A Life Worth Living Ideally!

A move to Michigan

2009-02-20T05:43:00.000-08:00

When you leave a place that has as much love, compassion and genuinity as Milwaukee it's hard not to be a little nostalgic about "how the Milwaukee times were." However, time always has a way like Green Day would say grabbing you by the wrist and directing you where to go.

I suppose that's how I ended up in Michigan, Elizabeth has been living in Detroit since August and being so far apart was becoming taxing on our relationship. Neither of us did well with long distance and because of the economics of things, one of us had to give in. Being a bicycle messenger, although probably being the most fun job that I will ever have was appealing, not being near my fiance' was not.

So hear I am, I packed up my things and in a matter of 2 weeks my stuff was jammed packed into my brothers small pickup truck. Elizabeth and I had found a house in a little town called South Lyon, MI, it's about 10-15 miles north of Ann Arbor where the University of Michigan is located. Our house is super awesome! Our landlord gave us the opportunity to paint the inside of the house in whatever colors that we wanted. Elizabeth and I both have a little different tastes so the living and dining room I painted in a classical opaque white while my office was triumphantly painting "slime" green!

Since then, I've been looking for a job in Michigan. Not an easy thing to do I suppose in a state that has the highest unemployment rates in the country. I've applied to everything, from telemarketers, to grocery stores, to bicycle shops, to non profit work. Each day I pray that I will get some sort of response from the other end. Looking for jobs I didn't think was supposed to be a one way form of communication!

Anyway, someday soon I hope that I will be able to find something. Although I don't really know what the purpose is now, I believe in faith and I believe that God sent me to Michigan for some purpose that I haven't quite yet discovered. I suppose that it will reveal itself soon or at least that is my hope because being unemployed is no fun!

We've got a little cat now though, her name is Marley, she's a little black kitten that was found my a shelter almost frozen to death in the cold Michigan winter. She's the most interactive little cat that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, as I write she sits perched in front of the computer screen wondering why the cursor is moving at the pace that it is and why it coordinates with the buzzing sounds of fingers dashing on the keyboard. At night she'll often nuzzle up to me in bed to try and stay warm she's such a good little kitty.

Anyway, hopefully I will find some meaning in this move to Michigan soon, if you could, please keep me in your prayers that I am able to find a job here and do something really fun and productive that allows me to be apart of the creation of a better world.

Peace Always,

Jon

Winter Cycling

2008-12-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

As you may have seen outside, if you live in Milwaukee there's a bunch of snow on the ground. This happened prior to it falling out of the sky making for some pretty nasty conditions on the roads... If there is one thing that is more important than anything else about being a bike messenger in a snowstorm its keeping your feet dry and not letting the salt and other crap on the roads literally eat yourself and your bike alive. Its funny, when I deliver many of my packages, the clients sometimes ask, don't they let you drive your car in this weather? The answer is always well uh... I don't have a car so... yeah...

Anyway, after watching in horror as the salt and snow ate my nice Campy parts alway in the sea of white death, I decided that something had to be done, so much to my resistance, but out of pure practically, I now have my first single speed. The Univega after a few hours in the workstand finished up with no derauilers to destroy and a simple easy single speed design which should prove to be (1) Inconvient and (2) Milwaukee winterproof.

Heres the finished product, Univega ready for winter battle.

I also thought that I would stick this on the blog, I remember seeing it at the 2007 Bicycle Film festival, but for all of you who missed it, it's a pretty cool courier video!

Thanksgiving and other Stuff

2008-12-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

So I was just realizing that I don't tend to ever write updates on whats really going on in my life on this blog, but instead ideas and thoughts that I have about whatever.

Me Married~

Anyway, I don't know if I mentioned it on my blog but I'm getting married! Elizabeth and I are thinking about having the ceremony on July 4th (the same as my parents) back in Pennsylvania with the reception in my parents backyard. (Just like the old parties that we used to have there when I was growing up) Its going to be pretty neat, we're trying to find a way to have a wedding that will have many of the Quaker wedding traditions that Elizabeth enjoys. Just this weekend Mom and Dad went and visited a Quaker meeting house for the first time in their lives to get a sense of what it would be like and I think they really enjoyed it.

If you don't know what a Quaker wedding entails, it is similar to a traditional ceremony where everyone sits in silence and when they are called to speak they stand up and address the congregation. Eventually, Elizabeth and I will stand up and say our vows, and with that we are married! Pretty sweet eh? Here's a picture of the two of us in our practice engagement photos!

So that's what were thinking with regards to that, as you know these plans have gone through revision after revision, but I think that we're starting to get it really hammered out.

Thanksgiving Trip~

Elizabeth and I took the trip down to Chattanooga, TN to visit my grandparents and cousins this past thanksgiving. It was a really good trip, she had never been through the mountains and taking her up Signal Mountain where my Uncle lives was really fun... The mountains down in Chattanooga are huge. (As you can probably see if you look out at the background of the picture). It was really good to get up there with my grandparents getting older and my cousins getting ready to start college and begin their lives.

While I was there I got to spend some quality time with my all of my family, it was good because the last time I was in Chattanooga was 3 years ago, and the cousins since then had grown like weeds and my grandparents got to meet Elizabeth and officially accept her into the family. I also got to spend some time with my Uncle David, who had came from out west to spend some time with the family. If I haven't mentioned him before he's a really cool guy, he's been living out of his car for the past 30 something odd years taking whatever sort of construction job he can find for a while until he has enough saved so that he can go hang out in the wilderness again. He's lived all over the American west, in nudist colonies, national parkland, you name it! He's a true free-spirit who continually inspires me to go out and live my dreams

On the way down Elizabeth and I also stopped down at Mammoth Cave National Park, which is home to the world's largest cave system. Its really neat,

Uncle David inspecting Cannons on Lookout Mountain

apparently, there are 312 miles of discovered caves with more and more being discovered each day. We took the New Entrance tour which took us down through the dark limestone walls and crazy rock formations, its pretty nuts it almost seems like your in another world!

We also got to do some riding, just like us, we never leave home without our bikes and this trip was no exceptions. Elizabeth got the chance to climb the infamous "W Road" its called that because at the top the road is actually shaped like a W, weaving up the mountain through tight switchbacks at steep mountain grades. Completing it made a Midwestern flatlander happy to say the least!

It was a good trip, but now its time to get back to work in Milwaukee, there are packages to be delivered and bikes that need to be ridden.

Mountain Complete!

Why Ride?

2008-11-21T05:58:00.000-08:00

Why Organize?

2008-11-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

When did it all really begin? Where did this fire in my heart for fighting for the rights of low wage workers come from? As I drove down the street one early morning on the way to track practice my sophomore year of college, I passed the local temp agency, it was 4:30 in the morning and I didn't know anyone could possibly wake up that early in the morning unless it was mandated upon them. As I drove past that temp agency on 38^th St in Indianapolis and saw the line for jobs wrapped around the side of the building, it was if my brain had been slapped with a vision of the reality, as a newborn would seeing light for the first time. Where had I been for all the time before that, how did I develop such a skewed and simple belief that if we just worked hard enough that the world was at our doorstep, that the factors of races, privilege and poverty did not exist? Was the quest bringing good to this crooked world really for me to do? Like Joah, I didn't want the job at first, after all, there were better paying ways of providing for my life than this, but just as Joah could not escape the belly of the whale, I could not escape my destiny in the struggle for the rights of low wage workers.

With great power comes great responsibility said Spiderman's mentor, God blessed me with an upbringing of privilege, growing up in a family that loved me dearly and had the means to help me get through college. With my education came my liberation, liberation from the confined and overly simplistic understandings that had once been my rock. It seems the structures of power and inequality seemed to only rear their ugly head when examined, this examination is always a choice that we have to make. As I drove by, looking into the glazed; half awoken eyes of the single mother in line hoping that a possible job today would yeald the means to turn the lights back on, I knew this would be my destiny. The only meaning my life that would be worth it would be to be the advocate for that line.

As I graduated from college and followed through with this fire, I knew that the root of justice was fundamentally based on economics, when you don't have a job that gives you enough to put food in your children's mouth, when the hell are you ever going to “save” up the money to go to the doctor? If your working two jobs just to make ends meet, when are you ever gonna have the time to be a parent and make sure the kids don't get involved in gangs. When the economy fails and your job is first to go, how are you going to make it? Do illegal options seem the best choice?

Economic justice is the not simply an aspect of the foundation for fighting for justice, it is the foundation.

The work started at Interfaith Worker Justice with the Labor in the Pulpits program organizing clergy to discuss issues of worker justice as they related to their faith on Labor Day Sunday. In 2007, about 100 congregations in the Milwaukee area talked about the importance of fighting for the rights of low wage workers, parishioners were challenged to think about poor folk in new ways, many these parishioners now are in similar situations now as recession and factory closures lead to more unemployed. Maybe at some point we will realize that were all in this together and that we rise and fall as one...

After that summer with IWJ it happened, the rubber hit the road, I kept the job with Faith Community for Worker Justice for a full year and the situation at Capital Returns crept up, Capital Returns (now Genco Pharmaceuticals) was a pharmaceutical recycling plant on the northwest side of Milwaukee which inventoried and disposed of unused and degrading drugs from places like Walgreen's and CVS. When the stories got out about what was going down at the plant something had to be done, the employees of Capital Returns had a plan and that plan was to organize a union. As I began to meet with the employees of Capital Returns with the United Steelworkers an organizing drive was created.

The situation down at the plant was bad, most of the workers were coming from the Welfare to Work (W2) program, a failed attempt to put people to work; however the jobs that were provided were as horrible as the program that had placed them there in the first place. Workers at Capital Returns were handling all sorts of dangerous drugs, pregnant women were grabbing raw old birth control pills out of boxes with no protection to their hands but food service gloves, an issue that may have lead to a number of miscarriages at the plant, as we heard the stories, the injustices seemed to creep up faster than pestering dandy lions in the middle of spring

Changes needed to be made, that was evident and the workers began to organize, after all this was their workplace, and if they couldn't be the ones to take the power back who would? They talked to their friends, brought back union cards, dug through the trash to find documents needed to detail workplace atrocities, distributed union literature and the in the organizing terms “leaders were developed.” Meanwhile, we worked on organizing the community outside of Capital Returns, we brought the situations that workers faced to churches, universities and local unions, and as the larger community became invested in the campaign workers felt that the power was theres, to win or to lose.

As the United Steelworkers received enough cards to file for an election we had a big vote yes rally. The workers called upon their friends and family, and with it college students, clergy and union fok gathered outside of the plant gates only as Milwaukee winters are, with 4 feet of snow on the ground and 15 degree temperatures, we got 100 people standing outside the gates of that wrenched place; the message was clear “Vote Yes!”

The feeling for the workers was monumental, once folks who had been broken down and beat up for their entire lives actually had a say in what was going on, although attempts to organize Capital Returns eventually broke down as a result of union busters running high dollar campaign, people from the plant began to have a sense of their own power to change the forces that seemed to ultimately govern their lives.

The feeling for me was similar, I once thought an organizer had to be the leader, but in the end it was never about me being the leader, it was about workers taking control of the forces which they at one point thought were unattainable. I am confident that at some point, Capital Returns will have the voice of the workers in charge.

As I continued organizing we worked on the Paid Sick Day referendum, where every worker in the City of Milwaukee would have Paid Sick Days through their employer, in an effort concerted with 9to5, the Working Womens Association, the referendum passed this past November by a landslide, this monumental reform has now made Milwaukee the 3^rd city in the country to offer this important benefit.

Finally, I ended up working with AFT Healthcare which is where I stand now, organizing nurses to fight for the very same reasons that the workers at Capital Returns did, to have a voice that could shape the course of their lives, to be the voices of change in their workplace. As we stand now we are working on trying to get a neutrality agreement with the hospital so that nurses can freely and fairly organize their union so that they can be advocates for themselves.

Through faith, optimism and a never ceasing belief that a better world is possible will I continue the work of justice in our world because to not do so would be turning my back on the sanctity of everyday life. So to all the students and young idealists out there keep dreaming and keep fighting because its our world to live for and we rise and fall only as one.

Balance of Sprituality

2008-11-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

I hope that you liked that Carl Lewis youtube video posted below, maybe we can use his words of motivation to go on and fight out the next few years of organizing work that we have to do!

Anyway, I went to Church yesterday and had some really good reflections. The sermon that Pastor Tim spoke about was the balance of spirituality and the need for each and every one of us to have encompass two different forms to be truly whole.

The first being to be in deep communion with God, this means spending time in meditation and prayer. This can come through a number of different ways. The first being the tradition of the Quakers.

The Quaker tradition empathizes being quiet and knowing that God is speaking. So much of the time that we spend in prayer it is simply us speaking, talking to God, but never keeping our mouths shut enough to listen to God's reply. The Quaker tradition does this through silent communal meditation where we allow God to speak to us, whatever is relevant and important in our lives at the moment, the Quaker tradition teaches us the importance of listening as well as speaking.

Furthermore, I believe that deep communion with God can also be found within the tradition of Catholicism and although I have never been Catholic the traditions of ritual and transcendence that are so ever popular in the Catholic traditions allow us to transcend the everyday to a place of holy reverence. The space that many Catholic churches encompass with elaborate decor and imagery take us out of the everyday as we enter the place of God, there is nowhere in my opinion that allows us to feel in a haven of God more than in a Catholic Church. With this combination of steadfast tradition and time spent in deep prayer as well as the physical space that we enter in a Catholic church, I find that I am able to attend to a sense of yearning for God that doesn't come out of my own tradition.

There however, I think is a balance of spirituality amongst the personal and the social and when it comes to the social context of my faith, I feel that it can be best attained in my own tradition: United Methodist.

When I enter Memorial United Methodist on any given Sunday I feel the great attention to community that is played out in the space, a deep commitment to others who have attended there for so long and a sense that the Kingdom of God cannot be found within ones self mutually. The strong commitment to social justice and the poor, our work within our neighborhoods and communities is so ever important in the United Methodist Church. At Memorial we take time out in the service to spend children's time with the kids so they too feel apart of the community. When Pastor Tim says its time to peace, we may never know when he'll be able to wrangle everyone back together to get back to the service.

In order to fulfill the complete commitment to Christ as Christians, we must be able to attend to all aspects of our faith, to the spiritual and to the social. All of the traditions that I mentioned are all doing degrees of both.

While the Quakers spend time in silent mediation with God on Sundays, they are also highly active in the anti-war movement and anti poverty measures, the commitment that the Friends have to social justice is fantastic.

The Catholics while also having a very deep understanding and commitment to ritual and tradition, they to are active in their communities through the running of one of the largest social outreach programs in the city through the facilitation of food pantries, prison and drug ministries. They also have created one of the largest documents of any faith on social commentary called Catholic Social Teaching. This teaching was largely responsible for the liberation theology that spawned up in Central and South America when the poor realized that God had preferential treatment for the poor which gave them the power to build the uprising against hyper capitalist regimes in the Reagan era.

The United Methodist Church while also attending to the community of Christ, will also hold breakout sessions on how to walk the Labyrinth, how to understand God more fully and personally, and spends significant time trying to develop the spiritual side of its members.

For if we are to be Christians that can hold onto our foundations, we must have a solid grounding in both the sacred and secular aspects of our life and live them out in a Christ-like way. All of our traditions attempt to figure out that negotiation in very positive ways, we just need to be accessible to them.

Just thought I'd post this as well

2008-11-16T06:43:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter to the Left; It ain't over yet!

2008-11-16T06:34:00.000-08:00

As we watched the election results pour in on that fateful November evening, each and everyone of us must have been thinking something different, all with intense feelings a paradigm shift for our country and our world. Could this be the end of a disastrous era of an American hegemony that has strangled the world of its children, ideas and resources? Can we have really after 8 years of struggle really be as King said "free at last!"?

So much emotion, so much happiness but what does it mean? Could the world that we have been fighting for be at our footsteps with the election of a President that stands for change, one that organized workers on the decaying post-industrial streets of South Chicago?

What Obama and the left needs now is to not be complacent. We know now that our work has only began and we certainly can't count on allowing our elected officials to be the change that President Obama campaigned on. It is even more important now, as our neighborhoods suffer from economic crisis and fear that we organize. More than any time now, America is ready for things to be different than the way that they have been, and though this we have the unique opportunity to unite as one people and address the problems that are facing all of us throughout our global communion.

We have an amazing opportunity right now to be the change in which we wish to see in the world, but being the change is a challenge of unprecedented proportions. A new president will help, but we must not let us become complacent and lazy in our work towards social change.

So lets go out and organize!

What in the world are we doing here?

2008-10-15T05:31:00.000-07:00

As I open a new page in my life and transition from one job to the next there's quite a bit of a paradigm shift from what I've done to what I am doing now.

In short I took a job as a bicycle messenger and quit my job as an organizer (although I stiil put in a few hours when I can to assist in the religious organizing aspect of the campaign that I was working on with nurses wanting to organize at one of the area hospitals.

It was a difficult decision for me to make in the end.. I've always thought that there are two very important aspects to any job; most important at least in my opinion is to make sure that my occupation is doing something to progress and alleviate the pain and suffering of others around me... After all, if your not doing anything that is helping others what the impotence for doing it in the first place?

I think this belief stems from my belief in the fact that the times in which I feel the most spiritually connected and ultimately happy are the moments when am in direct union and solidaridity with the people that need it most. Having a job that fulfills that solidarity is crucial to the creation of a better society and world, but also it puts your mind and body to work for good!

However, my decision to become a bicycle messenger has largely challenged these assumptions that I once had. Why afterall did I have this intense longing to preform this job instead of the one as a labor organizer after all? Now I deliver packages from law firm to law firm which contents may be for the most part questionable in moral standards at best.

Through it though I have found myself instensly happy and fulfilled, afterall I get paid to rode my bike and I don't even have to race if I don't want too!

So in the end what to make of this decision? A feeling of an unfulfilled dream, a job that wasn't nearly as stressful, a yearning to get out of the office? Or maybe a feeling that happiness and the capability to help others in ways that didn't seem so direct, that there are people at your job who you can be in solidarity with, that there when you are happy with what your doing, you can show your happiness and spread it to others by doing great things outside your job... that maybe in order to be able to help others the greatest involves you being the happiest that you can be, that when others are hurting and suffering it requires you to be on top of yourself to be able to effectively help!

Since I took this job last week I have found that I am much happier and in the end I can actually do more to help others... I guess in the end the moral is to do what you love no matter what and the byproduct will allow us to be the sunshine in all the lives of others that we touch! :)

A letter to Sarah Palin on Community Organizing

2008-09-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last night, like many other Americans, I was really interested to see what Gov. Palin would say in her acceptance speech, and although I have never had any plans on voting for the Republican ticket, Palin did seem like a good one in my mind and to a certain extent I liked Palin, her husband was a United Steelworker and seemed to understand the importance of building working class power.

Then she had to say it, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities." The attack that she made was obviously centered at Obama who spent his time in between undergrad and law school organizing displaced Steelworkers. Then I was pissed, and I was offended as hell as someone who works to improve our community.

Palin might have just as well have given every community organization, non-profit and grassroots organization the bird. We as community organizers have been the people on the ground in the face of the flood of economic destruction caused by big politicians and people like herself that have no regard for the people at the bottom; who care so much for America and its people that they are willing to take jobs that don't pay the big bucks, but instead empower the people who are most marginalized. When public funding is cut for programs that help alleviate poverty that many Republicans are notorious for, they simply think that the problems disappear, I can assure you that they don't and its the community organizers that then step in to help empower folks in poverty and help them build a voice.

Let me give you a little history lesson Ms. Palin, it was the community organizers that were the ones that overcame and eventually got rid of segregation laws in the civil rights movement, it was the community organizers that fought for workers to get the 8 hour workday, it was the community organizers who founded the inner city food pantries, homeless shelters, it is the community organizers in Milwaukee and Ohio that collected the signatures necessary to get a Paid Sick Day referendum on the ballot that would guarantee a standard for workers getting Paid Sick Days with their jobs to take care of their kids, and yes, it was even the organizers that built Mr. Palin's union that you seem so proud of.

Since you probably don't know what a community organizer is let me explain it to you very clearly. The main objective of a community organizer or any organizer is to build power amongst people who have none, to inspire new leaders in the community to stand up for the issues that they believe in, to get people to believe that they are worth more and have more power to fix the issues facing their local community than they believe they do, community organizers job is to empower their communities to get involved, to join "PTA" and change the way that things are going.

Ms. Palin, democracy is a government of the people by the people for the people, political leaders like yourself are the people that we elect to do what we want done. But community organizers are us, whether by profession or not, we attempt to make a difference in their communities.

Ms. Palin, you obviously have no idea what you are talking about and obviously don't have the experience to lead this country. And the more you try to separate yourself from everyday people involved in our community, the more your going to get your ass kicked in this election. We are taking back this country, and as we do it you might begin to understand the power of community organizing and the importance and responsibility that it holds in making positive social change.

A long time coming

2008-08-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy! How long it has been since I have written my last blog post! Over a whole season of the year! My apologies to all who have read my blog in the past.

So much has happened since my last blog post. The Capuchin Volunteer Corp, the program that I was apart of that allowed me to work at Faith Community for Worker Justice finished up in mid July and left me in a place where I really had absolutely no idea what I was going to do. Dreams of heading out to the mythical and idealistic American West were thwarted by an all consuming and overriding college debt that keeps me one step away from pure freedom.

I must say that I have never been a financial guy; you know one that kept meticulous count over how much money you have in the bank and whatnot, but what I have found is that debt might as well be a form of slavery, because it has the ability to build a wall between you and the dreams that you have for yourself. So my determination on the matter is that if debt is the wall between true freedom and involuntary servitude, it must be broken down.

So I have to say I have come to accept a new financial practice. Simply no debt! May be harder than it sounds but I'm going to give it a whirl.

So I got a job working with the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, a union organizing position working on area hospitals to get them union representation. This does a number of things, it allows me to work for positive social change in our health care system while simultaneously making enough to hack down on some of this debt.

What else has been going on? Elizabeth moved to Detroit a few weeks ago where she got a job working with an organization that provides IT and other computer related stuff to area non-profits and C(4)'s on stuff related to the elections. From what I can gather, she really likes the job, Detroit however, is providing an interesting experience for her. Living in the City of Detroit has got to be a hell of a trial by fire. It is certainly a testament to the troubles of globalization and disappearance of unions in a formerly economically viable urban center.

The house that she's living in is a mansion! Originally it was set up to be a single family house, but her and her roommate Molly (a former Cap Corp volunteer) have the top floor and I must say that the house is absolutely astounding! The intricacies of the woodwork and molding in the structural frame of the house is certain evidence of high class housing before the jobs left the city.

Its definitely difficult not having her here in Milwaukee like she was. Adjusting to a long distance relationship has certainly been difficult for both of us. But I think were going to cope in the end and pull it though. Were certainly a great match for one another and I guess they say that love conquers all. (I assume that includes distance as well).

I moved back into the neighborhood that I was originally living in when I originally moved to Milwaukee. Its an area called Riverwest, which sort of serves as the fringe arts and culturally beautiful neighborhood of Milwaukee's north side. I moved in with a friend of mine from mNSC http://www.milwaukeenetworkforsocialchange.org/ (the group that puts on the free vans and markets) and a friend who I did some organizing with at UWM with SDS and the Student Labor group they have going on there.

Anyway, that's really whats going on in my life right now. I will keep you posted on the way that organizing goes with the nurses at our next project in Milwaukee.

Workers Memorial Day

2008-04-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Location: Zeidler Union Square Park

Some will be wearing memorial ribbons. Some will hold candles. Some will read the names of those who died on the job last year in Wisconsin, plus the names of our fallen Wisconsin military.Many will note the surge of US based deaths both in rural mines and urban construction and remember the Mother Jones motto: "Mourn for the Dead, But Fight Like Hell for the Living."

At 4:30 p.m., participants are encouraged to march to the event in solidarity, a brief distance from the state office building at 819 N. 6th St. to Zeidler Union Square Park, the workers'' park, between 3rd and 4th Sts. on Michigan St.At 5 p.m. citizens will join the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO, WisCOSH (the nonprofit worker health and safety group), and the Progressive Students of Milwaukee for the annual Workers Day Memorial ceremony on Monday, April 28.

A home-made dinner will take place afterward at the nearby American Postal Workers Union Hall, 417 N. 3rd St. Cost is $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door. Breaks are availabe for seniors, students and low-wage workers.

For more information and dinner tickets, contact WisCOSH''s Jim Schultz at 933-2338

Responing to Uncertainity

2008-03-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

So I have been having many conversations with different folks in my generation that are really unsure with what the future holds for them, I being one of them realize that many of us who are just graduating college, getting out of volunteer corp programs and whatnot face the daunting task of trying to figure out where we stand amongst the world of opportunities that are available to young people.

It seems that were supposed to have everything figured out when we graduate from college or soon there after, have a plan to attend a masters degree program or whatnot. Maybe get a job doing something that we hate, where do we fit in? With tons of money in college debt many of us our constrained to finding something that will allow us to alleviate that or defer it.

I am writing this to assure all of us who feel crippled by the multitude of choice that is available at this time in our lives. My mom, in a letter wrote that she want you to make sound decisions so that my life would be easier than hers, that she and my dad made mistakes and could have made their lives easier. But is that the real goal, is a life that is easy neccessairly the way in which we want to go? In life it seems like there must be some sort of struggle in order to survive. Last Sunday, my pastor told the story of a botanist who was studying the emperor butterfly attempt to escape from its cocoon to transform. Realizing the butterfly's struggle, the botanist assisted the butterfly by taking a scalpel and cutting open the cocoon. The butterfly opened its wings for the first time and immediately feel dead, apparently through the struggle of opening the cocoon produces the juices needed for a butterfly to survive.

I think a lot of things in life are like that, we learn through the struggle and without the struggle we never learn. Is there a right or a wrong path, who knows? Will the decisions that we make now ultimately affect the rest of our lives... yeah maybe... to some extent... but a path toward meaning does not come through an established path. If anything, it comes through a creative one.

So we must ask ourselves, which is the path that we are looking for? The easy one or the other one? Maybe a mix of both, maybe a little of each one... but in the end know that we will be okay and survive this time of liminality, that we will find meaning and it will be great!

Good music you should know about

2008-03-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago, Elizabeth and I went to go and see one of the most amazing shows that I have ever seen. Many of you who are probably really into music probably have already taken the Pabst Theatre for granted, but its got a beautiful light and Ora about the whole place. It seems that when the music starts, and the effects get going with the music that you could be at the gates of heaven in a celestial bliss.

Although, I have never written or read too much about music and would definitely not consider myself to be a proficient, you should still check these folks out.

We went to go see Jose Gonzalez and Mia Doi Todd on Tuesday. Together, they made one of the best shows ever. If your into very earthy folksy guitar picking music with beautiful ambient vocals this just might be your thing. Jose Gonzalez has always been one of my top picks and despite his name, he is actually from Sweden. With a classical guitar and very well thought out vocals it was definitely an amazing show.

The best kept ssecret of the whole thing however was a not as well known lady by the name of Mia Doi Todd who has been producing albums for about 10 years now. She began the show with this really amazing song called River of Life- the song, which was played with a foot organ, guitar and bongo drum sent my senses through bliss. I don't know if you ever had the feeling of so much emotion emulating from something that your body reacts and your cheeks begin to tingle, but that's what happened. Her new album Gea is amazing and if you get the chance to check her out make sure that you do. Her website is http://www.miadoitodd.com/.

If you really like these artists with a very organic, folksy feel, you may also want to check out these guys to:

Sun Kil Moon: soft and poetic, post industrial sounding-

Alexi Murdoch- my all time favorite

Laura Viers- beautiful- very down to earth

The Wailing Jenny's- women's folk band out of Winnipeg, Manitoba

Happy Music Listening!

Milwaukee's Movement for Social Change

2008-03-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

I just thought that I would take some time to reflect on the movement towards social justice in the city of Milwaukee. One thing that is nice about the movement here in this city is because of its size, it is very easy to figure out the movers and shakers relatively quickly.

There are so many things going on that we have to be excited about in this city. Being the optimist that I am the movement has gotten tons of neat stuff going on, from voter registration drives, solid coordination amongst labor unions, rock shows featuring big artists centered around uniting the city for good jobs and opposition to immigrant raids, active student organizations at Marquette that say no to sweatshop labor, challenges to law that don't allow felons to vote, a Paid Sick Leave referendum that will give all workers in Milwaukee Paid sick time, an active sanctuary movement, a momentous presence against the war, a real attempt to bridge divides in racial disparity through free markets by students at UWM, to a hundred different union organizing campaigns, clergy mobilization by MICAH, Interfaith Conference and FCWJ. Things are happening right now and its good to be apart of it all.

Some good organizations that are apart of this that you should know about include some of the following.

9to5-Working Women's Association
Voces de la frontera-Immigrant Worker Rights Center
Students for a Democratic Society- Student anti-war group (UWM)
Progressive Students of Milwaukee-Student anti-war group (UWM)
The United Left- Leftists uniting!
Food Not Bombs- Radical food for the poor group
Milwaukee Free School- offering free classes for community
Arab Anti-discrimination committee- anti discriminatory group
LGBT Center- focused on issues facing the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and transgender community
Peace Action- City Wide Anti War Group
ACLU- Legal Action
AFT Local 212- Anti War Union
Veterans for Peace- War Veterans United for Peace
WISCOSH- Protecting and enhancing workplace safety standards
Justice 2000-Drivers License justice
Good Jobs Livable Communities- direct action focused around good jobs
New Hope- Program to help to ex-felons
Milwaukee Junior Cycling- Bicycle racing for underprivileged kids
Faith Community for Worker Justice- Workers issues from faith context
Lutheran Human Relations Association- focused around human right issues
Human Rights Coalition-pushing for human rights committee in city
American Jewish Committee-Looking at social justice from a Jewish perspective
Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council- Fair housing in the city
US Labor Against the War- Organized labor opposing the war
Milwaukee Area Labor Council- Central Labor Council for Milwaukee
Milwaukee Network for Social Change- Free Vans and Free Market promoting free culture
Peace and Justice Studies at Marquette- educational aspect around peace issues
Marquette Campus Ministry-promoting justice issues from religious stance
Catholics for Peace and Justice- Catholics working for a better world
MICAH- Milwaukee Inner City Congregations involved in making a difference
Interfaith Conference-Uniting people of faith around social justice
S.U.F.U.R-Students for Immigrant Rights
Milwaukee Fair Trade Council: united around Fair Trade issues in Milwaukee
Milwaukee Bicycle Co-op- bicycles for everybody
Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund: Affordable housing for people in poverty
ACORN- Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
Running Rebels- Inner City High School Students united around change
Urban Underground-United around justice in the streets
Citizen Action, WI- focusing on racial disparities in the city
Campaign Against Violence- working to make the streets of Milwaukee a better place to live
WISPIRG- Wisconsin's Public Interest Research Group
People's Book Co-op- radical educational bookstore
Cream City Collective- radical book store in riverwest
4th Street Forum- educational seminar informing people of Milwaukee about community issues
Urban Ecology Center- raising environmental awareness in the city
Broad Vocabulary-radical feminist bookstore in Bay View
Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin- supporting bicycle advocacy in the state

I apologize if I missed your group, there is so much good stuff going on it is sometimes hard to get it all down at once.

With all of this momentum and amount of organizations here in the city that are working toward positive social change, we all really have the opportunity and the obligation to get involved in our local communities.

Sometimes it seems arduous, I mean with all of these different groups here in the city working for change, it may seem like all of the bases are covered and their is nothing left to do. However, when we look at the state of our community when it comes to poverty, discrimination, environmental issues, and education, what we really see is that we are not winning as the people.

No matter what your political backing is, your beliefs are about the state of Milwaukee, there is something that we offer here that creates a better and brighter future here in the city that is working toward building a better Milwaukee.

Have some pride in your city and get involved! If any of these groups sound like they interest you, feel free to contact me and I'll put you in touch with the right people to get involved.

Together, even though we are fractured around our issues we make up the movement, the movement for change, the movement for optimism, and the movement for a better world! When we all do our part to get involved, we are doing our part "to be the change that we wish to see in the world"

Update on Capital Returns

2008-02-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

If you have been following my blog at all, you may have heard about the Capital Returns Campaign that I have discussed relatively intensively.

I just wanted to give you an idea of what is going on. Monday, Jan 28th the United Steelworkers went to Capital Returns with enough signatures to file for voluntary recognition of a union and after the company refused to grant recognition, the Steelworkers went to the National Labor Relations Board to file for elections.

With that said, the workers of Capital Returns will have the chance to ultimately decide if they wish to have a union will be held in the beginning of March. Before that however, the company is going to do everything in their power to make sure that the workers are intimidated and scared enough to vote against the union.

That's where you come in! On Feb 20th, 2008 at 3:00pm at Capital Returns (6101 N 64th St) we will be having a mass rally to show that we all support the struggle of the workers at Capital Returns.

The company will be doing their part to intimidate the workers, do your part to show the workers how much this community supports these workers!

Presidential Nominations

2008-01-10T12:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay so I admit. The political primary elections have swept me up like a Oklahoma tornado. My once beloved act of watching football, and especially the first week of the playoffs was all of the sudden swished away by the roaring of debates in Iowa and New Hampshire. Instead of watching the Seahawks beat the Redskins last week, I turned my new full attention over to my new favorite 'football' team, Barrack Obama who had an close second place finish in the tight last game in New Hampshire.

So why do I like Obama you may ask? It's pretty easy, Obama is the only real presidential candidate with any sense of winning that has some spunk behind him. His huge following of young people and idealism towards real change makes a young idealist like myself smile a mile wide. Could we really have a potential president that actually started his career doing just what I do? A grassroots organizer? How exciting! A president who knows what its like to be working on the streets trying to empower poor people to stand up for themselves and realize the immense amount of power that they have when they're organized?!

I don't want to do too much political bashing here, but Mrs. Clinton just doesn't have that appeal, her insider Washington persona just doesn't sit well with the people that really want a new kind of government that really listens to the people and not the lobbyist. The establishment, in this election just won't do. Over the past 7 years we have had to put up with politicians that have sold their ideas to the highest bidder and I applaud a personality in politics that says lobbyist determining the agenda are a thing of the past.

With regard to John Edwards, I really really really like him. He's a very youthful guy that really plays up on the importance of the America's working people. He has come out strongly against the possible new CAFTA agreements that would do no good for the Central American workers or American workers. I love that he has that hometown personality and is so in support of labor rights. He too has denounced the power of the lobbyists and stated how important it is for working families to have the largest voice in American politics, the only problem is that with such a low percentage of the vote in the early primaries, his chances of winning seem slim to none. I do however think that he would make an excellent vice president to Barrack Obama should he win the nomination.

Now by reading my blogs and my work as a community organizer, you probably realized by now that I lean pretty hard to the left. And like I said, I don't want to do too much bashing, but here's a little of what I think about the candidates on the right.

John McCain if I had to pick out of the Republicans is probably my top choice, mostly because so many of the others just give me the creeps! I like some of John McCain's ideas, especially on human rights. As a solider in Vietnam and a POW, he really knows first hand what it means to be tortured and how inhumane torture is. I remember a few years ago he proposed a bill in the Senate that would try to protect the civil liberties of incarcerated 'enemy combatants' against interrogations that involved torture. He also, among the republicans seems to have the most logical and sane ideas about immigration, even though he discusses cracking down on undocumented migrants, he took quite a bit of fire for not being tougher on those issues and refused to relent. However, his lack of a plan for universal health care and pro market beliefs make me feel as if he's a no go.

Mitt Romney is a totally different story. I find the guy to be downright scary and quite frankly, just not a very nice guy. His political attack ads that he has pushed on everybody who dares face him has in my mind portrayed him as a mean spirited guy that's willing to beat up anyone that comes in his way. If he were to become president, I would certainly be scared, given the United State's already shaky international relations with Iran especially make me think that if he picked the same fight that he is doing with other republicans we just might have nuclear warfare in Iran. Also his very right wing beliefs about the free market and what comes across as racist remarks regarding undocumented immigrants make him probably what I would consider my very last option.

Mike Huckabee is a guy that really perplexes me, okay... well maybe not. As a former Baptist Minister he makes me think that he might be okay, okay maybe not. The moment that I hear that he is also a Republican make me add 1 and 1 together to equal another Bush. The Christan Right loves this guy, but the Christian right is not Christianity. His hard nose attacks on the immigration issue make me wonder if he actually ever did read the Bible that he supposeably espouses when we read that "the foxes have holes and the birds have a nest, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head." As a Christan, Mike Huckabee makes me scared that with one more right wing Christian in office that campaigns on his theological superiority may be the death of potential people that might turn to Christianity, but have more compassionate and left leaning principals like love your neighbor as yourself.

Anyway, as the political playoffs continue with football playoffs, good luck Obama and Edwards, your the two top candidates in these books!

Dream of Flying

2007-12-24T18:02:00.000-08:00

When will the moment be when we pick up and fly? Like a penguin who has the means, but cannot take wing we sit here still on this earth with the means to take flight and find what we are looking for and yet the glorious burden of what we are supposed to do acts as the hurricane, the rainy day the dreary weight upon our shoulders that keeps us from reaching our fullest potential.

At this place we stand weighted by the rain, and like the penguin we go through our lives looking for that gust of wind that will one day allow us to take to the air. We lust for it, we daydream about the day in which we will have the financial stability, the time away from work, the completion of the mortgage, and yet while we wait, the sun rises and sets smiling at us each and everyday, begging us to come and join in the fun of God's great wonderland. The wealth of this life cannot ever be realized until this mediatative and beautiful journey can take place.

That is why I plan on taking a trans-american bicycle tour upon completion of my year a Cap Corp. If life is meant to be lived, what are we waiting for? I write this blog more as an accountability to myself to actually do this than anything else really to put it forth into the world to say that something so seemingly crazy will be completed.

Through this trip I hope to find meaning, I hope to find a deeper understanding of whether God is really calling me to the ministry of the Church, I hope to find a deeper understanding of what the plan for me and all of God's children here on earth, I will never find the complete answer, but to be in pursuit of it must be to some extent our calling on this journey.

Just wanted to share the lyrics to one of my favorite songs in the whole world and I hope that the meaning that I have found out of this prose maybe also inspiring to you.

Dream of Flying
Alexi Murdoch

"Pale light this morning

Woke me
Slow pain I feel
Will not let me be

So much work to do
I don't know if I can
Trying so hard, so hard, so hard
But I know that I'm just one man

Five years old I climbed up on the wall
My mother warned me but I took no heed
Like all creatures great and small
I took a fall and found out I could bleed

These days I'm afraid of everything
Suppose cause everything will die
Thought it was to love what they will lose
So much easier to lie

Sometimes I fell like I'm drowning
Actually it's more like most of the time
But every now and then when I'm sleeping
I still have a dream that I'm flying

And I wake up crying"

Be a flying penguin!

Jon

Onto 2008

2007-12-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

They say that the revolution of the new world will never be televised. These beliefs are founded in mountains of evidence seen on the broken streets of Milwaukee that pass under my bicycle wheels every day on my ride to work. News Release! The corporation, George Bush or the American Idol will not save us from the jobless cities, minimum wage jobs, under-funded schools, violent gang wars, racial segregation lines, and blatantly unequal access to opportunities in the social structure. For it is only by OUR hard work in which the seeds of justice will be sewn.

What have things come to? When the streets of Detroit, Milwaukee and Chicago are divided so staunchly that the only thing we hear about each other comes from the mind draining visual plastic opiates that sit in our living rooms. We are not simply mindless consumers of propaganda and ridiculous garbage that advertisements convince that we need.

We are people and as people, we are members of families, communities, neighborhoods, churches. Yet we have become so isolated! When did we give up on getting to know people that are different than us? Did we ever have this?I know that we have, and amidst the muck we see community built at places like the Catholic Worker, the Lions Club, Town Hall Meetings, neighborhood organizations, the examples of small seedlings bursting and poking out to rear their faces in the desert are too many to number and these seedlings certainly have the potential to grow into flower and fruit. Recently, I've been reading the book of Acts and I am convinced that the community that was formed then around the body of Christ might be one of the great examples that we have of a human world community family, when we give everything up and follow the prophetic word of God, great community has the opportunity to arrive. I don't mean to be preachy here, and I apologize if I come across that way, but instead I wish to point out the optimism and great movement of a committed group of individuals that share a vision of "the way that things should be." This is not to say that the way in which the church has acted recently is any indicator of this, but community is certainly evident in our religious movements, our civic movements and only when we can unify in solidarity can a new world be possible.

This God gives us the power to go into the streets of Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago with word and action that says we are not going to put up with this corporate domination and exploitation of this human community for any longer. This God is a God of Peace and God that speaks to us. When our streets look like bombed out Falajuah and Baghdad where is the freedom that George W says were spreading to the world in our own communities? To what do we have freedom to we ask? Freedom to access dingy minimum wage jobs that leave us homeless on streets, that leave our children's mouths at the mercy of food shelters, that put our teenage brothers and sisters with no other choices except for hustling drugs, violence, and eventual incarceration, freedom to house our families in burnt out urban homes? And yet each and every one of us in our human community is valuable. We are valuable to be active participating individuals working in the Kingdom of God's community to enact real social change. Each and every one of us, every welfare mom, every homeless beggar, every drug addicted burnout, every Wal-Mart sales associate trying to get by has human dignity.

This is not about charity, this is not about simply feeling sorry for the least of us, this is about empowerment, this is about realizing the great abilities and talents that each and everyone of us has to be an important, positive member of our community.This empowerment has to be evident! Who are we?! What do we stand for? For if we stand for nothing, we will truly be defeated. We all know that when the current structure of power is not challenged, it will certainly take its stand and bulldoze all the concepts of equality, democracy, comradely and love. At the disposal of this structure of power is the money that was stolen from our brothers and sisters; the profit to coerce and allow members of our community to be paid large sums of money to work against their own families. But we must live in hope; this hope is one of the only things that we can cling to in 2008. Because there are so many voices, so many brothers and sisters that feel the same way as I do about our broken communities. And although it sometimes seems hopeless, this is a battle that we can win!

The power of the corporation is powerful, but the Lord's power of justice that inhabits all of our souls deep down inside is so much stronger. The power of love knows no boundaries and when that power amasses, the constructs of social inequality will collapse on their own fallacies of justice.

So go into this New Year with great love, great hope and compassion knowing that the struggle will be hard, but certainly is doable.

God Bless Everyone!

Jon

P.S. I didn't know where to fit this in, but on a boarded up door of a burnt out door of a once vibrant Detroit business was spray painted "Where are the 200 thousand troops to protect this city?" It had quite an impact on me and I thought I would share it.

*"Surviving Decay" Graphic was drawn by my favorite visual artist ever. Eric Drooker, please check out www. drooker.com to see more art from Eric.

International Human Rights Day-Dec 10th

2007-12-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

Why hello computer/cyber world! I hope that the holidays are filling people's lives with love, grace and the values of community.

Things at the Faith Community for Worker Justice are going very well. Robin, my volunteer student from Alverno College has committed to helping out 20 hours a week next semester to advance the mission that the Faith Community for Worker Justice is working on through 2008. With that said, things are looking up!

The Capital Returns Campaign is going much better now thanks to the work that the Faith Community for Worker Justice put into it. Thanks to the protest at the plant and panel discussion that were organized by FCWJ, the United Steelworkers, the labor union that is working within the plan has stepped up their internal organizing at the company and has sent an organizer all the way from Philadelphia to work specifically on this campaign until it is won. Way to go for making sure that we advance human rights for low wage workers at Capital Returns. Hopefully soon we will have a union organized at Capital Returns and the ridiculous health and safety issues that were and have been making the folks who work there choose between their jobs or their health will be alleviated and the workers at Capital Returns can labor with dignity.

Dec 10th is just around the corner and with this date comes International Human Rights Day. A day that Milwaukee will celebrate along with the rest of the world in conjunction with the United Nations. The event in Milwaukee is being organized by me, but not really sponsored by FCWJ in the same way that most events are. The idea around international human rights day this year is to highlight the work that all sorts of area non profits are working on around Milwaukee.

Sponsoring organizations in include:

9to5- the working women's organization
Citizen Action- a direct action community organizing group in Milwaukee
Good Jobs Livable Communities-a community based labor group
Milwaukee Network for Social Change-who organizes the "free market"
WISCOSH-the Wisconsin Committee for Occupational Safety and Health
Running Rebels- an inner city youth empowerment organization
Democracy Matters- a organization committed to spreading democracy through education
Lutheran Human Relations Association-a Lutheran based social justice organization
United Steelworkers- a labor union supporting the workers
Faith Community for Worker Justice-a interfaith religious/labor group
Greater Milwaukee Human Rights Council-dedicated to advancing human rights in Milwaukee

At this event we should also be having Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Mayor Tom Barrett, Senator Spencer Coggs discuss the importance of human rights. Other speakers will include Pastor Tim Berlew from Greenfield Memorial Methodist Church and Rose Daitsman-Greater Milwaukee Human Rights Council who will release the executive summary of human rights in Milwaukee.

Human Rights are important to all of our organizations, each of our organizations works on addressing these different issues that fall under the veil of human rights and yet so much of the time we don't get the chance to recognize that.

International Human Rights Day will address Human Rights as they relate to all of us and our struggles to make sure that people are treating with dignity, love and compassion in the world. This event will highlight the commonalities that we all have in our passions to create a better world.

If you can make it, please join us at the City Hall Rotunda at 3:00 pm on Monday, Dec 10th.

Hopefully everyone has a super happy holiday and enjoys their time spent with friends, family and loved ones.

A Reflection on Love and our Human Family

2007-11-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

When asked by an interviewer; Desmund Tutu the illustrious religious leader and force behind the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa; sat in his chair, for is the wrinkles on his face bore the years of struggle and experience that only a great man could have accomplished by a life lived ideally.

Desmund Tutu was asked, how do you get people to stop killing each other? Tutu smiled with a love for his human family that seemed to conquer all the host of violence, betrayal and conflict that could possibly be conjured up by a cruel world. His smile revealed something so fundamental, so basic as if the question itself was almost silly for an interviewer to ask.

Tutu responded by stating that the moment we can all see that we all come from the same family will be the moment in which the violence of inequality and murder will cease to exist. Tutu, stated quite bluntly that he or anyone he knew could not drop a bomb on Iran, recruit another child solider, not pay a worker their fair wage, not traffic another young woman into a prostitution ring if we see each and every one of these people as a member of my family. After all, I cannot murder 'that' person because they are my sister, they are my brother. Only then will we be able to start with the healing process in a world that has in the past been so cruel to our brothers and sisters.

In a conversation I had with a friend over our yearly visit to the School of the Americas Protest calling for human rights to be observed in Central and South America we discussed the concept of beginning to see ourselves as one human family. She mentioned that this concept might not be as successful as Tutu had stated, for it was easy to think of this peachy idea of love human family in the complex state of mind as if it were some off center wacky idealist idea. After all, as a child she too had treated her biological sister with great senses of indignity. Well of course, I thought, knock me out of this peachy rosy dream and get back to reality Jon, we live in the real world after all. For I too had done quite a good job at treating my biological brother with a large degree of hatred and angst during the years that we grew up together. To this day, although I love my biological brother deeply, I cannot say that conflict between the two of us remains non-existent.

In the end, however, he is my brother and despite our differences I shall not try to actively harm him-through this treatment I too expect for that to be reciprocated. When I love, I expect for that my brother to do the same. The concept of one human family follows suit. For I might not always agree with my brother, my sister, however in the end they remain my brothers and sisters in the communion of our human family and when they suffer, our whole human family suffers.

After our conversation with my friend at the SOA, I started referring to her as my sister and their was a quiet transformation that allowed for all involved in the conversation to see each other differently than we had seen each other before and at some level I think the both of us started seeing the other people in our community this past weekend in a different light. At some level I felt like we had broken through some sort of an unspoken boundary. For she was no longer just a friend of mine, but a integral part of my family, she was my sister.

As we gathered at Ft. Benning this weekend, we gathered because our brothers and sisters were suffering and we stood at the gates of that army base petitioning that our sisters and brothers who were causing the suffering to stop. Bringing about the new world that we are all called to find means that we love unconditionally, a concept that is more threatening to the status quo than the most unruly gang of anarchist revolutionaries, communists, Al Quida terrorists or whatever. Whatever movement that we create needs to be based on the prophetic idea and words of Desmund Tutu and the concept of each being a part of a collective human family. The concept that we love our sisters and our brothers who are both at the hand of suffering, but also the brothers and sisters that are the catalysts for that suffering; for they are all apart of our human family.

Love unconditionally, love everyone, love, love, love, love and when that revolutionary act becomes the norm, the world that many of us have been looking for will be realized.

Just a few words....

2007-11-06T08:02:00.001-08:00

In a world of derogation, denial of freedom and dignity of life, we cleave. Cleaving for something valid, something worth living for; as commercials fly by like candy and opiate we are convinced that we are not legitimate, not worthy, not loved. Only that commodity displayed in gold will bring us the happiness that each and every one of us is looking for.

But below us, on another level there is another world, another reality that low wage workers here in Milwaukee are facing everyday, and a world that does not revolve around the simple accumulation of commodity that serves only to allow us false happiness. No, sir, no maim, there’s another world a world that is plowed down by our highways, our Wal-Marts, our boutique outlets.

There is struggle, a struggle that doesn’t ask the question of what piece of clothing will elicit the greatest common denominator of sexual satisfaction, and acceptance by our peers. No, sir, no maim, this struggle is primal, and this struggle is for life itself. In Milwaukee and across this world we have a population that looks for nothing except where the next meal is going to come from, a population that must choose between baby formula and having to pay the rent. A population who through this struggle has found only comfort in drugs, alcohol and destitution.

And here we stand, which dress should we wear that makes our ass look sexy? Which automobile will complement my attitude? What present can I buy for my kid that will show them that I love them? What is going on here? What lies have we told ourselves to leave us in this point of such meaningless isolation with ourselves and the community to which we live?

In the end, what do we all really want? What do we cleave to? What are we trying to do? We want a world of hope, we want a world of dignity, and we want a world of grace. A world where companies like Capital Returns treat the people who work for them with respect, and no matter how many computer lines those workers down there are told to type per hour let us remember that they are not the machines that they are continually told that they are! They are humans! They are living, breathing, worrying, struggling through the broken down neighborhoods in which their wage and aliments caused by contact with dangerous medicine will never allow them to escape. Let us always remember that workers rights are human rights and the struggle of everyday life doesn’t have to be that way. I believe in a better way, a way where employees in low wage conditions have the voice to form a union and allow their disempowered voices to ring as loud as the tone of freedom on Independence Day.

We are human, all of us, let us never forget that! Let us treat each other decently, let us love unconditionally, let us live and break out of our cycles of poverty and through it, a new world will be possible!

The Blog Concept

2007-10-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

As I was watching public access television the other day, I watched a story about a couple of right wing bloggers who were announcing the enormous success that they had had with blogs for Bush. Popular partisan reinforcement of their own ideology was becoming ever more widespread, they had published a book based on their popular blog. How crazy that something online written by seemingly normal and non-powerful people could be so influential.

Both sides of partisan politics have certainly employed the use of blogs with a good deal of success and through it. On both sides of the political arena readers of all ideologies pinned to listening what they believe over and over again thus reinforcing what they already believed while also allowing them to tune out the corporate right or the spineless left. One unintended consequence of the rise in popularity of political blogs is that because people of the left and people on the right have become so concentrated in reading only blogs that conform to their opinions that it has allowed for a dramatically increased polarization in American Politics between the left and the right.

What a shame or not? What is the repercussions of this shift, has the world of blogs made things better by solidifying the left and the right into more solid units? I think probably so. Is this a good or bad thing? It goes both ways. In the negative sense the use of blogs has allowed for a "tunnel vision" for partisan folks to not be able to even comprehend what the other side is thinking. In this way its negative, we have gotten so far away from each other in ideology that from a democratic standpoint, all views are not considered by everyone before decisions are made. Thus, allowing for the erosion of democracy.

However, simultaneously political blogs are enhancing democracy and allowing for something really neat. The blogosphere gives everyone a potential voice to speak out about what they believe in the world and the way things are going. The blogosphrere allows for the main stream media to lose much of its power as news. Instead, 'the news' is written by everyday people instead of big companies who have their hands in whatever they have their hands in. While the mainstream media fumbles around trying to figure out what is 'objective and what is not' political bloggers write what ever they feel, allowing their political identity to fuse out of every facet of their imagination. Its amazing to see this power erode, while partisan politics allow their pundits to argue about whether the media is leaning toward the left or leaning to the right, a new media has a risen in the blog world. This media is unabashedly partisan and makes no claims about trying to be 'objective'.

The blog is like the person, and combined allows for a new type of online democracy to reign over.

It's interesting to see the paradox of the blog. In one way it acts to limit the idea of democracy while allowing people who believe one thing to just subscribe to what they already believe and create a "group think' like atmosphere. Yet it also gives the "power to the people" and completely erodes the power of the main stream media!

Crazy eh? With that said, if we use blogs right and read things that we both agree with and disagree with as our form of media, then maybe the paradox of group think that blogs create will be alleviated by creating a form of radical democracy.

23 and beyond!

2007-09-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

So 23 years old! I think I am actually a man, a grown up, scary! Can you believe it!

I have lately been feeling this crazy call to manhood. This weekend, I went down to Indianapolis Indiana to attend the wedding of one of my old friends from college. The wedding was nice, I got the chance to see all of my old college buddies that have disappeared since the move to Milwaukee. How fast things change, I feel that were all growing up!

Jon Swain came to the wedding with a lovely lookin' lady. I couldn't believe my eyes, out of all of Jon's grief about girls and finding the right one it seemed like it finally clicked for him. Jake was getting married, at the age of 24 Jake was immersing himself in a completely new and changing experience. John and Marie Williams, who also at the wedding who are 23 announced that Marie was pregnant and asked if I would be willing to be the Godparent. You know what that means don't you? I happily accepted amongst the fog of liquor, but simutaneously realized the tremendous responsibility of what he was asking, could I be ready? So Anna and I drove home reflecting on the speed in which things change as we enter this world into adulthood. Relieved that we had escaped all of this talk of growing up, we stopped at Brad's house down in southern Wisconsin before heading up to Milwaukee. Wow! now Brad is a real grown up. Also at 23, Brad and his fiancee' have purchased a house and have a 17 month year old child.

Its just amazing to see how all of this comes about... this aging thing. So much of a part of you wants to cling on to the good old times when responsibility is nill and freedom reigns reckless. Its crazy how much we change though; sculpted by the forces of age and accountability.

I find myself in that position now doing all of this organizing. In a place where nobody tells you exactly what your path should be, the exact measures in which you should follow to be successful in your life. You have guidelines, there the ones that you were supposeably taught for your entire life leading up to this point. However, somehow after all the preparation of things you feel as if you were the child in the talent show who rehearsed and rehearsed the song and dance to death in front of the mirror, only to forget it all in the face of the crowed stage. Why couldn't we just remember everything, be on autopilot, completely set up for the life that we always wanted. Why can't we just have it all figured out when we get to this point?

As I sat in the car on the drive back after seeing Brad's baby I thought of my parents. When they had my brother and I they seemed to have it all figured out, all set up, but I realized that I was now at the age that they could have been upon having me. With so much doubt fear and misdirection, how could they have possibly figured it out.

So I guess in conclusion, despite how much confusion and disillusionment about being this age, in the end we figure it out, perfectionism never seems to reign but instead we go through this process of mucking through it all and in the end we come out and realize that were in the light.

Who ever said that I life without perfection was ever a life without meaning?

Into the new season!

2007-09-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

Wow! Can you believe that summer is already over? You can really tell by the way that that weather here in Milwaukee changed. Bicycle rides to work are cluttered now with layered flannel shirts, vests and a plethora of other junk aimed at making a bicycle ride warmer.

So Labor in the Pulpits went down without too many hitches. Speakers, for the most part managed to not get their butts thrown out of too many places because they dared to say that God was a God of the poor.

And here I stand, about a month ago I spoke about "Hanging on the Strings of Hope" and I am happy to say that I am now the Community Organizer down here at the Faith Community for Worker Justice(FCWJ), in charge of creating a program that the FCWJ can do throughout the year. I have a few ideas and will see what ends up flying.

It seems that this is going to be a neat year. By having the chance to work here for a year, I really feel like I can get FCWJ going to a point where it will have continued support from the Labor Council and possibly even have a few people that will work here on a full time basis by next year. The road to getting this organization up and running is a large one that will require much compassion and love by many people, but I believe in people and believe that there is enough concerned folks from faith and secular backgrounds to make it an effective organization.

Right now I am working on getting a strong bit of student support for the program to join the clerical support that we have had in the past. This means working both ways, supporting student organizations around town to create contacts between the religious community and the student community. We already have a student from Alverno University, here in town who is going to be volunteering down here over the course of the semester. She will be working on supporting the Capital Returns campaign in any capacity that we can by hosting a panel discussion and maybe sometime soon down the road organizing a direct action against the company.

There will also be an educational aspect to the FCWJ in having a seminar for lay and clerical leaders in the community on how to engage their congregations in issues of economic justice. This is tentatively scheduled to start Oct 11th at the Capuchin Volinteer Corp House, if you are interested in participating please give me a call at 414 771 7541.

We will also be teaming up with the Milwaukee Network for Social Change to get congregational support out for their Free Markets. Free Market is a program where a bunch of people bring all the old junk and give it away together, For Free!

We will also be working with the AFL-CIO's Health and Hygiene drive sponsored by United Way, if your congregation wants to get involved, feel free to call and we'll get you connected.

Brochures for our organization have also been created and we would like to distribute them to gain community support for FCWJ.

A website is also in the mix to be created, I will keep you updated on how that is going.

All and all were getting up and running to have a strong program for the 2007-2008 year.
Thanks for reading.

Peace Always,

Jon Royal
Community Organizer
Faith Community for Worker Justice

Summer Reflections

2007-08-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to be a person of faith? What does it mean to be an activist? I am not 100% sure of either and I doubt that I ever will, but this summer gave me a little bit better understanding of both. Many of my activist tendencies may have been inspired by guilt that I was doing nothing to fix the broken down structure that allows for 80 % of the wealth to be controlled by something like 20% of the population. How could we have existed in a structure like this that allowed for so much wealth discrepancy? Fueled by a sense of anger to fix this, I set out on a journey to do my little part in creating the ideal that I had read in my political theory books.

What I found was something so much more inspiring, so much more beautiful; something that couldn’t be published in a book by a great academic theorist. What I found were people! People struggling without the slightest reason to hold on to any hope, yet everyday they got up that morning and went to fight the fight, to struggle for another days wages, to put food on the table that night, to not get evicted from there house… The whole time being subjected to some of the most atrocious working conditions that one could imagine. When Mother Theresa was asked by sympathetic onlookers about what they could do for the people who had nothing, she always simply responded, come and see. For coming and seeing could transform lives toward love and justice.

Labor in the Pulpits Program

Coming and seeing was my role this year organizing the Labor in the Pulpits program. Although much of my time was spent of the phone making pestering phone calls to Priests, Rabbis, Imams, Reverends and potential speakers to get involved in the program, in the end, I got a good response! About 100 congregations from across faith backgrounds decided to either speak on the issues of low wage worker justice or have speakers on Labor Day weekend come to their congregations and speak about worker justice. I also developed all the resources that would be used for the program that will be used by all of the speakers.

Standing in Solidarity with the workers at Capital Returns

Also would on a weekly basis I would meet up with Helen, Christine, Kimberly, Jeanette, Desiree, and Jason to name a few. They were fed up with what was happening to them at work, they were tired of being treated like slaves making barely enough to live. Not much has changed for the minority worker since the times of slavery and after hearing their stories, I am convinced that slavery still exists. They get paid a meager wage that allows them only to make enough to pay for the most inexpensive of housing, and commodities. Now instead of the owner paying for it, the owner gives them barely a wage and tells them that they can pay for it themselves; emancipation from slavery is what they call it…

(See the campaign leaflet that I wrote included in this letter.)

What I learned is there are faces, people, all individuals, all inspirational, all beautiful being stuck in these situations. They each have a story, they each have a face, they each have things that make them laugh and make them cry. They ARE human despite what sort of machines their jobs want to turn them into. We gave each other hope; we gave each other inspiration that operated in a cyclical fashion. I would walk out of meetings feeling like collectively we had hope as a human community. Listening to Kimberly speak out about the conditions at work, I heard passion; prophetic, pure and unrefined, she spoke with a heart that had forgotten how to hate her people and instead stand together as one. They were not people I just ‘helped,’ they helped me; through them I discovered the magic of living life to the fullest.

On ‘youtube’, I watched a video where I guy was going out asking people in the streets what the meaning of life was. Overwhelmingly, people responded by saying that the goal was to be happy, through this work, no matter how nutty it got sometimes, I cannot remember a time when I was happier and more fulfilled with the beauty of that we are working so hard to achieve through our journey here on earth. Riding home through the degraded and destitute neighborhoods, I saw hope breaking out of every boarded up window, colorful murals painted on the sides of abandoned buildings serving as constant reminders that a new world was possible and despite the gunshots, drugs, and bombed out buildings. The community was alive, still looking for the good in every situation!

I promise you, the good is there! And happiness cannot be found through the endless accumulation of things, but instead through the human relationship, the constant interactions of people with one another. That is the bounty that a life in solidarity with the poor affords. Now I do not wish to paint this view as a completely rose colored vision, there are stresses, fall backs and really tough times, we watched as union busting took its toll on the Capital Returns Workers and folks got scared about showing up to our union meetings, we heard the stories of miscarriages at the workplace, of mothers that wouldn’t be told by the company that their children had had an accident and was on the verge of death in the hospital. I had people of faith tell me that I was all wrong, that helping the poor was not something that the church had any business in. But hope has a way for creeping up like weeds after a thick coat of roundup, reclaiming its position like a plant in the occasional desert rain.

Working on an ecumenical level with people of faith has also been amazing. There have been so many amazing people of faith that I have met through this. People like Pastor Tim, Fr. Mike, Dave, Joan, Mary and Rabbi Yichak have shown me that faith in God means more than attending church or synagogue on a weekly basis, faith is living, faith is breathing and loving without borders. Seeing God work through these people has been one of the most transforming, refreshing and renewing observations that I have seen. The Kingdom of God is a living a breathing one, transforming the lives of people who open their hearts to love. It has been absolutely beautiful to see the solidarity of people of faith who stand up regularly and speak out for what is right as a voice to those who are so often not heard. Getting those people connected to break down all the race and class barriers that have been created out of ignorance and fear has been amazing to participate in and I thank God for allowing me to be a catalyst in being apart of this breaking down of walls.

So where do I go from here? After thinking and praying on it I have decided that this is the work that I would like to continue to do for the next year. The internship will be over tomorrow, but I was able to connect with an organization called the Capuchin Volunteer Corp. The Capuchins have a program where young people of faith come together in a house that has a basis on voluntary simplicity. If it all works out, I will live in community, pray in community and act in community. During the day, the group of volunteers will all work at various places around town working primarily with the poor on all sorts of issues and then in the evenings we will come home to share our experiences with one another. We will try to live our lives simply, in service to others. Through this work I would continue to be a full time volunteer for the Faith Community for Worker Justice organizing people of faith around issues of low wage worker justice and continue to stand in solidarity with the everyday people struggling to make ends meet doing all in my power to see that they have jobs that will support a life of dignity for themselves and their children.

Jesus once said to the rich man, give up your things and follow me. On the surface it seems impossible, however, I find myself trading a life of affluence for a life of love. Trading a life of meaninglessness for a life of meaning! Through this, I feel more connected to God than I think anyone could, this makes me so very happy!

Thank you for your support in fueling this experience, your money went to a just and loving cause I assure you. Through it, about 100 congregations from across faith backgrounds were organized and close to 10,000 people of faith are going to hear about the plight of the low wage worker on Labor Day Sunday and workers at Capital Returns have been given a theological framework to continue to fight for justice.

Destination-Mineral Springs

2007-08-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

So believe it or not, I try to make sure that their our other components of my life besides activism. I think that in order to actually be good at something, you can't always do it all the time. Its so utterly important to have a life separate of just one thing. I've seen a lot of my friends go down the road of complete and utter focus only to at one point or another have something smack them in the face and say "hey! there is a big world out there!"

With that I want to tell you about the bike trip that Katy and I took out to Mineral Springs. Katy is a friend of mine from "Team Pegasus" a 'cycling team' that spends much of its time drinking beer and having a good time and a little bit of time riding their bicycles. All in all its a really good bunch of kids, and with our 'sponsor' being Pabst Blue Ribbon, we get set up pretty well.

Anyway, Katy and I set off on our trip out to Mineral Point, WI at 5 o'clock on Saturday morning. We had originally planned on having a group of 3 to 4 of us coming, but when the rubber hit the road, people squealed at the idea of getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning and riding their bikes close to 140 miles in a day.

I arrived at our meeting place in the twilight hours of a Milwaukee morning. Half awake and half asleep I sat at the corner of the street, gazing upon a quiet metropolitan city that wanted nothing more to do than sleep in on a Saturday morning after a heavy night of drinking. Katy rolled up on her bike and we started rolling.

With a bike all decked out with GPS Systems, computers, lights, pumps and panniers our wheels rolled slowly out of town. We escaped the city that morning before the beast woke up and found ourselves out to Waukesha, a small suburban town on the West Side of Milwaukee where we hopped on the Glacial Drummin Trail which serves as a bicycle 'highway' all the way to Madison.

By about 8 o'clock, our belly's needed some fuel for the trip and we arrived in Dousman, WI at the local store just as the bakery for the morning was being delivered. The lights were not on in the store yet but the bakery had shown up and we followed like bugs being drawn to an Oklahoma bug zapper. As we stepped out an consumed the perfectly fresh doughnuts, we knew the ride was going to be a success.

As we got close to Madison, we ran into an older couple on the trail. Cute as can be, they walked down the trail hand in hand with those sunglasses that allow absolutely no light in. As we passed them side by side, we scared the hell out of them and as we passed, the old man let out a yelp and told us to stop. Katy and I knew exactly why we were stopping. According to the rules, your supposed to pass single file and we didn't. This old man had something to teach our generation and he was full of voice to do it. As we stopped, I just wanted to hear this guy out and exchange a kind gesture to finish our little connection out. He told us how we should not have passed side by side and told us how we needed trail passes to ride on the path, despite his utter sincerity in his voice, Katy and I could not help but get over the fact of how cute him and his wife were together. Maybe someday we will to grow old together with someone we can care so much about and be able to yell at 'young wippersnappers' and tell them stories about 'when I was your age.' Following our conversation, we wished them well on their walk and took off, for we had really enjoyed their company while they stood there 'giving us a talkin' to.'

When we arrived in Madison, we met up with my good friend Anna for lunch at a pizza place down by the University, as we sat there consuming some of the most amazing pizza I had ever ate, we shared stories about what was going on in each other's lives. Everyone had a good time. As we left Madison, it began to rain.

The rail to trail on the West Side of Madison, is paved with dirt and if there is one thing about dirt that is true is when it interacts with water, it turns to mud. With 50 to 60 miles to go Katy and I rode down the mud trail. Flinging mud in every which direction. So much fun! It poured, but both of us remained in good spirits. Eventually, we arrive at Katy's parents house in Mineral Springs, about 45 miles away from Debuque IA. The town was quaint and personable, much different from the childhood town that I had grown up in. She knew everyone and everything there was to know about Mineral Springs.

In the end, it was a really good weekend, we both had a really good time and enjoyed every moment of a seemingly random experience.

On the Strings of Hope

2007-08-06T14:07:00.001-07:00

As the time with my internship with the Faith Community comes to a close, I really would hate for all of this work to be done in vain, for another year to pass and for the speakers of Labor in the Pulpits to converge on their congregations with the prophetic voice of the poor behind them and then when the message was heard, for people to be moved, but not be able to participate in the creation of this better world.

As my time runs out, I would like to create a progam that would keep people of faith connected to the phlight of low wage worker justice. However, like many things there simply isin't the money for the Labor Council to pay someone to continue doing this work. Realizing that time is of the essence I talked to the Capuchin Volinteer Corp here in Milwaukee about the possiabilities of maybe moving into the Capuchin House and having them cover my expenses for the year so that I could continue this work.

So I had a meeting today with the director of that program, seeing if it would be possiable to work for the Faith Community for Worker Justice all year long and he was completely excited about the prospects of the program, unfortunately like the Labor Council, they do not possess a never-ending pool of money that can allow everyone to work for Peace and Justice. My living expenses would have to be covered by someone other than them as their pockets are quite empty.

After having a discussion with both the Labor Council and the Capuchins, it dosen't seem like collectively, there would be enough money to allow me to eat food and do this work at the same time. However, I have not given up! With a beleif in Providence (the way in which God allows things to just fall into place) I feel that somthing will turn out. Its not going to be easy, afterall, I am just a college graduate with no 'professional' fundraising abilities, I don't have experience organizing huge not for profit organizations, and no strong track record of organizing people of faith around low wage worker issues, but what I do have is 2 things, faith and optimism that somthing will work out.

I've started trying to figure out various funding sources for grants to continue the program throughout the year. I also have an idea of a program that involves getting clergy connected to local campaigns and bringing a youth presence that has been noteably absent to the movement for low-wage workers in the past.

I guess sometimes the only thing you can go on is faith and beleif in Providence. With only a few leads on jobs after this is all done in about a week and a half, I really don't know where I will stand with regard to my ability to devote my life to the work of low wage workers. This work is not the most lucrative of careers, but I assure you that it is the most rewarding when you can go home at night really knowing that your neighbor may have not gotten evicted from their house, or was able to put food on the table as a result.

Things are so up in the air, hopefully the coming days will bring good news as to how I could possiably continue this work, as the fruits of it cannot be underestimated. If you have any ideas, please let me know...

Labor in the Pulpits update

2007-07-31T13:20:00.000-07:00

So, many of these blogs get their inspiration through the work that I am doing as a part of the Faith Community for Worker Justice organizing all sorts of religious communities around issues of worker justice.

To this date, there are 87 congregations in the Milwaukee area who have decided to participate in the program, were shooting for a little over 100. With that number of people we will probably end up on Labor Day Sunday, having 10 thousand open ears hear about how labor and the struggle for justice are won. We have speakers converging on many of these congregations, while at the same time having some congregations speak themselves on the issues of worker justice. Hopefully this program will bring tons of new and interested people of faith to the forefront of the organized labor movement for immigrant worker rights and the right to organize.

The importance of getting the religious community involved cannot be underestimated. As we saw during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's the church played a dominating role in the organization of the masses to speak out against de-jury racism. Many people will say even on the left that this represents a coalition of church and state, and although at some level the church must keep itself out of politics when it comes to mandating law, the religious individuals of this country have just as much right as anyone secular to discuss how they feel about the political world. Many religious folks feel that it is their calling to speak out for justice through the backing of their own faith and the person who wishes to limit this is only a tyrant and hypocrite of pluralistic ideology.

The Faith Community needs to stand up on issues that effect the poor, the voice of these good hard working people is so easily hidden in the veil of market capitalism and we must not forget that in the end, we are all one human body who's social contract states that we must look out for one another.

Anyway, the Labor in the Pulpits program serves as a manifestation of this theory and brings with it a great sense of optimism! Faith suggests a moralistic framework for living and acting in the world; politics through this serves as the action and thus the two cannot be separated for people of faith.

The program is going really well and should be a great asset to the working poor of Milwaukee when it comes to having a voice in the workforce.

The Two Feet of Christian Service

2007-07-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Something has been lingering on my mind for quite a bit of time and I think that this is a good place to vocalize it. I know I haven't really discussed my faith in too much detail in this blog and I certainly don't really intend to. Faith in something greater than yourself can only be shown, and can rarely be found through words.

There is something that I heard of a couple of years ago that really struck my attention and that was "the two feet of Christian service." And although it was developed by Christians it certainly applies to everyone regardless of faith.

Idealistically, people who care about the world in which they live work in both of the sectors. One of the feet of Christian service is the alms giving part many people, including churches, businesses and individuals feel really comfortable with the first foot. This service means being in solidarity with the poor by giving them the things that they need immediately, (food, water and shelter) and this is really important. However, it is something that so many engage in. We feed the poor at food pantries and soup kitchens, we have clothing drives at our community centers or places of work, at Christmas time we even have programs where we donate toys to be given to underprivileged families. All of this feels good, were giving back to our community and treating the poor with dignity and respect. We go home after shopping at target and buying a few extra things to donate to our well heated homes, sleeping in our cozy beds, while a couple of people that we helped out sleep on hard floors, but with stomachs full of the food we gave.

However, tomorrow rolls around and when the calories are burned, the toys are broken and the jeans are tattered, the very people who we felt so good about helping out are in the same exact place as they were before we gave them the things they needed at that very time. At some point at some level we must ask ourselves why are these folks poor in the first place? Simple answers come to mind first...their lazy, they don't want to work, they just went to jail, there on drugs. But in the end all of these answers place the blame on the individual, as if their is something deficient about them.

We are called to use our brains, to think beyond these overly simplistic sort of answers. And this is the second foot of christian service, the why... why is it that they are poor, is it a result of not having jobs that they can make enough money to survive? Is it a result of not having parents that were able to raise them in good family situations because they were always working to not get the house foreclosed upon. If that is true, why were they paid so poorly? Why did the schools that they grew up in so poor? What effect did their racial status and class status have on them being able to succeed?

When we start asking these questions things seem to get a bit more complicated. They beg the question of why is it that there is such a disparity of wealth? Why is it that the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. So much of the time we are afraid to ask these questions, to think that there is something beyond that surface... These questions create conflict because they challenge us to think, they question the very place that us, the affluent stand. But in the end, when we solve these oftentimes "dirty" issues, perhaps the family that we adopted for Christmas will have a good enough job to not depend on our alms next year. Maybe the programs that we advocated was the thing that gave them a leg up out of the cycle of poverty.

One cannot be done without the other, giving the poor food, shelter and clothing is really important as it serves people's immediate needs, but so is the questioning of structure, the questioning of the very beliefs that may have put us in the privileged position that we found ourselves in from the beginning.

Have you ever seen a runner win a race hopping on just one leg? Ever seen a bicycle racer cross the line in first with just one wheel on their bike. Ever seen a successful marriage with just one person? Just as none of these situations are highly improbable, so is the creation of a newer better world, without a combination of tactic.

A plantation right in our own backyard Capitally Returning to Injustice

2007-07-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am working on a drive to organize some low wage workers, we could sure use your support, here is a synopsis of what is going on...

We as a community of compassionate individuals who care about the way that the poor and powerless are treated are called to take action on behalf of the workers at Capital Returns. Who would have believed that right under our noses; right here in Milwaukee we would find a government subsidized company being run like a plantation. Imagine coming to work every day for an average wage of $9.00 and hour and being exposed to mystery pharmaceutical substances in powder, liquid, or any other imaginable form. How about being searched every time you have to go to the bathroom, or being forced to perform your data entry job standing up and having your chairs removed from your department? These are just a few of the oppressive conditions that employees at Capital Returns at 6101 N. 64th St. are faced with every day.

Capital Returns is a pharmaceutical waste distributor based on Milwaukee’s north side. They received a $250,000 economic development loan from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to help them move to their present location in 2005. That same year they were purchased by a large supply chain management company named GENCO. They employ about 500 workers at their 64th St. Location.

Capital Returns is a pharmaceutical processing plant in Milwaukee that processes expired and unused pharmaceuticals into waste products. Through this process, workers primarily women of African American and Hmong descent are employed to handle potentially harmful drugs and log them into computer databases. The working environments that these laborers are subjected to are absolutely atrocious. With hard days at in the plant and hazardous working conditions, these employees are not only not making enough money to live with the most meager of comforts, but also all sorts of health and safety concerns plague these low wage workers everyday. The harsh treatment and the unsafe work conditions have caused many of these workers to pursue joining the United Steelworkers Union.

In this memoir, we hope to understand some of the indignities that are happening to the workers at Capital Returns. These are the stories of the voiceless; who work day in and day out under oppressive structures of exploitation that are dedicated to keeping their employees destitute.

Health Concerns

When it comes to health concerns at Capital Returns, low-wage workers are constantly being put in situations where they must choose whether to do their job and not get fired, or place themselves in situations where they risk serious bodily injury.

Often times, workers through their jobs handle all sorts of old drugs without adequate protection to their own bodies. Many of the drugs that these employees handle have the potential of being highly harmful to their health. For example, the potential for a woman who is pregnant being exposed to birth control pills as part of her job is highly possible. In fact, in the past couple months 2 women who work at the plant have had miscarriages and although there is no way to say that it may be a result of the drugs, the correlations are awfully suspicious.

There is a general lack of concern for the employee’s health at Capital Returns, ventilation in the processing plant is always terrible. High humidity and lack of fresh air often leaves employees feeling nauseous with searing headaches and abnormally high cases of asthma attacks. And although workers have reported feeling terrible as a result of the working conditions, nothing is done to improve their well being. “On a weekly basis, there always someone who goes down,” one worker explained. “A lot of the time we have to choose between whether we want to stay healthy or continue to go to work.” When workers must choose between their health and whether they will continue to have a job, many of these workers can do nothing but keep working as they rely on these jobs to raise their families and pay the bills. Losing their jobs is just not an option for many workers at Capital Returns and as a result, they must put themselves in situations that are highly harmful to their health and well being.

In addition to bad ventilation in the plant there have also been reports of fires in the building. When these fires occurred, there was no evacuation of workers from the plant, but instead workers were told to keep working through and the fire would be taken care of and would not spread into the part of the building that they were working in. Not being allowed to leave a building when it’s on fire?! What kind of company is Capital Returns? Do the workers staying absolutely productive on the job outweigh the consequences of their safety?

Treated Like Children

The workers at Capital Returns are treated like workers on a plantation. The company conducts extensive searches on workers when they go to the bathroom, leave the plant and go to lunch. Strict rules dictate ridiculous policy that makes absolutely no sense. For example, one worker was suspended for being insubordinate to her supervisor when he told her to give him her badge and go home for the day. When the worker told him that she needed her badge to leave the building, she was suspended. In a world where we are taught to treat each other with dignity and respect, this sort of child like wrangling of low-wage dignified adults is simply not acceptable.

Because of these workers often desperate situation in the workforce, many of them are scared to speak up in fear of losing the jobs that they hold on to so dearly. They feel that they have to put up being treated like children because of their desperate need for a job.

Oppressive Policy

Capital Returns could care less about the well being of their worker. Employees who log in the old pharmaceuticals are forced to stand all day on concrete floors to do their work. In the past, they gave their workers chairs, but because of reasons unbenounced to the employees, they have had all of their chairs taken away. When asked if they could have their chairs back, it was refused. As a result, these workers spend their whole day on their feet on the concrete floors of the shop as they enter old drugs into computers. Many of the workers are seniors who find standing up all day particularly difficult on their bodies. Beat up and tired from being on their feet all day, the company bosses sit in well padded seats and watch over their plantation.

Workers are suspended for the most ridiculous of reasons, especially if the company suspects you of being for the union. One day, after a long day of logging drugs, one worker clocked out, eager to get home after a tough day at work. Every day before each worker leaves the plant they are searched by security. On this particular day, as he stood their being searched the security guard found that the worker had a pill that had fallen into one of the cuffs of his pant leg during the day as he logged expired drugs. When they discovered this he tried to explain when asked what it was doing there why it was there? He told them that his job was to log old pills and oftentimes the drugs fall out of their broken packages and end up all over the place. Another worker told me that at her desk, there were always old pills laying around in all the cracks of her desk from her job. However, because of this incident, the worker who had been discovered with the pill was automatically accused of stealing the pill and was fired immediately, he had been an employee good employee at Capital Returns for a long time, devoted to the company that he worked for, his coworkers often described him as an excellent, diligent worker who had always done what he was supposed to. Now without employment, he risks falling back on bills and destroying his credit as a result.

Now take this logic and put into a job like landscaper or welder. Suppose that a landscaper left the job site with dirt on his pants. Could he be rightfully fired for stealing the dirt from the job site? Or a welder who comes home covered in metal shavings. This sort of treatment of low wage workers that have no voice is simply unacceptable.

At Capital Returns, if you are a pregnant woman there is no consideration for your need for a job. Once workers have a baby and must go on maternity leave, they are required to re-apply for their job as if they were a new employee. During the time in which a mother has a baby, there is no consideration for the mothers well-being. When a mom has a newborn at Capital Returns, they go into labor not knowing if they are going to have a job when they are healthy enough to go back to work, leaving both the lives of the mother and the child up in the air.

Many of these workers are young women that have been hired through Wisconsin’s W-2 Program which generally starts them out as temporary employees. Capital Returns preys on these sorts of programs because it knows that the people who are hired through this program are poor and easily exploitable. Through this process, Capital Returns, by hiring the most exploitable laborers knows that it is much more easily able to patronize and marginalize these workers.

Intimidation

As a result of the employees at Capital Returns vocalizing their concerns at the workplace and getting no response from the company workers thought that the best idea would be to contact the union and see if they could get something organized.

The result of these actions were harsh. The company began having meetings and trying to intimidate and scare workers about the terrors of the union. The company went so far out of the way as to hire union busters whose full time job was to make sure that the workers didn’t form a union. Apparently, Capital Returns has the money to hire these expensive contractors to come in and break up unions, but cannot afford to give their workers even the most minimal of power in their workforce. These union busters held meetings that sought to spread lies and create a culture of fear in the workplace. Some workers were even threatened to run over in the parking lot if they decided to form a union. The company even started posting people to watch over the lunch room to see who was talking to whom in order to figure out which workers supported the union and which ones didn’t. After the company started doing this, they began to single out workers who they believed to support the union and conduct ‘random’ searches on them as they entered the work place. It also seemed that once these people were singled out, that they were watched much more closely at the workplace to find any sort of slip ups that could warrant discipline or suspension. Through this process, workers in the plant are scared, rumors about the union spread like wildfire as workers are pitted against one another at the job. Through these actions, the company was able to set up a culture of fear in the plant that implied that if you supported a union, there would be a much greater possibility of getting fired.

Because of this crippling fear that the employees face, many of them are afraid now to say how they really feel about how things are going at work. Only with your help, can we stand in solidarity with these workers. With this support behind them, we have the ability to change the way that Capital Returns treats its employees.

A Call for Action

We as a body of people called by our own sense of morality have an obligation to stand up for the voices of those who are drowned out. If we are to be a society based on the democratic values for all, then we need to first start at the root cause of fighting injustice. This is not simply an abstract call for help on creating an abstract better world but real people in the Milwaukee community that wish for nothing more than a voice in the places of their employment.

We as a people must be willing to listen to this silent voice, to stand up and make a calling on behalf of the low-wage worker. History books tell us that plantation work ended with the ended with the civil war almost 150 years ago. However, it can be assured that it is still here.

The forces that keep hard working poor in a state of poverty are relentless in Capital Returns. Workers must continue laboring at places where they have no voice, no opportunity to escape except complete destitution. In our society a place that prides itself on being the richest in the world how is it that companies like Capital Returns are permitted to continue labor practices like the ones that they do? Have we not evolved beyond that state?

The Capital Returns workers need you help. The more people who help to get the word out about what is going on at Capital Returns; the more people who attend our rallies; the more people that feel compassionate about the people in our very city about these issues; the better chance we have of creating justice in the workforce at Capital Returns.

Refections continued

2007-07-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

"People will be together only in a common wretchedness as long as each isolated being refuses to understand that a gesture of liberation, however weak and clumsy it may be, always bears an authentic communication, an adequate personal message." Raoul Vanetgem

Recently I have been thinking about a number of things that open up the question of isolation of people from each other. See this clip from a movie called Waking Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDWEkzaBULQ Recently I also saw the movie, You, be and Everyone we know. All discuss the process by which we cannot fully connect with the other people around us. Yesterday, I suggested that it might be out of fear which is the mechanism by which this communication is thwarted. But what are its effects on the human potential? That is the question that seems to show up in the praxis of everyday life.

Without others surrounding us and being able to fully connect with us, how can we build any life that is centered on meaning. New Age religion and philosophy may suggest that we look within ourselves to find our own authenticity. Likewise, other philosophers suggests that we look completely out into the world to find our authenticity; however this leads the problem of letting a completely materialistic and false economic system consume the very person we wish to become. The market sees us as a consumer, a simplistic machine that only exists to produce and consume with the intentions of only reproducing again. If we want the real answer for how we find authenticity and break free of the isolation that a post-modern benevolent world creates, I truly think that the only way in which we can find this is simultaneously looking inside and searching ourselves, while also completely immersing ourselves in the people to which the world has to offer.

Without the presence of both of these existences, this understanding crumbles under its own weight. So if we truly want to be human, you know as far as our own striving toward the maximum of human potential we must recognize and endorse the creative acts of all individuals no matter how insignificant they may seem. Things that show the truest forms of complete human identity. We must embrace these acts to truly understand. So much of the time we are asleep, and these acts don't make sense in the context of our narrowly understood roles and situations to which we form our identity. However, if we open our minds to these things. Maybe something beautiful may come out and true community (the one we have been looking for the whole time will arise).

Don't mean to sound like a pessimist, because I am certainly by no means one, but instead. I am optimistic at the reaches that the human potential has in store. When we reach this spot maybe we can be truly happy with ourselves.

Fear, Love and Freedom

2007-07-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not keeping up with this blog so well in the past couple of weeks. But I have some new observations to make that have been on my mind for a while.

One is the dichotomy between fear and love. About a week ago Elizabeth and I were riding our bikes down by the Lake. It was a beautifully poetic thing, what is great about when I go riding with people now its not about the ride and the training advantage that will be received by pedaling for the suggested time period, but instead its about discovery. Anyway, so in this spirit of discovery, we rode down to the lake, it was pristine day, easily distracted by the sights of people/places and things we were happy. We danced on the public art, threw our bikes down and threw ourselves into creativity. As we rode, we found a lighthouse down by the Summerfest Fairgrounds and got the great idea to see if we could climb up inside of it. However, we found it to be locked up and inaccessible. So we sat enjoying the water and watching the boats come into the harbor. Elizabeth thought it well to wave and smile at all the boats as they came in, after all, she had been doing this the whole ride, waving and smiling at all the people we passed along the trail, breaking the isolation that we each feel from each other like a hammer on ice. This friendly endeavor of waving and smiling lead to an amazing adventure. As she leaned over the dock, red hair blowing in the wind; free. A boater yelled out "hey, would you like a ride?" Elizabeth stood there apprehensive. But I had learned a few things since the tour, with respect to opening yourself up to strangers to let them be a part of your life. I urged Elizabeth to partake what some might call risky behaviour with a lone man on a boat. We climbed down from the dock loading our bikes into the sailboat for a ride. Wearing nothing but Lycra and bicycle jerseys we sat, meeting and greeting a stranger on a sailboat. Oh boy, what a glorious endeavor!

Peter was his name, a middle aged tanned scruffy sailor who was living the life that the suits downtown only wished they could attain through their corporate salaries. Peter was free, Peter was happy! Once a salesman who worked the white collar job soon found that the life he was living was not satisfying, after being broken up and shredded by the seemingly meaninglessness of the rat race, he left it all and found his way onto a sailboat, traveling around bodies of water in the way that every Jimmy Buffet fan wishes they could. Peter was free, he had been face to face with the life that we all get sucked into. First, you go to college, get into a lot of debt, get a car, get into more debt, get a good job, to pay that debt back, decide that you need a house, take out a mortgage and before you realized the iron chain that solidified you to modern society is sealed, your freedom is exchanged for the very things that you believe will make you free. Crazy how that happens eh? The way we are constructed into this mental and physical slavery.

Peter has a lot going for him; so many people when asked what they believe to be the meaning of life respond by saying that they want to be happy, and although to some extent, this may be a selfish pursuit, like Rousseau would say, you have to foster your garden and be happy before you can help others be happy.

So how do you find happiness? I don't think that it can be found through the traditional modes of everyday life that the "American Dream" suggests in fact just the opposite, through rejection of the very thing that we think will make us free is the path toward it.

Anyway, it was a great experience and I enjoyed every minute of it. As Elizabeth sat on the front of the boat letting the breeze flow through her hair like the fingers of God, Peter and I sat there, understanding each other. We sat sailing into the sunset with a shared mutual understanding about how this world works. One so simplistically revolutionary, that modernity must overcome great leaps and bounds to comprehend.

Freedom comes through breaking down the walls of fear that only work to serve the bourgeoisie. Fear divides us from ever trusting other people, they say that crime has risen, that we must lock our doors, carry a gun, not hitchhike, be scared of terrorists, planes, bombs and people. At each level, it isolates us further and further from making community and realizing collectively that were all stuck in this stupid rat race. Only when we break down these walls of fear that separate us from each other can we truly be happy. These walls only exist to isolate us from others so we don't realize that in the end, we are truly all one big human family, all individuals looking for effectively the same thing. We all want love, truth, happiness and community with others. But this cannot happen in a society so filled with fear.

As Elizabeth and I jumped onto a boat with a complete stranger, we took that first step at breaking down that fear complex that we have all been so craftily duped into following, and as we bid farewell to our new friend Peter, we realized how full life could be when we rejected fear and loved for once, embraced each other with open arms and yes, maybe even left ourselves vulnerable to being hurt.

"Your heart is a muscle the size of your fist, keep LOVING, keep fighting!"

Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

2007-07-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

I must say that the state of Wisconsin is hands down the best state that I have lived in so far and living in a lot of states, I can say that with some degree of confidence. The demeanor of people in the Midwest combined with a relatively more socially conscience public allows for Milwaukee WI to dominate all!

Milwaukee is the host of a tremendous amount of street festivals that take place throughout the summer. Literally every weekend there is a street blocked off that where people wander about, listening to eclectic mixes of music, all for the excuse of consuming alcohol. And best of all, its free! (for the most part) Milwaukee just finished a festival called Summerfest. Summerfest is the largest music festival in the world and judging by the venue space and that had more stages than you could comprehend that played music straight through for a week long. Thousands upon thousands of people crowded to see the bands that they simply could not get enough of.

It was amazing the demographics of people that show up to the festivals. Especially at Summerfest, the rivers, interstates and other natural and man made dividers that serve to eliminate people from interaction based on their race and classes are suddenly eliminated at these venues. Summerfest, because of its relatively high cost is somewhat limiting to the poorest because of its 15 dollar entrance price, but despite that, it is amazing the diversity. All of God's people converging on one highly concentrated place. For once, we are forced to look at the beautiful diversity and talent that the children of God possess. Truly amazing, for once, we are able to break down those walls and barriers that separate us.

These walls, mental voids that we have of anyone except the people that are just like us isolate us from reaching our furthest human potential. Only through the exposure to the entire population can we consider ourselves knowing. Democracy suggests that all people have a say in the political and structural situations in which they are apart of. Without this how can we truly know the human community, why are these walls here in the first place? So many of us go through life interacting only with the people that we feel absolutely comfortable with, I am no exception, but I think that in order to truly understand ourselves, others and the world around us we must be wiling to open our hearts and eyes to a vision that is wider than the diameters of our television set, our neighborhood, our friends and family. That is the goal in the end, at least for me maybe you'll find that it fits into your own as well.

The Journey (next day, do days matter anymore?)

2007-07-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day, after all the crap that I had been through over the past couple of days, the first thing I needed was a good day; a day without deep philosopical insights and drama. Its important to have days like this somtimes, where you don't dwell on the stuff like the meaning of life and stuff. You have to be balanced, where thinking too deeply all the time will only lead you to a complete loss of your other creative side. Completely strapped for cash, 40 dollars and a path of 500 miles would make the trip meger at best. You wouldn't beleive how much food you will eat when your body is used to burning tons of calories all day long through the cycles of the chainwheel and constant movement of rubber on tarmac. Burning on the high to "get the hell home" I traveled 135 miles.

The plan would be to try and take a little bit different way home than I had taken to Duluth. This objective certainly didn't prove to be very hard considering that Wisconsin, like the rest of the United States dominated by the car culture has created a vast infrastructure of pavement that creates pathways to even the most desolate of locations. (even the middle of the dense Minnesota woods) With no money I decided to try and budget 10 dollars a day to get on by. This budget ment that the stops in the small town diners would no longer be feasable, instead the diet was filled with a vegitarians delight of peanut butter and jelly bagels that I was quickly becoming very accoustomed to. Besides this what it was decided that the best way to get a load of calories to fuel my well traveled legs would be really high calorie cheap as piss junk food. The foods that best served this need was King Size Snickers bars, which had probably twice what any given persons saturated fat content should probably be for one day and of course Little Debbie snacks that costed only about 25-50 cents a peice. Coke and other caffenated drinks would also provide the fuel to give that extra added boost that always seemed needed when you rode down a vacant road aimlessly staring at nothing except the GPS display that slowing counted down the mileage to the nearest town with a gas station.

I must admit that coke and other fine caffenated products really do a good job of getting your ass moving fast! It will be like your completely dragging ass, almost incoherant of the beautiful unrestrained earth that surrounds you and then you see a beautiful angelic oasis in the distance, a sign beckoning to be seen by weary travelers such as yourself "BP" it screams loudly in a haze of green and yellow lights. What more could a person like yourself ask for. Your salt covered drugged out face reacts to the sweet nectar of cold brown overprocessed globalized liquid like a flower in the desert, soaking up every last nutrient that it has (not too many in the case of coke).
A king size snickers and a coke later your calculating out how long it would take you to do a 150 mile day. Generally however, like most drugs, this only lasts for about an hour and a half until your back to calculating a regular day.

Stopped around Ladysmith, WI today (actually I was probably about 10-12 miles away) Pulled off to the side of the road when no cars were looking and dived deep enough into the woods as to not be spotted by whoevers "land" I was trespassing on that night. Its not the best of campsites, having to clear out a spot in the brush is a pain, but it will do the job. Oh well, better get some sleep, another long day ahead tomorrow.

The Journey Day 6 (5/30/2007)

2007-07-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

So... I got up in the morning pigging out to the max on the buffet breakfast that the hotel that I stayed in the last offered. Stayed up late last night drinking a whole pot of coffee myself. My mind in complete overdrive. I told my story to the waitress at the Perkins and she was absolutely astounded. She hooked me up with a free meal maybe out of pity, maybe somthing else, I don't really know. The waitress probably about a year or so older than me talked outside just as I was leaving about where we stood in our lives, what the hell we were doing here and what do we do from there. As we sat outside at midnight, she leaned against the wall, as to take a long and needed break from the burden that life had bestowed upon her. The cigarette that lay their pinched in her calioused hands and myself were the only friends that either of us seemed to have at that particular fleeting moment in time. She told me of how she had hitchiked all the way from Colorado to Duluth about a year ago to start a new life. She worked two jobs, one down the street and worked the night shift at Perkins. As she told me about how she had ended up in Duluth there was obviously a deep amount of pain that surrounded the topic. She let out a soft wimper and tear as she told me what she was doing here. All of her dreams a youthful ambitions of doing somthing with her life had culminated in the occupation of a Perkins waitress. She felt so much more able, so much more potential fro all her talents. I told her what Scott had told me earlier that night about how people only remember the trainwreaks. She laughed, but told me that she remembered the good times to and that they were always her favorite stories. Maybe its a little bit of both I suppose, life being a process of ups and downs to which both can be equally memoriable. I do think though that the painful and hard ones make the good ones more appreciable. We said our goodbyes, and I knew deep down inside that she wanted me to go home with her that night and clense her sorrows, but I didn't quite feel obligated, with a girlfriend at home at the time it was just not an option.

After a long night of writing and reflection, I awoke. Got up in the morning pigging out to the max on the buffet breakfast that the Super 8 that I stayed in that night offered. I mean if they were gonna charge me 65 dollars to stay there for one damn night I was going to eat the piss out of their "free" breakfast. The waitress at Perkins suggested that I take the city bus up to the airport, from there I could rent a car and drive out to where my bike was and be on the road again by midday. I negociated the city bus route for a couple of hours until I found myself up at the airport in Duluth. I jumped on the bus and the first time completely took it the wrong way to the end of town opps. And after a long string of stops at the mall and downtown Duluth I ended up at the airport a few hours later. When I got to the airport, nobody would let me rent a car without a 'credit' card. Apparently "debit" cars just won't work and despite my somber story that I had for all the rental car folks company policy was company policy and my dreams of being able to get a rental car were quickly drying up. Thinking that I could possiably apply for and instantly recieve a credit card, I asked one the rental car attendants where the closest bank was. She gave me directions and I walked for a couple of miles with my messenger bag and sleeping bag until I found the bank. Apparently, it takes 7 to 10 days to receive a credit card and there is no such thing as an instant one. Shucks, well what am I going to do now? So I decide that the next best thing is to take a cab. 70 dollars later the cab takes me to the end of the dirt road where I can hike out to find my bike. I start hiking and plan on using my GPS along with peices of paper from my journal to mark out where I've been out in the woods and where the entrance where the hunting cabin lies and trail ends. Luckily when I dumped my bike I was able to get the slightest of a signal to be able to mark where my bike was so that I would be able to come back and get it. So I start hiking and plan on using my GPS along with the peices of paper from my journal to map everything out. Jumping into the woods with extreme caution, I can feel the spine tingling fear that I had the day before as I entered this situation. The last thing I wanted was to end up in the same position that I was the day before. And yet it happened that way.... After scowering the woods for about 3 hours in search of my bike, I could not get an accurate reading from the GPS and although I could find my way back to the end of the trailhead, I could not find my bike in the dense woods. I was defeated. Here I was with no bicycle and 15 miles away from the nearest house the taxi had left along time ago and without a a car and a bike, all I had was my own two feet. The only option that I saw that I had left was to say screw this and go home. The problem is that before I get home I have to hike 15 miles to the end of this damn logging road to get help. With soaking wet feet from hiking through marshes I walked and by the time I got done with my walk I was completely haggard and defeated.

I found a lady outside mowing her lawn. Now this the first person that I've seen in 6 hours (like yesterday) and I am more than excited. Barely being able to walk anymore because of all the blisters that have accumulated on my feet I greet her. She looks as if she is scared of me, and given the way that I probably looked I wouldn't blame her. She calls out her husband who hears my story and rather than letting me use his phone to call someone in town, he feels highly confident that finding the lost bike will be no problem whatsoever, especially since its marked by GPS. We all jump in his pickup with his 4 wheeler loaded in the back and drive out to the hunting lodge. Now apparently he has some sort of super GPS that can see through trees and when he sticks the coordinates into his machine, the bike is found within 15 minutes. Its absolutely amazing! Here is me thinking that the Snake my favorite bicycle in the world is completely gone for good! And he finds it! We load it onto the back of his 4 wheeler and drove back to the end of the road. Andy, the guy that help me out more than I could have ever known put my butt back on my feet. He was late for his softball game so he quickly had to leave shortly there after. But I was back on my feet, aboard the Snake. Barely being able to walk because of the blisters on my feet the size of Texas, I rolled my body onto the saddle of the Snake and started pedaling back toward Duluth. By the time I arrived in Duluth it was rainy, cold and misreable. Soon I had to concede to another hotel room. 80 more dollars down the drain. Throughout this experience I had spent 210 dollars and in a matter of 2 days had spent a majority of my budget for the entire trip. It was time for the Snake and I to head back home.

The Journey Day 5 (5/29/2007)

2007-07-05T04:30:00.001-07:00

Today was certainly a wild day, a day that will never be forgotten throughout the process of my lifetime. I sit in a Perkins at 10:30 at night bike less in Duluth, MN. My bike sits 35 miles north in the middle of the woods somewhere out as far away as existance stands. But despite my misrebile situation, in the end I stand with a renewed beleif in the idea of people being natrually good.

It all started with a wrong turn onto a logging road that lead into the middle of nowhere (like really the middle of nowhere!) Thinking that it would take me to another road I rode all the way to the end (about 15 miles) not being from Minnesota, I had know idea what a logging road was and what its purpose was. The thing is that logging roads don't go anywhere! Except out into the middle of nowhere where they clearcut a large section of woods and leave! Eventually the road dead ended. Not wanting to turn around and go all the way back to the end of the road, my headstrong brain told me that I should keep going forward. I looked at my map and spotted a road that looked like it was only half a mile from my current location and if I could just get there, all would be fine. Only a half a mile, I would have to bushwack my way through the woods, but it really wasn't that far, I could make it....

So I started bushwacking my way through the woods to the road that I thought was only a half mile North. As I started walking through the woods, they became so dense that the my GPS did not work and having no direction of where I was headed, I was in deep crap. I wandered around the woods in circles not knowing where I was headed. Soon the bike became to laborious to carry though the woods and in a complete state of panic, your mind tells you really stupid crap to do. In a panic similar to the one probably felt by the kids in the Blair Witch Project, I ditched my bike and started walking, packing everything in my messenger bag that I felt I would need if I had to survive in the woods by myself for a couple of days. It was the real life little scenarieo that they always give us in those team team building exercises where if your plane crashed in the middle of the woods what would you bring with you? So I packed food waterbottles, a sleeping bag and thermals to sleep in. After walking through the woods for about
3 hours in circles, I eventually found a trail that lead me out to a road. It was a logging road, but it was more than I had going for me in miles. Luckily after walking down the logging road for an hour, a truck with a retired guy from Minnesota who spent his summers there and winters in Flordia, picked me up in my frantic wave. He took me to the nearest town which was about 15 miles from where I was at the time. I rejoiced, I hadn't seen another human being for 6 hours and he was my saviour.

When we arrived to town, I sat in Cotton, MN. Now I assume that you've probably never heard of Cotton. All that Cotton has is a gas station, a bar and diner. What was I to do now? I had no idea, with no bike and nothing but my messenger bag and sleeping bag I was kinda screwed. After soliticiting all the truck drivers in the diner for a ride back to Duluth, I had no luck. I went outside to where the highway passed through and sat, trying to hitchhike my way back. I figured that if I could get to Duluth, I could at least gain my senses and figure out what to do next. However, hitch-hiking was not working. There was one other option here in Cotton, and that was the bar.

I walked into the bar sat down, and had a beer praying that someone here could take me back to Duluth. At the bar I met Joe, Bob and Scott. Joe had a way of laughing that was like no other, he always seemed to laugh louder, longer and harder than the rest of the bar combined. Tall slender with the wrinkling tan that only spending to much time outside working will give you, I was greeted with hospitality. Bob was Vietnam veteran who is currently unemployed, but has spent most of his life working on the railroad building grades up the hills that allow the trains to go up and down without sliding. Bob was probably about 70 years old had probably weighed only 95 lbs but could drink the weight of someone twice his size and still hold himself up to convince a cop that he was sober if he ever got pulled over for a DUI. These folks didn't care who I was or where I came from they had been through it all, at that moment, I was in their territory and one of them I had a misreable story that gave me initiation. The bar was full of white, blue collar Minnesotianians. When the bar opened and they all came in, nobody knew each other, but after guzzing beers together for a couple of hours, they were the best of friends all with dreams of women who were willing to share some loving. Flirtation with the women across the bar was endless. The stories of hardship and misery came natural serving as complex pickup lines that any college frat boy could not even dream to imagine. Each one had a story, a bad relationship, a war that each had been through and all of these stories unfolded between the shots of vodka and pints of cheap beer. Suddenly the completely screwed position that I was in dosen't seem so bad. After telling my story, I was nervous, scared and not knowing what the hell I was gonna do however, my life has been a breeze compared to these hardships. Scott revived me by telling me that it was the train wreaks that people always wanted to hear. "Nobody cares if you made it all the way up to Canada and back without any problems, what do you have to write about then? What story is there to tell?" exclaimed Scott. My social location in relation to theirs is distant, these aren't the kind of people that were supposed to be talking to. These folks have no networks, no ladders to climb, no rich friends that are going to be able to help you out on the road to what our society calls success.

Scott, whose name I learned from the weathered stiched on name that clung to his collared shirt turned out to be my saviour that day, from the onset I calculated Scoot to be a drunk deadbeat failure who constantly drank to must and inquired about the closest titi bars and constantly thought about which girl in the bar that night would be most likely to give him a blowjob. I soon learned that all my original perceptions about Scott were completely flawed at best. I had thought and wrote off this guy the second that I walked in the bar and he turned out to be the man I could count on. He was the only one in the bar that was headed to Duluth that night. "Things just never happen the way that they are supposed to, and if they do life is boring." Was Scotts concensus, Scott had worked hard all of his life as an HVAC technican and had seen it all. From his long string of love lost, money trouble and alchohol problems Scott had learned this lesson early. The clashes, the miscalculations and crap that goes down in this world is where the human spirit must thrive, only when we are at our lowest can we make sense of what the good is. We need that scale to appreciate the good. As Scott bought Bob and I another drink, we discussed this, the clamor, the battle scars, failed marriages, kids that they wished still loved them. These folks in many ways were aleinated from me and my experience, but somehow I felt in community.

We sat in the bar for hours just talking aimlessly, it was beautiful. Could I really have not learned anything through these college years spent sucking up to every last social theory as if it was God. No! social theory was right here in the trenches and everyone in that bar knew more of it than I ever learned. I may have had a peice of paper that certified that I knew somthing but these people had experience in life, worth more than any stupid diploma could ever certify. They had found somthing that I could only hope to acheive. In many respects are current connected and fast moving globalized world would have thrown them away in the trash, they were racist, sexist and hard, but had more knowledge than I could touch. They had never lived in that American dream and knew that striving for it was as useless as walking in circles of woods.

As Scott and I drove down the road to Duluth, we talked about the state of nirvana and how to acheive it, women and men, theological basis in Christianity and Buddhism and everything in between. His words were so profound much of the time that I could hardly respond, his basis for everything he discussed was based on pure life experience, all I had done was read this stuff in a book. I didn't talk much, just listened and soaked up the wisdom of a man who had seen it all, somthing that I couldn't touch. We talked about this thing called a thin space. A thin space is a thing constructed by Christians that serves as a nirvana like state, but can be associated with Christianity as to not offend Jesus and all the higher folks in the Christian faith. A thin space is a place where everything around you is completely connected with the world around you. The state of christian nirvana. Scott told me that he experienced his first thin space 6 years ago out fishing with a few of his friends. He asked if I had and unfortunately I could not respond, I guess somtimes when riding you feel completely connected, but not to the extent that Scott had exclaimed. I wanted to feel that 'thin space' I wanted an escape like a thin space to find somthing truly meaningful that had so ellusively elluded me for the past 22 years.

Scott dropped me off at a Perkins in Duluth after the drive and sent me off with his address to write him, 20 dollars for good luck and a handshake. We would probably never see each other again, but I had learned so much in that car drive, I wanted that experience and I had learned so much. From Scott, I learned more in half a day than I would have on this whole trip if I had reached my planned destination to Vogeaurs. Just as Robert Frost said to follow the road less traveled, the opportunities of doing so puts you in places that you would have never known. Profound!

The Journey (the next day)

2007-07-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Today was a day to remember our veterans. I wished to have found a town where the Veterans Day Parade would be passing, but unfortunately I am so far into the middle of nowhere that such a town does not exist within 100's of miles. Instead of Veterans, I was greeted by a salute from all the big plastic bears that northern Wisconsin has. It seems that just about every place of tourist business has a big plastic bear right in front to greet you. What kind of greeting this may entail may not be what one may expect; I'm pretty sure that if they were alive they would be very happy to eat ya!

I traveled from the southernmost section of Chequamguion National Forest all the way up to Brule, WI, a journey that took 135 miles of earth to pass beneath. The ride today was absolutely goregous. The wind was out of the south which allowed me lots of miles to ride, the high at 71 and with a clear blue sky above, it made for the most perfect of riding conditions. The scenary differed greatly from what I had passed through in the past, instead of farm fields that went on for what seemed like forever, I spent the whole day riding through National and State Forests.

I had a had a couple of reflections to make that I sort of began to conceptalize of today. One was that I beleive that riding a bike over long distances is hands down the best way in the world to get around, if you can make it as far as I have on a bicycle, the wheels are only limited to the degree in which the imigination of the rider can decide. However, I kept thinking back to a project that I finished for my final in social psycology where one of my main conclusions in advertising of the bicycle was the great paradox that the bicycle lies at the center of post-modernity. In many of our lives we are looking for somthing that allows us to escape the modern economic driven society that we live in. We look for wide open spaces to escape to, ones in which modernity has not quite touched yet. The great paradox though lies in the fact that you need a modern machine, (in this case a cool bike with all sorts of gadgets)created by the industries and man made mechanisms in order to acheive this state. As we try to escape into a world that is void of society and really see the world as God made it, we bring all of our stuff created in the very society that we are trying to escape from with us. So where is truth to be found in all of that ambiguity? I don't really know what are we really trying to prove if were not really escaping from that which we go to such great lengths to do? Do we have to be complete and naked nativists catching and hunting our way through the wild to acheive this mission in the end? I don't think so. I think to a certain extent we have to live and thrive to a certain extent in this hypocricy, afterall we are human, imperfect in any number of ways. But I guess thats why we go on journeys to find something out about ourselves or the people that surround us that we didn't quite understand before. Not quite sure though....

The bicycle though does offer something special. The bicycle works on a mode of simplistic pulleys, and despite what modern technology does to it, it will always be a chain, sprockets, two triangles and wheels, which receive their ability to move solely on the individual initiative that guides this vehicle. Through its simplicity, it is highly revolutionary. It begs to question our car centered oil consuming society if used for that method. As I ride down the road and talk to people along the way I find that there is a different level of connectivity that happens between the bicycle and the earth that simply does not exist with the automobile. You can hear the automobile and its unnatural mechanized sound from miles away if your in the middle of nowhere. This disturbing sound finds itself in contention with the natural world, disturbing the tranquil sounds that the natural world has to offer. The bicycle has a quietness, that is not abrasive in the way that the automobile is. The bicycle moves in harmony with the world surrounding it.

Another observation that gave me great optimism today was the fact of seeing the limits of globalization and realizing that it hasn't quite yet conquered every facet of the human world. In the modern capitalistic state, capital is driven by one sole thing which is profit. Through this process, the cogs of globalization work as well. However, in these areas the profit motive is simply not there because nobody except a few locals live here! Today, because my ride took a route that didn't involve spending much time in the city. What I found was a world that has not been globalized. The towns that I passed were authentic. Each town was different from the one next to it, each had its own flavor and originality that could not be taken. Many of us live in this state of nostalgia about the good ole' days where each town is different. Clearly these are the same individuals who have been consumed by the very things that they complain about. They support the modes of globalization while at the same time wishing to get back to "the good ole' days. We remain in the places where creativity is a lie and thrive, consumed by this disingenuous atmosphere. I am just as guilty of this very thing and it took being this far out in the middle of nowhere for me to realize it. Once you break off the highways, and the routes more traveled, globalization falters and a more straightforward moment arrives.

Labor in the Pulpits

2007-07-03T13:50:00.001-07:00

You may have heard me talking about the Labor in the Pulpits program in many of my blogs, but I don't think that I ever quite had a chance to explain the program.

Labor in the Pulpits is a National Program that brings speakers to Congregations across all different faith backgrounds to discuss issues of economic justice (i.e not treating workers like crap and giving them jobs that allows for them to take care of their families) The Labor in the Pulpits program tries to discuss how important these issues are to our own different faith perspectives. God, at least to my knowledge said that the greatest of all commandents was to love your neighbor as yourself. Much of the time our religous brothers and sisters are quick to forget that. The goal of Labor in the Pulpits is to remind them that God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed.

There is tons of scripture from every faith tradition that discusses the importance of treating workers fairly, Labor in the Pulpits draws off of that. So every Labor Day Sunday, which somehow seems awfully fitting, speakers come to churches across the country to talk about the importance of worker justice in their congregations. Congregations from every faith perspective participate, from Buddhist Temples, to Mosques to Synagogues to Churches, we all stand in solidarity with the exploited on this day.

This is what I do, this is who I coordinate. It may be easy to say that these issues don't belong in the church, but if churches wish to strive for peace, they must be willing to work for justice.

So that is the program, if your intrested in getting your congregation involved, your welcome to give me a call 414 771 7541.

Peace Always,

Jon

Millions of People

2007-07-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most important aspects of doing organizing is the idea of communication. Communication is essential to every and all degrees of organizing. After all, organizing is about people power, not corporate power, so what activists continually draw off of is the power to bring many people together around a common good cause. In a globalized community, bringing people together is much more complex than it was 100 years ago, when people were brought together through direct interaction through calling a meeting.

Today, things are different yesterday, I probably made 100 phone calls to different people throughout the community wanting to know if they would be intrested in having a Labor in the Pulpits program at their congregation. Although I talked to so very many people, I came to the realization that organizing is about relationships, and the new avenues that we have for communication leave us with a sense of alienation from not only ourselves, but the people that we talk to. The internet, the phone and all other forms of communication can never be nearly as effective as the face to face, sit down one on one conversation. On the phone, through the internet, we mask our identities from one another, and although it is highly efficient, much of the time it leaves us wondering who or what the person that we were talking to is all about. These forms of communication are good if your not really looking to get to know somebody, but if we wish to find out who and what the people in our community are all about, they leave us wanting.

In human interaction so much of the time, we only focus on what we see as seemingly important so much of the time. We discuss at our places of work what tasks need to be accomplished with our co-workers, at home, we take this socailly constructed philosophy home to our friends and relationships and simply continue it. We drive ourselves to such a great degree of efficiency that we get lost in what is really important in the end. The feelings thoughts and emotions that each person feels, but never has the chance to completely vocalize because of the way that things have been structured. It sort of seems like a great loss to me, such a great chance to interact on a level that is not clich'e or efficient. In these interactions, we feel, we move and we change in mostly positive fashion.

The Journey Day 4

2007-07-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

Well hello! I sit here in the Southern most section of Chequamegon National forest staring at the really neat looking campfire in front of me. What is it about fire that makes us people so mesmerized by its dance. It seems that you can stare at a fire for hours upon hours without getting bored. It always has a new dance, or maneuver to display to its viewer. Its kinda like bicycle touring I guess, you never get bored, the landscape has a way of keeping your attention and making you question what is just around the next turn.I'm sitting here 300 miles into the ride and my legs feel tired, but will still certainly be able to handle the roads ahead. Today, the winds came strongly out of the west which made this the first day of riding into a constant headwind. Yuck! Its amazing how on a loaded touring bike the speeds that you lose because of the winds! Instead of traveling down the road at 16-17 mph, I was struggling to hold 12 mph which I was thinking was the pace of a 5 minute miler! So yep I was going pretty slowwwww....

Got a little turned around today despite having my super fancy GPS system to aid me along the way. In the end it was only about 10 miles in the wrong direction, but never the less, it was irriating. I guess its really dumb to be irriated about it. Afterall, the journey was never about the destination at the end but the ride that got me there.

The Snake (my worthy bicycle) had alot of complaining to day today between breaking a spoke in the rear wheel and the hub starting to make a weird creeeeky noise. I think that she probably finds the riding around the city more to suit her style than these all day meanderings through the woods. Hopefully, I should be arriving to Duluth in a couple of days where I think that I can probably find a bicycle shop with some needed parts.

Ms. Reutsch made me pancakes this morning before I set off. People like Ms. Reutsch have a way of restoring a faith that people are natrually good. To think that a complete stranger would be let into someone's house, allowed to sleep and be fed says alot about our compassion to treat others with dignity and respect.

Unfortunatly, didn't get a chance to chat with many people along the way today. As I travel north, the population density seems to dwindle. For as beautiful as this land is up here, there is not very many people enjoying it. I assume that this is probably a good thing, because it seems like when some of the most prestine bits of nature are completely opened up for the world to see, society feels the need to bring all its extra crap with it to make the area domesticated. We bring our campers, then come the restraunts, comedy bars and minature golf stands. All of the sudden, capitalism has a new opening a place to make profit, and the very reasons that everyone came to that original place in the first place suddenly disappear.

I did stop in Marshfield for French Fries and a frosty for lunch at a Wendy's. Now that is a funny sight right there. An all lyricaed up superfit touring cyclist stepping into probably one of the most unhealthy places one could possiably eat. I mean, I was probably the only person less than 250 lbs in that joint! Oh well, the mosquetos are biting like crazy so I think that its about time to coucoun myself up in this sleeping bag and get some much needed rest.

The Journey Day 3

2007-07-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

Another day in the saddle. I think that I must have thought all day about what to write in this journal entry. Would I talk about the rains that pleted down on me for most of the day, or the feelings of stepping into a warm shower at a kind soul's house after stinking it up for a few days.However, probably the most fundamental realization that I made today was how small we are. This is somthing that were told over and over again by our society but it never really seems to sink in. We still tend to be driven by our egos and ourselves at every level of the journey that each and every one of us is taking. I came to this realization after traveling 100 miles on the bike today into an amazing tailwind, and as I was getting closer to the destination for the night. I looked at the map and could put my fingers in between where I had started now and where I will stand when I get to Voyageur National Park; your body seems to want to tell you that you've already ridden to the edge of the world and back.At the beginning of the ride today, I went through vast wide open farming fields, where you could see for miles almost seeing the curvature of the earth as you gazed into the landscape. You could see the dust being picked up by the wheels of a tractor spiral through the air. It seemed that the earth just floated through the air, only to be guilded to where it was headed by the winds. When you got closer you saw the drivers of the tractors, unlike the dust, both you and the farmer driving the tractors, despite the environment were being guided by somthing besides the environment. We were being guided by somthing other earth's desire. Ambition toward the goal, ambition toward getting the field plowed were what we labored toward; the dust just played in the wind, no direction, all play.The farmers however seemed to me to be the most friendly people in the entire world, for being guided by some ambition, they seemed to be the most laid back easy going guys that you could have ever seen. Every farmer decided that waving and smiling was the correct way of passing someone else on the way to their goal. Funny when compared to the cycling community that I encounted leaving Milwaukee, you would think that a brother in arms like myself riding my bike would at least get a wave or a smile back... I bet that less than 1/2 of the cyclists that I passed would never consider responding to a wave, while every farmer would. As I got north of Berlin, the scenary completey changed. You also realize the intracies of mother earth, how she changes and how she molds her viewable landscape. No longer were the vast fields of Southern Wisconsin embodying my every turn, but instead I was the emergence of somthing called "Pine Trees" the farms turned into lakes and hills, the roads became twistier. Beautiful to see the change.Went to a website called warmshowers.com before I left and found a list of people that I could possiably stay with if need be. As I entered Wisconsin Rapids, I gazed down at the list of names that I had accumulated and discovered two names of people in Wisconsin Rapids. Bank shot! I called the first on and Ms. Ann Reutsch was more than happy to take me in. Ms. Ann is a Nursing Professor at a small technical school in Wisconsin Rapids and spends her summers bicycle touring. Her goal is to ride her bicycle in all 48 contential states. She lives with and takes care of both of her parents. After i got all showered up we sat in the living room and talked for about an hour about our past experiences with cycling/ life and "Creating the Army of Peace," Somthing that have idealistically thought about for a long time.Good day on the bike I suppose.

2007-07-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

So the great trip began today (this was all about 4 weeks ago), 1300 miles to the Canadian border of Minnesota and back. The destination has been chosen, the wheels are now rolling and the good times a quest toward self discovery begins today. After not being able to find out what the world wants of a person yet I set out in the quest to stand up, put my neck out and break out of the disillusionment of a college education that is in so many ways alienated from the actual world in its totality. Hopefully, I will find what the American spirit is all about. I think it will be found on these roads.The trip so far has been small town of about a thousand to small town of about a thousand. Many of these towns don't really have much to offer to globalized citizen, no wireless Internet, no instant gratification, but in them rests a certain ease and relaxation that does not exist in the city. If theres one things that these towns do offer its a shit-ton of American flags. These folks sure do love America, but what it is that they love? A college education has in many ways taught me the fuck ups and processes of exploitation that the American life has wreaked on the rest of the world. I had to know....So after riding for about 85 miles and it getting to be about dinner time, I found myself entering the town of Terisa, WI. I was famished, with all the calories that had been put into my body before had disappeared on the rolling pavement of Wisconsin's southern country roads. Terisa didn't offer much, the whole town consisted of a Shell station that advertised pizza. It wasn't quite what I wanted, but it would have to do, after all, my body was eating itself. So I rolled up to the gas station ready to eat every piece of pizza that Shell offered. As I dismounted my bicycle, I found that a little old lady named Maggie was standing just outside collecting donations for the American Legions. Now there is something about a loaded touring bike that breaks down all social barriers that divide us from one another. People know that your on a journey to do something quite special. The curiosity that this brings allows you to talk to people that, had you not had the bike, you would never think twice about talking to. This was the first time I ran into this concept and would only prove to be more reinforced throughout the rest of the ride. Maggie asked me about my trip and as I explained the journey, her body language suggested that “this kid is crazy” but at the same time, deep down inside, she knew exactly why I was doing it. She reminisced about the days when “she was my age,” so free and ready to tackle the world. She told me about her grandsons who were out figuring out their own journeys. We talked for about 20 minutes, while she collected donations. This encounter also became the first time I realized in full the power that local knowledge had on keeping you well fed and safe. I asked her about good food and the area and she suggested that just down the road in the next town there was a place called Sam's which had notoriously good food. So I decided to can the gas station and bite the bullet until I got to Lomira where Sam's was located. When I got to Sam's it seems that I had not been the only one informed of this amazing little place. I bet that the whole town of Lomira was there! Apparently Friday night was all you can eat fish night at Sam's and judging by the packed crowd and big bellies of the customers, this place had to stock all the fish in Lake Michigan to keep these patrons happy. When I sat down in my cycling clothes although the restaurant was packed, I drew immediate attention. I sat down, and the waitress came over and took my drink order. All my dehydrated body wanted at that time was tons and tons of water. After about 4 glasses that she couldn't seem to fill fast enough, she conceded to bringing a pitcher my way. After dinner was over, just about everyone in the whole restaurant knew what my plans were and wished me luck along the way. A couple even came outside to check out my bike and ask me various questions about what different things do and how I was “actually” going to ride 1300 miles in 2 weeks. The people were more friendly than ever and I think everyone had a different route that they suggested that I take to get up North. I left Sam's well fed and on my first day I was beginning to figure out what this country actually stood for, apart from the politicians, the policies and the structure. Soon afterward I found a place to camp and bushwacked my way back into the woods so I couldn't be seen and stealth camped my way through the night in Lamatrine, WI. A good day....

The Journey

2007-07-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

So I started off on this trip. With a destination in mind. However, the destination was not really the point in the end, but the times that coincided with the trip were what in the long run matter. Upon graduation, I moved to Milwaukee, partially because of an internship and partially because of a girl. Soon I learned that everything that I have been told about the useless liberal arts degree was coming true. After two interviews with jobs that I thought would be right up my alley, I found myself short changed and rejected. What I did have was a little money in my pocket, a couple of bicycles a somewhat positive outlook on life, and completely new world to embark on. However, when I arrived to Milwaukee, the internship still doesn't start until next Tuesday. In this time I had one thing to do and that was fundraise for the organization that I was about to work with. However, after a couple of weeks, that job was complete and I found myself living a life for the next couple weeks without direction and without a goal. Its funny how these things define who you are. When your in school, your goal and destination is the degree that is held up above you for 4 or 5 years or so. Then, your supposed to go out and find a job that provides you a meaning after that. What is the case is that you better be doing something, or you become one of the most irritable, depressed people that you could be. The Mr. Hyde of all your idiosyncratic attributes soon finds itself creeping out into everything that you do, your human interactions, the way that you feel about yourself, and the lens in which you view the world.After about a week and a half of dwelling in this nasty and brutish state of emotion, I felt the effects of it on everything that I did. After looking for temporary jobs in various places trying to use my college degree as an advantage, I wasn't getting anywhere. What I needed was a destination, a goal in which I could place my own identity. You find meaning in the things that you do, the goals in which you set for yourself, and in the end, despite how shallow it may seem, they provide the essentials to live a life with anomie. So how was I to solve this ridiculous predicament? And that is when I envisioned "The Journey." The Journey was planned in about a 1/2 a day in absolute desperation of the need for something meaningful. The Journey would be a bicycle touring trip up to Voyageaurs National Park in Northern Minnesota right up at the Canadian border and then back home. From Milwaukee to Voyageaurs, I figured that it would probably be about 1300 miles and take about 2 weeks. After carefully planning the trip (or maybe not) I packed 3 bicycle jerseys, 3 pair shorts, a sleeping bag, food, a camera, a tarp and an optimistic view that suddenly meaning was revived. The goal and the destination were in front of me, the bike packed, and with it a renewed reason for living. What follows is the journal entries that I wrote along the way. These reflections were what I thought on the seemingly endless roads of the Wisconsin countryside. I hope you enjoy.

The Riverwest Co-op

2007-06-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

There are some things that one should not miss if they visit Milwaukee or live here. The Riverwest Co-Op is one of these things. The Co-op is located at the corner of Fratey and Clarke Street and provides a heart to an eclectic neighborhood. The Co-op is run almost completely by volunteers, to which I am a part. Every Saturday morning, I head down to the Co-op and begin a good morning by volunteering in the kitchen. Most of the time I spend my time washing dishes and taking orders, but I have deep aspirations of learning to be the ultimate vegan cook that my co-workers have achieved.

There are a couple of people who I volunteer with that provide a front to serve tons of famished community members good and tasty vegetarian treats. The Co-op serves as not only a restaurant, but a community grocery store that only stocks the finest fruits, vegetables, juices and grains.

The people that I work with are a group of dreamers. Guys that live their lives trying to find something that allows them to break away from the profit driven society to find something authentic. All of us share this vision to a certain extent and we live, serving as the backpedaling force that tries to stop the alienation that we feel within ourselves and the people that we surround ourselves with.

First there is Zack. Zack is a quirky little guy who's smile never leaves his face. Zack a genuinely kind guy with a good heart works on creating the condiments for all the dishes that we serve at the co-op. Residing from up state rural Wisconsin, his family has some land in the middle of the national forests up around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The small town good bigheartedness is certainly evident in Zack's personality and reflects to some extent the hospitality of small town America.

Then there is Greg, Greg is the only full time kitchen guy that actually gets paid to work there. Greg is a native of Boston and avid collector of zines, artwork and music. A couple of times a month he opens up his house to a gallery display in the living room of his small house. People from throughout the community come and jam pack themselves into this small room to see the spectacle of artwork shining from the creativity of a social group that has created its own society amongst the toils and tears of this seemingly degraded and used up world. An immortal class as Culley would describe it. Greg has been a resident of the Riverwest Community for about four years.

Finally there is Rawles. I don't know Rawles's first name but he really adds to the environment of the kitchen as well. Rawles is Greg's right hand man, who takes over the stove when he shows up, allowing Greg to catch up on the paperwork that needs to be done. Rawles is quiet and seems to live his life in a mediative state. There is something in Buddhism that involves being very aware of exactly what you are doing whether that is washing dishes or making food. The trick is to do this in a meditative state where the one and only thing on your mind is doing exactly what is in front of you. Rawles exemplifies this very well, when the kitchen gets busy and the rest of are running like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out what is going on. Rawles is concentrated, relaxed and intentional about the job in front of him. He remains in this ascetic state no matter how crazy things get.

That is the crew that I work with. Each and every one of them offers a new degree of fun to the job. All are genuinely good individuals which make volunteering a joy.

Internet Radio

2007-06-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

Its Friday, and been a long week. Yea! Much of the time in the world of activism you get really zoned in on what you are working on to the point that you forget about everything else that is going on in the world of activism. Focus on the task in front of you is certainly important, but you can't forget to take a step out of that world and see the bigger picture.

I want to talk here about the need to Support the Internet Radio Equality Act. What is going on right now is that Congress just passed legislation that makes internet broadcasters have to pay for every person that tunes into their radio station. What is so neat about the internet is that it allows for the free flow of information across seemingly equitable streams. Internet Radio, especially the little radio stations that survive on shoe string budgets don't have the ability to pay these royalty rates. If we don't speak up now internet radio, at least for the small guys will effectively disappear leaving big corporate music radio intrests to have a monopoly on what we listen to. I say screw that! I don't wish to listen to a bunch of top 40 Billboard crap for the rest of my life and I am sure that you feel the same way. There are so many neat ecletic genres of music that would never get heard if it wasn't for these small independent radio webstreamers.

The Internet Radio Equality Act reverses this process and allows for small independent webstreamers to continue to play creative, fun and innovative music that dosen't make you puke. Please support this legislation by contacting your Congressman immediately.

Please visit:

http://www.savenetradio.org

An arguement for Unions

2007-06-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

You can never make everybody happy, no matter what you do. In the world of activism that is certainly the case. The world revolves around, or at least for me around a careful set of compromises that attempt to negociate the precariousness of everyday life. In activism, is always a group that you are "fighting" against. Generally these sorts of people aren't exactly your best bud drinking buddy kind of types. When unions start challenging your 'bottom line' your bound to not be on the same page with them. Money is not only money, but power and much of the time it is power or lack of it that can oftentimes be more threating than the loss of monetary wealth.

The purpose of the union is to take power/money (however you see it) from the rich and give it to the poor. The union is the Robin Hood of the modern capitalist society, an insitution that ensures that democracy continue to be upheld. In the way that our governmental structure is set up, we have a system of checks and balances that seeks to limit the amounts of power that each governmental balance has. It was Milton Friedman, author of Captialism and Freedom, was one of the largest proponents of free market economics said that "The great threat to freedom is the concentration of power." Yet laizee-faire capitalism without unions creates just that; unions provide the democracy and checks and balances system in the structure of the free market that check the concentration of power.

Unions provide democracy for the free market. They diffuse the power that is so willingly taken up by the what C Wright Mills calls "the power elite." So there you go, unions are not only inherantly a democratic method of checking power, but they respect the dignity of the people that are powerless.

In my last post, I talked about the workers who were trying to organize here in Milwaukee. Without monetary sway and power to speak up about the conditions of their workplace, within the microcosm of the workplace, they had no voice. The union gives collective bargining power and allows all the workers at the plant to combine their power/monetary resources and take a stand for themselves.

Sure there are corrupt unions out there who aren't really out there in the best intrest of every man woman and child, I will not argue that unions are the perfect solution for bringing about a idealistic/utopian world, but given the pragmatic nature of the economic structure that we have in place, its the best solution that we have at our disposal.

Peace Always,

Jon

Liberated Office Monkey

2007-06-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

(That's me over to the side)

Well, this job is going okay, most of the time I just feel like an office monkey developing materials behind a screen of a computer. If this is what organizing is all about, maybe I won't be one for as long as I thought. However, I don't think that this is the case when I get off the ground with this project.

Yesterday, I had my first opportunity to attend a union organizing meeting. This is where the joys of activism that I have been looking for happen. Don, a middle aged white hard nosed tough guy union organizer stood in the basement of a congregation here in Milwaukee. His face showed the signs of wear that fighting for justice may cause, but still remained full of energy and resilient in front of a crowd of black listeners. The people who had came were tired of being treated like animals with no sense of dignity at the workplace. There job consists of handling old drugs, logging them and disposing of them properly. Many of these drugs were not safe to be handling and workers at the plant are being sucepted to needless degrees of dangers at the workplace. They were angry about the positions that they were being put in and for justifiable reasons.

The passion of these workers was unlike anything I had seen. These people, who were beat up and kicked around like trash by their employers knew and collectively realized that they had a voice and if used correctly, they could really bring about change in their lives! People have the power if united together to bring about real social change in their lives! Although much of the time it won't be easy, the fruits of their exploited labor will at some point be realized if they keep their voice up.

As I rode home through the degraded neighborhoods that surrounded the church, I passed over and through the crippling poverty that many of these workers lived in. Something that people in more privileged positions like to call "the ghetto" which are actually neighborhoods where people live. For many of us, it is easy to pass over this "ghetto" on the modern highways and interstates that individuals who have more important things to do use so consistently. But underneath those massive concrete bridges that serve as the veins of our "efficient" capitalist state, there is another reality that exists for a population that is invisible to those of us with Internet connections, a population segregated physically from where we live and segregated from our sights and minds.

This is the reality of the working poor, witnessing empowerment that is already organic to these lively church halls against all the forces of oppression exists something special.

General Introduction

2007-06-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

So I must admit, that I am new to blogging. But I find the concept of it pretty cool. My name is Jon and I just graduated from Marian College with a degree in Sociology and Political Science with a concentration in Peace and Justice Studies.

I guess its neat to be a college graduate. I am currently working in Milwaukee, WI in an internship with an organization called Interfaith Worker Justice. Interfaith works with the religious community to support issues of economic justice for low-wage workers. In school at Marian, I was particularly interested in the convergence of how religion and the labor movement work together to bring about positive social change for the exploited and marginalized workers.

Now working for Interfaith is allowing me to put that ideal of being in solidarity with the poor and oppressed has allowed me to action. Where it will lead me following the end of this internship is uncertain, but the desire to help people who have not had the opportunities that I have had is particularly exciting the internship began a few weeks ago with an orientation to Interfaith Worker Justice in Chicago where 41 interns from across the United States converged to learn to 101's about Community Organizing. We all left Chicago empower to go about in making social change with a sense of possible idealism that could not be matched! So now I spend my time here in Milwaukee, trying to understand what Community Organizing is all about. There are many people that will be with me along this path.

Rev. Daniel Heckenlively, one of the most friendly and charismatic leaders in the Faith Community for Worker Justice is working with me to see that the program that I am working on goes through. Rev. Heckenlively is a retired pastor in I believe the Presbyterian Church. He was the representative that came from Milwaukee to Chicago for the National Conference that I got the chance to meet with. He's a real firecracker if I must say so myself and willing to speak up and talk about justice whenever he has the chance.

Then the is Sheila Cochran, the Chief Operating Officer of the Milwaukee County Labor Council. Shelia is one of the most focused people that I have had the opportunity of meeting. She is a no crap kinda lady. Empowered by the cogs of justice, her office is covered with prophetic posters of our heroes that have gone before us. Martin Luther King along with many lesser know activists who have paved the path for us all to achieve a sense of justice.

The there is Robin, the Administrative Assistant. She is the one that really helps me out, calming me down when I get in a bumbling state of nervousness upon the arrival of important tasks. She is the glue that holds the Milwaukee County Labor Council together. Strong willed and willing to take the good natured heat from the other union organizers. She does her work diligently and with compassion.

This is the environment of work that the Milwaukee County Labor Council provides. I look forward to writing here about my experiences here.