Another old newspaper fades away

Farewell and R.I.P. Rocky Mountain News.

The Denver paper had been published since 1859 — that’s one hundred and fifty years, a very long time our short American history. Perhaps it’s analogous to the role of the Capital Times in Madison, which for decades had kept Madison as one of the remaining cities in America with two daily newspapers, until it too bowed to the inevitable forces and went primarily online, with a free tabloid printed just once a week. That’s better than folding complelely, which would have drasticaly muted the print-dialog.

Don’t know what’s going to happen to our collective or national dialog as the newspapers continue to fold. While I’m not a fan of some aspects of the print-capitalist model, it is a force that held power in check to a great extent during the past three centuries.

Also: Journal Communications stock has slid below $1.00. Sykes & Co. not coming to the rescue?

What’s next for the country and the world?

There seems to be a start of a consensus, that this current economic crisis is at once more quick in its onset yet differntly severe than the Great Depression. But it comes on the heels of what appears to be a second Gilded Age. We’ve had business crooks of unprecedented proportion, major food safety problems, and a simultaneously incompetent and enabling federal government.

The Great Depression was preceeded by the most savage war yet known, and a second age of largess and nationalism during the 1920s. The economic turmoil that followed the First World War coupled with gratuitously harsh Allied insistence on reparations, which set the stage in Germany for an irrationally attractive and very radical National Socialist Workers Party to be put in power after worldwide depression has set in. World War II followed. We won.

And as I’m fond of saying, “We all know everything was fine after that.”

Back in America in the interwar years, President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs did make a big difference (and no, he did not cause the Great Depression). We can still see its positive effects here in Milwaukee: the County Park system and the Linwood water treatment plant all were built in large part thanks to the New Deal.

This is a different time. There are no bread lines. The city is not considering issuing script, nor is the county running a public food program. I think if there was to be a new facist party, it wouldn’t be in Germany, it might start right here in the States, perhaps a rural-suburban movement of people blindly accepting all that Limbaugh and Hannity say. But while historical patterns tend to repeat themselves, it would be hard to see how they could unit in any effective manner. Of course, one must not underestimate the power of talk radio or the Internets. Even if it did occur, I would give a very minuscule chance of ultimate success. Enough people in America were united to legitimately elect a benevolent president who seem committed to a smart use American power.

Of course, this could be all wrong. We’ll have to see.

Radio story on aquaculture at a Milwaukee public school

Our local public radio station WUWM 89.9 FM had a great story this Friday morning about the aquaculture-bearing greenhouse at Fernwood Montessori School here on Milwaukee’s south side. The full text of the story is on the web site, along with the audio and some pictures from the greenhouse. Thanks to Susan Bence and WUWM for putting together such a fine story!

If you’re wondering what aquaculture is, please look at Milwaukee’s own Growing Power. The system at Fernwood is based on Will Allen’s system at Growing Power. There’s also a larger Wikipedia entry on the topic.

I had the pleasure of touring the facility and meeting the greenhouse instructor Matt Ray a few weeks ago after one of our Anodyne Moments. It’s wonderful to have this in a Milwaukee public school, and I’m glad word is getting out. We do need to have more hands-on agri/aquaculture in Milwaukee schools. As Matt said, “Give the kids twenty minutes in the greenhouse each day, and you can throw the Ritalin away.” Be it the large fish or the good food crops that they grow, or the two giant slimy bullfrogs that live there, I know the kids must love it. Quite simply, we need much more of this kind of healing, truly life-affirming experience to be available in our schools.

Comparing headlines: same article, two sources

Seeing a small headline in a sidebar on TPM stoked my curiosity: Where was the article from, and whar did it say?

On TPM, the headline was “Obama: We Must Ensure Katrina Failures ‘Are Never Repeated’.”

I couldn’t agree more. But who wrote it, and what did their headline say?

Turns out it was from USA Today. The headline: “Obama: Katrina survivors didn’t get enough help.”

I couldn’t agree more with that either.

While TPM used a more drastic framing for the story, both stated an essential truth: What happened to the people of New Orleans cannot happen again.

Whenever Bush would go to Texas for his annual August vacation, I would always become a little unnerved — what would happen this time? My fear started after the events of 2001, when Bush seemed to ignore the dire warning he was given about an emminent terrorist attack. That fear became idle for a few years, but returned in force when Bush watched Hurricane Katrina roll over the Big Easy from the comfort of his Texas ranch. Bush fiddled while New Orleans flooded. A more disgraceful president I’ve not been alive to see.

There was an election a year ago today.

There is a finite number of people who can say “I was on the same ballot as Barack Obama.” It still humbles and amazes me that I was among them. While my bid for the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors drew to a close that night, I’m happy with how that race turned out. And the presidential election, too.

Great sportsmanship at Milwaukee high school basketball game

Some may think basketball games in Milwaukee high schools only cause fights… this one is quite different!

(Forgive the pop-up ads; they are not my doing.)

First a primary, then Drinking Liberally

One thing on one day, one thing on another.

Tomorrow, Feb. 17, we democracy geeks cast votes in the primary for judges and state superintendent. Sometimes, though, even the democracy geeks in the crowd lose sight of elections. So here’s a very short list of who to vote for:

State Superintendent: Tony Evers.

Jay Bullock is a teacher and his life will be directly effected by our choice in this vote. Jay says that Tony Evers is his choice for this job. Let’s hope Jay’s endorsement doesn’t doom Mr. Evers’ candidacy, and get out there and vote for him.

Milwaukee County circuit court: I’m supporting J.D. Watts. Mr. Watts is a very calm, collected individual, the sort of person you want as a judge. And he’s been to Drinking Liberally not once, but twice. And I believe he also drove home stone sober each time, which is enough to get him my endorsement. I mean, heck, if you come to D.L. not once but twice, that’s enough to earn him my support. (It even works for very select Republicans!) So vote for J.D. Watts; he’ll do a very good job as circuit court judge.

I’m looking at you, my 7.85 readers!

When all is said and done, we may get one of the remaining judicial candidates at Drinking Liberally this Wednesday. And if you haven’t already, please vote in our online poll to help decide where in Sugar Maple we should have our little contingent meet.

Photos from former Harnischfeger site

We may soon be getting delicious fish from the place where giant industrial cranes once were produced.

My photos from the former Harnischfeger plant.

Info about Sweet Water Organics.

Will Allen of Growing Power to speak at UT-Austin, Yale

Will Allen of Growing Power, winner of the 2008 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant,” is off to a great start this year. Here’s a press release from Growing Power:

Milwaukee – Feb. 9, 2009 – This will be a busy weekend for Will Allen, founder and CEO of Milwaukee’s Growing Power Inc. On Friday, Feb. 13, at the invitation of President Bill Clinton, Allen will share the dais at the University of Texas at Austin with, among others, actress Drew Barrymore, for a panel discussion titled “The Future of Food.” In the audience will be 1,000 college students and 200 university presidents and chancellors from institutions across the nation.

After that session, Allen will jet home just in time to turn around and visit Yale University in New Haven, Conn., for a special address Monday to the faculty, students and guests of the Yale Sustainable Food Project.

The Austin conference is billed as a special plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative, which is sponsored by the Clinton Foundation. Allen and others will address issues of food security and food justice in a world threatened by economic and political upheaval, global warming, overpopulation and outmoded food policies.

The moderator for the discussion is Raj Shah, the director of agricultural development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Other panelists include Barrymore, who has been named an Ambassador Against Hunger to the U.N. World Food Programme; Emma Clipinger, a student at Brown University; Peter McPherson, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges; and film director Morgan Spurlock.

The Yale Sustainable Food Project directs programs that “support exploration and academic inquiry related to food and agriculture,” and also manages a sustainable dining program and an organic farm on the Yale campus.

“It’s pretty clear that food, pure and simple, is not being taken for granted anymore,” Allen said. “Conferences like these, sponsored by some of the most important institutions in the world, suggest it has finally sunk in: We need to address hunger as a global threat.”

Growing Power Inc. is a national non-profit and land trust that operates community food centers in Milwaukee and Chicago and provides training in urban agriculture around the world. Allen is the winner of a 2008 McArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.”

CONTACT:

Jim Price, Growing Power Inc.
jim@growingpower.org
(414) 531–3395

Will Allen’s are spreading fast, be it at a Milwaukee school with an aquaculture system in its greenhouse, to the new fish farm going in at a former industrial site on the south side. We will all benefit from his work in the end.

TPM: Iowa guv turned Ag secretary pushing for more ethanol in gasoline.

Good thing I drive a Diesel.