With a dedicated career helping children and families adversely impacted by immigration, homelessness, abuse, and oppressive systems in South America, Europe, and his native Milwaukee, Luke serves as Director of Program Design and Community Engagement at the Institute for Child and Family Well-being at Children’s Wisconsin.
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: 7x 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
America’s “Mirror, Mirror” Moment: How one classic “Star Trek” episode reflects our chosen reality
When “Star Trek: The Original Series” first aired in the late 1960s, it offered American viewers not just a glimpse of futuristic star travel but also a reflection of contemporary social tensions. Few episodes crystallized those parallels more powerfully than the...
Bringing rocks to a gunfight: Why Americans remain passive while Trump solidifies authoritarian power
“The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about...
Reggie Jackson: DOE shutdown would strip MPS of nearly $195 million and cripple equity programs
“It sounds strange, doesn’t it? Department of Education. We’re going to eliminate it … Should I do this?” – President Trump, after signing an Executive Order to eliminate the Department of Education on March 20, 2025 There has been a lot...
Churchill’s fears of democracy’s decline realized in the American iron curtain built by Trump’s oligarchs
In the gym of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946, former and future prime minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill rose to deliver a speech. Formally titled “Sinews of Peace,” the talk called for the United States and Britain to stand...
Trump has pushed America into a new “Axis of Evil” by aligning with dictators and betraying allies
The United States, under Donald Trump since January 20, 2025, has deliberately recast itself as a chief agent of global disorder. His administration no longer merely undermines democratic values, it positions America alongside the world’s most oppressive regimes. The...
Fragility of Freedom: What “The Man in the High Castle” teaches America about Democracy in 2025
In 1962, Philip K. Dick published a short but deeply disturbing novel that has managed to remain influential through the decades, “The Man in the High Castle.” Despite its relatively modest page count, the work opened the door to a vast realm of...
Musk’s “Game of Capitalism” mirrors the exploitation that drove abused workers to embrace communism
Elon Musk’s manipulation of Dogecoin was no lighthearted prank. It was a deliberate exercise in extracting wealth from unsuspecting investors, echoing the same inhumane forces that ignited communism as a desperate reaction to unchecked capitalism. Musk’s constant...
How Trump and Musk are breaking the U.S. government so oligarchs can seize control of public institutions
The reelection of Donald Trump has emboldened a brazen strategy designed to undermine the federal government, hollow out its core functions, and ultimately transfer power into the hands of the ultra-wealthy. The campaign is not a misguided conspiracy theory, it is a...
Reggie Jackson: The frustration of fighting for a U.S. democracy never meant to protect Black citizens
“Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time. Everyone in this room is in one way or another aware of that. We are in a revolutionary situation, no matter how unpopular that word has become in this country. The society in which...
