Yesterday afternoon, the Kapanke Recall Crew submitted twice the needed signatures in half the needed time. This was news that charged us Darling volunteers up as we headed into a predominantly African-American ward in Milwaukee that is located in Alberta Darling's district. We had a momentous day, and it started with a powerful march through downtown Milwaukee in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.
We gathered a few miles north of downtown Milwaukee at 9:00 in the morning. It is still bone-chill cold here, though not as bad as the last few weeks. We can feel spring in the air, though Winter is being pretty argumentative in general this year. A good crowd amassed in honor of Reverend King and his legacy, and we marched towards the heart of the city. The police cordoned off a lane for our numbers. We sinewed our way downtown, moving and chanting and feeling like citizens of our city streets.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson in Downtown Milwaukee
At the end of the march, we were greeted by local politicians, Lena Taylor (one of the Fab 14), Mayor Barrett (who lost the Governorship against Scott Walker last November) and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Reverend Jackson with his usual flair of call and response, exhorted the crowd to go and vote early, and to continue with our activism. It was a very effective narrative, both emotionally and operationally, and many people lined up to vote.
Lena Taylor at the rally
Last week a member of my "recall crew" had the positive fortune to meet an amazing father and son team, Walter and Lee, the "Playground Legend." These guys have a crazy retrofitted van, kind of like a repurposed ice cream truck, which has loudspeakers, internet connectivity and a video screen on the side of the van. They go around to playgrounds and parks in African-American communities and share their own songs, play hip-hop, and pass out winter hats and gloves to kids who need them. It is hard to describe the beauty and generosity of this gesture. It is very real, very cool, and very needed.
After this serendipitous introduction, we hooked up with The Playground Legend in order to go through a politically neglected African-American neighborhood for GOTV and recall activities. Our plan was to set up in a park, let the van (with its loudspeakers, music, video and graphical presence) attract neighbors, and disseminate voting information as well as offer a recall signing opportunity. It worked like a charm.
Kids dancing to the music from the Playground Legend
Let's recall Alberta!
But even deeper on the scale of epic serendipity, one of my recall crew, Jonathan, had the foresight to ask Jesse Jackson if he would come and support us in our efforts. Jonathan described the strategy to Jesse, described the purpose, the van, the location. We were all amazed when Reverend Jackson agreed to drop by! This was miles away from his downtown location, way up north in the city, so it was no small deal. His requirement, and reasonably so, was that we needed to get as many local citizens in the park as we were able. Since we had only about an hour to work with, we had our job cut out for us!
We drove in the Playground Legend van to Silver Spring and Teutonia. Once we arrived, we set up in a little park, got the music blaring, and began going door-to-door. It was difficult trying to convince people that Reverend Jackson would soon be in their little neighborhood pocket park, and that they should come out in the cold for a rally. Fortunately for us, about eight young boys quickly took up our cause and acted as our guides. We slowly gathered a small crowd. Though we doubted that indeed our celebrity speaker would arrive, we pressed on.
Part of this week's tactical response was to "give voice" to citizens regarding our disconnected politicians and the damage they are foisting on the public. We had a cordless mic and a PA system that people could speak through, and a white board with markers for people to write messages on for photographic documentation. As we offered these mediated opportunities for expression, we also gathered signatures for recall. In previous weeks, we have found some support and a lot of hostility in the exurban Republican communities north of Milwaukee. Today we found only support. People were suspicious of us at first, but there was an eagerness to sign anything contrary to the divisive politics of Scott Walker. We heard many comments about how hard these Republican policies are on our poorer neighborhoods.
At around 1:00 the entourage arrived. Three cars, one a nice black Escalade, pulled up by the park. We set up a microphone and Reverend Jackson spoke. It was simple, direct, really powerful and really beautiful. He spoke to us about voting, about the Reverend King's fight for voter and labor rights about the need to organize, and about people fighting and dying worldwide for rights that we take for granted. There was nothing prepared about this event: he spoke from the heart, and we listened intently.
Jesse Jackson out in the neighborhood park.
After taking requests for various pictures, he left. The small crowd dispersed, and our crew went door to door, seeking signatures. We were followed by the Playground Legend Van echoing funk and soul and rap. We were met with a lot of citizens eager for connection, obviously disenfranchised by a system that was leaving them behind, but also very aware of what was really going on.
This is the coalition we have to build. None of us can go forward without all of us. We've known this all along, and it is time to rethink the fabric and structure of our divides and of what divides us. Today we marched through Milwaukee, the city deemed the most segregated in the nation. We marched through the Black community, and we were a great and diverse crowd.
We marched in the temporal shadow of the great Revered King, and we were witness to the echoes of his struggle through the voice of Reverend Jesse Jackson. We talked to a lot of people about voting, and we gathered 70 signatures. Deeper still, we continued our own struggle against the inequities resulting from the politics of privilege born of the legislation of distance. And we hope that this struggle is a Newtonian Law: that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, that rhizomatic forces of justice ripple in the troubled waters of our great state.
Today we reflect on the legacy of peace forged in the smithy of struggle. We march, we vote, we become the neighbors to our neighbors, and we continue because we never arrive. Today was a good day.
This is Walter and the Playground Legend