2007-11 Vital Source Mag – November 2007
We’ve got to help Alan Keyes
Typically I don’t read every political email I receive anymore than I pore over my spam, but sometimes a subject line catches my attention. Recently, Alan Keyes was excluded from a Fox News-sponsored Florida GOP debate on the premise that he didn’t have the required 1% straw poll vote, even though the Iowa Poll allegedly had him at 2% just a week after he entered the race. Turns out, none of the polls used by the Florida GOP included Keyes’ name. Granted, they may have been taken before he declared his candidacy, but he’s in the race now and everybody knows it, even if his only true role ends up being to keep arch-conservative Christian issues in the debate. Keyes’ people sounded off, launching an email campaign to barrage Florida GOP chair Jim Greer with complaints. This morning I received another email from the Keyes campaign. He was recently excluded from the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, reportedly because he entered the race too late to be included. His staff, however, cites that attendee Fred Thompson entered the race barely a week before Keyes. Most top tier candidates were there – unlike the Values Voter Debate held in September, where Keyes came in just behind Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee in a field absent Giuliani, Thompson and McCain. Keyes’ camp acknowledges that political event organizers have the right to invite (or not) anyone they choose, but that groups like the FRC are lying when they claim to invite ALL candidates. In the run-up, Keyes, clearly a candidate, didn’t get his invitation in the mail and when his camp called to see if it was lost, they were told that he simply wasn’t asked to participate. It seems a little sad to picture them all sitting around the office waiting for the mail and then calling the FRC, only to learn that they weren’t invited. I imagine their initial incredulity, followed by quickly rising ire and a subsequent email blast bitch-slapping the FRC, perhaps fired off in anger in the middle of the night. At the end of the day, I don’t really care about Alan Keyes’ candidacy. And it amuses me that I know so much about his campaign through official emails that dish dirt in that whiny, sanctimonious tone to which my ears have been deaf since I was a teenager tuning out my mom over dirty clothes on the floor. My first response is to tease Keyes for his picked-on demeanor and holier-than-all posturing, but in fact his situation reveals chilling political truths. Prior to the advent of email as the political machine’s communication tool of choice, citizens had to rely on the media to report stories of exclusion, favoritism and other abuses of power in a reportedly inclusive system. In Keyes’ case, there’s little chance his story would have gotten much play – he’s the quintessential fringe candidate. But by his ability to communicate with me directly, I am informed firsthand of ways in which his […]
Nov 1st, 2007 by Jon Anne Willow
Tug of War
Milwaukeeans went into a tizzy with the arrival of Whole Foods Market a year ago – was a national anchor in the East Side business district a sign that the city had finally arrived? Would Whole Foods serve as a “tentpole” for other natural and organic businesses in the city? Or would they jack up rent, lowball prices and drive the competition out of town? Would they be receptive to the sensitivities of the East Side community, or would they homogenize the neighborhood? And really, all fuss aside, wasn’t it a good thing that a huge, attractive corporation chose blue-collar Milwaukee, that long-neglected diamond-in-the-rough, for only its second location in the state? Now, for better or worse, Whole Foods is here. And by the end of the year, Urban Outfitters will be here too, in the Kenilworth Building just across the street. Anthropologie, also part of Urban Outfitters Incorporated, will open a location in the gentrified Third Ward. We have a Borders downtown, Starbucks courting our coffee loyalties, and a whole enclave of national retailers in the new Bayshore Town Center, including fast fashion marts like H&M and Forever 21 and super-cheap specialty grocer Trader Joe’s. We have more choices than ever before, which in some ways is welcome (who doesn’t love a two-buck bottle of decent wine, or a cute, cheap cardigan) and in some ways poses complications. How do we square up our love for a truly unique and personal shopping, dining or service experience with our lust for convenience, a great deal and free parking? Buying Your Way Out “This area, like the Brady Street area, is a healthy commercial neighborhood. It has been for years, and it is dominated by local independent businesses,” says Pat Sturgis, co-owner of East Side institution Beans and Barley. The independent natural foods grocer and restaurant has been in business for 33 years at the corner of North and Farwell – right across from the new Whole Foods. “As American consumers, we have really been trained in a very conscientious way to look for consistency. When you go somewhere else, you go to the mall, find the Cheesecake Factory, find a Crate and Barrel, go to someplace that is indistinguishable from any other place in the country,” Sturgis says. “There’s a Starbucks on Brady Street, but there are three other coffee shops, and those are healthy things.” Beans and Barley struggled after Whole Foods opened – especially for the first few months. A year later, sales have recovered, and their restaurant and deli sales have grown. “On the other hand, we were on our way to a record year [when Whole Foods opened],” Sturgis says. “It’s going to take a lot more work to get back to breaking any sales records here.” Rachel Ida Buff, a history professor and urban studies researcher at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a lifelong co-op patron, had her reservations when the new Whole Foods was announced. A year later, her ambivalence holds. She moved to Milwaukee […]
Nov 1st, 2007 by Amy Elliott
