Sundown pipeline routes

Last night's presentation by Dr. James Loewen (Lies My Teachers Told Me, Sundown Towns) was well attended and generated a good discussion about what the La Crosse area can do to follow Dr. Loewen's three step process to change: 1. Acknowledge that we were and still have aspects of being a "sundown town" (not welcoming/purposefully excluding people of color), 2. Apologize and 3. Quit doing the bad stuff (and do the good stuff).


Thankfully, there are forces for good in our community including the City of La Crosse Human Rights Commission, the Greater La Crosse Area Diversity Council, the Martin Luther King, Jr. planning committee, and SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice - link coming soon I hope) among others. While last night's conversation included good ideas and commitments for change, we also heard that often there is a major "say-do" gap - institutional support given verbally is not backed up by budgets, policies, and programming.

One way to combat racism and social justice issues in our community is to 1. Know about them and 2. Activate a network of advocates to make a noise about  problems and demand a fix. That is one way this Coulee Progressives site can help. We will try to work even harder to report on what's happening in La Crosse and what we can do to make positive changes.

To that end, we would like to work with others to create a reporting instrument so that incidents of racial and social injustice - profiling, threats, discrimination, violent acts, hate speech, etc - can be documented. While I'm sure many Coulee Progressives are aware of the constant atmosphere of racism that permeates much of our community, I'm also sure there are many white residents of our community who think there are no problems. At the very least, a report collection tool can document just how bad things are.

This could be based upon the successful UWL reporting tool for students, faculty, and staff to report hate or bias on campus which has exposed countless instances of racism and agression against non-white, non-straight students (though now apparently that is under attack by Republican legislators - who elects these people?! - requiring a disclaimer on the report form.)

But documenting bad behavior without taking action to confront, combat, and change it can be frustrating and maddening, so the second step would be to use social media to activate a network of concerned citizensh and that's another way this blog can help. Again, when we hear of things requiring action, we will help spread the word.

[Update! Fundraiser is over. Today only. Watch for coming events to support 11-15 truckload of support from La Crosse. In the meantime, drop off donations at English Lutheran Church (16th and King) or UWL Cartwright Center.]

Right now we are hearing and spreading the word about the protectors in North Dakota working to stop the fossil-fuel enabling, earth killing, precious water polluting Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). In the latest news, water protectors have set up a line on non-ceded land to block further construction (since the "requests" by the Obama administration have gone unheeded). Increasingly violent militarized police have descended on the peaceful group and have arrested hundreds.

The irony of this particular modern day iteration of the never ending resource wars that have devastated people around the globe for hundreds of years is that the publicly funded police are working with weapons and equipment provided by the US military to push the people who pay taxes (and therefore their salaries and operating expenses) from land that was never ceded to the United States - so Native American sovereign land - to benefit private oil companies which are funded and backed by multinational banks and corportions. So, it appears that sundown towns policies even work when you're on your own property.

In light of the recent aquittal of the Malheur Refuge vandals and law breakers, there is much discussion about unequal treatment by law enforcement of white criminals versus Native and black citizens peacefully exericising their constitutional rights. But, living in a racialized country, this is not new nor a surprise.

Neither of the (only) two major parties has voiced a strategy for rooting out the deep racism that drives our whole society. Neither party has made Native American rights and sovereignty an issue (Bernie Sanders did include Native issues in his discussions and speeches, but he has been absorbed into the corporate Democratic body and is little more than a promised future presidential gut ache. Barack Obama has spoken about Native American issues but he has a major "say-do" gap problem as illustrated by his administration's tepid and impotent reaction to NO DAPL activists). Neither party appears willing to remove deeply embedded Wall Street tumor from the heart of government. And while the Trump effect will undoubtedly usher in a larger, more violent, more extreme, more entitled and openly racist onslaught of white power extremists, nothing in the currently visible Democratic party team or priorities seems to indicate that countering this threat is any kind of priority. Indeed, Hillary Clinton's attitude toward those seeking immediate action on racial justice was outed in her famous dismissl of BLM activists at one of her high buck summer fundraisers has been corroborated by Wikileaks email releasesl.

"In the two-party system, both parties are multi-class and multi-sectoral structures that compete to achieve the upper hand in determining the modalities by which white privilege is dispensed and defended. They cooperate to legitimate a white consensus. Once class is no longer an issue (i.e., once any possible challenge from the white working class has been contained), the question is what then defines the state and whom does it operate for and against. The two sources of the state’s legitimation are the fear (real and imagined) of domestic unrest sparked by Blacks and the global threat, either from international communism in the past, or from anti-imperialist and anti-globalization movements or militant Islam in the present. The subtle and open message of the elite representatives of the racialized state is that it defends white privilege and whiteness against these domestic and foreign threats." - from Race and the Racialized State: A Du Boisian Interrogation

Philo and Cultural Appropriation Meet Up

Hi everybody,

I had the pleasure to go out to the cultural appropriation event yesterday hosted at Pearl Street Brewery, and run by Philo and the Ho Chunk Youth and Learning Center, and I wanted to share with everyone a little information on Philo.

Philo is an aspiring non-profit that is working to help connect companies and institutions with other non profits, advocacy groups, and awareness raising organizations. They have been both going to businesses and been approached by businesses that are looking for tools and resources to help them integrate education on human rights and social justice into their training, practice, and operations.

They are currently working with Hamilton school in redesigning their curriculum to include information from different social and ethnic groups, and I believe they have one other big project going at the moment keeping them quite busy.

You can check out their website here. I wrote this mostly from memory after talking to the founder last night and I am sure that I am missing quite a bit. Philo is a great resource for our community, and I think everyone should know about and spread word of this resource as more businesses, institutions, etc. in town become more socially aware and are looking for ways to change.

Crock the vote

I had to share this amazing story from Indiana where state police raided a voter registration organization (for no good reason) making it likely that tens of thousands of newly registered voters, mostly black, will not be able to vote. Where is the Justice Department?

Even if they were able to vote, there's no guarantee their votes will be counted. This great Counterpunch article points out that in some cases Trump is right. 

So why is it so hard for liberals to accept the idea that US elections are undemocratic? Sure, it’s rather easy for liberals to proclaim from the mountaintops their opposition to discriminatory practices such as voter ID laws because those laws target primarily people of color who mostly vote Democrat. It has little to do with a concern for the truth and for the validity of elections, but is rather about anger that the other team is not playing fair.

But when it comes to doubting the entire electoral system and the results of any given election, liberals don’t want to hear that. They don’t want to discuss it. They certainly don’t want to debate it openly and honestly. Why?

And Truthout tells the sad story of voters forced to cast provisional ballots.  "In the 2012 election, some 2.7 million voters cast provisional ballots, about a quarter of which were disallowed. According to the Election Administration Commission, the top reasons provisional ballots are rejected nationwide are that voters aren't registered (38 percent) or vote at the wrong site (25 percent). But the likelihood that a ballot gets tossed for a particular reason can vary sharply from state to state: In Texas, 15 percent of provisional ballots were rejected for being cast in the incorrect place; in Ohio, it was 28 percent; in Indiana, it was 45 percent."

Thankfully, in Wisconsin our Republican election officials are all over the letter of the law. Witness a Green Bay city clerk who refused early voting places for UW-Green Bay students (whose spring primary voting experiences were not so great because of long lines and limited resources). Her reasoning - students are more likely to vote for Democrats.

But privately Teske gave a different reason for opposing an early-voting site at UW–Green Bay, writing that student voting would benefit the Democratic Party. “UWGB is a polling location for students and residents on Election Day but I feel by asking for this to be the site for early voting is encouraging the students to vote more than benefiting the city as a whole,” she wrote on August 26 in an e-mail to David Buerger, counsel at the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.

In another close call in Republican anti-voter Wisconsin, thousands of Wisconsin absentee ballots will be counted after all. Earlier this fall, in light of a new law requiring absentee ballots to contain witness addresses, there were questions over what exactly makes up a witness address. The Commission was set to disqualify absentee ballots where witnesses had not included zip codes, for example. "A new Wisconsin law states absentee ballots missing a witness address don't count. The law doesn't say how much address information is needed, however. State Elections Commission staff told local clerks earlier this month that they can't fill in missing elements without voter consent."

Remember - you have until Friday, October 28 (at 5 p.m. in city of La Crosse) to vote absentee in person, avoiding crowds and lines. More details at myvote.wi.gov.

Reminders

Tonight (Wednesday) at 6:30 at Pearl St Brewery (St Andrew St) film about cultural appropriation and benefit for Ho-Chunk Youth.

Tomorrow night at 5 pm at City Council chambers (6th & La Crosse Sts) "Sundown Towns" - racism in La Crosse

(And here's a good article about presidential candidate silence on DAPL).

Jill Stein events in WI

Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka, Green Party candidates for president and vice-president, respectively, will appear at two events in Wisconsin next week. Thanks to D Buzz Davis for the heads up.

Jill Stein, the 2016 Green presidential candidate, is bringing her campaign to Wisconsin this coming week. Jill Stein’s Green Party campaign for president is a bold, left-wing alternative with real solutions for working people. She calls for a $15 minimum wage, cancellation of student debt, single payer healthcare, and a Green New Deal to tackle climate change. During this election – between the two most disliked presidential candidates in recent history – we have an opportunity to build a movement to challenge this political establishment. A significant vote for Jill Stein can help set the foundation for a viable new party in this country – a party of the 99%, independent of the Democrats, the Republicans, and their corporate backers. Winning 5% of the vote means the Green Party will receive up to ten million dollars to help build the infrastructure for a presidential campaign in 2020. Unlike our opponents, the Stein / Baraka campaign is neither misogynistic nor speculating about ordering drone attacks on whistle-blowers. Jill & Ajamu have spent their lives working for social justice and creating a healthy environment for our children and grand-children. This is a unique time in history to transform our political landscape and create a world that works for all of us. The power to do this is not in our hopes, it's not in our dreams; it's in our hands! Madison, WI October 27, 2016 at Noon – 2pm Memorial Union Theater  800 Langdon Street Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Facebook Event Page Milwaukee, WI October 27, 2016 at 7pm – 9pm University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Student Union Ballroom   2200 E Kenwood Blvd Milwaukee, WI 53211 Facebook Event Page We're putting People, Planet and Peace over Profit -- and we need your help.  The Stein / Baraka as a matter of political principal, does not accept corporate donations. We're dependent upon small donations from supporters, so please donate what you can. How Students Can Help By posting flyers on your campus, starting a chapter of Young Greens, organizing and engaging in direct actions in person and online, dialoguing with other college groups who have over lapping interests, you can get the word out to other students and youth.