Advoken's Blog

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Retired labor union official, newspaper editor/reporter, and community worker. Also community activist.

Category: Milwaukee

  • Milwaukee unionists of 120 years ago played role in growth of Socialism

    “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. in speech before Negro American Labor Council, 1961. Socialism has become a subject of serious discussion in the United States, likely due to the popularity of…

  • Here’s why to save the Domes

    How about re-establishing the Mitchell Park Domes as the city’s icon?  For years, it had been used to symbolize Milwaukee, only to be deposed by the Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum and its spreading wings on the lakefront. Yes, the Domes are in need of serious and costly repairs, but the dramatic geodesic structures are more…

  • Milwaukee’s new streetcars won’t have the same magic!

    Exactly sixty years ago this past March, I boarded the ancient No. 10 (Wells Street) streetcar for one of the final runs of a streetcar on Milwaukee streets. It was a nostalgic run for me that day – then a 28-year-old reporter for the former Milwaukee Sentinel – sent to do a feature story on…

  • Sheriff Clarke’s resignation doesn’t mean struggle is over!

    Many of us have looked for removal of Sheriff David Clarke from office, not only for his outlandish views on matters like gun violence (arm yourself citizens, he once urged), immigration abuses (round ‘em up and ship them back) and policing (I’ll clean up city neighborhoods better than Milwaukee police), but also because of his…

  • 50 years later: Any progress on ending racism in Milwaukee?

    Is Milwaukee less racist than it was 50 years ago when the disturbances in the summer of 1967 ended up with three deaths, many injuries, looted storefronts and put the city in a weeklong curfew? As one who has lived in Milwaukee for nearly all his 88 years and has seen change occur, you’d hope…

  • Lament about chocolate sodas

    A recent New York Times obituary of a prominent member of the arts community brought forth a weird recollection. During my high school years (1943-47), I worked at the corner drug store*, employed as a soda jerk, clerk and stockboy.  If you’re under 40 you may not know what a soda jerk was, but he…

  • Can Progressivism Survive in Wisconsin?

    For the first time since Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale in Wisconsin in the 1984 Presidential election, the state went red. How could that happen?  It’s simple arithmetic: lack of voter turnout. Hillary Clinton could have easily won the Badger State if those voters who could be expected to favor her had turned out.  She…

  • Expressions of Gratitude on Zeidler Award

    It is difficult for me to fully express the depth of my gratitude to those who congratulated me for receiving the 2014 Frank P. Zeidler Public Service Award from the City of Milwaukee’s Common Council.  The occasion was marked by a 30-minute ceremony in the council’s elegant anteroom, with 50 friends and colleagues showing up…