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
The Trauma of Denial: Why children are suffering from self-serving adults who have weaponized the pandemic
It is open season on American school children. In the wake of nearly two years of a pandemic that has raged furiously through the planet, politically-poisoned, religion-addled people who have spent that time continually moving the goalposts of what they will protest...
Weaponizing the debt ceiling: Why Republicans are taking the country hostage to undercut Democrats
The Senate considered a bill to fund the government until December and to raise the debt ceiling on September 27. The Republicans joined together to filibuster it. Such a move is extraordinary. Not only did the Republicans vote against a measure that would keep the...
The Eastman Memo: Written proof of Trump’s attempt to replace our democracy with an autocracy
On September 20, we learned that after last year’s election, John Eastman, a well-connected lawyer advising former president Donald Trump, outlined a six-point plan to overturn the outcome of the election and install Trump as America’s leader. They planned to cut the...
A Message to American Racism: I Know You Did It, Just Admit It
There is an old Chris Rock skit where a woman has caught her man cheating and tells him, “I know you did it! Just admit it!” I’d like to use the same technique to address American racism and those who are trying so hard to protect it nowadays. For those who follow my...
Financial Deadlines: Why the debt ceiling is being used as a tool to destroy a strong federal government
The House of Representatives passed a funding bill on September 21 that would both keep the government from shutting down and prevent a default on the U.S. debt. The vote was 220 to 211, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. There are...
Made in the USA: Homegrown terrorism has existed throughout American history
“This land is your land and this land is my land From California to the New York island From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me” Woody Guthrie’s 1944 folk song In light of the twentieth anniversary of the September 11...
Forgotten Sacrifices: Why the ideas that Confederates fought for at Antietam remain alive today
One hundred and fifty nine years ago this week, in 1862, 75,000 United States troops and about 38,000 Confederate troops massed along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland. After a successful summer of fighting, Confederate general Robert E. Lee had crossed the...
God and Country: The “Right” religion is one that makes us more empathetic human beings
In organized religion, one of the central questions has always been and continues to be “Who has it Right?” For millennia, billions and billions of human beings spanning the planet have individually and collectively struggled to correctly discern the...
A Political Gamble: Why Republicans are working to hide their role in the January 6 insurrection
Early in the wake of Trump’s presidency, Republican Party lawmakers that face upcoming elections appear to have made the calculation that radicalized Trump voters were vital to their political futures. They seemed to worry that they needed to protect themselves...
