Category: women

Do You Have Experience? An Organizer’s Moment to Laugh

· Leave a comment ·

I was encouraged a month or so ago to run for the board of WORT 89.9fm, a community radio station that’s called Madison, Wisconsin home for fifty years now. I served on the board before, from 2011 to 2014, but after some thought decided I’d be willing to serve again. With that, I began the process of filling out the application for a listener/sponsor seat on the board and arranging with Nate, the news director, my opportunity to be interviewed to share my experience and thoughts on WORT’s future. I was looking at the proposed questions earlier today and it got me thinking.

One of the questions on the list is– Do you have experience serving on a non-profit board, or in another leadership role? It made me laugh. I’m a 54 year old organizer, activist, educator. Where do I begin with a question like that? It made sense twenty-five or thirty years ago for me, but today there’s so much history to share and not the time in any quick radio interview to do it. It reminded me too of friends encouraging me some years ago to share more of my history and maybe write my memoir or autobiography of my life as an activist/organizer/educator. Well, this isn’t a book, but it seemed a good time to share a few of my favorite experiences along the way. I hope that readers of this blog will ask questions, share their experience and use the things I’ve done to build their own dreams.

I began to really become conscious of the problems in the world as a student at UW-Stevens Point in the early 1990’s. This farm girl was suddenly in a bigger world and it became clear that life wasn’t fair. Early on I became the Gender Issues Director for the Student Government Association. I began to see the extent of the problems being faced by women like myself on campus, how many were being raped, feeling unsafe, and dealing with discrimination at work and in the classroom. I also got to work alongside the Multicultural Issues Director. My eyes began to open to issues faced by students of Color, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community. Racism, sexism, hetero-sexism, and ableism where all there. Once my eyes were opened there was no closing them again.

I got involved with lots of groups and organizing efforts on campus, across campuses, and with the larger community. Environmental Council was one of the first. Each spring break we’d walk roughly 200 miles from Stevens Point to Glen Haven, Wisconsin raising funds for raptor rehabilitation through the Eagle Walk. Walking those miles, meeting people, and just seeing Wisconsin in a different, slower way helped me get grounded in the struggle. I began to understand the place I call home in a different way.

I was also a part of the anti-corporate, pro-democracy movement of the time. A small group of students were beginning to come together from across the country and we were organizing Democracy Teach-Ins at local, state, and national levels. Again, my eyes were being opened. I was learning about the impact of how we live on our ability to continue to exist for generations to come. I was seeing other options for my own life as well as for all of us as a society.

Around this time I joined in the struggle against the proposed Crandon Mine, a state-wide struggle that brought together Natives and non-Natives, students, workers, sportfishers, and so many others. It connected me with many mentors, most notably a number of Native people including Walt Bresette and Andy Gokee. They helped me see the world in a way that made so much more sense. They taught me about the idea of the seventh generation, that concept that we aren’t just acting for today, but for those coming seven generations from now. It’s thinking and acting like this that makes it possible for us to protect the earth and ourselves.

During this time, I worked with Walt and a crew of other Native and non-Native folks to organize the Protect the Earth Walk. We started on the shores of Lake Superior on the Red Cliff Reservation and walked over 300 miles to Madison. We walked and talked with folks along the way and learned so much as we educated and did our best to engage people in protecting the earth.

In the midst of that walk I took a break to go to Tennessee where I interviewed to work for Save Our Cumberland Mountains, SOCM. I got the position and it began my life as a professional organizer/activist. While with SOCM I had the great honor of being the organizer for an amazing team called the stripmining issues committee. Because of their amazing knowledge and commitment as well as our work together building a mass movement, we were able to win a years long fight and protect more than 62,000 acres around Fall Creek Falls State Park from mining.

While with SOCM, I also got to work with some amazing people working to stop clearcutting and learn under the guidance of media guru, Jane Wholey, as she led SOCM’s media work during a fantastic campaign which included bringing in reporters from around the state, flying them over clearcuts, and hosting a large event on a clearcut. We changed media’s understanding of the issue and made some major pushes toward positive legislation in Nashville.

After a few years, I came back to Wisconsin where the Crandon Mine fight was continuing. I got involved again along with trying to start a Riverkeeper project in the Fox Valley with my friend Jeff. Jeff and I had a lot of great ideas and made some good connections, but we didn’t have the money or the skill at the time to build a nonprofit organization. We eventually moved on and I became the statewide organizer for the Wisconsin Green Party. This was during the height of the Greens in the US as Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke were running for President and VP.

In 2003, I found my true love. I was hired to take on the coordinator role for a new organization in Madison called the Grassroots Leadership College. I worked for the GLC for its nine year life. The organization ran on the idea that everyone is a learner, everyone is a teacher, everyone is a leader. That idea still defines my life and work. Together we provided adult education in community organizing and leadership development to more than 500 people and supported the development of over 120 community projects, many of which are still active and impacting Madison, Wisconsin, and other places as well today.

As the GLC was nearing its end, politics was heating up with the Walker administration and Act 10 in the state capitol in 2011. My experience coordinating leadership and community organizing trainings for adults was well known. When the TAA became aware that their legislative action was going to be far more than they’d anticipated and that it was time to occupy the Wisconsin State Capitol, they also knew that they had to take action to keep the occupation non-violent. They called me for help. My friend Jeff and I organized the first non-violence training and within the upcoming days I was able to call on trainers that I knew and we quickly had a team of 25 people who created the Peaceful and Prepared flyers and trained thousands of people of the weeks in the capitol in the basics on non-violence and staying safe.

During this time I also volunteered with Labor Radio and served on the WORT 89.9fm board of directors, working on the personnel committee, as the board secretary, and affirmative action/ equal opportunities representative, among other volunteer efforts.

After the occupation of the capitol and the closure of the GLC in 2012, I was exhausted. I needed to get out of the highly political Madison and into a new place. By 2014 I left for Minnesota and the directorship of Toxic Taters. Toxic Taters is a small organization that was just starting as I took over the director role. It’s role is to address pesticide issues. We started big and it continues that way today. We took on RD Offutt (RDO) the largest potato grower in the world. During my time we began the days of action against McDonald’s that continue to happen nation-wide, as well taking legislative action to protect Minnesota waterways, people, and land within the impacted areas, and worked to stop expansion of RDO in Minnesota.

In 2017 I opted to follow another dream, to work at a university. I left Toxic Taters for the University of Minnesota- Morris. I worked at the Center for Small Towns coordinating internships across the state, including building new relationships with the tribes and connecting students with internship opportunities on the reservations until my position was discontinued in 2020.

When my position ended I came back to Wisconsin. First, I landed in Poynette where I took on the directorship of a new organization that was to be dedicated to mentoring youth, however, after finding out that several board leaders were using the organization to draw children into their church and prevent homosexuality, I left immediately. Thankfully, my friend Ben needed some help with his organization, The Memory Project. I was able to jump in to work with him while I figured out my next steps.

A seizure behind the wheel ended my time in Poynette. I needed to live in a community where I would have access to public transportation and be able to walk and bike since I was giving up my drivers license. I headed back to Madison.

Back in Madison, I briefly directed Solace Friends which was just launching at that time. I was and remain excited about the idea of the organization, to provide housing and support for terminally ill people who are homeless. However, it didn’t take long for me to discover that I’d never gotten over being worn out from my years as an activist/organizer/educator/nonprofit director. Trying to manage what would become the home for Solace Friends, do large amounts of fundraising and promotion, and guide the development of the organization was more than my body could handle. My seizures were impacting my every day again. I had to leave for my well-being.

In 2022 I was searching for my next work adventure and took on being a substitute special education assistant at Madison elementary schools. This led to my decision to become a special education teacher. I would eventually teach at Mendota Elementary for several years before deciding that the school district wasn’t the place for me despite my love for my students and all the great teachers and staff I worked with.

Now, I continue to teach. These days my role is working in early childhood education at Madison College’s Early Learning Center. I love it! I continue as an activist, helping out through Family Farm Defenders, occassionally getting to read for Labor Radio, and just showing up here and there at events and rallies. I also stay active just doing the work of creating community in fun ways like volunteering at the zoo and with Madison Community School and Recreation’s (MSCR) pontoon program, judging each year for History Day, writing this blog, working on my children’s book, and just helping out where I can.

What I’ve shared here is just some of the highlights. There is so much more that has made my life and taught me so much. It’s changing over time as life does. I welcome the stories of all my readers and encourage those of you who know me to add in the bits that you remember and that I missed!

Thank you to everyone who is doing your part to make our world and our communities healthy and sustainable for the generations to come.

Meeting the Moment and Inspirations To Act

· Leave a comment ·

The author reflects on their journey as an activist, highlighting impactful moments and mentors. Memories of witnessing hardship in their community, including barn fires and cancer’s toll, shaped their passion for change. Influential figures, such as Walt Bresette and Frannie VanZile, inspired them to advocate for future generations and empower communities.

Dream Boots

· 4 Comments ·

The author reflects on a significant dream during a challenging time as a teacher in special education, feeling emotionally drained. In the dream, a circle of supportive women offers her unique boots, symbolizing empowerment. Ultimately, she overcomes her fears and joins their dance, illustrating how dreams can inspire us to persevere.

Getting Hit in School

· 2 Comments ·

I got hit in the face this past week. I’m a special education teacher these days, so in my current line of work while that’s unexpected it’s also very much expected. It’s basically just a bad day at work.

Over the past few years I’ve been hit, kicked, shoved, scratched, bitten, sworn at, threatened, had desks, chairs, and all sorts of other stuff thrown at me, and dealt with and been covered in just about every bodily fluid elementary school students can excrete, not to mention being covered in all the globs of macaroni and cheese or whatever other food is on the menu. So, why note getting hit? It wasn’t a bad punch. It knocked off my glasses, but didn’t break them or even leave a physical mark. It was one of those hits that came at the wrong time though and for that moment I broke into tears.

It happens to all of us who work in our schools today, especially in schools like mine that serve significant populations of students who are from low income families, struggle with maintaining housing and paying their bills, and who often have generations of history that tell them school success isn’t meant for them. Eventually, our hearts break.

I felt the tears come to my eyes as soon as the student’s hand hit my cheek. I knew I needed support to address the situation, so I called on a staff member in the hall nearby to takeover and I walked as quickly as I could to the office space I share with the other special education teachers at my school. I was crumbling. I was a broken mirror in which each of my colleagues could see themselves. One went to get ice and a health care staff person to check my cheek. The others each offered support and let me cry out my tears. They created a safe space for me for which I will always be thankful.

The hit hurt not because of the hand that landed on my cheek, but because I’d spent my day, like more and more days lately, trying to help not only this student but others, my students who simply don’t have the emotional skills to handle being homeless or dealing with any other horrendous and unfair situations they and their families are in. So often their emotions fly all over. One moment they seem to be fine, calm and settled. The next they’re screaming and throwing chairs. It worsens as their life situations become more chaotic and all I can do so often is just try to be that steady safe person they can trust. That can be good and it can be hard. After all, I’m the one they know won’t hit back. They can show their anger, fear, and sorrow, and it hurts.

It’s tiring. I don’t know how to change the situation in our schools, but I do know it can’t go on like this. I took a day off to just take care of myself before coming back to help my kids again. That helped me for the moment and gave me the strength I needed to give to these kids again, but it’s no solution. We ultimately have to stop focusing on teaching subjects and start focusing on teaching and caring for kids. There has to be a way. These beautiful kids deserve the best.

Blue Eyes Flashing and other words

· Leave a comment ·

I’ve been continuing to face an ongoing struggle with writer’s block. I strongly suspect a sort of fear of writing, a fear of what I might learn if I go to deep, but I have no choice. There are words that I need to share and they’ll be there inside me until I let them out. So, I am continuing to work on letting them out. Today I’m going back through old journals and finding bits and pieces to revise and share more publicly. The first piece has no title yet, but maybe I’ll call it Boots. It was written on 7-6-2000 on the shores of Lake Superior while on a walk around the big lake to protect the waters.

I am standing here

on a precipice

looking out

afraid to fly

wanting so badly to walk away

to not

defend

my people

or

my place

but my boots

will not walk backward

like the staff

my being is feathered

and I will

fly

Another story that I found came from a few years earlier. It is called Blue Eyes Flashing and is dedicated to my great aunt Sr. Christine Mondloch. Sr. Christine was born in 1898. She served as a School Sister of Notre Dame, teaching school for many years before retiring. She lived out her final years in Elm Grove, Wisconsin in a tiny blue room in her convent. She was an inspiration to me. She found such joy and meaning in the simplest life.

Blue Eyes Flashing

(a revision of the 3-4-96 version dedicated to Sr. Christine Mondloch who walked on 2-24-96)

Blue eyes flashing

From behind the clouds

Not recognizing a brother

Only crying out

In fear

Imagining your smile

Wishing for you the great beyond

Remembering the cardboard cutouts 

Stored away in my parent’s basement

And wondering how the demons

Caught your spirit, stole your soul

All my life you gave me cardboard boxes,

Toothpick flags, and empty suitcases

All your treasures in the world

I think of you of your autobiography

98 years written on one page

I remember the tiny blue room

Charity called your home

I walk the halls and feel your footsteps

In time with mine

Care for the Water, Care for the Women

· Leave a comment ·

I was back at the state capitol today. Sometimes I wonder if I should maybe just avoid that building. It seems every time I go there something makes me cry.

Today, I was there to join with hundreds of other to remember and honor all the missing and murdered Indigeneous women. As of 2016, the National Crime Information Center reported 5,712 cases of missing Native American women and girls. I am terrified to considered how much the numbers have grown since then. Indigenous women and girls are ten times as likely to be murdered as all other ethnicities. More than half of Native women and girls experience sexual violence. According to the Center for Disease Control murder is the third leading cause of death among Indigenous women.

Today, we sat and listened to the stories of survivors and to stories of the families and friends of those who didn’t survive. I found myself in tears and thinking about some of the little girls I got to know during my time in Minnesota. In particular, I found myself thinking about two little girls who are now both just coming to that stage of life of entering womanhood. I remember that time being confusing and hard enough with body changes, the discovery of sexuality, and noticing the cute guy at school. These girls live in a different world and I could only cry as I can’t protect them on my own.

Why is it this way we wonder? Well, all I can come down to is that it’s about power. These little girls, these women are too powerful. If they are allowed to keep their power, the forces of evil would be crushed. Rape is a tool to control and break down not only the individual, but the whole community. If the women are controlled with the force of violence and fear, the children are controlled. If the women and the children are controlled, the men are broken. Nothing works anymore. The community struggles to merely survive when the women are no longer safe.

Who profits when the community struggles? Big oil, mining companies, all the corporations who make money off of Indigenous people’s lands and waters. That’s why we see the numbers of women disappearing and being murdered going up when the mining companies and oil pipelines come in. It’s control. It’s breaking down the community and tearing out the heart.

So, what do we do? Listen to the women and the girls. Honor them and respect them. Don’t allow for this injustice to continue. Remember that these women, they are the keepers of the water. Respect the water and you will respect the women. The two are not separate. Care for the water. Care for the women. I can’t protect those little girls on my own, but together we can. Each action, every day keep remembering. Care for the water. Care for the women. Respect the water. Respect the women.

Women’s Role in Keeping Life

· Leave a comment ·

I spent my evening today on the steps of the Wisconsin state capitol along with a few thousand others continuing the struggle for women’s rights. I’ve spent a lot of time on those steps over the past thirty years at a whole lot of rallies working for justice for a lot of people and a lot of places. Tonight as the crowd started to gather I found myself sitting and thinking of one of the first rallies I went to back as a student activist in the 1990’s. We were fighting the proposed Crandon mine. Frannie Van Zile, an Anishanaabe leader of the struggle from the Mole Lake Nation was speaking. I can still hear her voice echoing in my heart. Her words still guide my actions every day. “You women, you women out there. You are the keepers of the water.”

Women are the bearers of life. We are the keepers of the water. This is a great gift and a great responsibility. This is why many Indigenous nations historically hold women with great respect and why everything gets out of balance when women aren’t treated with the respect and honor that they deserve. Things are out of balance these days. The probable overturning of Roe v Wade is one clear sign.

Women must be held in respect as the bearers of life. Taking away their rights to protect their lives and safely make the difficult decisions to choose not bear a child is not respect for the child or the mother. What happens to the child that is born to a mother who doesn’t have the financial, social, or emotional resources to care for them? Is it better to be born unwanted into a world that can’t care for you and to become the scourge of those who are supposedly pro-life when you’re forced to fight to survive outside the womb? The foster care system is overburdened. There aren’t lots of people seeking to adopt. These children forced upon these women will simply die outside the womb either fully or simply in their souls. Is it better for a woman to be held victim to rape or to face the results a failed contraceptive every day for the rest of her life while the father walks away? Or is it better for her to die in the back alley? Clearly none of these options is good for anyone.

When we respect the women, when we hold them up and support them as they make the most difficult decision of their lives they become stronger. When they become stronger we all become stronger. It is when we care for and support these women that they can grow powerful, they can love, and they can bring back balance. Abortion is a painful choice, but it is a choice and as long as it is legal it can be a safe choice. If we lose legal abortions we will also lose women’s lives, and that is not pro-life. It is simply wrong.

No One Wants An Abortion

· Leave a comment ·

No one wants to have an abortion. Let’s just start there. It’s not something a woman does because she wants to have a surgery that will leave her with memories and questions for the rest of her life. She doesn’t want to always be able to look back and ask herself would it have been a boy or girl? Who would it have been? What would she have been like as a mother to that being?

The right to have an abortion is perhaps one of the greatest signs of motherhood. Afterall, the mother’s role is to do the best possible for the being in her womb. Sometimes the best and the hardest is to protect that being from a life of pain and want. Sometimes the best and the hardest is to protect them from abuse or from severe health conditions that would make living impossible. Sometimes the best and the hardest is to protect them from entering a world in which they will be treated with hatred by the people who are supposed to love them. There are so many reasons that a woman may choose to have an abortion. None are so simple as she wants one. All are about doing the best that she can for the being that grows inside her and for herself as well. The mother’s relationship with herself, with the world, and with her understanding of God will all change, but she will have done what she needed to do to care for herself and for the being she carried.

How can the court be so cruel to these women and unborn beings? Without legal abortions these women will not be able to save the beings in their wombs from lives of ongoing pain. If they try they will risk their own lives. What will we have won to lose both the mother and the fetus? Maybe it is these women who would risk their lives for the well-being of someone who they will never know who should be in charge instead of these judges who are willing to force them to put their lives at risk.