Dear Progressive Reader,

Monday is the fifty-fourth anniversary of the first Earth Day. In April 1970, The Progressive gave over the entire issue of the magazine to the organizers of the first Earth Day to present ideas, interviews, and conversations to help launch the modern environmental movement. But this was not the first time The Progressive had showcased efforts to preserve and maintain the environment that sustains us all. In the very first months of La Follette’s Weekly (as this magazine was called in 1909), the story of the creation of the National Park System was chronicled. The Earth, La Follette wrote in March 1909, is “the home of a posterity to whom we owe a sacred duty.”

For Earth Day’s fiftieth anniversary in 2020, Tia Nelson told the story of her father Senator Gaylord Nelson’s work in creating that holiday. Last fall I reviewed three new books that seek to bring the issues of the climate crisis to new audiences. But threats to our planet from the climate crisis continue. As Jeff Abbott writes this week from Guatemala, “Wildfires driven by the effects of El Niño and climate change are raging across Central America.” The threats are global, action needed to address them continues to fall far short of the need.

Wars and militarism remain the major drivers of the climate crisis (the Pentagon is today the world’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions), and yet these seem to be ever increasing. This week, as Stephen Zunes points out, “[I]n the days since Iran’s attack on Israel, there has been little attention given to Israel’s ongoing bombing of civilian targets in Gaza. . . . . Nor has there been much attention on Israel’s illegal blocking of necessary food aid and the resulting starvation.” Meanwhile, a flotilla of peace activists bearing aid is set to launch this week from Türkiye, as Saurav Sarkar reports, “Hundreds of civilians from more than thirty countries will be sailing into the Israeli Navy’s blockade in a show of defiance and solidarity with the people of Gaza.”

Also this week on our website, Zach Roberts provides a photo essay of the recent appearance of Kyle Rittenhouse at an event in Ohio. Rittenhouse, who shot three demonstrators (two of whom died) at a Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin in 2020, continues to make money from his pro-gun and pro-Trump appearances. Meanwhile, as Daniel Brown chronicles, since gun laws have loosened in Tennessee, homicide rates and other gun violence have gone up.

A jury was seated in Donald Trump’s felony trial in New York, and as Mark Fiore illustrates, many potential jurors fear repercussions for their participation. Also, in another trial taking place in Virginia, as David Rosen reports, victims from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are attempting to hold U.S. contractors liable for their suffering and torture following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. And Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal of Lawyers for Civil Rights pens an oped on the root causes of migration and the United States government’s role in creating those conditions in the 1980s.

This Sunday marks the 165th anniversary of the birth of womens’ rights and human rights activist (and co-founder of this magazine with her husband and partner “Fighting Bob”) Belle Case La Follette. La Follette’s life was celebrasted in a 2021 song by Si Kahn that has just been released on a new CD by British singer and multi-instrumentalist Phoebe Rees. Next week, in Madison, Wisconsin, La Follette’s great granddaughter, Tavia La Follette will be presenting “” an original theatrical performance about Belle Case La Follette at the Arts+Literature Laboratory.

This event is just one part of our April 25 to 27 celebration of the centenary of Robert M. La Follette’s third-party campaign for the presidency in 1924. We will be holding a conference and exhibit of historic artifacts at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, plus performances at the Art Lit Lab, and the Barrymore Theatre with scholars and authors, speakers and musicians, and more! For more information, visit progressive.org/progressive-presidency. All events are free and open to the public.



Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

 
Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. – Don’t miss a minute of the “hidden history” of 2024 – you can still order The Progressive’s new Hidden History of the United States calendar for the coming year. NOW HALF PRICE – Just $7.50 plus $3.00 shipping. Just go to indiepublishers.shop, and while you are there, check out some of our other great offerings as well.

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