Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Tibetan National Uprising Day

March 10^th, 2015 marked the 56^th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising. I joined several supporters in front of City Hall to commemorate the occasion.

56 years ago today the people of Tibet bravely rose against the Communist Chinese Regimen. Every year on this anniversary we remember and honor the lives lost in their struggle for independence and support their ongoing fight for freedom. The actions of the Tibetan people remind us how fortunate we are to enjoy our liberties and inspire us to continue to fight for them.

Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance

On Monday, I joined hundreds from throughout Dane County in commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday at the Overture Center for Arts for the 30^th Annual Madison and Dane County Martin Luther King, Jr. Observance Ceremony.

At the ceremony, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and I presented the 2015 City-County Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Awards to two very deserving recipients: Barbara Nichols and Peng Her.

Ms. Nichols has dedicated her career and life to public service with a focus on Civil Rights.

Mr. Her overcame adversity to become an activist for not only the Hmong community but also for other marginalized populations.

Despite their differing career paths, both recipients embody the ideal that Dr. King lived.

Diane Nash, a long time civil rights leader and peace activist delivered the keynote address. Her career accomplishments include serving on a national committee that promoted passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and being active in the peace movement that contributed to the end of war in Vietnam. Her remarks were inspiring.

The gathering served as a celebration of the progress that has been made, and an important reminder of the work that remains. The legacy of Dr. King continues to motivate us to embody the qualities that he lived; fairness, equality, and peace.

Club Today Not Tomorrow Community Forum

I recently joined Chief Koval, Alder Phair, and several other Madison Police Department representatives for Club Today Not Tomorrow’s Peacemakers program community forum at the Meadowood Community Center. The Peacemakers program, which was launched in February, 2014, is focused on creating and strengthening relationships and cooperation between residents and police officers. The community forum had a great turnout, with Madisonians of all ages engaging in conversations and asking questions of their Madison police officers. I would say that the community forum achieved its goal of fostering open and honest communication between police and residents. Events like these are increasingly important in light of recent events.

Check out Club Today Not Tomorrow’s Facebook page to learn more and see more photos from the event.

https://www.facebook.com/ClubTodayNotTomorrow

Stopping the NRA and the Murder of America's Youth

The Nation Rifle Association (NRA) in its century long romance with violence violated the American people, their children, and our liberty, peace and tranquillity in classrooms from  Columbine to Sandy Hook, from Oregon to Virginia.

Since 1992, 386 school shootings in the United States and 493 dead. The more weapons, the more firepower, the more dead.

The NRA tells us that the solution is more armed guards and teachers in the classroom.

After perverting the Second Amendment, ensuring more guns in every city and town, they explain that we need more firepower to stop the thugs they armed. Meanwhile the bodycount mounts.

Mayors Against Illegal have a  plan -follow this link and sign up:

1. Require a criminal background check for every gun sold in America
2. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines
3. Make gun trafficking a federal crime, including real penalties for “straw purchasers”

The Second Amendment:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

That simple three point plan does not compromise a well regulated militia. After all, you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater yet the First Amendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances

 

 

Guns: What We Knew For Decades

Put a gun in a home and it is seven times more likely to be used:

• In a suicide by a member of the family
• To shoot a member of the family either purposefully or by accident.
• To shoot the owner of the weapon.

than used to defend the household.

 

 

Madison Then and Now: 1960's and the Walker Protests

No, I never saw in the 1960's what is occuring today in this effort to stop Governor Walker's union busting.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:   

Soglin: "I've never seen anything like this"

Soglin said he has participated in the protests against Walker’s budget repair bill for a week, starting with a march Saturday from Memorial Union on the UW-Madison campus. The crowds have built every day, and on Thursday and Friday exceeded 20,000, he estimated.

He compared the mood of the crowds to those he saw during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. There’s anger, he said, but there was also “elements of joy and enthusiasm, and that’s what’s going on here as well.”

The anti-war movement, he said, was “all energized and angry - because it was focused on stopping a war. It could not have the almost spiritual nature of what’s going on in Madison today.”

Spiritual? Joy? Soglin said the teachers and other public employees from across the state are finding a bond with each other.

“There are a lot of people who are scared about the economic consequences of what’s going to happen” with Walker’s bill, he said. “But they’re also getting strength from all of the people they are meeting.”

Bike Share Deal Controversy: Questions and Answers From The Candidates

 Today Brenda Konkel asked both mayoral candidates some pointed questions about the Trek-run "B-Cycle, LLC" bike share program:

Sure, its cool but . . . is it a good idea to make a sole source deal with Trek to provide bike kiosks for the City of Madison at a cost of $300,000 ($100,000 from this year’s contingent reserve) to the taxpayer in this current economy? Should there have been an RFP, why or why not? Is it appropriate to use money from the contingent reserve?

Paul Soglin's answer:

First some perspective:
Bicycle sharing systems are not new to Madison. After the first modern effort was introduced in the Netherlands in the late 1960’s, Wisconsin’s capital city, as did Paris, followed suit with the yellow bicycle program. This effort of fixing up old bikes and painting them an identifiable color was repeated with the red bicycles found on Madison’s streets in the 1990’s.

Since then, a number of more effective programs were introduced in Europe and subsequently the United States.

The fact is, this idea has merit and represents a sensible step forward compared to the earlier bicycle sharing models: The bicycles will be new and well maintained. While not free, the rentals are reasonable and convenient, available to both Madison residents and visitors.

The problem with this is not the idea of bike sharing. Rather, the problem with the Cieslewicz proposal is that it plays fast and loose with a number of reasonable and long-standing checks and balances; it circumvents established budgetary and fiscal practices; and it presents challenges in terms of other values Madisonians hold dear.

We are told that this proposal must be adopted within four weeks of introduction. There will be no bidding on the contract. The funds will come from the contingency reserve fund. There may also be advertising that will violate the Madison sign ordinance and commercial use of the public parks.

Here’s what should happen:
The proposal should be properly referred to City committees. That will allow for discussion of a number of critical issues and the opportunity to get critical questions answered:

- The contingent reserve fund is for emergencies –overtime for police and fire and snow removal. Why is this an emergency?
- If the cost of the project is $100,000 for each of three years why shouldn’t the project stand on its own merits and go through the budget process?
- Why wasn’t this proposal put out to bid? Given the number of bicycle sharing programs in the United States and Europe, this is not a single source item. There is absolutely no justification for ignoring the RFP and bidding process simply because this is a last minute proposal.
- Why should the city pay for the program? If a private company is going to use public property to store and lease the bicycles, it seems that they should be paying the city, not the other way around.
- If it is true that the company managing the program is going to rent the space they have on public property, including the parks to advertisers, then we need a public discussion about how extensively we will allow advertising on public property, especially if it violates the billboard ordinance.

Every progressive city maintains high ethical standards. We need to discuss the payment of the mayor’s recent trip to Europe by a bicycle industry group particularly now that a member of that group is getting this no bid-contract. We should not have different standards for green industries as opposed to other industries seeking to do business with Madison.

Dave Cieslewicz' answer:

The B-Cycle bike sharing program is an incredible opportunity for Madison. Bike sharing is a hallmark of a world class city – one where companies want to invest, locate or attract talented professionals. It represents the kinds of smart investments we can make now to ensure that we are a leader in the new economy. And, it supports a great local company that brings jobs to our region.

Trek is offering to make the $1.4 million investment to set up the program and will manage it. And, they do not expect to make any money off the program. In fact, at least for the first few years, they expect a financial loss. But, because they are located in the area and Madison is important to them, they want to try their product here, even if it means losing money. Trek has also agreed to open it’s financial books and if they do make a profit, it will be split evenly with the city.

In addition, because Trek is the only company in the country that not only offers the infrastructure for bike sharing, but also offers unique GPS technology, it is appropriate under city ordinance to do a sole source contract. That’s why it’s gained the approval of BOE and the Pedestrian Bicycle Motor Vehicle Commission.

This is the kind of thing that gives a city a competitive edge in the new economy. So much of our success in the new economy is about keeping Madison a progressive, green, and bike-friendly city. Few other places can offer this combination, and that’s exactly what will attract and retain talent. And it will reduce carbon emissions in Madison and help us reach out goal of increasing bike share to 20% by 2020.

The program will also have an immediate economic benefit. Local businesses will be more easily accessible for those who carpool or use public transit. Trek is creating jobs right here in Madison to service the B-Cycle system.

And let’s not forget, Trek is giving Madison an incredible deal for this one-of-a-kind system. It has enormous potential for our city, and I look forward to community input to determine locations and overall implementation of the system.

These are not trivial issues. Go to Brenda's site to read some very interesting discussion of them in the comments.

 

UPDATE: Madison Guy reads these and reacts: "When I hear the words "Madison" and "world class city" in the same sentence, I reach for my BS meter."  

To be fair, Cieslewicz put them in the same paragraph in adjacent sentences.

 

UPDATE #2: The Wisconsin State Journal has the story of Brenda's complaints about the ethics of the process:

Former Madison Ald. Brenda Konkel, a vocal advocate for open government,has filed a series of complaints alleging violations of the city's lobbying regulation law involving a proposed bike-share program up for approval at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Konkel said at least four people associated with Madison's proposed B Cycle bike-share program, including those representing Trek Bicycle Corp., did not register as lobbyists with the city but attended meetings and pledged to evaluate such a program.

"The fact that it's all been done behind the scenes is the problem," said Konkel, who also objected to the project not going out for bid. "It's hard because this looks like a cool project. (But) just because it's a cool project, we can't ignore the rules."

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said it's unclear if there were any violations to the law, and if so, they were "inadvertent" and a representative from Trek plans to register as a lobbyist soon.

If the comments at the WSJ are any indication, this should be a very hotly-debated item at the City Council on Tuesday night.

- Barry Orton

 

 

Rest In Peace, Peter Orlovsky

Peter Orlovsky, Allen Ginsberg's longtime companion and a strong poet in his own right ("Clean Asshole Poems and Smiling Vegetable Songs"), died yesterday. A stalwart of the Beat generation and of modern American Buddhist culture, Orlovsky was a fixture whenever Ginsberg performed his wonderful reading/singing act in the 1970's and 1980's, playing the harmonium and chanting in harmony to Allen's nasal voice.

Here's Ginsberg singing "Do The Meditation Rock" with Orlovsky meditating in the background.

Worth reading: Steve Silberman's "Impossible Happiness: An Elegy for Peter Orlovsky:"

Together Peter and Allen traveled all over, sowing seeds of poetry, tenderness, public candor, and American Buddhism worldwide. They hung out with Burroughs in Tangier, smoked ganja and contemplated burning corpses in ghats along the Ganges, wrote Charlie Chaplin a fan letter from Benares, and visited the young Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. They also meditated side-by-side on railroad tracks in Denver to block a delivery of radioactive material to the leak-prone Rocky Flats nuclear power plant. Often, a reading by Allen at some illustrious academic institution would feature Peter unselfconsciously yodeling away with a banjo about the joys of shoveling shit on their farm.

- Barry Orton

Refighting the Civil War - It Was Treasonous, Not Romantic

When Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell declared April 'Confederate History Month' and overlooked slavery in his proclamation, a well deserved firestorm ensued. As an elementary school student I was taught that the Civil War was fought over slavery. By time I reached college, I learned about more complicated issues involving regional economics, foreign trade policy, and industrialization.

When it was all said and done, the Civil War was over slavery. No slavery, no war.

In his proclamation, McDonnell wrote that Virginians should "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War."

Writing in the Nation, Melissa Harris-Lacewell eloquently expressed the feelings of the millions of descendants of slaves:

As I child I lived in the shadow of Monticello. As a teen I lived on Jefferson Davis Highway, and there I discovered the other Virginia history. This is the Virginia history that is etched in the stony faces of confederate traitors who line Monument Avenue in Richmond. This narrative of Virginia laments the end of slavery, romanticizes traitorous action against the state and memorializes sedition. This history is built on a false and romantic notion of an imagined Confederate past that refuses to acknowledged the ways that slavery degraded not only black labor, but white labor; how it destroyed the land; and how it starved the region of innovation.

Going back to my own youth, I found that the romantic portrayal of the ante-bellum south to be a gross distortion of the truth. As Harris-Lacewell notes, little has changed for many Americans in the past fifty years.

"Lyndon Baines Obama"

The San Francisco Examiner nailed it. The headline is "Lyndon Baines Obama takes Afghanistan reins."

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama described the conflict in Afghanistan as a “war of necessity,” but the plan he announced last night at the U.S. Military Academy bears disturbing reminders of the doomed strategy doggedly pursued by the last Democratic president to commit the U.S. to a major land war in Asia.

Senator Russ Feingold gets it right:

I do not support the president’s decision to send additional troops to fight a war in Afghanistan that is no longer in our national security interest.  It’s an expensive gamble to undertake armed nation-building on behalf of a corrupt government of questionable legitimacy.  Sending more troops could further destabilize Afghanistan and, more importantly, Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state where al Qaeda is headquartered. While I appreciate that the president made clear we won’t be in Afghanistan forever, I am disappointed by his decision not to offer a timetable for ending our military presence there.  I will work with members of both parties and both houses of Congress to push for a flexible timetable to reduce our troop levels in Afghanistan, as part of a comprehensive strategy to combat al Qaeda in the region and around the world.

Representative Tammy Baldwin didn't equivocate:

“In 2001, I voted to authorize the use of force to bring to justice those responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

I believe our current actions in Afghanistan and President Obama’s proposal for moving forward bear little resemblance to that original, narrowly-focused mission.

I cannot endorse a military surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  It’s time for our troops to come home.”

Paul thinks differently, and will post subsequently.

- Barry Orton