Commentary Update for December 9, 2002:Labor, Letters, Doule, Berrigan, Feingold, Lott, Eye on Oshkosh, School Board, Hydrogen, Election Results

Dear Friends of Commentary:

Last week's show with labor activists Steve Dedow, John Eiden, and Karen Prade has been one of the most well-received shows we have ever done. I received a significant number of emails, on the street comments, and even a phone call from people happy to see issues related to working people covered on Oshkosh television. Randy McSorley writes about labor issues for the Post-Crescent, and in his Sunday column he talks about the Congress' shameful inaction on unemployment benefits extension.

On Thursday I will meet with UW Oshkosh Director of University Relations Robin Asbury to talk about the possibilities of keeping Commentary in production in between semesters. Until we work something out, we will be playing reruns. This week we will repeat a January, 2000 interview with Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Robert Haase.

Turns out that Commentary has become very popular on cable access television in Madison. We are indebted to Doug Freshner and Randall Davidson of Wisconsin Public Radio for getting our tapes shown on the station. I am in the process of sending Randall copies of shows from this past semester so our presence in Madison can continue.

In Other News:
*Letters to Commentary: Commentary viewer John Frings thinks that Americans are currently in a comatose state, as he says in this letter. Ed Wilcox looks at the November 5th election results and concludes the Democrats' pattern of deceit was finally exposed. Harmon Seaver, whose "Oshkosh Sux" website led to former Mayor Dell'Antonia asking city attorney Kraft to "go after" him, has now updated his site to take on America. I will happily post responses to any of these materials.

*Palmeri Defends Doule: The Oshkosh Northwestern last Friday published a letter I wrote defending WWII vet Gordon Doule's right to speak on any topic during the Oshkosh Common Council citizen statements. Gordon irritates the hell out of lots of people, including me. On the other hand, I know that I irritate the hell out of just as many people as he does (including students who will be filling out evaluations of my teaching performance later this week). We who irritate the hell out of people have to stick together, I guess.

*In Memorium: Phil Berrigan. Berrigan was a WWII vet too: Thanks in part to hyperbolic patriotic tracts like Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" spiel, there's a tendency in our country to see our WWII vets as a monolithic group agreeing on virtually every issue, especially issues related to war and peace. It ain't necessarily so. Historian Howard Zinn, for example, was aWorld War II bombardier yet he has spent the better part of the last 50 years as a peace activist. See his website at Howard Zinn.org

One of Zinn's activist friends, former radical Catholic priest and also a WWII veteran Phil Berrigan, died last Friday at the age of 79. Here's how the NYT covered his life and times. Berrigan remained active in the anti-war movement until his last days, as pointed out in this piece. In his later years, he became very active in the as yet still too marginalized and ignored issue of the use of depleted uranium in weaponry. A 1999 essay by Berrigan in the radical Christian publication The Other Side displays his typical uncompromising style on such matters. You can find out more about depleted uranium here.

*Feingold to tackle Homeland Insecurity: WI Senator Russ Feingold, one of the few members of the US Senate to vote against the Homeland Insecurity legislation, said in a column yesterday that he plans to introduce legislation in the next session to fix parts of what the Congress passed in the lame duck period. Melanie Fonder of wispolitics.com interviewed Feingold in Middleton on November 27, and there too he mentioned his Homeland Insecurity plans. See the interview here.

*A Lott of BS from Trent?: Did you hear about this one? Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina turned 100 years of age last week. Back in 1948, Thurmond was a Southern Democrat so upset with the Civil Rights plank in the Democratic Platform that he decided to run for President as a "Dixiecrat." At the time he said, "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."

Enter Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), incoming Senate majority leader. During a birthday bash for Thurmond last week, Lott says this: "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." Washington Post coverage of the event can be found here.

*Eye on Oshkosh praises Commentary: You might recall that several weeks ago on Commentary we interviewed Melanie Bloechl and Cheryl Hentz, hosts of "Eye on Oshkosh." On their website they now have posted this statement about their appearance. Jim and I look forward to being on their show.

*School Board News: A recent email controversy involving the Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education made it the online version of the magazine eSchool News. Here's the story. Meanwhile regular Commentary contributor Dan Rylance writes about the April board elections. See Dan's piece here.

*A Hydrogen Future?: Check out Jeremy Rifkin's essay in the Nation on the energy revolution that is taking place without most of us even being aware.

*Election Results: Finally, click here to get detailed November election results from the Wisconsin State Elections Board.

Best,

-Tony