WISCONSIN SPECIAL ELECTION
Wisconsin will have a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives this spring. This election is important for many reasons. Democrats have an opportunity to take back the 7th Congressional District formerly held by Democratic Rep. Dave Obey for 40 years.
The good news for Democrats is their candidate will not be facing Republican Rep. Sean Duffy. Duffy resigned his seat creating the need for the special election. Duffy had dominated the district since 2010 defeating five Democratic challengers. The bad news is many of the factors that led to Duffy's ...
NOT THE TIME TO DEBATE GUN CONTROL
This is not the time to debate gun control. It’s been just a few days since the last massacre of ______________. (Please insert one of these: high school students; grade schoolers; adults at a gathering; a friend; my relative; your spouse; their child.) We should not debate while family and friends grieve, and their grief can last a lifetime, so there is never a good time to debate. So, let’s change the subject. I have a story for you.
I grew up in an undistinguished neighborhood in mid-century Illinois near the Wisconsin border. But, the kids in my neighborhood? We ...
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS BECOME JOURNALISTS
Here is a great opportunity for high school students to become a journalist while still in high school. You can learn valuable skills in the WIPPS Student Journalism Program.
Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service (WIPPS) is sponsoring the Student Journalism Program in partnership with Midwest Communications’ WSAU radio. This is for students in grades 10 – 12.
Students:
learn marketable skills, including writing, editing and interviewing.
Interact with radio broadcast professionals
Have your stories read, watched and ...
THE BILLIONAIRE THEFT OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR – THE BILLIONAIRE THEFT OF HOPE
A version of this article appeared in the 6-20-2016 edition of Middle Wisconsin. Given the growing level of inequality in America and how it is destroying our democracy and our nation, the message still seems relevant.
The investment - - and the enablement - - began 3.6 million years ago in Tanzania when two early humans stood upright and left the “Laetoli Footprints” in the wet volcanic ash. We do not know what these humans knew, but they had mastered enough of their environment to survive, because we are here today. We owe them a great debt.
A million years ...
TEN TALKING POINTS TO END GERRYMANDERING IN WISCONSIN
We’re (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign) playing a key role in the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, including writing up a handy toolkit for activists. Here’s an excerpt:
The Founders of our country fought the War of Independence over fair representation. Gerrymandering deprives Wisconsinites of fair representation.
The health of our democracy depends on the integrity and fairness of our election system. The more rigged the system is, the more cynical and apathetic the citizenry will become.
Wisconsinites believe in fair play. ...
SOLUTIONS TO THE RETIREMENT CRISIS: PART 3
“...as soon as 2025, as many as 30 million Americans, many of them originally middle class, will find themselves either poor or “near-poor.”
From “How to Solve the Retirement Crisis: A Politico Working Group Report”
“The great lie is that the 401(k) was capable of replacing the old system of pensions,” Gerald Facciani former head of the American Society of Pension Actuaries (quoted in the Wall Street Journal)
Continuing our look at the retirement crisis, this article discusses several proposals to provide secure pensions to all ...
WHEN A VILLAGE STANDS BEHIND OUR CHILDREN
Parenting.
It’s just a word to a young couple thinking about maybe having kids. Then, it happens. The kids, I mean. Everything getting real, fast. The jitters hit us—a ton of bricks in a diaper. Some check out parenting gurus. Some wing it. Some are red. Some are blue. All are green. All soldier on.
And finally, we become expert, after the fact, with that first one. Our first-timer false starts and miscues aside, we’ve got the next one covered. There’s a swagger in our step. We’ve got this. Except, of course, that our next child isn’t anything like the ...
ORION RISES IN THE SOUTHEASTERN SKY IN DECEMBER
I’m excited to write about the constellation Orion for the December issue. Orion is the favorite constellation of many people. Orion’s stars are brilliant. Furthermore, the constellation lies across the Celestial Equator, so it can be seen by anybody anywhere on Earth at the right time of year.
We need a few definitions. These are taken from www.skymaps.com.
Constellation: “a defined area of the sky containing a star pattern” (such as a person, animal or object).
Galaxy: “A mass of several billion stars (or more) held together by gravity.”...
I AM SO GLAD WE HAD THIS TIME TOGETHER
When I was a kid, our influencers were people we knew. We didn’t just see them on a video, we saw them in real life. Not to say that there weren’t celebrities that we admired, but the people we tended to emulate were those whom we had regular interactions with. That included teachers, and maybe that one special school principal.
“You can remember the difference between principle and principal, because one is your ‘pal.’” That was one of the mnemonic devices I learned while attending Grove Elementary. It might not have stuck with me if Yvonne Ellie ...
FREE FOR ALL
Truth stands revealed to all.
I may cover up my eyes,
turn my back, stamp my feet:
but truth is what it is.
Or I may hide it from others,
steer them along another road, impose a censorship;
but they will find truth somewhere,
and their discovery will uncover my deception.
And then again, I may declare that only I have truth
But truth will out.
it cannot be suppressed, or hidden;
it has no favorites.
Let me, then, have confidence in freedom
for truth cannot be over-thrown by error.
...