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
Unhealthy Relationships: How to love the people we no longer even like
The most common question people ask me when we talk either in person or virtually, is essentially a variation on a single theme: “How do I love someone I no longer like?” They have recently realized something about a friend, family member, or partner that they simply...
Buffalo shooter not a lone wolf: How mainstream racial discourse nurtures White domestic terrorists
“We don’t want to be protected after the fact. We want to be protected and treated like we matter without it taking a white supremacist shooting up our community.Time and time again they’ve shown nobody cares about us here. It’s a pattern.” – Marlene Brown,...
When treason doth prosper: The daily efforts to transform America into a one-party state
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol filed a motion on April 22 asking a judge to put an end to the attempts of Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows to stonewall the committee. Meadows has tried to avoid talking to the...
Lessons from the Downtown shootings: Residents of Milwaukee cannot hide from our responsibilities
Near the end of the Milwaukee Bucks playoff game against the Boston Celtics three people were shot near the Deer District on Friday night on North Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and West Highland Avenue. Two of the victims were transported to the hospital by the...
Replacement Theory: The violent fragility of White men who fear their power will be taken by people of color
An 18-year-old White man murdered 10 people and wounded three others with an AR-15 on May 14. The shooter traveled more than 200 miles to get to a predominantly Black neighborhood, where he put on heavy body armor and live streamed his attack as he gunned down people...
Cutthroat individualism, Andrew Carnegie, and lessons for the upcoming midterm elections
In the spring of 1890, Republicans were convinced they would win the upcoming midterm elections. Thanks to their management of the economy, they insisted, the United States was on its way to becoming the most advanced nation in the world. Technology had brought new...
When Authoritarianism is not enough: Why bullies claim to be the victims in defense of their brutality
That Republicans appear to be on the cusp of overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion seems to have thrown them into confusion. Since Nixon first raised the issue of abortion as a political wedge in 1972, the year before Roe, they have used the...
Decoding Trump’s brand of autocracy and a rightwing ideology that seeks to dismantle our rule of law
It has been hard for me to see the historical outlines of the present-day attack on American democracy clearly. But as I was reading a piece in “Vox” by foreign affairs specialist Zack Beauchamp, describing Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s path in Florida...
Why hate is alive and well: Silence, suppression, and the Racial Reckoning in America that never was
“Racism is not easy to talk about in racially mixed company. It is often considered downright impolite to bring it up. Too many demons of guilt, resentment, and vulnerability are tied up in it. Unfortunately, it usually takes a racial eruption…to get Americans to...
