Saving Our Democracy: Dec. 28-Jan. 3, 2017

Dec. 26, 2017

9:29 a.m.

The Shepherd Express serves as a clearinghouse for all activities in the Greater Milwaukee Area that peacefully push back against discriminatory, reactionary or authoritarian actions and policies of the Trump administration, as well as other activities by all those who seek to thwart social justice. We will publicize and promote actions, demonstrations, planning meetings, teach-ins, party-building meetings, drinking-discussion get-togethers and any other actions that are directed toward fighting back to preserve our liberal democratic system.

Saturday, Dec. 30

Voter and Civic Engagement Campaign @ Acción Ciudadana de Wisconsin (221 S. Second St.), 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Acción Ciudadana de Wisconsin, Latino Voting Bloc of Wisconsin and Citizen Action of Wisconsin have organized a weekly Saturday campaign of knocking on doors and phone banking to get people thinking about the 2018 elections. Volunteers can go out and talk to voters about the issues that they care about and get them involved in different events happening in the community.

Peace Action Wisconsin: Stand for Peace @ The corner of Oakland Avenue and Capitol Drive, noon-1 p.m.

Every Saturday from noon-1 p.m., concerned citizens join with Peace Action Wisconsin to protest war and “Stand for Peace.” Signs will be provided for those who need them. Protesters are encouraged to stick around for conversation and coffee afterward.

Sunday, Dec. 31

Zoo Trip @ Milwaukee County Zoo (10001 W. Bluemound Road), 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

After a long year of resistance, Indivisible Tosa is organizing a fun, protest-free trip to the zoo. The Milwaukee County Zoo will have free admission on this day. Those who are interested are encouraged to stay for lunch afterwards.

Wednesday, Jan. 3

Refuel the Resistance @ Bounce Milwaukee (2801 S. Fifth Court), 6-8 p.m.

Every Wednesday, Bounce Milwaukee offers a space to organize—as well as a free drink to anyone who brings evidence of active resistance in the past week—including protest signs, an email to an elected official or a selfie at the capital.

To submit to this column, please send a brief description of your action, including date and time, to: savingourdemocracy@shepex.com. Together, we can fight to minimize the damage that the administration of Donald Trump and others of his kind have planned for our great country.

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Democrats, what you are up against

Democrats in Milwaukee have no trouble getting their votes in Milwaukee, thanks to a high percentage of Milwaukee's population, and the gerrymandered district lines that "packed" them together so as to not waste hardly a Republican vote, instead letting Democrats waste about 40% of their votes since 90% victory wastes 40% of votes when only 50%+1 was needed.

I work out here in a part of Waukesha county were most people are commuting in from points further west of Oconomowoc or north of West Bend even. Oh, we have Democrats, but not the usual kind. These are white Democrats much like the old deep south, where they still think blacks and other minorities are what really destroyed life in our country. The only reason they harbor a Democratic lean is because of going against big business and concentrated wealth.

This is what you city Democrats are up against when you try to appeal to the state-wide voter.

Go visit Old World Wisconsin down by Eagle Wisconsin, this outdoor museum has many old 1800's farmsteads and community buildings representing our history. Noteworthy is their classification by ethnicity, such as "Yankee", Norwegian, German, Polish, even an African American setup. Listen to the museum attendants who are dressed in their period costumes, and hear their stories of what life was like. It definitely was NOT an integrated life, especially when color came into the picture. -- That attitude is still here in our Wisconsin people.

Instead of encouraging "in their face" protest activity, you need to find a way to reach these people. Their greatest fear is the encroachment of other cultures, whether just looking black and bringing urban music and "pants on the ground" or millennials bringing a more drug tolerant lifestyle as well as college-taught "liberal propaganda", these out-Wisconsin people need to know that the road to restoring pay-equity, low working class taxes, and regulatory simplicity is not going to have to be swallowed along with an "integrated" life.

If you ask many of them out here, not all were farm locals, there were also many who came out here from industrial places like West Allis, they came out here to avoid the school integration most of all. It was bad enough when working class "American Dad" had to face other cultures in the workplace, but for his wife to face that in the grocery store and his children to face that in their classrooms, playgrounds, and family eating establishments, that was the last straw.

Most of these people had no problem with an assistance system that helped the poor with housing, food and education or job-training, so long as it did not mean including them as members of their traditional communities.

These hard-working, simple Wisconsinites still do not like the pollution excesses of big factories and corporate farms, they don't like their retail stores with distant owners pulling money out of their communities either, and they still don't want Madison telling them how to live.

SE Wisc. Citizen more than 8 years ago