Community
Demonstration, February 27: Demand Further Soil Tests on Thomas Street
Middle Wisconsin will be in attendance at the event below. We hope you are, too! There has rarely been such a sustained citizen-driven effort on a Wausau policy issue or project.
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Concerned citizens are invited to gather on the sidewalk in front of City Hall steps to demand further environmental testing of the neighborhood’s surface soils. This will take place at 5:30pm in front of 407 Grant Street in Wausau.
Elevated Dioxin Levels in Soils Recently Identified: In February, private ...
PURPLE BULLSEYES
Purple Bullseyes line the map of the Thomas Street Phase II project. Purple Bullseyes designate the homes, apartment buildings, and businesses slated for some form of destruction. Most of the citizens inside these homes and apartment buildings are low income and vulnerable. Each person living inside a home, an apartment building, or business with a Purple Bullseye has a story.
I did an informal, independent survey of some of the citizens on both sides of Thomas Street who will be impacted by Phase II. Over and over the people spoke about the anxiety, the stress, the ...
Most Influential Person in 2017? Women
One year ago, Donald Trump became our president. The day after that momentous event, women by the hundreds of thousands assembled to march in mass protest.
They sang, laughed, talked, and shared their elation and sorrows right there in the nation’s capital. Marchers in 161 other U.S. cities and towns and in 81 other countries joined their protest. With one voice, they announced their opposition to the new president’s implied and stated goals. They also denounced his obvious delight in bullying, and exploiting others. Whether it was financial, emotional, or sexual ...
Doing Your Part
I have written in the past about not losing hope in these troubled political times. Good change can come if good people get active. In the past there were many people who did organize and advocate for change. All that is good about our current society is the result of these people's activism. Some of these people were the great men and women we read about in the history books. But many were unsung, unknown people who did the small things needed to build progress.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. Democracy must have citizens that do their part. They don't have to be ...
Hunger and Homlessness Sumit
HUNGER & HOMELESSNESS SUMMIT ON JANUARY 24
U. S. Representative Sean Duffy (WI-07) will host his fifth annual Hunger & Homelessness Summit on Wednesday, January 24 in Rothschild, WI.
This year’s summit will feature an interactive presentation on Congressman Duffy’s “Rural Relief Initiative” and healthy families, healthy housing.
Keynote speakers include:
Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson
Nan Roman, President of the National Alliance to End Homelessness
Expert Panelists include:
Deputy Secretary ...
Thomas Street Design Input Due to City By December 5
Please take just a few minutes of your day today to provide the City of Wausau with your input on the 30% Design Plan for Phase II of the Thomas Street Project. It impacts a neighborhood and community, and your opinion makes a difference!
The local media has recently touched on an array of issues with the project's design, including the demolition of blocks of affordable housing including a low-income apartment complex. The planned medians will make it difficult for neighborhood and city residents to even enter and exit homes and businesses. All of this will require a ...
Guns in Our Communities 2017
Once again a mass shorting is in the news. In California an angry white man shot up a small rural community apparently over employment and domestic problems. Last week in Texas, an angry white man killed 26 in a small rural church apparently because of a dispute with his mother-in-law. Before that in Las Vegas an angry, rich white man killed 59 and wounded 527 for no apparent reason at all. And the list goes on and on and on....
The common denominator in all these tragedies is the easy availability of guns, specifically military style weapons with high capacity magazi...
Peace for Veterans Day
Veterans Days was originally a day to celebrate peace. The original holiday was Armistice Day which marked the end of the fighting in WWI on November 11, 1918. That day became an international holiday to remember the war and work for peace. In 1926, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution creating Armistice Day to “commemorate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.” But in 1954 it was changed to Veterans Day.
WWI was the ”war to end all wars.” It was one of the most unnecessary wars in human history. The horror of WWI did create a strong ...
A COMMUNITY CARES FOR ITS CHILDREN
It is deep in our human nature to care for other people. Many years ago that was the only way for people to survive. We humans still come equipped with caring for others or showing empathy. A good example of one community showing empathy for all its children and teachers is Marathon, Wisconsin.
Caring citizens in Marathon, Wisconsin established the Marathon School District Endowment Fund. In the years since its beginning, this fund has supported projects throughout the Marathon School District. The Endowment Fund has given tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to ...
First Annual Wausau Grassroots Festival
The first Wausau Grassroots Festival will be held on October 7, 2017 at the Wausau Labor Temple. Click on the image below to download the PDF.