Growing Power
• Leana Nakielski - Growing Power
• Maureen Kelly - WHY, Hunger and Poverty
• Joel Malabranch - WHY, NYC
• Harold Johson - N Wyoming
• Erika Allen - Chicago, Growing Power
• Diane Dodge - Twin Cities
• Ron Brown - RMA - Raleigh North Carolina
• Jeanette Abi-Nader - CFSC, Virginia/Louisiana
• Will Allen - Growing Power, Milwaukee
• Heather Fenney - CFSC & California Food and Justice coalition. Community Services Unlimited, Los Angelos
• Rudy Arredondo - Rural Coalition - Latino Farmers & Ranchers
• Rick Miller - Growing Power. Milwaukee
• Julia Swanson - Milwaukee, new Growing Power staff
• Rudy Perez - RMA, Davis, CA (natural resources conservation services)
• Bill Buchanan - RMA Civil Rights and Community Outreach
• Nitin Gadia - Ames, Iowa
• Neil Sneller - Ames Iowa student,
• Lauralyn Clauson - Growing Power
• Martin Bailkey - Madison WI, Urban Ag committee CFSC
• Alyssa - Growing Power Intern, Churches & Food
• Erin Biggerstaff - Growing Power
• Sarah Chistman - Growing Power, Milwaukee
• Daniel Espinosa - Growing Power, (Facilitator)

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