Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011
Issue of the Week: Occupy Milwaukee on Oct. 15
If you are part of the 99%, then you know exactly why you should participate in the global day of protest on Oct. 15.
You're sick of escalating income inequality, huge spikes in corporate CEO pay, and the gutting of the social contract.
Closer to home, you're furious that Gov. Scott Walker has attacked the rights of teachers and other public employees, is handing his political appointees unprecedented powers to slash Medicaid programs and trash health care reform, and has given corporations tax breaks while making historic cuts to public education from kindergarten to post-graduate scholarship.
Even worse, Walker and his allies in the state Legislature have made it more difficult for some voters—namely, those who typically vote Democratic—to cast ballots next year. To add salt to those wounds, they've redistricted the state to ensure a Republican lock on power for the next decade.
So what can you do to fight back?
Occupy Milwaukee.
On Saturday, Oct. 15, protesters will gather at 11 a.m. at Zeidler Park (301 W. Michigan St.) to raise their voices against excessive corporate greed and the politicians who are weakening our rights and institutions. At 12:30 p.m., there will be a protest outside of Chase Bank (111 E. Wisconsin Ave.).
Outraged but peaceful Wisconsin protesters made history earlier this year when they pushed back against Walker's power grabbing.
Milwaukeeans can add to the growing call for more accountability and justice on Saturday.
For more information, go to “Occupy Milwaukee” on Facebook or #OccupyMilwaukee on Twitter.
Heroes of the Week: Neighborhood House of Milwaukee Volunteer Mentors
The Neighborhood House of Milwaukee (2819 W. Richardson Place) aims to build a strong community by strengthening individuals and families. Since 1945, the nonprofit has served nearly 1 million of the city's urban poor through its programs and services.
In addition to senior services, the Neighborhood House of Milwaukee (NHM) offers adult and family programs that provide “opportunities for families to spend quality time together as well as life skills development, including money management, family outings, socialization opportunities and nutrition.” NHM's International Learning Center offers literacy and skills programs for recent immigrants and refugees.
The group's mission also includes efforts to help area youths, including early childhood education, an after-school “Kids' Club” to help with homework and study skills, and a program to provide teens with educational assistance and recreational activities.
NHM relies on the help of volunteers, and is especially in need of adults looking to mentor youth with homework. Readers interested in spending two nights a week helping students are urged to call 414-933-6161 or visit www.nh-milw.org.
You're sick of escalating income inequality, huge spikes in corporate CEO pay, and the gutting of the social contract.
Closer to home, you're furious that Gov. Scott Walker has attacked the rights of teachers and other public employees, is handing his political appointees unprecedented powers to slash Medicaid programs and trash health care reform, and has given corporations tax breaks while making historic cuts to public education from kindergarten to post-graduate scholarship.
Even worse, Walker and his allies in the state Legislature have made it more difficult for some voters—namely, those who typically vote Democratic—to cast ballots next year. To add salt to those wounds, they've redistricted the state to ensure a Republican lock on power for the next decade.
So what can you do to fight back?
Occupy Milwaukee.
On Saturday, Oct. 15, protesters will gather at 11 a.m. at Zeidler Park (301 W. Michigan St.) to raise their voices against excessive corporate greed and the politicians who are weakening our rights and institutions. At 12:30 p.m., there will be a protest outside of Chase Bank (111 E. Wisconsin Ave.).
Outraged but peaceful Wisconsin protesters made history earlier this year when they pushed back against Walker's power grabbing.
Milwaukeeans can add to the growing call for more accountability and justice on Saturday.
For more information, go to “Occupy Milwaukee” on Facebook or #OccupyMilwaukee on Twitter.
Heroes of the Week: Neighborhood House of Milwaukee Volunteer Mentors
The Neighborhood House of Milwaukee (2819 W. Richardson Place) aims to build a strong community by strengthening individuals and families. Since 1945, the nonprofit has served nearly 1 million of the city's urban poor through its programs and services.
In addition to senior services, the Neighborhood House of Milwaukee (NHM) offers adult and family programs that provide “opportunities for families to spend quality time together as well as life skills development, including money management, family outings, socialization opportunities and nutrition.” NHM's International Learning Center offers literacy and skills programs for recent immigrants and refugees.
The group's mission also includes efforts to help area youths, including early childhood education, an after-school “Kids' Club” to help with homework and study skills, and a program to provide teens with educational assistance and recreational activities.
NHM relies on the help of volunteers, and is especially in need of adults looking to mentor youth with homework. Readers interested in spending two nights a week helping students are urged to call 414-933-6161 or visit www.nh-milw.org.
I'll be busy too. I'm staying home and reading a book. Probably one about a boy with gumption
Wow, buddy. First of all... the word "rioters" is completely incorrect.
Second, I am SO HAPPY FOR YOU that you've got a nice cush life, probably in the suburbs, and that you have nothing to worry about. But that just goes to show how out of touch you probably are. Of course it's not harder for YOU to vote. You're probably a upper middle class white man, and you already HAVE a government-issued ID. You're not a lower class minority with little to no access to reliable transportation, probably working multiple jobs with little to no free time, who may not already HAVE an up-to-date government-issued ID. I bet it's harder for THAT person to vote. And GREAT for you that your PRIVATE SCHOOL didn't have its budget slashed. But what about the Milwaukee public schools? I have plenty of friends who are public school teachers who say they don't even have the materials and staff they need to properly educate their students. I bet Walkers budget cuts hurt THEM a lot. But not you... Of course, not you. And that is SO WONDERFUL for you that you can afford to invest in companies. How many lower class people do you think invest? And it's FANTASTIC that YOU have great health insurance. Must be nice to just be able to roll into your fancy-shmancy doctor's office and get whatever preventative care you want without having to decide between paying for that or putting food on the table. Must be nice.
So OF COURSE you don't want to protest about any of that. Your life seems pretty darn cush. But guess what. Mine's not. I don't have all those things. I'm not destitute, but I'm not rich either. I'm going to be out there tomorrow for myself and for all of those who have SO MUCH LESS than I do. I'm going to be out there standing up against the corporate greed that is destroying this country.
Typical republican point of view - caring only about yourself.
It's getting chilly out, buddy. You should probably crank up the heat in your big ol' house and get cozy tomorrow instead of going out to protest. I'd rather freeze than be you.
it's all about you then
First they came for our health care and pention benefits becuase they need to be more competative, and give a bigger bonus to the execs.Next they came for our jobs and of shored them to be more competative and to give bigger salaries tot he execs.
Then I start a business that prospered for many years only to succumb to the bank caused crisis.
Now the bank is coming for my mortgage.......
The words of Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) come to mind.
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
i guess there should only be one or sometimes two sides to any issue.............get a clue
I knew that the bottom 99% lost control nearly 2 decades ago, when the Democrat front runner and the Republican front runner in the same small local race had both received campaign contributions from the same "Big Tobacco" special interest. It did not matter who won, both would remember who was buttering their bread. It's that easy to take away our freedom to choose!
Beyond those direct campaign contributions, recent Supreme Court rulings have now allowed unlimited special interest (aka corporate) money to be applied not to campaign contributions, but to those far more effective negative issue ads where there is no need for the candidate's "I approve this message" signature. Don't need a signature, merely drive the public's anger, and the public reacts favorably at the voting booth. (related - the push to restrict who can vote is simply to concentrate the vote behind a single demographic, it's cheaper than trying to anger diverse groups to all vote one way.)
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On a worldwide level, it's been said that the top 1% own 80% of the wealth. Forget national level, forget state level, we are all playing our part in a global economy. Look at the flip side. That means the bottom 99% only have 20% of the wealth to fight over, because that top 1% is not coming back down.
Ground rule of the current Republican position regarding any and all changes... The bottom 99% can do anything they want, long as the top 1% can not only keep their 80% wealth, but can also keep moving toward acquiring the full 100%... meaning to keep the more going up than comes back down as is.
So this bottom 99%, the battle is now crafted as the upper portion of them trying to keep from "redistributing" any of their cut of that 20% scraps from being shoved back down to "them" (those "less deserving"). As long as this division within the lower 99% is kept in the public focus, the lower 99% cannot unite to fix the problem. -- Go back to your biology training in grade school when you learned of the water cycle or plant-animal oxygen tried to make a sealed system that stayed in balance. Money and wealth is the same way. As long as more goes up than comes back down, it cannot last. Just as matter is conserved, so is material wealth! Wealth is simply moved, never "created".
Just watch. The wealthy 1% does not care if the lower 99% take out vast amounts of credit (like crashed in 2008) to keep that upward trend going, or if we go into massive government debt to eventually be paid by taxes on the lower 99%, the rich win both ways. We push out our long-term future for the sake of their short-term future. They don't even care about their long-term future, that makes them psychopathic.