Weaving the Web - WNPJ monthly virtual drop-in Hour First Thursday of each month, 12:00 pm - 01:00 pm All are welcome to drop in the first Thursday of each month - ....no agenda, just people who care about peace and justice showing up to connect. Contact office@wnpj.org with questions. Thanks to WNPJ Board members for facilitating the 'drop-in' hour the first quarter of 2023! Jan 5th - Vicki Berenson Feb 2nd - Erika Bach March 2nd - Mary Kay Baum Zoom Meeting Information: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89361313008?pwd=UmxCOUcxL3ZFb244aXp0SnBVTFRSZz09 Meeting ID: 893 6131 3008 Passcode: 797041 +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

Members of WISDOM, EXPO and FREE rallied at the WI State Capitol 12/8/22 and addressed legislators on the need for dignity throughout the penal system and to end racial and economic disparities that fuel mass incarceration. They spoke eloquently on the need to recognize that people who are convicted of crimes are human beings, members of families and communities and need to be restored fully to civic life. They were not asking for reform, but for transformation. The “asks” were these: $15 million to go towards Treatment Alternatives and Diversions; ending solitary confinement and improving conditions of confinement; ending post-release issues such as Crimeless Revocations (re-incarcerating on technical violations); restoring the right to vote; ending the practice of shackling pregnant women; compassionate release for those who are elderly, ill or who have served many years; and peer support programs and housing for recently released people. You can view their passionate and clear messages here This was the kick-off. And while many of us may never be touched by the horrific conditions and the inhumane treatment of the prison system, it is incumbent upon us to demand human dignity and human rights. The reality remains: what happens to one happens to all. For more information contact Mark Rice 608-843-0171. wisdomwisconsin.org www.facebook.com/pages/Wisdom-for-justice office@wisdomwisconsin.org ​ 414-831-2070 2821 N Vel Phillips Avenue, #217, Milwaukee, WI 53212 ​ WISDOM is a grassroots organization comprised mostly of religious congregations of several different denominations, which works to have a common, collective voice on issues of social justice.

As we face a crucial election in April for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Matt Rothschild of the WI Democracy Campaign took a look back at the role that outside money – and especially from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce – played in turning these technically nonpartisan races into highly partisan ones now: How Wisconsin Supreme Court Races Became So Partisan Matt writes: I went over the latest Marquette Law School poll and unearthed an interesting fact: A clear majority of Republicans favor a lot of progressive issues, as I point out here: Progressive Issues Are Popular Issues I hope you like these two items, and I hope you enjoy the upcoming holidays. Matt Rothschild Executive Director rothschild@wisdc.org

Host A Workshop At The Energy Fair! Are you an expert, motivator, leader, or innovator in the areas of clean energy, energy efficiency, or sustainable living? If so, we hope you will consider submitting a proposal to share your knowledge at The 32nd Annual Energy Fair, in Custer WI June 23 - 25 . Workshop submissions are now open! Take advantage of full presenter benefits by submitting your workshop for consideration by 2/15/23. Workshop submissions will close on March on 3/15/23. Midwest Renewable Energy Association is a member group of WNPJ. info@midwestrenew.org https://www.theenergyfair.org/schedule/

The Golden Rule sailing ship, built by Quakers in the 1940’s and supported now by Veterans for Peace, is committed to peace and nuclear non-proliferation. The ship and crew is making an educational loop around the US this fall, sailing down the Mississippi River, a detour then made onto the Ohio River due to low waters in the Mississippi - and now headed toward the East Coast. Follow the trip here: http://www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org/ Special note: the Golden Rule is going to Cuba in January! Veterans For Peace and the Golden Rule Project are pleased to announce: THE GOLDEN RULE PEACE BOAT WILL SAIL TO CUBA and participate in a special Arts & Culture program there from January 2-8, 2023! VFP members, Golden Rule supporters, and friends of Cuba are invited to fly to Cuba and join us! The purpose of this voyage is several fold: 1. To participate in an educational Arts & Culture program and People-to-People exchanges. 2. To remind the world how close we came to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and to make the parallel connections to the US-Russia standoff in Ukraine today. 3. To express our solidarity with the Cuban people, who are suffering greatly from the recent hurricane that destroyed thousands of homes in Pinar del Rio province. We will deliver humanitarian aid to Pinar del Rio. 4. To call for an end to the US blockade of Cuba (an official VFP position), or at least for a temporary suspension of the blockade, as some Cuba solidarity groups are calling for, in order to facilitate the rebuilding after the hurricane. 5. To gain national and international attention for the nuclear disarmament mission of VFP's Golden Rule peace boat. We will travel to Cuba under a General License that permits travel for educational and people-to-people purposes. This license requires that we participate in an organized schedule of daily activities that meet these criteria. We are merging our Cuba visit with the wonderful Arts & Culture itinerary being organized by Proximity Cuba. For the itinerary, please see: https://www.proximitycuba.com/internati.../arts-culture-2023 Cost to participants: $1500 program for Jan 2 - 8. This will include a room in a Cuban home (double occupancy; single occupancy is $1650), most meals, transportation to all events, translation and coordination. $80/day for days before Jan 2 and after Jan 8 (the Golden Rule will be in Cuba several days before and after the Jan. 2-8 program). Airfare to Miami and to Cuba (currently about $350 roundtrip from Miami). Cuban visa ($50-$100) Those traveling by plane should plan to arrive in Havana Dec 30 and Jan 2. Only a few people will be sailing to Cuba on the Golden Rule. INTERESTED IN JOINING US? Please contact Golden Rule project manager Helen Jaccard at helen.jaccard@gmail.com or call her at 206-992-6364. JOIN A SPECIAL ZOOM MEETING ON TUESDAY, NOV. 22 at 9 pm Eastern, 6 pm Pacific, with Proximity Cuba's Rodrigo Gonzalez and Sharen Wrobel. See Zoom information below. If you cannot come, but would like to support the voyage: The VFP Golden Rule Project will incur various expenses related to sailing to Cuba. We will also bring humanitarian aid for the victims of Hurricane Ian. We would like to raise $5,000 to cover voyage expenses and another $5,000 (or more) for humanitarian aid. Please donate. Any amount will help! • vfpgoldenrule.org and click Donate • send a check to: VFP Golden Rule Project PO Box 87 Samoa, CA 95564 • phone Helen Jaccard at 206-992-6364 and make a donation by credit card Sailing for a Nuclear-Free World and a Peaceful, Sustainable Future! Helen Jaccard, Project Manager Gerry Condon, President Golden Rule Project VETERANS FOR PEACE www.vfpgoldenrule.org 206-992-6364 And after Cuba! The ship will travel from the East Coast weest through the Great Lakes next summer, with plans to arrive in Milwaukee in Septermber, 2023. The Veterans for Peace Chapter chapter #102 is already planning for the arrival of The Golden Rule in the harbor of Milwaukee. To get involved with that event, contact: www.facebook.com/MilwaukeeVetsforPeace/ vfpchapter102@gmail.com Join the crew to organize around peace and nuclear non-proliferation issues. Check out the schedule to see where she puts into a port near you! They’re looking for volunteers along the route. http://www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org/ Learn more about the ship’s history here in this 10-minute vimeo: https://vimeo.com/259060401 Contact: vfpsoaw@yahoo.com

Listen to an interview of John Peck, Director of Family Farm Defenders - from Dec. 8th - on community radio wdrt 91.1 fm with Dena Eakles: https://www.wdrt.org/?post_type=post&p=7921 Learn about the Farm Bill - food sovereignty - agribusinnes - good food - and so much more! And here's more on the Farm Bill.... Family Farm Defenders helped draft this statement and is among the 50 organizations that signed it, along with the National Family Farm Coalition and many others allies. ************************* November 16, 2022 The next Farm Bill can only be “climate-smart” if it reduces agricultural reliance on pesticides, says diverse coalition 50 organizations send public letter to congressional committees drafting 2023 Farm Bill FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contact: Deidre Nelms, dnelms@comingcleaninc.org, 802-251-0203 ext. 711 Today, 50 organizations sent a public letter to the House Agriculture Committee and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, calling for a transformative 2023 Farm Bill. They urged the legislators to incentivize reductions in pesticide use, include provisions to protect farmworker health, and increase funding and research for organic and regenerative farming, representing fenceline communities, food system workers and farmworkers, family farmers, businesses, scientists, and environmental health and justice organizations. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that global agriculture contributes 34% of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change, but the Farm Bill has not explicitly addressed climate change since 1990. An estimated 1 billion pounds of pesticides, manufactured from fossil fuel feedstocks, are used on United States farms each year. The next Farm Bill could decrease agricultural carbon emissions by incentivizing farmers to reduce reliance on pesticides, in favor of regenerative, climate-resilient practices such as certified organic farming, the letter states. “As we prepare for the 118th Congress and the negotiation of the 2023 Farm Bill,” the letter reads, “U.S. agricultural policy must create an agricultural system that values human life today and for generations to come. To do that, we will need to shift investments away from ineffective, misguided, and unproven solutions – peddled by industry lobbyists under the guise of being ‘climate smart’ – and towards solutions that we know actually work: Transitioning to chemical-free agriculture, focusing on methods that promote soil health, supporting community-based farming and food marketing systems, and redirecting federal incentives away from industrialized producers towards farmers utilizing regenerative and agroecological methods.” The letter goes on to offer actionable recommendations that Congress should include in next year’s Farm Bill that could accomplish these goals, including: Amending the Farm Bill’s Conservation Title to protect human health in addition to soil health; Redirect funding currently provided through crop insurance and commodity programs that incentivize the crops, farms, and farming methods that drive demand for chemicals; Increasing funding for the Rural Development Title to improve housing for farmworkers; Incentivizing retiring farmers to pass farmland onto Indigenous people and beginning farmers with historical or modern ties to that land; Increased funding/enforcement of antitrust regulations in agriculture to ensure fair prices for consumers and fair wages for farmworkers; Eliminating support for industrial-scale livestock operations. The House Agriculture Committee and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will begin drafting the next Farm Bill this year. It is expected to be authorized by September 2023. # # # Coming Clean is a nonprofit environmental health collaborative working to transform the chemical industry so it is no longer a source of harm, and to secure systemic changes that allow a safe chemical and clean energy economy to flourish. Our members are organizations and technical experts — including grassroots activists, community leaders, scientists, health professionals, business leaders, lawyers, and farmworker advocates — committed to principled collaboration to advance a nontoxic, sustainable, and just world for all. Sent to WNPJ by John E. Peck Executive Director Family Farm Defenders, P.O. Box 1772, Madison, WI 53701 tel./fax. 608-260-0900 www.familyfarmdefenders.org

Let Cuba Live! Ask President Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s last minute, unjustified listing of Cuba as a state supporter of terrorism. This scares off foreign banks from handling any trade between Cuba and other nations, even for food and medicine. It also threatens European travelers from visiting Cuba, as they will generally then not be able to enter the U.S. in the future. PLEASE TAKE ACTION by signing the petition sponsored by Code Pink, asking Biden to remove Cuba from this list, thus returning to the U.S. position before 2021. Action Alert sent to WNPJ by Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba Contact: Art Heitzer Mailing address: PO Box 1848, Milwaukee, WI 53201 Phone: 414 628-2547 E-mail: wicubacoalition@gmail.com Website: https://wicuba.org/

The videos of this event are now available! On Sunday, November 13th WNPJ hosted its annual Fall Assembly in Milwaukee (and via zoom). Each year we take this time to bring individuals and organizations together, to set the vision for the upcoming year, to honor the efforts of peacemakers and peace builders…and to get into some “Good Trouble”. We were at Marquette University, hosted by MU Peacemaking Center - a WNPJ member group! Video of a Welcome to the Assembly with pt Network Coordinator Judy Miner: https://youtu.be/m-4SybFaH2kas Debra Gillsipie interviews Tynnetta Jackson about what Abolition means to her, before the Meeting begins...https://youtu.be/2Z_0wyiC3PY This year’s theme was Abolition: Addressing the Root Causes of Violence ....with special guest speaker - Angela Harris. To learn more about Angela Harris, check out this conversation with Widening the Circle host, Dena Eakles. And watch the video of Dena Eakle introducing Angela to the WNPJ Assembly on Nov. 13th: https://youtu.be/7KUOAEaeU8E ************************************ Presenting the Peacemaker of the Year Award to Claude Motley Learn more about Milwaukee's Claude Motley of the Emmy award-winning documentary, "When Claude Got shot” . Here's the video of Debra Gillispie and Mary Kay Baum introducing Claude Motly at the Assembly https://youtu.be/MQS7Blmze0k- .....with links to the documentary, "When Claude Got Shot" https://youtu.be/bs0nma7yNTc and https://whenclaudegotshot.org/ ********************************* WNPJ's 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Art Heitzer. Art's activism includes Peace Action Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s End the Wars Committee, Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Milwaukee Turners. Art Heitzer received this Award for his lifetime of peacemaker work, from his student activism at Marquette University through his very important and prominent role in our Milwaukee and Wisconsin Peace Community. Here is the video of the event - on Nov. 13th. Art was introduced by Julie Enslow of Peace Action WI, and his Award presented by Tynnetta Jackson and Mary Kay Baum. https://youtu.be/rQC4F7Vht4o Thanks to volunteer Dan Folkman for the editing of these Assembly videos! Learn of previous Lifetime Achiever Awards here... Inspired by the work of many of today’s Abolitionists, it is our hope to share their work and to uplift the narrative. To help us begin to build a shared understanding of abolition, here is an interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUtpuU4mzOM with Derecka Purnell and Trevor Noah on her book Becoming Abolitionists and her understanding and the need for abolition today.

It is my honor to present our Peacemaker of the Year Award to Claude Motley. Mary Kay Baum, 11/13/2022 Forty five years ago I carried my two-day-old daughter into Waupun’s Maximum Security Prison to meet her Menominee father, my first husband. I experienced what it was like to be part of a prisoner’s family. I found Wisconsin’s mass incarceration negatively impacts those incarcerated and their family members. Claude, thank you for bringing your strong and convincing reality to the public. You are like the Great Blue Herons I see in the rookery near my home. You are like the adult herons who protect the newly hatched and the fledgling herons in a rookery. First they act in community by purposely choosing to form their nests close to each other in one common rookery. This allows a couple adult Great Blue Heron to stay behind keeping guard and protecting all the nests of the rookery. Taking turns this allows all the herons in the rookery to fetch fish for themselves and their young ones back in the nest. In fact, If you walk under their rookery you will not miss the guarding ones. You cannot help but hear their very strong and convincing voices as they sweep down toward you. The Great Blue Heron teach their young to fly and fetch food. But, above all, they pass on the ethic of a community protecting its most vulnerable. Claude, you reminded us that right now many adolescents in Wisconsin do not see a future. Many are dying from gunfire, from overdose, or from hanging themselves... be it in our central cities, in our suburbs, on our reservations, or on our suffering farms. We thank you, Claude, for all you do in the heartbreaking role of urging safe, healthy, functioning communities. Thank you for speaking up with your own strong and convincing voice. Thank you for being vulnerable enough to show what can be mixed emotions. Thank you for ultimately accepting restorative justice. Yes, thank you for changing us every time we see a glimpse of your life. May we think of you and the lessons your life teaches us. Most of all, thank you for helping each one of us to work together toward more connected communities. Compiled by Co-Chair Mary Kay Baum marykbaum@gmail.com ****************************** Video of Debra Gillspie introducing Claude Motley to the WNPJ Fall Assembly - and Mary Kay's presentation of the award. Nov. 2022 - https://youtu.be/MQS7Blmze0k

Our 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Art Heitzer of Milwaukee Art, you are well-known as an outstanding employment and labor attorney. But your additional work with the National Lawyers Guild, ACLU, Milwaukee Turners, immigrant groups, and a myriad of community and worldwide peace and justice groups shows your outstanding contribution to our community. When you see injustice you use all your tools to achieve change, whether through direct action, assisting groups on bests steps in demonstrations, defending travel to Cuba, recognition of an unsung heroine, or gathering groups together to seek community rehabilitation to replace mass incarceration. Your leadership as President of the Milwaukee Turners has helped it to move further from a population of mostly German immigrants to a most welcoming, multi-ethnic place in largely segregated Milwaukee. When I asked you, Art, if there was an animal or plant that you admire or feel a connection with, you were quick to tell me that you especially appreciate the owl. The owl is a bird that many traditions find wise, intelligent and forward leaning. In fact, the owl is a symbol taken by Milwaukee Turners with their theme of Sound Minds in Sound Bodies. This wonderful owl photo was taken by my sister Rosann Baum Milius of a Great Horned Owl who hung out near her Oshkosh home. It is a great photo because owls are seldom seen in daylight. The Great Horned is one of the largest owls – can be two feet tall. And it is the most common owl in Wisconsin. Owls are nocturnal and see objects at night many times better than we humans. Owls see what most of us do not see. For this they are often called wise and “free thinkers”. Art, you are an example of seeing what is truth and what needs to be heard. Also, like an owl not backing off from a wolf who attacks it, you do not back off despite difficult obstacles in the way. You have been arrested, you have been ridiculed, but you hold true to your convictions, despite harassment from naysayers. And you achieve change by working well with other organizations. We thank you for your lifetime of achieving peace and justice and most of all we thank you for bringing people together to achieve such peace and justice. 11/13/2022 Compiled by Co-Chair Mary Kay Baum marykbaum@gmail.com Here is the video of Julie Enslow of Peace Action WI introducing Art Heitzer at the 2022 Fall Assembly, along with Tynnetta Jackson and Mary Kay Baum. https://youtu.be/rQC4F7Vht4o

Winter Newsletter Check out all the articles and action alerts here: https://assets.nationbuilder.com/peaceactionwi/pages/136/attachments/original/1670085478/PeaceAction_WEBLayout.pdf?1670085478 www.peaceactionWI.org www.facebook.com/peaceactionwi/ info@peaceactionwi.org ​ Contact: Pam Richard, Office Manager 414-269-9525 ​1001 E Keefe Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53212

On Thursday Dec. 2, in an 80-15 vote, the Senate passed legislation to block a railroad strike set for December 9. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law. On Wednesday, the House narrowly passed a bill that would include seven paid sick days for rail workers, but the Senate refused to pass that bill. Biden has promised to address sick leave for all workers and said he was “reluctant” to block the strike, but economics won. *Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said the administration had “two messages: One, this fight over sick days is not over — and, we’re going to figure out how to fight on another front.” Member organizations of WNPJ who would like to draft a letter of support for workers safety and sick leave are invited to do so. Letters of support will be posted here. https://www.wnpj.org/ Send to info@wnpj.org Click here for news on the Senate bill. Click here to see Transportation Workers Union of America blog on worker misclassification. *Click here to see the entire Politico article Photo:Ron Reiring / Wikimedia Commons C.C. 2.0 Generic License