Advoken's Blog

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

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  • Blind patriotism can lead to facism – A reprise

    David Newby, president emeritus of the Wisconsin AFL_CIO, ran across a blog of mine from September, 2016, and felt that even now, nine years later, what I wrote then is most apropos today. Anyway, judge for yourself. You may read that post by clicking here.

  • Building Solidarity in the Working Class

    As the Trump Administration seeks to destroy DEI programs in our workplaces, our schools, our governments and everywhere, it’s revealing to note that labor unions may be one of our nation’s most effective institutions that can defy these backward actions and continue the campaign to end prejudice against various cultures. Trump has committed his Administration…

  • Voting Early: A Reflection on Democracy

    I have voted in every Presidential election since 1952, a year when General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican, overwhelmed my choice, Democrat Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.  That means I have already cast my vote in 18 consecutive Presidential elections. This year, I voted early, and I might say this vote affected my emotions more than…

  • The Power of an Encouraging Word

    Many of you have probably heard the old saying, “For Want of a Nail, a kingdom was lost.”  The saying goes back to the 13th Century, only to have Benjamin Franklin give it a bit more context in 1758,[i] putting it in rhyme: For want of a nail the shoe was lost,for want of a…

  • The Legacy of Brutus: Is It alive in 2024?

    (From a homily delivered by Ken Germanson to the Community of the Living Spirit, a nondenominational worship group in Waukesha WI on Jan. 14, 2024) The inspiration for today’s homily comes again from my great grandfather William Day Simonds who as I’ve told you before was a prominent Unitarian minister first in Madison WI and…

  • Labor’s popularity offers opportunities for 2024

  • Whose life is more worthy?

    In mid-June, some 630 men, women and children fleeing the misery of Middle East troubled nations drowned in Mediterranean Sea when their overloaded boat sunk.  It’s a good bet that you – and many other readers of this blog – never heard about this disaster.  More recently, 41 migrants died in a shipwreck off the…

  • Dr. King’s Dream: Is It Relevant Today?

    Excerpted from homily presented by Ken Germanson, Feb. 5, 2023 before the Community of the Living Spirit, a nondenominational congregation based in Waukesha WI: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the…

  • Beware the Deceivers: Iago is Alive Today

    Shakespeare’s Othello – written some six centuries ago – remains relevant today.  I realized that a few months ago when I learned, my great grandfather, William Day Simonds, a prominent Unitarian minister in Madison and later in Oakland, California had published a book called “Sermons from Shakespeare,” in 1898. I was surprised to learn during…

  • What the World Needs Now Is More Respect

    (Edited from a homily given by Kenneth Germanson on April 3, 2022 to the Congregation of the Living Spirit, an ecumenical group in Waukesha, WI.) I’ve been watching with awe as Ukrainian refugees are being accepted with wide-welcoming arms by most of the people of nearby Eastern European nations, particularly Poland.  Rarely have nations received displaced…