Truth vs. the machine

I am reading Franklin Foer's book, World Without Mind: the existential threat of big tech. I highly recommend this book. We are letting corporations powered by money=god technology steer our thoughts and emotions.

What is true and real? Don't let paid talking heads, hacks, and trolls interpret for you. Know for yourself.

Citizen action smorgasbord

On Thursday, October 3 at 7 p.m., Citizen Action of Wisconsin will kick off its Driftless Organizing Co-op with an announcement about a new resource to help people tighten up their homes, save energy, and save money. The event will be held at 401 West Avenue South. RSVP on FB or through their EveryAction page.

Did you know Rep. Ron Kind still hasn't made up his mind whether the Trump administration is corrupt enough to impeach? What is he waiting for?? Your call, of course. His La Crosse office number is 608-782-2558. In fact, Indivisible, MoveOn, and others are urging constituents to hold impeachment town halls so the reluctant-to- do-their-constitutional-duty holdouts can explain their lack of action to the voters who have read the Constitution and do understand who is supposed to be protecting the country from "a criminal enerprise" president (and not the establishment haves from the majority have-nots). Nothing's scheduled yet for La Crosse. Anyone?

On Friday, October 4, and every Friday, join the students of Fridays for Future, La Crosse chapter, striking for immediate, real, meaningful action on the climate crisis. Students strike every Friday from 10:10 to 10:45 a.m. on the sidewalk in front of Central High on Losey. Bring your signs.

Also on Friday, October 4, La Crosse Area SURJ will host a Bystander Intervention Training from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at Old Towne Strings, 1218 Caledonia St. Have you ever witnessed or heard something so unbelievably cruel, racist, or ignorant that you were frozen in place wondering if you really just saw or heard it? Have you ever not acted because you weren't sure what to do? Have you ever spent days chewing on an experience you had wishing you'd done or said something or something different? We have to break out of our Midwest nice and our 'this can't really be happening' to be effective and supportive fellow humans when members of our community are being disrespected, denigrated, threatened, and attacked. Training helps. Get some training.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, October 10 the *resident will be at the Target Center in Minneapolis. You may join one of several groups planning demonstrations against his class warfare, racist, anti-democratic reign including a Resist the Trump rally and a Dump Trump rally.

I don't believe it's possible to be neutral. The world is already moving in certain directions, and to be neutral, to be passive in a situation like that, is to collaborate with whatever is going on. And I, as a teacher, do not want to be a collaborator with whatever is happening in the world. I want myself, as a teacher, and I want you, as students, to intercede with whatever is happening in the world. - Howard Zinn: You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train (2004) documentary film

Voter alert from City Clerk

From the City's website:

9/24/2019 - Voter Registration/Absentee Ballots Mailings

2020 is a Presidential Election year, which means you will soon be finding voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms in your mailbox.  These mailings are not from your municipal clerk, even though they may appear to be.  They are sent by special interest groups and the prefilled voter information on the forms is often inaccurate.  To ensure you are properly registered or to apply for an absentee ballot, please visit myvote.wi.gov or contact the La Crosse City Clerk’s Office at 608-789-7510.

Your protest urgently required

On August 4, CP noted that the City of La Crosse is considering a new "special events" permit.

Today, we learned, from someone who attended that initial meeting, that the process is moving forward with a new section for MARCH OR PUBLIC ASSEMBLY.

Here's the pertinent part of the email:

"[We] attended a city planning meeting in August to clarify and ensure that 1st amendment rights are not indirectly negatively impacted by such changes to event permitting. In response to our comments and questions, an additional section was added. (see segment below or the full document here:  http://www.cityoflacrosse.org/specialevent ). I am still considering the ramifications of the proposal, including the additional wording, and want to make sure others are aware of it too. I can't attend the 10/1 city planning meeting but plan to follow up prior to next Tuesday 10/1).

ARTICLE III – MARCH OR PUBLIC ASSEMBLY Sec. 39-26. - Permit Required. 

  (a) No person shall set up for, hold or conduct a march or public assembly, as defined herein, within the City without first obtaining a March or Public Assembly permit in compliance with the provisions of this Article.  

 (b) The following public assembly or marches do not require a permit: 

(1) Groups of fifty (50) people or fewer may hold a public assembly in a City park, other similar City-owned property or private property without a permit. (2) Marches and public assemblies on sidewalks that do not obstruct the normal flow of pedestrian traffic do not require a permit. (3) Protests, marches and public assemblies in response to breaking news where such protest, march or public assembly is a spontaneous and immediate (within twelve (12) hours of the event occurring) response to a current event.  .."

I'm considering requesting that they increase the response time to 24 hours. Do you agree? Do you have other suggestions or want clarification on this matter or other aspects of the new permitting guidelines? I encourage everyone to read the full document and respond directly to Nikki Elsen prior to the 10/1 meeting, as well as attend the meeting.

--------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Elsen, Nikki <Elsenn@cityoflacrosse.org>
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 3:36 PM
Subject: Special Event Permitting - City of La Crosse

Good afternoon,

I want to update you on the pending special event permitting process that was discussed at the Board of Public Works meeting on August 12^th.  The proposal has made it’s through legal review and is scheduled for the upcoming October Council meetings.

Since the proposal was first discussed, changes have been made after review by our Legal Department.  Here is a link to the revised documents:  http://www.cityoflacrosse.org/specialevent.

Most of the changes were just grammatical or verbiage.  However, I know some that were in attendance at the BPW meeting were there with questions on how the proposal affected activities protected by the First Amendment.  A change made was to remove the exception language from the special event ordinance (Chapter 39, Article II) and create a separate section (Chapter 39, Article III) for marches and public assemblies.

If you have any questions after you have had the opportunity to review, please let me know.  I’d be happy to discuss the proposal, or any of the changes, more in depth prior to the October 1^st meeting.

Thank you.

_______________________
Nikki M. Elsen, WCMC

Deputy City Clerk

City of La Crosse (Population 52,282)

400 La Crosse Street, La Crosse WI 54601

608-789-7555 phone

www.cityoflacrosse.org

===========================================

First of all, imo, what a bunch of BS! Who decided that 50 people is the limit? Why? In a city of 50,000, isn't a limit of 0.1% of the population pretty tiny? Also, who decides when an event is happening because of "breaking news"? Or that 12 or 24 or 624 hours is the limit?  

One could argue that the climate crisis, gun violence, ongoing deaths from lack of adequate affordable health care, gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement, increasing income inequality, toxic racism, unlimited inhumane incarceration of immigrant children, mass extinction, rule by oligarchy, etc is continual breaking news. Or at least it should be.

Also, what if 10 busloads of 95 year olds walked with their walkers from the post office to the co-op at a rate of about 0.02 miles per hour. Would that be considered "obstructing the normal flow of pedestrian traffic?" Would they need a permit?

We have been gradually conditioned to accept these arbitrary restrictions on the few rights we still have through having to get permission to speak, go to the bathroom, and move from one place to another in schools, to having administrators censor student newspapers, moving from one class to the next triggered by bells, requiring permits for posting info on college campus bulletin boards, getting fined for chalking messages on sidewalks, being threatened with expulsion for protesting a speaker, or being herded to "free speech zones" at public events.

I hope we will hold a rally of 51 people in the city hall parking lot at 5:30 pm without a permit and then attend the 10/01 meeting and use our time to quote the bill of rights and the ACLU rights guides. Any restrictions, to me, are too many, but certainly these are at the very least arbitrary and indefensible.

The J&A committee is at 6 pm on 10/01 in the city hall council chambers. Official agenda with links is here: http://cityoflacrosse.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=673898&GUID=437C0742-C72F-43EB-BD6B-1B09E94A35AC

I also think it will be good to have a WORKSHOP ON FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS sometime in the next few months. If anyone would be interested to help put such an event together, please email couleeprogressive at hotmail.

Tuesday, Heading for Extinction

On Tuesday, September 24, the Coulee Region Sierra Club will show a video of an Extinction Rebellion program hosted by George Monbiot in Oxford, England, in April.

The video, Heading for Extinction (and what to do about it) talks about clinate crisis predictions and actions that will help avert the worst of the unrecoverable consequences of runaway planetary heating. Following the video, the group will talk about what we can do in the La Crosse area and Coulee region to push policies, priorities, and projects that will reduce carbon emissions and move toward renewable energy.

Also at this meeting, Ben Wilson, new organized for Citizen Action of Wisconsin, will talk about CA's work to encourage and support energy efficiency updates and improvements in the southwest Wisconsin area. And there will be a report about Ready for 100 progress in La Crosse.

Everyone is welcome to attend the free and open to the public event. Refreshments will be provided.