Uppity Wisconsin

Amitabh Pal in MenomonieRather than join the throngs of conservatives at "grassroots" tea parties last night,  I chose to have some good old left-wing liberal community by attending Amitab Pal's speech at the Menomonie Library.  Amitab Pal is the managing editor of The Progressive.  His speech last night on Nonviolence in Difficult Circumstances covered the history of nonviolent peace protests in situations where the odds were stacked against the protestors.  Many of these protests have been remarkably successful, including protest moevemtns in 1943 in Berlin, nonviolent Pashtun protests in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Serbian resistance movement against Slobodan Milosevic. 

Instead of belaboring my attempts to summarize his speech, I'll let him speak for himself.Thanks to the Red Cedar Peace Initiative, UW-Stout Center for Applied Ethics, and STAND (UW-Stout Students Against Genocide) with additional funding from Music For Peace, a summer all day concert organized by musicians and held in Menomonie

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Yes, that title is correct. At first I didn't believe it either--but then both WEAU AND WQOW reported on it, so I knew it must be true. :P

His name is Bill Ingram, and he is considering running for the House of Representatives to unseat Representative Ron Kind--just in case the "President-thing" doesn't work out.

I did a little more searching and was able to find this article by The Dunn County News and this article posted by the Newsroom at UWEC.

I'll be honest, I will still be voting for Senator Obama in November. However, I am impressed by Mr. Ingram's committment to solving problems and providing alternatives.

Also, be sure to see Bill Ingram's campaign website.

Location

The Town of Tainter Land Planning Commission recently voted no on the proposed sand mine in Dunn County. Voting 6-1, they decided not to recommend the mine to the Tainter board and the board of adjustments.

Though this is far from over, the recommendation should carry quite a lot of weight with the town board and the board of adjustments.

Some of you may have heard about the sand mine that Proppant is trying to build in Dunn County. Although, as always, some of the resistance to this is the normal NIMBY sort of complaining, there are also a lot of legitimate concerns being raised about spoiling the Hoffman Hills area (which is quite stunning and unusual, and brings in 1.5 million bucks a year in tourism) as well as unanswered questions about traffic caused by the mine.

I was thinking the other day that starting up a Northwestern Wisconsin Drinking Liberally group might be fun.

If Uppity Wisconsin were to start such a group (probably meeting somewhere in Eau Claire) would anyone be interested in getting together occasionally for drinks and political talk (and maybe an occasional movie or ??).

There's been a little bruhaha today because the state Republicans have been distributing a flyer in which Rob Kreibich (who was at one time an Eau Claire Channel 13 reporter) throws his support behind Dave Zien (R) over Pat Kreitlow (D). Well, no big surprise there. -- Update - I have added a link to a statement from Pat Kreitlow on the ad.

The point of contention, though, is that they used Channel 13's and NBC"s logos in the flyer, which may or may not be legal. And it certainly adds to the confusion that a few people in the area seem to be getting about the two former Channel 13 employees, and which is which (geez, if you ever talked to either of them you'd be able to keep it straight, I think - Kreitlow, Kreibich - Democrat, Republican - Black, White - all fine distinctions).

The Iraq For Sale screening in Menomonie last night was just about sold out - we used all the chairs. 

Thanks to Marion and Warren Lang for leading the great discussion after the film, and to everyone who came to the screening.  We'll have some further action items on the site in the next few days.  

Photo from the Uppity Wisconsin Oct. 9 Iraq For Sale screening.

I just returned from the moving Eyes Wide Open display in Menomonie. The display consists of sixty pairs of boots representing the Wisconsin casualties from the Iraq war.

This is a sad reminder of one of the costs of the war. Every hour there is a reading of the names of the Wisconsin dead, alternated with names of Iraqis who have been killed in the war.

If you have a chance, visit the display today (Nov. 29).