What About the Caravan?
U.S. troops shot rubber bullets and tear gas at caravan members reaching the U.S. border. Why would people travel for one month to reach our border only to be fired upon?Let’s look at the beginning. In mid-October about 160 people began their long dangerous journey from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This is is the center for gangs and drug trafficking. The 160 people decided to travel together for safety, as is often done in their land.By the time they reached the Guatemala border, more than 1000 people were in the caravan. By the time they reached Mexico, the ...
Leadership to Move Forward
The struggle is not over. The blue wave was successful in many places across the country. But it was not a tsunami. It did not wash away all the obstacles to building a better, more just America.The good news is we no longer have complete Republican control in Wisconsin and nationally. The downside is that we have a divided government, and legislative gridlock will be the likely result. But this does not mean we can't move forward with a progressive agenda. There is a positive path forward that can build on the success of this election. We can continue the process of ...
Mini-Documentary: Letter from Prominent Toxicologist to Wausau Environmentalist Group (Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZ4AEc77QY
Implicit Bias
Implicit Bias is a term we hear a lot of these days. What is it? Why does it matter? What can we do about it?Andrea Huggenvik, executive director of YWCA, Wausau, spoke at a recent AAUW (American Association of University Women) meeting.She told us that a bias is an unconscious attribution of qualities belonging to a group. Without thinking, we react a certain way that has been pre-set in our brain. It would come under the category “we’ve always done it this way.”Implicit bias happens when our learned associations don’t match our values or knowledge. We ...
Darwin Drove Electric
Let me say that an electric car is a powerful evolutionary force. For years I have been convinced, as have 97% of the world's scientists, that climate change is real, that it is the most serious threat we face and that we are its primary cause. As bad as that sounds it is, in fact, the well from which I draw my optimism and my activism. If we are the source of the problem then we can solve it. That was why I found myself in a Chevy dealership over in Crivitz about to buy my first electric car, to help shrink my carbon footprint.Truth be told, though, I was frightened. ...
THE UNIVERSAL ECONOMY UNIT XVI: THE MISLEADING USE OF TRADITIONAL ACCOUNTING/ECONOMIC TERMINOLOGY
The U.S. Government never – ever – borrows money. The U.S. Government is never – ever – in debt.Ah, the heresy! How can one make such a ridiculous statement! Look at the National Debt Clock! It’s the end of the world! We’re mortgaging our great, great, great, great grandchildren into infinity! China will own us! It’s the end of the world!!!! Be afraid! Be very afraid! And on and on the insanity goes.But let us ask ourselves - - - since the U.S. Government is the Constitutionally authorized creator of the nation’s money, why on Earth would it ever ...
Payday Loans
No relief from Wisconsin’s 565 percent payday loan interest under new rules‘We need better laws,’ says struggling borrower; Wisconsin is one of eight states with no cap on high-interest loans By Bridgit Bowden (Wisconsin Public Radio/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism) Michelle Warne, 73, examines documents from the Check ‘n Go store in Green Bay where she borrowed money in 2014 to buy food. "I had no food in the house at all," she said. "I just couldn't take any more."In 2014, hunger drove Michelle Warne of Green Bay to take out a loan ...
Quotations
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”By Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.“The reasonable person does what everyone else is doing.The unreasonable person does something completely different.Therefore, all progress is due to the unreasonable.”By George Bernard Shaw“The two most important variables determining the value of research are the questions that are asked and how the results are interpreted and applied,Neither of these are determined by science; both are determined by the paradigm, the logic and the ...
Vigil to End Gun Violence
Friday, December 14 is the Vigil to End Gun Violence. YWCA 613 N. 5th Street, Wausau, WI, 544036:30 p.m.This vigil will call for common sense measures to reduce gun deaths and injuries in our nation. This vigil will honor all victims and survivors of gun violence, and shine a light on the epidemic of gun violence in our country.December 14 marks six years since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT where 20 children and 6 educators were killed.YWCA of Wausau is partnering with the Newtown Foundation, Moms Demand Action for Gun ...
WHAT DOES FOXCONN MEAN TO ME?
“Hard to wrap my head around,” the woman shared as she considered Foxconn. Just what do big budget decisions mean to us?Work has begun on crafting the next state budget. Over the next few months, this work will continue in earnest. One hefty unbudgeted expense added to upcoming budget math is a large taxpayer funded payment to a foreign corporation.Foxconn is the Taiwanese company building a manufacturing plant in southeast Wisconsin. To lure the company to our state, majority lawmakers and the governor created the largest state corporate give-away in American ...
