A 9.11 Tribute: Six Years Later
As an alder, a member of the city’s Transit and Parking Commission, and a dedicated supporter (and user) of Madison Metro, I was honored to attend a press conference today at the UW Arboretum,...
View ArticleImpeachment: Why It Mattered
The Madison City Council voted, 8-3, at their September 4th, 2007 meeting to recommend that we initiate impeachment hearings against President Bush. Sadly, the resolution still failed because 11 votes...
View ArticleMoving Past a Culture of Fear
We are the most safe, secure people in the history of the planet. Yet, as our safety and security continues to increase, rising almost in direct contradictory proportion is our level of fear. I...
View ArticleA Peaceful Place
In a crazy, high paced world, filled with terrorism and war, poverty and hunger, ringing cell phones and fighting gangs, I close my eyes and think of home. A peaceful place. A place of support, of...
View ArticleThe Politics of Fear
Several months ago, when the addition of 30 new police officers was first proposed, I wrote an article about the culture of fear that seemed to have taken over in Madison. I wrote how that culture,...
View ArticlePriorities 101
I am growing so weary of the news that keeps reminding us, repeatedly, that our criminal justice system is beyond repair and needs a complete overhaul. But I grow even wearier of our inexplicable...
View ArticleThe Truly Essential Service
A July 11 editorial in the WSJ commended the Madison City Council for getting “back to the basics” and focusing on basic services instead of “grand gestures of social reform.” As a first-year alder, I...
View ArticleYes We Can
During the course of this grueling campaign, I’ve thought many times about what this phrase, “yes we can,” actually means. Somewhere along the way, I began to realize this phrase meant more than I...
View ArticleThank You, Brenda
For the last four months, even following the election, the 2nd District Common Council race was about little more than Brenda Konkel’s politics and personality. It was always, “active leader of the...
View ArticleEdgewater: Democracy vs Development
I have gotten more emails and phone calls on the Edgewater hotel project than any other issue since I’ve been elected. I want to begin by thanking the hundreds of constituents and Madison residents who...
View ArticleA Trip to the Dentist
Who would have thought that a single hotel project would come to represent much of what is wrong in our city? If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know exactly what that statement means: meddling...
View ArticlePower and Humanity: Common Council Version
Something fairly irregular happened a few weeks ago at the Madison City Council meeting and while it brought up many issues and thoughts, the most poignant were those related to our humanity. To who we...
View ArticleEntertainment? Politics? Or Both.
A few weeks ago, I jumped in the car and drove to Chicago to meet my lifelong friends for a weekend of sightseeing and reconnecting. Chicago and the chance to get together were good draws, but the main...
View ArticleMadison, WI: A Prelude for Economic Justice
As Bob Dylan once sang, “The battle is outside raging.” Thousands protest daily and Madison and Wisconsin have made national news once again. Wisconsin: the state that produced Fighting Bob LaFollette,...
View ArticleKill the Bill or Stop the Train
I was at the Allied neighborhood association meeting on Saturday thinking about my kids. Then Association President Selena Pettigrew called on me. It was time for my alder report. I looked around the...
View ArticleReagan, Blue Jeans and the End of the Middle Class
We spend a great deal of time trying to figure out whether to blame the rich or the poor. But as the debate rages on endlessly, the middle just keeps getting squeezed. Which matters for one incredibly...
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