Featured Columnists
As an award-winning Senior Columnist for the Milwaukee Independent, Reggie Jackson covers a range of African American issues. He is also a Consultant with Nurturing Diversity Partners, and volunteers as Head Griot for America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) in Bronzeville.
REGGIE JACKSON: 5x Award Winner in Best Column categories from the Milwaukee Press Club
As a teacher for over twenty years, Dominic Inouye helped students to develop their reading, writing, critical thinking, and, most of all, their voices. He worked as The Pfister Hotel Narrator, a one-year appointment, and currently manages the ZIP MKE project that photo documents the city to promote cultural understanding.
Dominic Inouye: 2x Award Winner in Best Column category from the Milwaukee Press Club
Dr. Kenneth Cole is a Licensed Psychologist who has spent the past two decades helping members of the community in developing the ability to bring about positive change for their lives, and empowering those individuals to advocate for themselves.
Kenneth Cole: 2x Award Winner in Reporting categories from the Milwaukee Press Club
Pardeep Kaleka is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, published author of The Gifts of Our Wounds, award-winning columnist with Milwaukee Independent, and a clinician specializing in utilizing a trauma-informed approach to treat survivors and perpetrators of assault, abuse, and acts of violence.
PARDEEP KALEKA: Winner in Best Blog category of the 88th Annual Milwaukee Press Club Awards
John Pavlovitz: Winner of Best Blog at the 89th Annual Milwaukee Press Club Awards
Recent Columns
Flashbacks of the USSR: Understanding the crisis behind Russia’s high-stakes gamble to invade Ukraine
The Pentagon ordered up to 8,500 troops to go on standby in case they are needed to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression. The troops have not been activated. If they are, they will deploy to nations allied with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),...
Why the Supreme Court’s right-wing political ruling against vaccinations further weaponizes COVID-19
On January 13, by a vote of 6 to 3, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s requirement that businesses with more than 100 employees address the coronavirus pandemic by making employees either get vaccines or, if they choose not to be vaccinated,...
Thich Nhat Hanh: Remembering the influential Buddhist monk who taught me to be a better Christian
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the world’s most influential spiritual leaders and pioneer of the modern mindfulness movement, died on January 22 at the age of 95. I had the unexpected honor of meeting him in my youth. That brief encounter and his insightful...
When society is itself the tyrant: Understanding why America has never been a Democracy of the people
“We’re tired of all this beatin’, we’re tired of takin’ this. It’s been a hundred years and we’re still being beaten and shot at, crosses are still being burned, because we want to vote. But I’m goin’ to stay in Mississippi and if they shoot me down, I’ll be buried...
One-Party Rule: Why Republicans oppose the foundation of democracy and the freedom to vote
Republicans say they oppose the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act because it is an attempt on the part of Democrats to win elections in the future by “nationalizing” them, taking away the right of states to arrange their laws as they wish. Voting rights legislation...
Un-Whitewashing MLK: Seeing a true legacy that heroification has kept long hidden
“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 content of their character. I have a dream today.” – Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech,”...
Same old “Lost Cause” Myth: We should stop pretending that the “Big Lie” is something new in America
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain...
Voting for voter suppression: Why Republicans are unwilling to support common-sense Voting Rights
The struggle between the Trump-backed forces of authoritarianism and those of us defending democracy is coming down to the fight over whether the Democrats can get the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act through the Senate. It is worth reading...
Power over Principle: The day when Americans lost faith in America
Just before sunrise on a November day in 1861, Massachusetts abolitionist Julia Ward Howe woke up in the Willard Hotel in Washington DC. She got out of bed, found a pen, and began to write about the struggle in which the country was engaged: could any nation...
