Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Harvey Milk and George Moscone

Tonight we saw Milk.  The first two minutes were as emotional an introduction to any film I have ever seen.

My reaction to the film is a reflection of the quality of the movie.  It is also a response from living through those times.

It was powerful and moving. Everything said about Sean Penn's outstanding performance is true.

The city of Madison adopted its equal opportunity ordinance protecting all individuals regardless of sexual orientation or sexual preference in the spring or summer of 1976.

Unlike Dade County, Florida, Minneapolis, or Eugene, Oregon, despite our best efforts to bait Anita Bryant, we could not lure her to Madison.  

June  1977 was the last time I saw San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. It was probably Friday June 17 at the conclusion of a hard week of work.

Moscone, U.S. Conference of Mayors President, Ken Gibson from Newark, and  Mayor John Rousakis of Savannah were at the hotel swimming pool.

Gibson and I were in the water, Moscone and Rousakis sunned themselves on lounge chairs when a young photographer from the Tuscon Citizen appeared. He had been trying to get pictures of mayors not working and he had his victims. I spotted him and alerted the others. Gibson and I simply turned our backs to his camera lens.

Moscone was exhausted since every crazed Tusconian with a San Francisco connection had called his hotel room the previous night. Moscone simply draped a towel over his face.

Rousakis did not care and did not move.

The kid snapped a few pictures and walked over to Rousakis. He asked for names. The mayor pointed to Moscone and then himself, "He is Michael Blandic, the new mayor of Chicago, and I am Maynard Jackson, the mayor of Atlanta." (Jackson left, Rousakis right)

Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk were assassinated on Monday November 27, 1978. The moment hearing of the tragedy and seeing Dianne Feinstein on the news announcing their deaths was as real last night as it was that day.

On Tuesday November 28, 1978 I made reservations for San Francisco. That night our city council met. We had ended the practice of opening the meetings with a formal prayer and instead rotated among the council members who would begin each session with some thoughts of their own. Alderman Jim Yeadon began with words memorializing the two slain leaders. Two years earlier, as a citizen serving on the Equal Opportunities Commission, Jim was instrumental in the adoption of Madison's ordinance protecting gay rights. From the Wisconsin State Journal Friday December 12, 2008:

The assassinations of Milk and Moscone marked a poignant moment for Yeadon, who asked to open the first council meeting after the slayings with a remembrance.

"I get shivers when I think about it," he recalls. "I said, 'Yesterday there were three openly gay elected officials in the country. Today there are two. And I don't know how many good mayors there were in the country, but today the world is one the less.' Then I asked people to bow their heads and pray and give their thoughts to the people in San Francisco. I was almost crying. It really brought it home."

On Wednesday November 29, 1978 I flew to San Francisco where I caught up with some friends from Madison in a city numb with grief.

to be continued

Becky Young: Mom, Lawyer, Legislator, Educator, Friend, Environmentalist

Becky Young never asked for anything in return.

She simply did the right thing.  Rather than worry about the political consequences or the political payback, she asked nothing more than you do the same.

Whether it was transportation planning or children, family enhancement or university expansion, she demonstrated real leadership. She engaged citizens and colleagues, with purpose, because the reward was the successful program or plan, not personal aggrandizement.

She came from what I call the 'Tom Sawyer' school of management. She got everyone to paint the fence, though unlike Tom, she never sat by idly; she was a full participant.

Eloquently, George Hesselberg in the Wisconsin State Journal, best described her, Rebecca Young, pillar of Madison politics, dies at 74

Rebecca Young, an approachable icon of congenial modesty and achievement for 30 years in Madison's political landscape, a steady and informed advocate with a welcoming ear for issues involving women, children, transit and the environment, died Tuesday at home of cancer at the age of 74.

She took buses, raised four daughters with her husband, Crawford Young, and kept a breathtaking schedule from the moment she arrived in 1963, starting with the League of Women Voters. She ran for election 12 times, winning every time, including County Board, School Board and seven terms in the state Assembly.

She moved up the political ladder, in stature and influence, never plotting her next step. The only course she followed was her political compass heading towards a better life for kids.

There is a lesson in there somewhere.

 

Economic Disaster That A Fool Could Forecast

Like most states, we are caught up in the cruel torture of national policies that are driven by greed, imperialism, and stupidity. Readrers of Waxing America will recall that in the spring of 2007 I forecasted a stock market crash and repeated it last January, Another War; Another Recession. Whatdidyah Expect?

Last  spring I used my limited abilities in forecasting the economy and predicted a stock market crash... For the second time in my lifetime a stupid, foolish war built on lies not only wrecked havoc with another country but it is destroying the American economy.

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

I am not a genius in these matters; it is that I am not driven by blind ideology in arriving at conclusions about the ecomony. A few years experience in the public and private sectors, an understanding of history and a willingness to distance myself from bad public planning, or lack of planning, no matter how politically popular the proposal, do help.

As the fall elections approach, candidates for the Wisconsin legislature and Congress from both political parties will warm your frontal lobes with cuddly promises of 'no tax increases,' cutting fat from the budget, and reducing spending.

If you are attracted to those soft sweet sounds, complete the job and instead of voting, just get a lobotomy.

If you want a candidate who will  provide a lump of coal to warm you in your decrepit retirement, and a dull knife so you can remove your spouse's appendix by candlelight in your toothless waning years, I suggest looking for the following promises:

• A pledge to the business community to provide an educated, trained workforce, not lower taxes.
• A pledge to increase spending on education from kindergarten through the University of Wisconsin and Voc-Tech Systems.
• A commitment to spend money on infrastructure that places a priority on the environment, health, and safety.
• A commitment to regulate where appropriate and needed.
• That infratstructure will be funded through borrowing as should any reasonable capital budget item.
• The operating budget, unlike the capital budget, will be funded by general purpose revenues, and only general purpose revenues. No borrowing here.
• It will be necessary to increase taxes. The increase will be progressive and will fall on wealthier taxpayers.
• A commitment to regulate where required for health and safety.
• A declaration that international trade which exports great jobs and imports poisonous pet food and baby formula is not working.
• There will be no reductions of state revenue payments to local units of government. These reductions only end up with increase in the property tax which has the impact of shifting taxes from the wealthy to the middle class.
• On the national level there will be increases in the income tax- progressive increases.
• If we fight a war, there will be honest talk. It is impossible to have guns and butter. If we fight a war there must be sacrifices at home as well as on the battlefield.
• If the candidate tells you they are highly regarded by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), tell that candidate to move to Alaska.

 

 

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

Obama-Biden Had Better Wake Up and Get Out the Heavy Artillery

Perhaps there is a grand strategy on the part of the Obama-Biden management team to tell the truth about Sarah Palin. If there is I hope it works because the present efforts to expose McCain and Sarah Palin are not working.

The simple fact that Palin has a unfavorable rating of 27%, Palin's Popularity Rises is clear evidence that the message is not getting through:

The first-term Alaska governor's favorability rating is also higher than the veteran Delaware senator's -- Palin's is 57 percent favorable, 27 percent unfavorable, while Biden's is 51 percent favorable, 28 percent unfavorable.

Palin's rating has improved since the Republican convention last week; it was 38 percent favorable, 21 percent unfavorable just after she was introduced.

We can take comfort that in the past week her unfavorable rating climber from 21% to 27%, but face it - among mere mortals any politician who smiles at the camera is destined for at least a  35% unfavorable rating.

Palin is vehemently anti-choice. She is tied into the good-old-boy pork barrel lottery.  Look at her support for the Bridge-To-Nowhere, which she only opposed when she realized it was dead on arrival and made her look foolish. That combined with her ongoing support of policies that have brought economic ruin to millions of families ought to push her into the negative 40 range.

Meantime Obama-Biden plug along with two accurate but milquetoast ads noting the link between McCain and George W. Bush and questioning the so-called 'maverick' status of McCain and Palin.

They need to re-work those ads Republican style. That means male voices used for horror films and female voices dripping with sarcasm. The Republicans know how to run these ads - when the viewer has digested the sixty seconds there is no question that the attacked Presidential candidate is unfit to lead.

The beauty of all this is that the Democrats, unlike the Republicans, need only tell the truth:

McCain got us into Iraq.

McCain spent us into bankruptcy, chaos and inflation.

McCain-Palin support fiscal poilices to fleece the middle class.

McCain-Palin are anti-choice.

McCain-Palin are good old boys connected as much as George Bush to oil interests.

McCain-Palin "leadership" amounts to earmarks in the billions, endless wars, and loss of liberty.

The McCain Palin Legacy

An examination of the speeches of both Republican candidates, John McCain and Sarah Palin, as well as their actions in public office, indicates a dismal record when it comes to the economy. While both admitted in the most cursory manner that fixing the economy and the need to create viable jobs is a high priority for the next administration, neither admitted their culpability:

• Both supported the war in Iraq.
• Both know that deficit spending is ruining the economy but lack a plan to fund that war, which is wrecking havoc with America employers and workers.
• Both are responsible for the inflation, the new highs in unemployment, and the speculation that drove up the price of oil.
• Both are long time supporters of tax cuts for the rich, the very wealthy, which only exacerbates the growing national debt. It is a record debt.
• Palin and McCain were silent during their most recent terms in public office on the pirating and exploitation of the U.S. Defense budget by private contractors who ripped off the American people of billions of dollars while our servicemen and servicewomen went unprotected in their Humvees.  Can you say ,"Blackwater, or Halliburton?"This is inexcusable for Palin who governs portions of the United States only 50 miles from Russia.

The Republicans have a plan for all of this.

In the next two months we will see swiftboating of Barack Obama that will make the attack launched against Senator Kerry look like a bathtub flotilla.

Campaign Posters: Stealing Good Stuff - Truckin' on Down to the Polls

Dave Medaris, Isthmus,was sorting through his stuff and came up on an old Soglin for mayor campaign poster, Souvenir keeps on truckin'  - Rediscovering a vintage Soglin campaign poster

Laying eyes on it took me back to 1971, when I was 11 years old and going door to door, delivering Soglin campaign brochures on the near west side.,,The poster, with the counterculture icon Mr. Natural urging voters to RUSH RIGHT ON TO THE POLL — was aimed at UW students. It was authorized and paid for by the Students for Soglin Committee, 458 W. Gilman, Molly Berigan, treasurer. 

Actually the poster was from 1973 since that was the year we had the campaign office on West Gilman Street.

Yes, though the name is spelled differently, Molly is related to the Berrigan Brothers, Daniel and Philip, war resisters who did so much in the 1960's and 70's.

Dave Medaris contacted Molly Berigan as well as Genie Ogden who were two of six core members of both the 1971 and the successful 1973 campaigns. The others were Peggy Phillips who recently passed away, Dave Clarenbach, Dick Wagner, and Hank Lufler.

There were a few adults in 1971, mostly centered in Crestwood and led by Sophie Zermuehlen who was married to Don at the time and their neighbors. John Patrick Hunter was always lurking about, but kept his distance since he was a reporter for The Capital Times. Helen Vukelich was also deeply involved in 1971 as she was in 1973.

I digress.

The 1973 poster that Genie and the crew worked on with  Mr. Natural was a rip off from underground comic book author Robert Crumb.

But it was actually based on an earlier poster created by David Chandler in 1970 who worked with the crew at the Williamson Street print shop, Revolutions Per Minute (RPM).

Chandler used a bit more than Mr. Natural in his callous disregard of existing copyright laws.

 

The American eagle was lifted from the back of an infamous album* released a few years earlier.  That is not your father's olive branch clutched along side the American Flag.

While the 1970 poster designers for the aldermanic candidate were creative enough, the 1973 rip-off artists showed the greater moderation required of a more serious and mellow mayoral candidate.

I have fond memories of those campaigns. I am glad the others do too.

*Sorry, you have to figure it out for yourself - I am not providing any clues. Someone should be able to identify the album.

Masks in China. The Olympic Committe is A Joke. Nothing Has Changed

The hoopla, pageantry, silliness, nastiness and profiteering of the Olympics has not changed in over fifty years. If there is any question in your mind, run out and get Dave Maraniss' insightful  Rome 1960. The Olympics that Changed the World. 

Soviet Communism and the Cold War ended,  but the organizers and operators of the games are still far more important than the athletes. While the achievements of the competitors is often compelling and poignant, on the world stage the manipulations of governments, businesses, and  street level ticket scalpers is far more important when measuring the impact on the world's peoples.

Start with this story, and follow what unravels over the next few weeks. US cyclists apologize for wearing masks.

BEIJING (AP)—A group of American cyclists has apologized to Beijing Olympic organizers after arriving in China’s capital wearing face masks.

Jim Scherr, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s chief executive officer, said his organization didn’t ask the cyclists to apologize.

“Those athletes regret that action and have written an apology to BOCOG on their own behalf,” Scherr said. “They now realize and understand how their actions were perceived by the host nation and by the organizing committee.”

The China Olympics are a joke. A failure before they start.

For starters, the International Olympic Committee had this silly notion that by awarding the Olympics to China, it would induce that government to halt repression and recognize basic human rights. That was Joke 1.

Not content with destroying the jobs of American industrial workers with wages unfit for any dignified person, the Chinese spent most of this past year trying to murder our dogs and cats with poisoned pet food. Joke 2.

Finally there is the effort to contain the pollution. As though the soiled land, the contaminated waters, and the fouled air disappear by banning half the cars in Beijing on alternate days and temporarily closing industrial plants. Joke 3.

You cannot possibly insult the Chinese government by wearing face masks when eleven months of the year half of China tries to keep the pollution out of their lungs.

"I am sorry my voice sounds muffled, but if I remove my mask, the air pollution will burn my lungs like dry twigs in a campfire."

Those voices are muzzled for reasons other than the pollution. Those faces are hidden for reasons other than the pollution.

Weekend Bicycling Report July 27, 2008

For the first time all summer I was able to do successive weekend back to back rides. I rode Saturday and Sunday last and this weekend.

It's about the back. With three discs fused, it looks like another one is going.

A combination of physical therapy and an epidural a week ago Friday had me back in the saddle though hills are still tough. The ache in the back combined with weakened legs from inactivity made for some very tough rides.

I resumed body pump and added more stretching. If things hold together, pilates is next.

I did a circuitous ride south and east of Madison yesterday with a finale of coming around Lake Monona and home through the Isthmus. Today's ride was a classic shot out to Paoli.

The weather was great both days, especially with the cloud cover today.

Maybe it was random chance but it appears that safety was on most rider's minds. Only a family of three and two other bikers rode sans helmet.

What I did find curious was people biking and smoking at the same time. I doubt that the benefit of one displaces the damage of the other.

I am now convinced that the Fitchburg re-pavement policy needs re-examination.

In an effort to save money and to recycle, Fitchburg is resurfacing its roads with a substance that is made from recycled materials but also has a high coefficient of friction. It obviously slows down all vehicles including bicycles. For bicyclists it means more work to maintain a decent speed. For automobiles, it means burning more fuel.

Kutler on Republican Executive Powers

Waxing America's favorite Emeritus Professor in the entire galaxy, the esteemed University of Wisconsin Constitutional scholar Stanley Kutler, reminds us that the Republican Party, with an almost century long record of limiting the power of the president, now embraces what could be called an imperial presidency:

  Hunkering Down in Baghdad

Voltaire had it right: history is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play on the dead...

...Executive power expanded enormously during World War II. After the war, old guard Republicans, still rooted in isolationism, proposed a constitutional amendment to give Congress authority to regulate all executive agreements with foreign powers....Republican concerns that first President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yalta and then President Harry S. Truman at Potsdam had bargained away too much....The GOP also objected to Truman’s sending troops to Korea in 1950 without congressional approval.

Kulter notes that with the Bush Administration is "... betting that the rest of the world, from Europe to Asia, will quietly accept U.S. troops to defend their economic interests..."

Kutler writes that Bush "may have made a prophet of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said last September that “the Iraq war is largely about oil” and essential for the global economy."

Free Tibet Madison Style: The Real Olympic Spirit

I will not be in Madison on Saturday, April 19, 2008,  but if I were, I would be at the State Capital for the rally to focus on Chinese oppression against the people of Tibet.  Among the sponsors are Students for a Free Tibet - UW Madison.

Until a family event sent me off to California for the weekend, I was supposed to join State Representative Joe Parisi and Wisconsin Olympian Casey FitzRandolph.  They will be apart of a different torch relay, the Human Rights Torch that is part of coordinated effort in 37 countries to publicize the incompatibility of Chinese crimes against all of its citizens, not just Tibetans, and the true spirit of the Olympics.

Casey is a great athlete, one who truly understands the nature of humanity in all aspects of life. There are too many people who like to use sports metaphors to draw lessons about life. Casey lives the best of the competitive world both on and off the ice.

We all know that the commercialism of the Olympics far overshadows the games. The athletes deserve to demonstrate their skills with honor, but are relegated to the status of doorknobs or garden rocks serving to enhance the mansion and the landscape, the corporate sponsors and their products.

My guess is that most Americans could select more official sponsors of the Olympics from a a list of hamburger, camera, and automobile companies than could identify the athletes who won medals last time in aquatics, archery, boxing, or even tennis.

Back in the day when the Internet was in its infancy, the only web page that came up when you put my name in a search engine was: The Mayor of the city of Madison, Wisconsin Proclaims March 10 1996 as "Tibetan Independence Day"

It was an honor to participate then; it is an honor now to be part of this world wide humanitarian effort. Tibetan rights and lives are more important than these games.

Someone get Casey's autograph for me. Please.