With a dedicated career helping children and families adversely impacted by immigration, homelessness, abuse, and oppressive systems in South America, Europe, and his native Milwaukee, Luke serves as Director of Program Design and Community Engagement at the Institute for Child and Family Well-being at Children’s Wisconsin.
As an award-winning Senior Columnist for the Milwaukee Independent, Reggie Jackson covers a range of African American issues. He is also a Consultant with Nurturing Diversity Partners, and volunteers as Head Griot for America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) in Bronzeville.
REGGIE JACKSON: 7x Award Winner in Best Column categories from the Milwaukee Press Club
As a teacher for over twenty years, Dominic Inouye helped students to develop their reading, writing, critical thinking, and, most of all, their voices. He worked as The Pfister Hotel Narrator, a one-year appointment, and currently manages the ZIP MKE project that photo documents the city to promote cultural understanding.
Dominic Inouye: 2x Award Winner in Best Column category from the Milwaukee Press Club
Dr. Kenneth Cole is a Licensed Psychologist who has spent the past two decades helping members of the community in developing the ability to bring about positive change for their lives, and empowering those individuals to advocate for themselves.
Kenneth Cole: 2x Award Winner in Reporting categories from the Milwaukee Press Club
Pardeep Kaleka is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, published author of The Gifts of Our Wounds, award-winning columnist with Milwaukee Independent, and a clinician specializing in utilizing a trauma-informed approach to treat survivors and perpetrators of assault, abuse, and acts of violence.
PARDEEP KALEKA: Winner in Best Blog category of the 88th Annual Milwaukee Press Club Awards
John Pavlovitz: Winner of Best Blog at the 89th Annual Milwaukee Press Club Awards
Recent Columns
New Year 2025: From hope to fear as America grapples with its democratic future amid political violence
Today marks the beginning of a new year. It was traditionally a moment reserved for hope, renewal, and forward-looking resolutions. But for many Americans, the arrival of 2025 feels less like a celebration and more like the crossing of an ominous threshold. Gone is...
Bearing witness to indifference: A photojournalist’s thoughts on navigating trauma, truth, and hope
I remember the first time I held a camera. It was my father’s old Leica, a relic from his time in Germany where he was stationed before serving in Vietnam. I used to play with it, pretending to focus and take photos long before it was ever loaded with film....
The dark truth of “American Exceptionalism” is a nation that tolerates the slaughter of its children
The phrase “American exceptionalism” is often invoked to highlight the country’s unparalleled achievements, innovation, and values. But in the context of school shootings, this term takes on a darker meaning. The United States stands alone among...
GOP power vacuum: Congress avoids U.S. government shutdown before holidays in snub to Musk and Trump
The House of Representatives passed a measure to fund the government for three months in the late hours of December 20. The measure will fund the government at current levels halfway through March. It also appropriates $100 billion in disaster aid for regions hit by...
The death of Brian Thompson exposed the structural violence of the private health insurance industry
The brazen murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, on a Midtown Manhattan street has rattled the U.S. health care industry. But beyond the tragic shock of an executive’s targeted killing, an unsettling truth now lies exposed with deep and pervasive...
Defending Democracy: Doris Miller’s legacy at Pearl Harbor faces Trump’s authoritarian ambitions
On the sunny Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, Messman Doris Miller had served breakfast aboard the USS West Virginia, stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and was collecting laundry when the first of nine Japanese torpedoes hit the ship. In the deadly confusion,...
Democracy Defended: South Koreans overturn stunning self-coup and reverse Martial Law in 6 hours
For an astonishing six hours today, South Korea underwent an attempted self-coup by its unpopular president, Yoon Suk Yeol, only to see the South Korean people force him to back down as they reasserted the strength of their democracy. In an emergency address at nearly...
Reshaping government: Why Movement Conservatives attacked the liberal consensus to subvert democracy
Cas Mudde, a political scientist who specializes in extremism and democracy, observed recently on Bluesky that “the fight against the far right is secondary to the fight to strengthen liberal democracy.” That is a smart observation. During World War II, when the...
President Biden pardons son Hunter citing unfair treatment and political weaponization of justice
President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family. The...
