Author: Kenneth Cole

I’m saying goodbye to America, the land that I love. As I stand beside her, I realize that this goodbye is hauntingly familiar. So many of us have done this before. We say goodbye to those we love as their health fades. We look in their eyes and struggle to recognize the person we once knew, now occupying a body that is frail and weak. No longer powerful, but succumbing to a sickness that sadly has taken over. We say goodbye, yet we are not the ones leaving. The mourning spent in reflection of what was and imagining what...

This 4th of July as flags unfurl, which America will you celebrate?

The Village of Shorewood became the latest Wisconsin municipality after Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, and Cudahy to ban the practice of conversion therapy on June 17. The cumulative and sustained efforts of citizens to pass the ban spanned more than 16 months, but in many ways it embodied what was needed to inspire change on a local and national level. In the small village along the shores of Lake Michigan, there was no involvement by lobbyists, PACs, yard signs, or social memes. Instead, the ban came as a result of a diverse array of individuals across Southeast Wisconsin who...

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This timeless bit of advice should be considered when addressing the unethical and discriminatory practice of conversion therapy. The goal of such alleged treatment is to have the LGBTQ person return to an allegedly healthy, normal, and socially accepted state – i.e. heterosexual. Conversion therapy purports that something is broke when someone is gay, wrong if they are lesbian, or defective if they identify as bisexual or transgendered. From the outside looking in, as parents or friends of those in the LGBTQ community, the philosophy behind conversion therapy is painful enough on...

The abuse of children is an insidious equalizer in our society. It knows no boundaries, nor does it discriminate. Whether in subdivisions or subsidized housing, immigrant detention centers or mansions on the lake, child abuse occurs. For some, it is a one-time occurrence, for others, it is ritualistic and ongoing. Whether once or a thousand times, the abuse of a child is brutal, inhumane, and violates the norms of any decent society. And the mere presence of it alone should cause us to question if, in fact, our society is decent. The abuse of a child by physical violence....

This February the Wisconsin GOP marked Black History Month by removing the name of Milwaukee native, civil rights activist, and Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick from a resolution honoring his efforts and those of other African-Americans. As if inspired by the NFL, earlier this month an 11-year-old African-American child in Florida was arrested for refusing to stand for the national anthem. And in Virginia, the Governor and Attorney General marked the occasion by acknowledging they wore blackface during the 1980s. An act channeling the minstrel shows of old that sought to emasculate Black men and fueled the ignorance, disdain,...