A Public Affair Patty Peltekos, Carousel Bayrd, Ali Muldrow, Allen Ruff, & Esty Dinur

Madison is hosting the 20th Catholic Worker Midwest Faith and Resistance Gathering this weekend, March 24 – 27, 2023. It will be a weekend of relationship-building, reflection, music, art, meals and direct action opposing F-35 fighter jets, militarism and war.

It begins tonight, Friday 24th with the presentation of the documentary Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA took Hollywood.

The weekend will culminate with a nonviolent resistance action to the F-35 fighter jets on Monday.

Updated event and location details can found on The Catholic Worker website or on Safe Skies Clean Water Wi’s page.

Joining us on A Public Affair are event organizer Janet Parker, and featured speakers Kathy Kelly and Brian Terrell.



Kathy Kelly is a peace activist, author, and board president of World BEYOND War. Kathy’s activism and writing are focused on Afghanistan, Yemen, Gaza, and domestic protests against US drone policy. In the past thirty-five years her activism has led to her arrests at home and abroad. She lived in war zones, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US–Iraq wars.

Brian Terrell organizes with Strangers & Guests Catholic Worker and Nevada Desert Experience. He will be speaking this weekend on the international efforts of Catholic Workers regarding his resistance experience at the nuclear sharing bases in Europe, most of them set to receive F-35s soon.

Janet Parker is a mother, gardener, musician and war abolition activist in Madison, Wisconsin. Since last April, Janet and friends have held 27 War Abolition Walks in Madison to push for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine, and all wars. With Stefania Sani, Janet co-coordinates the new Madison chapter of the international war abolition organization World BEYOND War

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One value of “How to Save Democracy: Advice and Inspiration from 95 World Leaders” is the hope and optimism it instills in readers. It brings poetry to the fight, but, as vital to triumphing over demagoguery and corruption, it outlines seven key principles of democratic success.

-Eli Merritt on his recently released book

Merritt joins on on A Public Affair to discuss the threats facing democracy and how we might combat them.



Eli Merritt is a political historian at Vanderbilt. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others. His Substack, American Commonwealth, explores the origins of the United States’ political discontents and solutions to them. 

He is the editor of How to Save Democracy: Inspiration and Advice From 95 World Leaders (Amplify, March 2023) as well as of The Curse of Demagogues: Lessons Learned from the Presidency of Donald J. Trump (Spotlight Press, 2022). His book Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution is forthcoming (University of Missouri Press, June 2023). 

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There a few state wide referendums that are the spring ballot: two that would amend the state constitution and another that would gauge popular opinion. We cover them all in today’s program.

In the first half Dustin Brown from the UW Law School breaks down the two constitutional amendment referendums. The questions on the ballot address conditions of release before trail and the ability of a judge to impose cash bail. Dustin explains the process of amending the state constitution and what would happen if the referendums passed.

Then, we talk about the advisory referendum that asks “Shall able-bodied, childless adults be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits?” Equity and Justice Scholar Professor David Pate and Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner Ruth Conniff join us to explain how welfare already works and point out that “able-bodied, childless” welfare recipients are already required to seek jobs.

To see what is on your ballot you can visit https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/Whats-On-My-Ballot

Election day is April 4th, and state-wide early voting has begun.

 



Dustin Brown is a Senior Staff Attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Dustin joined the Initiative following four years on the law school’s Legal Research and Writing faculty and nearly a decade in private practice, most recently with Godfrey & Kahn in Madison. He has litigated in state and federal courts on matters ranging from electoral redistricting, public records access, and defamation to insurance coverage, products liability, and deceptive trade practices.

David Pate, Jr. is the Equity and Justice Scholar in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Human Ecology and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Collaborative Center of Health Equity at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner.  Her book “Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers” won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel Award from The New Press.

Image by Yinan Chen from Pixabay

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Early voting in Wisconsin begins today, Tuesday March 21st. For Madison residents, early voting locations can be found here. For voters with an absentee ballot, they can deliver their ballots in person to these locations. Other cities, towns, and villages may vary on times availability.

Joining us to talk about early voting, the integrity of elections, and the changes he’s witness in his tenure is Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell.

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

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In a piece for The Progressive, Sage Lenier wrote: “Gen Z isn’t getting the education we need to survive and adapt to a climate-changed world.” She joins us to discuss the current education around climate change, the impact it has on mental health, and how we might do better.



Sage Lenier is the founder of Sustainable & Just Future, a youth-led educational nonprofit. She is also a Public Voices fellow with The OpEd Project in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Image by Kevin Snyman from Pixabay

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On Monday, March 13th, the Biden administration approved the new enormous Willow oil drilling project in Arctic Alaska. This was despite Biden’s campaign promises to halt drilling on federal lands and despite the opposition of environmentalist and local indigenous groups. Opponents are raising concerns about the disruption in the arctic, including huge increases emissions, an endangerment to freshwater, and threats migratory animals that live in the region.

In light of this announcement, Bathsheba Demuth joins us on the show to talk about her awarding winning book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait.

Floating Coast is a comprehensive history of Beringia, the Arctic land and waters stretching from Russia to Canada.



Bathsheba Demuth is an associate professor of History and Environment and Society at Brown University. She is also writer and environmental historian specializing in the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic. Her interest in northern places and cultures began when she was 18 and moved to the village of Old Crow in the Yukon, where she trained huskies for several years.

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