State of the County 2022: Racism in Milwaukee and the pandemic continue to devastate community health
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said two destructive forces, COVID-19 and institutional racism, have “wreaked havoc” on Milwaukee every day of the pandemic. Crowley delivered his 2022 State of the County address virtually on February 23, praising...
Cost of defending freedom: How Americans will feel the economic impact from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
By William Hauk, Associate Professor of Economics, University of South Carolina Americans may be tempted to view the war in Ukraine as an unfortunate, but far away, crisis. Economists who know about global trade, however, understand that the world is too connected for...
Got War? Why America continues to champion what MLK called the “madness of militarism”
The final big legislative achievement of 2021 was a bill authorizing $768 billion in military spending for the next fiscal year. President Biden signed it two days after the Christmas holiday. Dollar figures can look abstract on a screen, but they indicate the extent...
Building student confidence requires making space in the classroom to learn about Black History
“We must not be frightened nor cajoled into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. We must go on struggling to be human, though monsters of abstractions police and threaten us.” – Robert Hayden When I was a junior in high school, I was kicked out of class for...
Violent Education: Why it is time to rewrite history books that stop glorifying White Nationalism
Authors of history textbooks writing about the failed insurrection of January 6, 2021 must not ignore the event’s white supremacist underpinnings. The influence of white supremacy on American history has largely been disregarded by past and present writers, especially...
Happy Twosday: Why the numerology of 2/22/22 inspires meaningful connections between unrelated things
By Barry Markovsky, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of South Carolina On February 22, the world hits an unprecedented milestone. It is the date itself: 2/22/22. And the so-called “Twosday” also falls on a Tuesday. It is true the number...
A Sikh Voice from Oak Creek: Testimony urges Congress to protect minorities as GOP distorts the narrative
Leaders of faith organizations and Historically Black Colleges and Universities told members of a U.S. House panel on February 17 how their institutions and places of worship have been roiled by bomb threats and extremism. They talked about the recent waves of bomb...
Prosperity of Losing Wars: How 60 years of funding the military industrial complex could end our democracy
In my lifetime of nearly 60 years, America has waged five major wars, winning one decisively, then throwing that victory away, while losing the other four disastrously. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Global War on Terror were all losses. The Cold War, being the...
Trauma Rehearsal: How zombie movies prepared us for a post-apocalyptic scenario under Trump
By Christopher Lockett, Associate Professor, English, Memorial University of Newfoundland One year ago, some witnesses to the assault on the Capitol building in Washington DC, referenced zombies when describing the mayhem as the mob of Donald Trump supporters broke...
If the Internet is any example, the Metaverse will a virtual hot mess
By Joel S. Elson, Assistant Professor of IT Innovation, University of Nebraska Omaha; Austin C. Doctor, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska Omaha; and Sam Hunter, Professor of Psychology, University of Nebraska Omaha The metaverse is...
Convoy of Crackpots: Far-right conspiracy groups set sights on Canada-inspired blockade of U.S. Capitol
The effort to launch an American “freedom convoy,” inspired by the Canadian truckers who have shut down parts of Ottawa for several weeks initially to protest vaccine mandates, is taking shape in a somewhat haphazard fashion. At least three national organizations, and...
The Wall Street putsch: When powerful Bankers sought to overthrow FDR with a fascist dictator
Business leaders like JP Morgan and Irene du Pont were accused by a retired major general of plotting to install a fascist dictator. Donald Trump’s elaborate plot to overthrow the democratically elected president was neither impulsive nor uncoordinated, but straight...
