If my uncle Al were alive today, even he would be taken aback by the brazen actions of the Republican Party. Al was a small business owner in Sauk City, who believed in the common good while supporting Republican business policies.

Today's Republican Party initiatives are not just an exercise in conservatism, but, instead, a move to the extreme right, an attack on democratic institutions and blatant disregard of the personal rights of citizens. The views and policies put forward by a solid core of Republican senators, representatives and candidates shed light on what is in store if Romney wins the White House and Republicans win the Senate.

The war on women would just be a start. The open and blatant attacks on the rights of rape victims should startle any sensible person about the dark cloud of perverse thinking dominating the Republican Party.

Mitt Romney may have been a moderate conservative in the past. But today he is an opportunist channeling the most extreme social ideologies and draconian economic proposals that put European austerity to shame.

This is no longer just a debate between slight variations in politics. The policies that amplify what's at stake can be seen in a coordinated attempt to restrict voting rights largely for people of color, attacks on women's right to control their bodies, an end to the safety net for the poor and elderly, anti-unionism directed both at the public sector and the private sector, xenophobia toward immigrants by embracing Arizona's Act 1070 and saber rattling in national affairs.

Don't forget that this same Mitt Romney railed against spending for FEMA, saying it was "immoral" for the U.S. to spend money on disaster relief when it should be focused on deficit reduction.

Right now America is within the margin of error of experiencing a siege of power by extremism. The Tea Party House representatives elected in 2010 did not move to the center or attempt to compromise to get work done in Washington for the American peopl…

Parents who can afford to send their children to private school often choose a Montessori education.

MPS is making Montessori education public; accessible to everyone. MPS has been offering Montessori education since the mid-1970s. We are expanding this year by growing MacDowell at Juneau Campus and opening a new school in the old Tippecanoe building.

Why? Because it works.

How do we know MPS Montessori works? Test scores, student engagement, student success after leaving Montessori schools, parent satisfaction and confident children. In a June 2011 report, the Milwaukee NAACP wrote that "Prospects for educational achievement are brightest for Milwaukee Public School students who are enrolled in Montessori Schools."

When I walk Into Maryland Avenue Montessori I do not see my elementary schooling. I went to St. Bernard's Catholic School in Middleton, Wisconsin. There we strictly sat in rows, only given the chance to talk when hands were raised and seldom engaging in any instruction other than lectures and reading from a textbook.

What is Montessori? Maria Montessori began with her first classroom in 1907 in the slum tenements in Rome, Italy. There she scientifically observed children, paying close attention to developmental issues, interaction with the environment and experimenting with specific materials encouraging student engagement.

Fundamental to Maria Montessori's philosophy is all children have a natural inclination to learn. That drive for knowledge must be tapped into, facilitated, encouraged and self constructed by each child.

Maria Montessori concluded from her observation that children develop at different rates, on different biological and psychological timetables, and students learn best from working with materials in interaction with the environment as opposed to direct instruction.

In response Maria Montessori developed a method which allows for a constructed learning in a "prepared environment" with order and room for independence.

So if you…

This coming Tuesday we will decide Wisconsin's future. We have a chance to save our state.

The obstacles are formidable but victory is within our reach. Republicans have become arrogant in assuming victory.

But something encouraging is happening. Yesterday I exercised my democratic right to undo this injustice. I voted for Tom Barrett for governor and Mahlon Mitchell for lieutenant governor at 841 N. Broadway. While I went through the 10-minute process, I witnessed car-loads of Milwaukee citizens arriving and voting.

The remaining schedule for early voting in Milwaukee is:

In-person dates and times: Wednesday, May 30-Thursday, May 31, 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday, June 1, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Municipal Building, 841 N. Broadway, Room 102

Request a ballot by mail: May 31, 5 p.m. is the deadline for electors to request absentee ballots by mail for the Recall Election.

The recall election will be won based on which side can get more people to the polls. Recent polling shows that 91 percent of Republicans say they are "absolutely certain" to vote, compared with only 83 percent of Democrats and independents.

It is our job to make absolutely certain that all Milwaukee communities vote. Milwaukee can make the difference in this election.

Don't forget the issues at stake:

• Walker has given huge tax breaks to large corporations and wealthy individuals while increasing taxes on the poor.
• Walker took away $1.6 billion from our schools.
• Walker has made Wisconsin last in job creation.
• Walker has slashed over $13 million from health care programs.
• Walker has stripped away equal protection pay for Wisconsin's working women.
• During the month of May, Walker has added $100,000 to his criminal defense fund, with a total of $160,000 over the last 6 weeks.
• He is the only governor in America with a criminal defense fund.

 

Please vote. Please get everyone you know to vote.

I recently read Michelle Alexander's book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." It takes head-on the "elephant in the room" concerning race in America. I feel it is a must read for anyone interested in equality and social justice.

According to Alexander, more black men are behind bars or under the watch of the criminal justice system in the U.S. than there were enslaved in 1850 ... and more African-American men are disenfranchised now because of felon disenfranchisement laws than in 1870. She constructs a formidable argument that the "war on drugs," declared in 1982, had every intention of creating a new form of discrimination largely against black men.

Alexander's book establishes that the war on drugs is truly meant to reinstate legalized discrimination that marked this country's history during slavery and Jim Crow. The outcome and intention of the war on drugs has been and continues to be the increased policing of black communities which leads to significantly more arrests of African-Americans than any other group in society. And if an African-American is branded a felon, their rights return to the Jim Crow South.

Do more African-Americans go to jail more often because they commit more crimes? People of all races, use and sell drugs at remarkably similar rates. Yet the arrest and conviction of African-Americans is far greater than that of whites. An example of discriminatory policy can be seen with the conviction rate and sentence length that is far greater for crack (a form of cocaine), used largely in black communities, than for pure cocaine, that is used largely in white communities.

Do we not believe in a second chance for someone who has been imprisoned? Are we forcing ex-offenders to return to crime or to live their life as a second-class citizen? Is the goal not for someone to become a productive citizen? Alexander establishes that ex-felons, who have done time and are off parole, are discriminated against in employment,…