Latest news with #Fredrickson
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rockford's ‘Symbol' landmark remains a topic of intrigue and debate
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Standing nearly 50 feet tall at Sinnissippi Park, the steel sculpture known as 'Symbol' has been a local landmark for decades and continues to spark curiosity and debate. Designed in 1978 by Russian sculptor Alexander Liberman, 'Symbol' was constructed with a price tag of just over $117,000. 'It was part of a federal arts grant, but we helped raise about $50,000 in Rockford to help fund the statue,' said Luke Fredrickson, marketing director at Midway Village Museum. Initially erected in the middle of West State Street just west of the Wyman Street intersection, 'Symbol' was part of the old downtown pedestrian mall. Fredrickson said the mall and the sculpture were intended to boost traffic and revitalize the area, which had been struggling since the tollway came in several years earlier. By 1984, the sculpture was deemed a bit out of place in its original location. 'It was just too crowded here,' said downtown advocate Gary Carlson. 'So, they took it down and put it in storage.' Later, 'Symbol' was reassembled at its current spot in Sinnissippi Park, where overlooks the Auburn Street/Highway 251 interchange. 'It doesn't look like anything in particular,' Fredrickson said. 'But it sort of has an industrial look that harkens back to Rockford's industrial heritage and metal-working industries.' For locals, the sculpture holds varied meanings. To Taylor Beck, of Rockford, even though it wasn't designed by a local artist, it's a nod to the city's creative side. 'Rockford is known for its art community, and there's art everywhere,' Beck said. 'So I just figured it was a piece of art.' Beck's friend, Natalie Bagley, said 'Symbol' has come to represent everything about the Forest City. 'There's no other symbol like it,' she said. 'So it always makes me think Rockford. It makes me think abstract.' 'It's not orange,' Carlson said. 'It's Liberman red.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Daily Maverick
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Unpacking white supremacy: Gavin Evans explores the dangerous legacy of racial ideologies
Gavin Evans examines a modern plague that has deep roots in faux biology and some seriously fraudulent social science. If anyone, in this day and age, had decided to give their newest book a deliberately provocative title, choosing 'White Supremacy' could be a finalist for such a dubious honour. In fact, academic and journalist Gavin Evans has just done that, subtitling his volume: 'A Brief History of Hatred', just in case a potential reader was insufficiently unnerved by Evans' choice of a title or confused into believing it was some kind of perverse handbook. It is intriguing, however, that the late Stanford University historian, George M Fredrickson, some 50 years earlier, also used the same title for his own groundbreaking comparative study of the evolution of racialised government in South Africa and the US (along with a briefer shout-out to Brazil's experiences). When his book was published, Fredrickson explained that he had deliberately chosen the term 'supremacy' — as opposed to 'racism' — to indicate that, at least in its earliest days, 'race' in any kind of sophisticated (albeit false) biological sense had been just one of the factors that initially shaped both America's and South Africa's colonial societies, along with their economies and legal structures. However, over time, the result was the creation of increasingly institutionalised, formally structured slavery systems and the consequent formalised racial hierarchies that flowed from those decisions and choices. As a journalist and academic now teaching in Britain, Evans has taken a significantly different approach and focus from Fredrickson's — although the two books would usefully be read in tandem, but with Fredrickson's historical study first to set out an historical landscape. Deep examination Instead of employing a deep examination back through many centuries to trace the origins of racial thinking, Evans traces the evolution of the contemporary ideology of white racialism/racism back through the beginnings of 19th century 'scientific' racial theories. This leads Evans into the origins of thinking about eugenics and the strains of thought that underlaid the thinking about and misuse of IQ theories and measurements. And all of this was built upon a growing appreciation for the hereditary nature of various traits as explored by scientists, but then put to work for socio-political purposes in discriminating against groups of people — and then on to the pseudo-biology that underpinned the Nazi 'Final Solution.' In doing his immersion into 19th century thinking, Evans draws extensively upon race theorists in the US, Great Britain, and Germany who influenced each other or provided the raw material for later racial theories. This even includes stops along the way to incorporate ideas drawn from the early thinkers about genetics, including Charles Darwin. That naturalist, of course, had got it right about evolution and the African origins of humanity, but at the same time he was also tainted by 19th century ideas about a hierarchy of races in terms of their respective intellectual capacities. In the contemporary world, such ideas have become the foundation for the very real — and dangerous — phenomenon of angry yet lonely young men who do terrible things in the name of racial ideologies. And, yes, they almost always are young men — in America, in Britain, in Scandinavia, in New Zealand, throughout Western Europe, and in South Africa. (An exploration of how the South African charge of white genocide has now taken on a peculiarly political texture with the Trump Administration in the US comes in Molly Olmstead's recent article in Slate.) Inevitably, such individuals most often progressively become ensnared in dark web conversations and alt-right manifestos urging a fight back against the potent yet imaginary 'white replacement theory' and similar perspectives flogged by proponents of racial thinking. Sometimes, but not always, those manifestos and social media messaging also demonstrate more bog-standard conspiracy thinking. This includes themes like the charge that Jews (presumably wherever they live) are secretly in control of the world's financial structure — and through that global and national politics, as they simultaneously manipulate intellectually inferior, inevitably darker-skinned people, to Jews in taking over the world. Further… building on their respective childhoods, these individuals often demonstrate those 'lone wolf' tendencies that add a complex psychological dimension to their fears, angers, delusions, and then their actions. Such deep psychological roots make it that much harder to dispel such notions in the minds of such angry individuals. (The reader's mind may well drift to thoughts about psychological training and conditioning reminiscent of the plot of 'Clockwork Orange' or to Pavlov and BF Skinner's famous operant conditioning training with dogs and pigeons, as well as humans in the case of Skinner.) Lone wolf While the term 'lone wolf' has become increasingly common usage to describe such people, this reviewer has the feeling that such souls actually behave more like lost puppies than lone wolves. They are desperately trying to connect to someone, to something, or to some kind of belief system that may give them reassurance in a world that otherwise offers them few handholds (or restraining devices for their delusions), save via connecting through social media with other equally deluded young men and their would-be influencers. Of course one key element in actual killing sprees by such people comes from their use of weapons — most frequently relying upon the lethality of modern firearms. Almost always, too, in their writing and actions such lost souls also demonstrate a love of firearms and explosive devices. One thought, of course, is to make it that much harder for people with such alarming tendencies and ideas to have easy access to high-powered rifles. Absent access to such weapons, the killing sprees would become that much harder to carry out, perhaps, although some have chosen to use swords, pangas and bayonets — and a truly determined individual can often find their way to firearms. And, now, increasingly, a motor vehicle driven into a crowd at a sporting event, a holiday market, or just a busy downtown street is becoming a political act on behalf of some kind of ideology. This isn't quite nihilism. Rather, it is making use of the tools at hand to strike a blow for something. But the use of motor vehicles leads us to another question — and that is whether such killings are a unique feature of young, misled western men, or, whether there is a broader question here, especially since some of these mass vehicular killings have been carried out by young Muslim men who believe they are following their own dark webs of racial/religious/ethnic teachings and influencers. The question is not simply one of white supremacy, per se, but the idea of true believers of some doctrine or philosophy who are prepared to kill innocent people in the presumed furtherance of their beliefs, regardless of the personal cost. That should point us to the idea there is more to this phenomenon than simply white racialism and white supremacy. Is it not also the difficulties such young men have in connecting to more 'normal' social structures and why those darker more violent alternatives become so attractive to them. If Evans had also included the way some in Eastern Europe and Russia have absorbed a Slavic version of White supremacy as propounded by writers favoured by Vladimir Putin, or even the versions of such thinking in some of Asian societies, Evans' White Supremacy would have been an even stronger, more universally applicable work, although admittedly it would have been a much longer one. Populist critics Jennifer Szalai, reviewing Quinn Slobodian's own new book, Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right, in the New York Times notes Slobodian's final chapter 'traces how right-wing figures across the world have positioned themselves as populist critics of 'neoliberal policies' even while they pay frequent homage to Austrian economists like Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, who laid the foundations for the neoliberal tradition, with its gospel of free markets. 'This so-called New Right has adopted the furious nostalgia of a backlash to what (Argentinian President Javier) Milei has called a 'global hegemony' while embracing radical deregulation.' This may put energy into the normalisation of violence, the addition of a kind of libertarian ideology, and that perennial, a 'rage against the machine' as we once would have called it half a century earlier. Societies and governments that hope to combat these dangerous tendencies must find ways that can draw such alienated individuals back into the larger, broader texture of political, economic, and social thinking in societies, rather than driving them further and further into the rabbit holes they enter. This will not be an easy or simple task, especially when mainstream politicians insist on giving credence to their ideas or fears. Evans deserves credit for tackling this topic, even if the more universal picture is beyond this text. But he, too, is challenged about how to bring such lone wolves or lost puppies back into the fold before they wreak yet more damage. Nonetheless, by the time Evans reaches his postscript, he becomes modestly optimistic. As he writes, 'Racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia might seem like immovable forces, particularly for their victims. Every time a young white man opens fire with an assault rifle on black or brown or Muslim, Sikh, Asian or Jewish people, or a policeman shoots dead an unarmed black man, or a race science author insists that one population group is innately smarter than others or naturally more violent or inherently more acquisitive, and every time a television pundit tells his viewers of a conspiracy to replace 'legacy' Americans or Europeans with people of different races and religions, it must feel like nothing has changed. It must feel like racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia simply cascade through the generations, always on the hunt for new territory. 'And yet, it can and does change, often for the better. In Germany, Britain and the US between the wars, perceptions about the superiority of the white race and beliefs in race-based eugenics were part of conventional wisdom. But this changed through seeing the implications of eugenics in Nazi Germany, and it is continuing to shift…' We can only hope that, over the longer term, Evans is right, and that despite all the hate speech and racial, ethnic, and religious invective in the darker corners of the internet and talk radio — often infecting more presumably normal political discourse by leading politicians in many nations — wiser, more rational heads will, in the end, prevail. DM
Epoch Times
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Recount of Wisconsin Judge Race Prompts Ballot Challenges
A widely watched recount is underway of the results of an election for circuit judge in Racine County, Wisconsin. The incumbent Circuit Court Judge Jon Fredrickson lost to challenger Jamie McClendon by 55 votes. Voters cast 60,349 ballots for the office. Fredrickson, who has served in the post since 2019, requested the recount. McClendon is a former public defender and is a local attorney in private practice. In Wisconsin, if the margin of victory is within two percentage points, the recount is paid for by taxpayers. Racine County resident Jim Spodick, a political Independent and election integrity activist with the organization Honest, Open, and Transparent Government (HOT Government), was at the courthouse as an unofficial observer on April 14, the first day of the recount. Related Stories 5/3/2024 6/7/2024 According to Spodick, no representatives from the local, state, or national GOP were there to fight for the interests of Fredrickson, a conservative judge. 'I noticed that several absentee ballot envelopes had clear defects on them, sufficient to disqualify that ballot under Wisconsin law,' he said. 'These were not being properly challenged for lack of Fredrickson observers, who were outnumbered literally nine-to-one by McClendon's people. That kind of imbalance is not right.' Spodick said he then went on social media and summoned a group of HOT Government members from Racine County, who quickly came out to work for Fredrickson in the recount. The Racine County Republican Party and Racine County Clerk Wendy Christensen, a Republican, did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. Spodick said his group contacted Election Watch, an election integrity watchdog organization, which purchased the entire Racine County voter roll and began analyzing it for mistakes and irregularities. Records Show Ineligible Voters, Group Alleges Election Watch alleged that there are 823 discrepancies after it cross-checked the April 15, 2025, state voter roll with the United States Postal Service Change of Address database to which it subscribes. The discrepancies included 40 individuals who moved to another Wisconsin county years ago but are recorded as voting in the April 1, 2025, election from their former Racine County registered address, the group alleged. Wisconsin election integrity activist Jim Spodick Courtesy of Jim Spodick Election Watch alleged that another 11 individuals who voted in Racine County had moved out of Wisconsin well before the election. According to Election Watch, more than 250 registered voters in Racine County were found by the United States Post Office as not having received mail at their registered address for at least 90 days—an indicator that they are possibly not living at the registered address of record. All voted from those addresses in the April 1 election, according to the group. Election Watch spokesman Peter Bernegger told The Epoch Times that they discovered 51 individuals who voted in the April 1 election in Racine County had earlier registered to vote from a physical primary residence in the county, and 'at some point in time, made a post office box their primary residence.' Wisconsin law permits an individual to list a P.O. box as a secondary residence, but that person must be registered to vote from a primary physical location where he or she sleeps. Spodick said, 'This kind of thing is normally not the local clerk's fault. A statewide system that allows bloated and inaccurate voter registration rolls to persist is what is wrong.' If the results of the recount do not change the outcome of the election, Fredrickson has the right to appeal in court. Fredrickson and McClendon did not respond to requests for comment by publication time. 'Based on the dirty voter rolls, the court could order a redo of the election,' said Bernegger. 'Not About Fredrickson Staying in Office' Sandra Morris of HOT Government Wisconsin. Courtesy of Sandra Morris Sandra Morris, a Navy veteran and HOT Government activist who personally filed scores of challenges in connection with the recount, told The Epoch Times: 'For me, it's not about Fredrickson staying in office. 'I just want fair and lawful elections in which only eligible voters participate. 'Given all the challenges, which are backed up by official government data, I think there should be a redo of the April 1 election in Racine County. 'It would be good for every candidate and all the eligible voters,' said Morris. 'We're not free if we don't have fair elections.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why does the Illinois Tollway bypass Rockford? Here's what happened
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – Most Rockford residents have heard the story of how the I-90 Tollway, now called the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, was to be routed through downtown Rockford. But is it true? And what about other projects that could have seen a major highway system come thought the heart of the city? According to experts, the answers are rather interesting. 'Business was booming in Rockford in the 1950s, just like it was around the country,' said Luke Fredrickson, marketing director at Midway Village Museum in Rockford. By the '50s, Rockford was well on its way to becoming one of the largest manufacturing hubs in the United States. Industrial smokestacks were a symbol if the city's vibrant middle class. Recreation, as well as shopping districts on Seventh, Main and East State streets, were booming. Highways 20 and 51 were the main ways out of the city. And as more people bought automobiles, personal travel was evolving. 'They wanted to be able to travel to Chicago taking and not take three, four hours taking [Highway] 20 and having to stop in every little town,' Fredrickson said. Shipping needs were also changing. As factories became more streamlined, goods also needed to come in and out the city faster. 'Business leaders wanted to move their freight on semi-trucks as opposed to having to pay for trains and go along with those schedules,' Fredrickson added. 'It wasn't nearly as nimble.' As the country modernized, the federal government was at work to accommodate the need for a more efficient highway system. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which spurred construction of Interstate 90, a portion of which would connect Rockford and Chicago. There were preliminary talks of having the interstate come through downtown, but those talks were halted. 'The political leaders and the large property owners at the time felt that they didn't want that disrupting their neighborhood,' Fredrickson said. 'So, the political forces that be pushed for a different solution in cheap farmland out toward Boone County.' Before the tollway was completed in 1958, for anyone droving east on East State Street, Rockford largely ended at Alpine Road. Everything beyond that point were fields and farmland. 'All that cheap farmland got bought up and developed, and things moved out that way,' Fredrickson said. 'Rockford College moved out there. Saint Anthony Hospital moved out that way. Rock Valley College was built on the east side, the next big mall, CherryVale, was built out that way.' As the east side flourished with the addition of the tollway, city leaders looked for ways to keep people downtown. Enter another push to bring a major highway through the center of the city. Enter the Woodruff Expressway. After the city built the Whitman Street interchange and the cloverleaf at Spring Creek Road and North Second Street in the 1960s, leaders eventually wanted the structure to be part of having Interstate 39 cut through Rockford. The plans were to come in off of Woodruff Avenue, following the railroad tracks and connecting to Rural Street. The highway would then continue across the river to Huffman Boulevard. But, the Woodruff Expressway was never built. 'The thing that really put the nail in the coffin on that project is when City Council voted to allow FedEx to go in just north of the kind of curly cue there on 39 where it kind of wraps around so you can get to Alpine,' said City of Rockford Traffic Engineer Jeremy Carter. 'That was supposed to continue north and connect into that railroad right-of-way. And then, in [19] 92, I think, that kind of transportation plan ended.' Carter says structures like the Whitman interchange and giant overpasses that cut through cities aren't part of modern design practices. 'They destroyed neighborhoods,' he said. 'They made it difficult for pedestrians to get past. They created these big, vehicle rivers through urban areas.' And while there has been tremendous benefits to building the tollway on the east end of the city, there have been economic consequences for downtown and the west side of Rockford. 'Not as much development was in that area and that's unfortunate for that part of town,' Fredrickson said. Construction on a Whitman Street interchange redux is currently underway. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
