“Power to the People” poster
by John August Swanson

I was fascinated to read that in early 50’s Milwaukee had a rapid transit system with interurban trains and a Milwaukee trolley system that was world class. It was privately owned and operated but needed the support of the government. The government, particularly the State government, decided it should only own highways and airports so the wonderful system was destroyed. (“Long Black & White Way in American to Go” by Jonathan Coleman, p. 121–122.) And now with jobs leaving the city for the suburbs and the high employment rate for African American males,the city of Milwaukee suffers.

The homicides in Milwaukee (4) and Chicago,(9) over the 4th of July weekend have led to cries for more gun control and more punishment for young African American males that shoot guns at people. There are very few voices calling for a mass transit system that will get young African American males, who have an unemployment rate over 50%, to the jobs they seek. After the deadly shooting of nine African Americans in a Church in South Carolina by a racist young white male there are cries to take down the confederate flag flying over their Capital. More gun control, taking down the flag, more punishment might work or might not work to decrease violence. However, they are distractions from taking the real actions to cut crime: treatment for drug and alcoholic addicts, better housing in the central city, more opportunities for employment for poor people and better education and health systems.

Here in Wisconsin, our governor, who hopes to be President of the USA, just signed a bill that would eliminate the ‘cooling off’ period for gun purchases and is getting ready to sign a budget bill with serious cuts to education, health care and ‘safety nets’ for the poor, while putting more money into roads and cutting taxes for rich.

Our president appeared today on TV with military officials to announce how we had seriously bombed and killed people in the ISIS controlled city in Syria and plans to kill more. He pretends he does not know that the “war on terrorism”, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the killing of people in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan by the USA has led only to more terrorism and more hatred and violence toward Americans.

I used to think that public officials and leaders in organizations like the Milwaukee St. Vincent De Paul Board were sincere and just did not know better. I believed that we could change them with information, results, petitions, pleas, protests and letters. Now I am realizing that these ‘leaders’ are intelligent persons, know better, and have studied history. This is a scary thought for if they know and learned from history why are they repeating the mistakes of the past.

However, I can no longer feel mad at them now that I know they know better. I also cannot participate in the false democratic system of voting, when voting means no change. I can abide by the words of Mother Jones: “Do not get mad but organize.” But to organize we must work together. There is a graphic print on our kitchen wall that has an urban scene full of signs and people and on the bottom says “Alone we can do so little, Together we can do so much, In Unity There is Strength” We can stay divided and ignore history or united and make history.

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