Iraq Moratorium #9, a day for individual or group action to end the war and occupation, will be observed on Friday, May 16, in Milwaukee and across the country.

A vigil from 5 to 6 p.m., at Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee,  is sponsored by the Milwaukee Coalition for a Just Peace and Peace Action-Wisconsin.  It's a high energy event with flags, banners, signs, music, kids, students, and people of all ages joining in.  I'll be there; if you're in town, please stop by.

If you can't make that, or vigils aren't your thing, do something yourself to mark the day.  Wear a button or armband to work, put a sign in your yard, email Senator Herb Kohl, write a letter to the editor, make a donation to the Iraq Moratorium or another antiwar group.  You'll find ideas and more info at www.IraqMoratorium.org 

... and that ain't much.

I remember years ago when I used to joke about news coverage on WGN-TV in Chicago, which seemed to feature an explosion so often that I called it "The Explosion News at 9."

As of late afternoon on Saturday, this was the entire list of the day's Newswatch on the Journal Sentinel website.  They could have used an explosion for a little variety and broader coverage:

UPDATE: Boy who died in fire identified 2:25 p.m. »

Janesville boy dies in fire 1:01 p.m. »

Three wounded in Racine shootings 12:10 p.m. »

Police arrest armed robbery suspects 11:38 a.m. »

Two critically injured in rollover crash 11:12 a.m. »

Man dies in single-car crash 11:09 a.m. »

Cop shoots suspect during foot chase 10:34 a.m

"Peace activists have learned that big demos in Washington, DC, alone will not save us.  Sure, let's go there, or other big cities to show the peace doves, and Old Glory too, once in a while.  But the real engines in this campaign to save ourselves from oblivion are the small but determined protests mounted everywhere across this land. Building a huge and independent movement of enraged and engaged citizens is the way to not only move democracy out of its infancy, but to force the next administration, whether Democratic or Republican, to stop the insane, tragic, cowardly invading of other nations."-- WWII Veteran, author and anti-war activist, Martin Murie.

May 16 is the Third Friday of the month -- Iraq Moratorium #9.

Quoting Murie, some Wisconsin organizers tell us why it's important:

Dear Concerned Citizens,

Is the U.S. Treasury, which can't print money fast enough to pay for the trillion-dollar tragedy in Iraq, about to give an economic stimulus to peace organizations working to stop the war?

It seems highly unlikely, but if it doesn't happen it won't be because the antiwar folks haven't tried.  Many seem to be on the same wave length as an email I received yesterday from United for Peace and Justice:

Spend your stimulus check on peace! The sooner the war ends, the more money the nation saves. Not to mention the lives and futures of millions of people. So let's use the stimulus money to stop the war, bring all of the troops home and get the nation's budget back on track.

We invite you to spend your stimulus check, or some portion of it, on the one thing the Bush administration doesn't want you to invest in: Help strengthen the peace and justice movement!

I don't know how many people marched in Milwaukee on Thursday for fair treatment of immigrants.

No one has tried to put a number on it. Crowd estimates have gone out of fashion.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is content to say that "thousands" marched, and made a point of saying it wasn't as many as last year. (How do we know that?)

Meanwhile, the New York Times was pointing to Milwaukee as one of the places where crowds didn't decrease, and made it sound like the biggest march in the country took place here.

One thing is certain: TENS of thousands of people marched in Milwaukee. I can't say whether it was 20,000 or 30,000 or more, but it was undoubtedly the biggest march Milwaukee will see in 2008 -- and the biggest since last year's march organized by the same people.

Consider this: The march started at 5th and Washington about 11:45 and wound its way across the 6th Street viaduct and down Wisconsin Avenue to Veterans Park. That's a good two and one-half miles, maybe a little more.

When the first marchers got to the park, many marchers were still lined up and waiting to leave the starting point. Marchers were strung out all along the 2.5-mile route, and kept coming into Veterans Park until about 2 p.m., more than two hours after the march began.

From MoveOn.org on the 5th anniversary of Mission Accomplished

What to wear to the May Day march?

The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ) has just the thing: "Immigrants Welcome" T-shirts in Spanish and Hmong. (There are yard signs with the same message.)

Justice for immigrants is a major focus of the events Thursday in Madison and Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee event is billed as a statewide action, organized by Voces de la Frontera and endorsed by Peace Action Wisconsin.

Organizers at Voces say:

Happy Earth Day.

Maybe we should start with a disclosure that I am Gaylord Nelson's biographer, which may give me a somewhat different perspective on Earth Day, founded by Senator Nelson (pictured), than some others.

Earth Day, as some have noted today, has not solved all of the world's environmental problems. But it has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on how people think about and relate to the environment.

Gaylord Nelson's primary goal in launching Earth Day was to get environmental issues a prominent place on this country's political agenda, and it certainly accomplished that long ago.

On the first Earth Day, seven months after Nelson announced plans for what he envisioned as a campus environmental teach-in, 20 million people -- 10 per cent of the US population at the time -- participated in some way.

The Iraq Moratorium, a nationwide grassroots movement uniting individuals and groups against the Iraq war, will be observed on Friday, April 18.

Individual actions can range from wearing a black armband or a button to school or work to writing letters, putting up signs, calling members of Congress, and a wide variety of other actions.

The Moratorium website, www.IraqMoratorium.org offers ideas, and lists planned group actions across the country.   Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice lists Wisconsin events here:  http://www.wnpj.org/node/10091 

In Milwaukee, Peace Action and the Milwaukee Coalition for a Just Peace sponsor a vigil every month from 5 to 6 p.m. at Water and Wisconsin, in the heart of downtown, during afternoon rush hour. 

Imagine not 4,000+ Americans dead, but 150,000 American fatalities in the last five years.

Thirty or more American deaths on the average day, week in and week out, with no end in sight.

Would that be enough to arouse the citizenry, to demand an end to the killing and bloodshed?

You'd think so. But the answer is no.

The 4,000 US fatalities in Iraq pale beside the 150,000 Americans killed by firearms in this country over a five-year period.

Wednesday, the first anniversary of the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech, the media paid a little bit of attention to memorials and observances around the country.

But there is no real outcry and no concerted national effort to end firearms violence, even though 32 -- the number of people killed by gunfire at Virginia Tech -- is also the number of gun homicides recorded on an average day in the United States.

That's because many gun-toting Americans seem to think we have a constitutional right to kill each other with firearms, or at least to be free of any sensible restraints that might limit or prevent gun violence.