Celebrate Memorial Day

 Celebrate Memorial Day

Preserve Democracy

 

On Monday, we celebrate Memorial Day, a federal holiday, to honor those who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces to preserve our Democratic experiment.

 

The first national Memorial Day was celebrated in May 1868. Then known as Decoration Day, it was started by the commanding general of the Grand Army of the Republic to honor Union Army soldiers who died in the Civil War. The states aligned with the Union had all adopted the holiday by 1890. Congress finally made the day a national holiday, Memorial Day, in 1971 and designated the last Monday in May for the observance. Southern states, aligned with the Confederacy, marked their own versions of the day on differing days trying to preserve the memory of a defeated alternative that depended upon the exploitation of slavery for its existence.

 

Across the nation, the holiday is marked by parades, the decoration of fallen soldiers’ graves with flags and flowers, speeches and gatherings to honor those who died in service.

 

I choose to honor my maternal uncle and namesake, Lt. Waring Roberts, who died while flying weather reconnaissance in Hawaii in 1944. Lt. Roberts left a promising legal career in New York City to enlist in the Navy in 1943. He went to flight school in Florida and was assigned to a unit in Hawaii that flew PBY Catalinas used for anti-submarine and search and rescue operations. He enlisted to join the fight against fascism and imperialism rampant leading up to the United States’ entry into World War II. I was named after him by my mother when I was born a year after his death.

 

He was not my only ancestor to serve in our country’s military. The earliest was Maj. Andrew Finck, an upstate New York farmer, who fought in the Revolutionary War serving as a Quartermaster. He too volunteered to fight so that a fledgling democracy had a chance to succeed in this country. While he outlived the conflict and returned to civilian life, his service is noted as an integral part of our grand experiment in Democracy.

 

Memorial Day must be celebrated not only to honor those who fought and died in service of Democracy, but to remember that Democracy is the only political system that stands between us and the tyranny of fascism and totalitarian authoritarianism.

 

We Americans occasionally fall prey to the lure of the authoritarian who offers simplistic solutions to complex problems. We become enamored of the snake oil salesman with the pitch that solves all our problems. We are drawn to the cult of the “me firsters” with promise of a brighter future that excludes those put up as the scapegoat causes of all that ails our society.

 

America is in the throws of another one of those eras that our ancestors stood up against. We must resist the siren’s call and insist once more that we fight problems with facts, science, and the rule of law, not platitudes and snake oil. Democracy takes vigilance and hard work. It is not easy nor formulaic. Each new hurdle requires that we work together to overcome the obstacle. We cannot do it in isolation from each other.

 

We do not have to agree on every issue, or every solution proposed to solve a problem. We do have to agree that we are all in this together and must work together to resolve our differences to solve them.

 

Right now, the threat to our Democracy is not external. No one is threatening to invade our borders, including those who want the better life a democratic society offers. The biggest threat to our Democracy is internal caused by the divisive, polarizing nationalism promoted by an extreme faction following and guiding a former resident of the White House.

 

Just as our ancestors fought and died to preserve our Democracy, we need to honor their service and sacrifice by standing up for the Democratic ideals that make America great. We are a nation of many races, creeds, national origins, and religions. Unless you descend from the indigenous first residents of these shores, we all descend from immigrant stock. We need to recognize that we all have contributions to make for the greater good.

 

Lt. Waring Roberts and Maj. Andrew Finck, I honor your service and sacrifices. I pledge to continue to fight for what you stood up for, preserving our Democratic experiment by working together so we can all do better.

 

It’s the Economy

 It’s the Economy

Yes, it is!

 

It is nice when predictions come true.

 

In August of 2017, I wrote on this page about the pending Foxconn deal cooked up by then Governor Scott Walker, Assembly Leader Robin Vos, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald to spend lots of our money to lure Foxconn to Vos’ district for the promise of 13,000 jobs and millions in construction expenditures. They approved a $3 Billion dollar subsidy and tax incentive package, ten times larger than any in state history, to cement the deal.

 

In February of 2019, I wrote here about the failure of the Foxconn “con,” including the lack of support from and the complicity of then President Trump in selling the deal. The “con” left taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars for road improvements, a sewer system and other utility costs, not to mention the forced relocation of many farmers and permanent residents who lost their homes to eminent domain actions. Very few of the promised jobs ever showed up and the new LED screens Foxconn promised got built someplace else.

 

This past Wednesday, President Biden traveled to Racine to announce not only that the original Foxconn deal was indeed a “con,” but that we are about to rectify it with help from Microsoft which purchased a bunch of the vacant Foxconn land and plans to build a huge artificial intelligence data center on that property at a cost of $3.3 Billion dollars.

 

This deal will be one of the Biden administration’s largest economic accomplishments which Biden was proud to note was also one of his predecessor’s most significant economic failures. It is part of Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda and will create 2,300 union construction jobs and 2,000 permanent Microsoft jobs.

 

In addition, Microsoft will be working with Gateway Technical College to start a “Datacenter Academy” which will train 1,000 Wisconsin workers to work with large data. It will also expand its “Girls in STEM” program in two additional local middle schools and develop new programs in science in local high schools.

 

As President Biden noted in his remarks at Gateway, this project accomplishes what the former president promised, but never materialized. It marks the continued resurgence of American manufacturing and infrastructure jobs that has been running full steam since Biden’s election.

 

Biden commented that the former president’s policies cost Racine 1,000 manufacturing jobs and more than 83,000 statewide. In contrast, Racine has added nearly 4,000 new jobs in the past three years while enjoying record low unemployment rates. Wisconsin gained 178,000 new jobs in the same period thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

 

It is not surprising that the bulk of the federal money appropriated to fund these projects is being spent in Republican districts showing that Biden is working to fulfill his promise to be president for all Americans, not just Democrat Americans. Bringing jobs to these areas, Biden hopes to address the malaise some feel having lost those opportunities in the first place.

 

It is not lost on Wisconsin Progressives that President Biden made his announcements at a local technical college. Economic and social development with educators, scientists and business leaders working together is a hallmark of the “Wisconsin Idea.” That progressive notion was championed by our own “Fighting Bob” Lafollette to develop projects and solve problems in ways fair to both working people and those who employed them. Biden echoed the idea, noting that, “We’re the United States of America, and there is nothing beyond our capacity when we work together.”

 

If the true measure of political prowess is following the mantra, “it’s the economy, stupid,” then President Biden is an accomplished master. In his first term, he has started the largest economic recovery program since the New Deal and post WWII. The signs of help from our federal government are even seen in West Bend as you drive north on Main Street.

 

For too long. we have neglected our infrastructure and sent local good paying union jobs overseas. The Biden administration is bringing those jobs home and rebuilding America and deserves the opportunity of a second term to continue the efforts.

Labor Reborn

 Organized Labor Reborn

“We all do better when we all do better.”

 

We had a celebration during the TV national news the other night when David Muir reported on the unionization of a Volkswagen auto assembly plant in Tennessee. The plant workers voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers in the face of fierce opposition by management and six governors from the surrounding red states who attacked the union as a threat to “liberty and freedoms.”

 

The mainstream media reporting on the vote was fleeting and they missed a major part of the story which is that this was the first successful union organizing drive in the auto industry outside of Detroit and the first major union victory in the South in decades.

 

This win is historic and signals the continued rebirth of the American Labor Movement.

 

My family has been part of the Labor Movement since my grandfather, Rev. William Mann Fincke worked to support labor in New York City’s Labor Temple and Pennsylvania coal miners in the 1920s. He went on to found progressive boarding schools for the children of labor organizers and unionized workers. Two of his sons, my uncles, continued working in labor supporting and labor supported progressive schools in the 1940s and 50s. One of those sons, my Uncle Ben, continued that work at Buxton School which I attended from 1959 to 1964. I picked up the history and worked my way through the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a proud member of the union behind entertainment, IATSE Local 251, in the early 1970s. I took UW-Madison journalism classes from proud members of the Newspaper Guild.

 

When former Governor Scott Walker “dropped the bomb” of Act 10, drastically curtailing the rights of public sector union workers, I organized the first of several demonstrations on the corner of Paradise and Main to support those recently disenfranchised. We were supported by local professional firefighters, teachers, unionized public health workers, public sector laborers and several unionized members of law enforcement. I continued working with local public-school teachers and their union leaders to combat the draconian aftereffects imposed by local school boards. We organized supporters to help elect school board members open to honest converstations with school staff about working conditions and wages.

 

Our local struggles mirrored a decline in union power and influence that started in the late 1970s. Because organized labor helped build a worker led middle class, supported civil rights, voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid, family and medical leave laws and other progressive measures, GOP governors and presidents targeted unions and their leadership.  Their successes led to wage cuts, reduced pension benefits and reduced job security. The result has been more than 40 years of near flat wages while our national economy has grown threefold over the same period.

 

As union power waned, so did the middle class while those at the top accumulated more and more wealth.

 

That has slowly changed. Unions have sprung up in new places and won fair contracts. Look to the Hollywood writers and other behind the scenes unions like IATSE, UPS workers, healthcare workers in California and even university employees who have negotiated significant pay increases and increased job security.  Public school teachers in several states have gone out on strike, ignoring state laws prohibiting public sector strikes, and won new contracts. New Union contracts have averaged pay increases over 7% while Union membership increased by 191,000 in 2023. Public approval of organized labor is on the rise. It is up to 70%, the highest in 50 years.

 

Several factors have contributed to the rebirth of the Labor Movement.

 

Covid showed us that rich Americans had an easier time surviving and that we all depend upon working folks just doing their jobs. Those everyday workers quickly learned that the system is rigged against them. Union wins at the bargaining table showed that change and improvement are possible through collective action and bargaining. The post pandemic economy is growing rapidly, and employers are having trouble holding on to the workers they need to keep up.

 

Finally, we have the most pro-union President in recent history. Joe Biden joined a UAW picket line in support of striking auto workers. Biden issued a statement congratulating the Tennessee auto workers on their historic vote to unionize. He reshaped the National Labor Relations Board into the most pro-union one in decades.

 

All these things are driving the rebirth of organized labor as a positive progressive force in America and will help shape an American future that supports working people as the backbone of a growing economy. With this rebirth, the hoarding of wealth at the top of the food chain will stop as more sit at a longer table to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Vote Empathy, Not Conspiracy

 Vote for Empathy, Not Conspiracy

I became a sentient political being when John F. Kennedy was President, and his brother Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy was his attorney general. Together these Kennedys brought empathy to governance. JFK started the Peace Corps, RFK led the way for the government to restore the unfettered right of Black folks to vote and championed other civil rights initiatives. Bobby convinced his brother to take on these challenges as well. I remember well when both were assassinated.

Fast forward to the present and we find Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Bobby’s son, claiming the Kennedy mantle and running for President, first as a Democrat and, after that imploded, as an Independent. Aside from RFK, Jr’s commendable work as an environmental lawyer, he is the anthesis of all that his Kennedy predecessors stood for. They would have been appalled at what RFK, Jr. has embraced and how he has become a pawn for the MAGA crowd’s pursuit of power.

Former President Trump first saw RFK, Jr’s potential as a foil to President Biden’s re-election bid when Junior embraced some of the same anti-vaccination conspiracy theories Trump did.  RFK, Jr. started making unsupported claims that vaccines cause autism and that Covid was cooked up by the Chinese to target Blacks and Caucasians. He went further claiming that the Covid vaccines killed more people that they saved.

RFK, Jr’s 2021 book, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” accused Dr.  Fauci of all manner of abuses with respect to the Covid pandemic and the vaccines developed to combat it, echoing claims by the former president.

Some in the MAGA conspiracy have rallied to RFK, Jr’s flag and pumped large sums into his SuperPac in hopes that the Kennedy name will draw votes away from President Biden come November.

Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon Bank family fortune and a top Trump donor, donated $20 million to RFK, Jr’s PAC. The same PAC that supports MAGA sycophant Marjorie Taylor Green is supporting RFK, Jr’s campaign.

If one needs further proof that the MAGA crowd is in bed with RFK,Jr., look at the recent speech by his self-proclaimed New York campaign director, Rita Palmer, to local Republicans. She told them that Kennedy needed to get on the ballot in New York to take votes from Biden so Trump could win the historically Democratic state. She stated her number one priority was to get rid of Biden. She urged the GOP to help get signatures to get Kennedy on the ballot there and in Pennsylvania.

If this unholy alliance does not convince you to stay away from RFK, Jr’s campaign, consider that most of the current Kennedy clan supports President Biden’s re-election and they have specifically and forcefully condemned RFK, Jr’s candidacy. 50 Kennedys took part in a White House photo on St. Patrick’s Day showing their support for Biden.

There is more to RFK, Jr’s unhinged world. He issued statements claiming that those who participated in the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol were merely “activists” who had been “stripped of their constitutional liberties” and their prosecutions may have been “politically motivated.” He questioned the clear evidence that Sirhan Sirhan killed his father and claimed that the CIA was involved in the JFK assassination. Without offering significant support, RFK, Jr.  has opined that environmental chemicals are responsible for gender dysphoria leading to transgender people.

Even if you are disaffected by President Biden, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has no place in American political life given his conspiracy theory driven positions and his delusional beliefs. Trading on his famous family name should not convince voters to cast ballots for him and take votes away from President Biden. Those of us who lived with his famous father and brother in public life know RFK, Jr.  is no true Kennedy.

A Bit of Perspective

 A Bit of Perspective

Because I cannot opine on matters political that appear on the current election ballot this close to Election Day, I offer some personal reflections.

This year, I hit two milestones on the same day, March 28th.

The most important of those is my marriage on that date to my spouse, Gretchen, in 1972. Fifty-two years living with the same person, through thick and thin, is an accomplishment to be celebrated for sure. Along the way we raised three kids and helped countless more. We are lucky and proud that they have all grown up and become successful in their work and personal lives. We’ve been blessed with four wonderful granddaughters. We’ve supported each other’s careers, and both worked to try and make the world a better place. Now that we’re elderly the pace has slowed but the caring for each other and the planet we live on has not. 

The second milestone for March 28th happened in 2014 when I underwent quadruple heart artery by-pass surgery at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee. I have many healthcare providers in the Froedtert system to thank for being alive and able to get up each day and take care of what needs caring. Our healthcare system has its flaws to be sure, but I am still kicking thanks to the one we have. The fact that my surgery took place on our anniversary is not lost on Gretchen and me and, having survived, made it all the more special.

Thinking back on the milestones helped put me in touch with more of my history. One of the most important parts of that history was the five years I spent living in a private co-ed progressive high school in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts. I grew up in Southern California and was spiraling into delinquency as my teens approached. My Eastern bred parents thought it best to send me away to high school and picked one led by my paternal uncle. Buxton School changed my world view from one of California republicans to the more pluralistic socialist view of Eastern progressives. The values and world view I took on in those five years charted a life-long pursuit for social justice and equality. Buxton hit a rough patch during Covid and almost closed. I am helping from a distance by putting together a formal alum association to help the school survive so it can continue to provide a progressive start to kids needing direction.

The final piece of my formative years that helped me get launched was the five years I spent working in the War on Poverty from 1966 to 1971. I joined VISTA after dropping out of a college that I never should have entered. I got trained at the Columbia University of Social Work in New York City with a field placement in Harlem. I learned the basics of community organizing laid out in “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky. VISTA sent me to Houston, Texas to work for the Houston Council on Human Relations where I joined another 8 volunteers from around the country. We lived in the several African American wards in the city organizing new political movements, registering voters, tutoring kids, and learning about race and injustice. After that year I worked for the local Community Action agency and then for a group of Black ministers as a grant writer. Speaking truth to power learned then became part of who I am today. I continued anti-poverty work after taking a job at CUNA International in Madison providing support to VISTA volunteers working in low-income credit unions across the country and then training new VISTAs for the Jane Addams Training Center in Chicago.

 The experiences I had working with and in impoverished and powerless minority communities helped cement my commitment to pursue equality and social justice in my professional and personal life.

Now you might understand a little better the slant I bring to the opinions I share every other week on this page. I’ll keep it up as long as I can think and type and hopefully continue to offer a different perspective on our world than you get anyplace else. 

Joe Biden Gets It Done

 Joe Biden Gets it Done

It is his election to lose

I have never been as optimistic about a presidential election as I am about this one. We now have a rematch between the strongest Democrat and the weakest Republican their respective parties could have picked.

President Biden’s recent State of the Union Address laid to rest all of the posturing about his age or mental acuity. He was able to speak clearly about his accomplishments and plans for governing while dealing spectacularly with the GOP hecklers. He was feisty and enjoyed the give and take. He followed the speech with his proposed 2025 budget which addresses many of the major concerns of most Americans. Rather than retreat into a safe middle ground in this election year, Biden tacked clearly left as he took on unconscionable wealth disparity, reproductive healthcare, support for organized labor and other progressive issues.

Recognizing Wisconsin as a pivotable swing state, his announcements yesterday for urban improvements in Milwaukee and Vice President Harris’ visits touting economic growth and reproductive healthcare were welcome news. Even Dr. Jill Biden has made trips here to show the administration’s support for Wisconsin working families.

Biden has shown what can be accomplished when given majorities in both houses of Congress. His infrastructure improvement actions, reductions in inflation and unemployment, reductions in student loan debt, pushbacks against Big Pharma and others show working American families he is clearly on our side.

As the MAGA majority in the House of Representatives continues to shrink with resignations and retirements, it is still possible that Democrats and more sensible Republicans can come together on a discharge petition forcing Speaker Johnson to bring the bills providing aid to Ukraine and Israel to a vote in the House. The aid for Ukraine has overwhelming support among voters in both parties and among GOP House members who are not aligned with the far-right Freedom Caucus apparently controlled by the former occupant of the White House. There is even hope for passage of the bi-partisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate.

All of these positive and productive measures show us that President Biden is more than fit to lead the country for another four-year term.

In stark contrast, the GOP has all but nominated the former president for the rematch. The cult surrounding him has gutted the Republican National Committee of anyone who dares to question the party’s choice. What funds the RNC may have will soon be diverted from electing Republicans up and down their ticket to a slush fund to help the former president pay the judgments against him and the lawyers defending him in his several state and federal criminal cases.

The former president has fully embraced authoritarian Christian nationalism and vowed to end democracy as we know it by eliminating federal civil service, ending protections for minorities, women and the LBNGTQI community. He has vowed to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after those who oppose him and to detain immigrants and others he deems unworthy.

The GOP response to President Biden’s State of the Union address by a young woman Senator sitting in her kitchen feigning outrage and disbelief could not have sent a more telling message. Women belong in their kitchens, serving their men and producing more babies even if they are elected to the United States Senate.

We have yet to hear a single message from the GOP that addresses how a GOP led administration might deal with protecting democracy abroad, making working families more financially secure or how elderly Americans might survive after their Social Security and Medicare earned benefits are taken away.

Most importantly, the GOP has no plan on how their candidate might fulfill the duties of his office, much less play golf, from inside a prison cell. Clearly, the GOP believes that there will be no criminal convictions of their candidate before November and that after election day all these pesky prosecutions will just go away. Having spent several decades in criminal courts, I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that the odds of the former president avoiding conviction and prison time are practically nil.

Last time around Joe Biden won the presidency by over 7 million votes. This time, the margin of victory will be much larger and democracy will prevail.

Abortion Hypocisry

 The Abortion Hypocrisy

Either a Fertilized Egg is a Fetus, or it Isn’t

 

The Alabama Supreme Court has thrown the national GOP into a tailspin. 

Recently, that court ruled that embryos created as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) are “extrauterine fetuses” who have rights and interests. The ruling was based upon language from the the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs case that overruled Roe v. Wade’s protection for some abortions with some biblical references thrown in for good measure. Dobbs held that unborn fetuses are people who must be protected.

The Alabama decision is a logical outgrowth of the scientifically discredited idea that life begins when a man’s sperm fertilizes a woman’s egg. That notion is the basis of the argument that all abortions should be banned and was a major underpinning of the Dobbs decision.

Applying that logic to human embryos created in a laboratory petri dish by fertilizing a woman’s egg with a man’s sperm effectively ends the use of that procedure.  IVF does not work sometimes. When a fertilized egg from the lab is implanted into the woman’s uterus, it sometimes does not develop into a fetus. To allow for multiple attempts to have a successful pregnancy, couples sometimes have multiple embryos created in the lab which are frozen for implantation later. If the first embryo does develop, then the frozen embryos may not be needed and are often destroyed. What to be done with these unused embryos led to the Alabama decision. As a direct result of the ruling, Alabama IVF clinics suspended all further procedures out of a well-founded fear they might be prosecuted for killing an unborn child or held financially liable for wrongful death if they did not preserve them forever.

That is a result too far for many republicans, hence the loud retreat from the Alabama ruling. 

Unfortunately, many in the GOP have supported the Alabama logic. 124 republican members of the House of Representatives, including Wisconsin members, Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, and Mike Gallagher co-sponsored the Life Begins at Conception Act in the last session. 18 U.S. senators co-sponsored a similar bill in the Senate. Legislatures in 14 states have introduced similar legislation with four passing their bills into law. A recent bill introduced in the U.S. Senate to protect IVF was blocked by a Mississippi senator. 

Recognizing that IVF is very popular and used by thousands of voters every year to have children, republicans running for re-election have tried to distance themselves from the Alabama ruling and its logic. The former president who brags about overturning Roe v. Wade through his Supreme Court appointments just came out in favor of in vitro fertilization.  The republican controlled Alabama legislature is rushing to pass a bill exempting IVF embryos from the “life begins at conception” theory. The GOP controlled Florida legislature just suspended consideration of a “personhood” bill that could have ended IVF procedures there. 

The problem is that either life begins when sperm fertilizes an egg, or it does not. You cannot have it both ways. 

The GOP coalition depends upon support from those who believe ours is, or should be, a Christian nation governed by religious teachings, not the rule of law. Even they will see the inconsistency when their preferred candidates support IVF and undercut their favored argument against abortion that “life begins at conception.”

This dilemma is a perfect example of the need foreseen by our founding fathers of keeping religious beliefs out of the political discourse and governance by erecting a wall between the church and the state. Our founding documents make it clear that we are free to believe in the God of ones choosing but are prohibited from imposing those beliefs on those who believe differently or not at all. Our political and legal systems were meant to be governed by reason and facts supported by science, not beliefs which can not be supported empirically.

The logical problem presented exposes the failure of those in the cult of the former occupant of the White House to recognize why democracy is better than authoritarian dictatorship. Authoritarian dictators make everything about them, facts and science and logic be damned. “Trust me” is the mantra that allows unfettered governance that leads to disaster. It allows the dictator to do has he pleases. Campaign proclamations on this issue are worthless when it comes to votes and donations. 

 In November, voters will have to choose between Democracy and an autocratic Christian Nationalism, you cannot have it both ways.