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
Lincoln’s belief in a “government for the people” shaped the course of what was American democracy
On February 12, 1809, Nancy Hanks Lincoln gave birth to her second child, a son: Abraham. Abraham Lincoln grew up to become the nation’s sixteenth president, leading the country from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865, a little over a month into his...
Crime and Profit: When Trump’s felonies encourage criminal behavior as a path to success
In the United States, few labels carry as much lasting baggage as being a “felon.” For decades, a felony conviction all but guaranteed a barren job search, piles of rejection letters, and skeptical glances from prospective employers. The stigma attached to a criminal...
How Trump erased the Rule of Law in America with pardons for convicted January 6 insurrectionists
Convicted felon and President Donald Trump fulfilled his campaign promise to subvert the rule of law on January 20 by signing an executive order granting full pardons to hundreds of individuals convicted of participating in the January 6 Capitol attack. Trump, who...
Eighty years after Bastogne: The defiant spirit of “nuts!” in the face of Trump and democratic erosion
“NUTS!” That was the official answer Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe delivered to the four German soldiers sent on December 22, 1944, to urge him to surrender the town of Bastogne in the Belgian Ardennes. In June 1944, on D-Day, the Allies had begun an invasion...
The 24-hour lie: Trump’s political impotence persists after failing to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
It has been more than 48 hours since convicted felon Donald J. Trump took the oath of office for his second presidential term on January 20. To nobody’s surprise, except his most delusional loyalists, the war in Ukraine was not brought to an end in his first 24 hours...
Trump delivered the corruption Americans voted for with January 6 pardons and bizarre executive orders
The tone for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon on January 20 was set on January 17, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” launched his own cryptocurrency. By January 19 it had made more...
Rewarding the rich: How Trump’s reelection reverses President Biden’s work to rebuild the middle class
In 1883, the Republican Party moved into full-throated support for the industrialists who were concentrating the nation’s wealth into their own hands while factory workers stayed above the poverty line only by working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. It was Yale...
A house on fire: When voters refuse to equate their actions to the suffering their choices created
The 2024 U.S. presidential election solidified a disturbing trend in American politics, a willingness among voters to choose leaders whose policies and track records directly harm their well-being. The phenomenon is not new, but its persistence and increasingly dire...
Pro Wrestling diplomacy: How Trump uses “neo-kayfabe” to blur reality with outrageous claims
It is starting to seem like the best way to interpret social media posts from President-elect Donald Trump is through the lens of professional wrestling. Never a true athletic competition, although it certainly required athletic training until the 1980s, professional...
