Preserve Democracy, Please Vote
Mrs. Juntti was my 1st and 2nd grade teacher in a small elementary school in northern Wisconsin.
Mrs. Juntti gave me some of the greatest gifts I could ever receive. She taught me to read which opened my world to all the amazing things in life! Mrs. Juntti taught me how to write—another gift that has no measure. Mrs. Juntti gave me the gift of music. She played the piano in our small classroom as we learned to sing, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, My Country Tis of Thee, This Land is Your Land, Beautiful Dreamer, Oh! Susana, How Great Thou Art, and other songs I had never heard before.
After the first week of first grade, I knew I wanted to be a teacher.
Mr. Kortesma was my 7th and 8th grade teacher. He opened my eyes to the history of this country. With all that has happened in hundreds of years of history, I love and cherish the USA.
My high school teachers, Mr. Connelly, Miss Tartar and others, encouraged us to ask questions, to be inquisitive, to be life-long learners.
I attended UW-Superior. I commuted from Maple and worked at my parent’s restaurant after school and during the summer. This was another learning experience!!
I had the greatest honor to be a 5th grade teacher. Being a teacher is humbling as the students share their life stories.
For several years, I was an instructor for the Even Start Family Literacy Program. The majority of my students were Hmong women who recently arrived in the Wausau area after the Vietnam War. The ESFLP staff worked with the Hmong children as well. The students would speak about their experiences: dodging the bombs that fell on them as they worked in the rice fields and the farms, children dying, the elders who were left behind, escaping from Laos and living in trees so they wouldn’t be seen. Hundreds died while crossing the Mekong River because they didn’t know how to swim. I would cry with them as they told their stories. I learned a lot more from my students than they ever learned from me—another humbling experience.
As we are seeing, education is under attack by Project 2025:
!. Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education
- Eliminate the Head Start program for young children. This would lead to the closure of Head Start care programs that serve about 833,000 low-income children each year.
- Discontinue the Title I program that provides federal funding to schools serving low-income children
- Rescind federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students
- Undercut federal capacity to enforce civil rights law
- Reduce federal funding for students with disabilities and remove guardrails designed to ensure these children are adequately served by schools
- Promote universal private school choice
- Privatize the federal student loan portfolio
Other proposals would harm the middle class, veterans, and many others.
Some proposals would disproportionately harm rural areas.
Please take the time to read the links.
https://www.insightintodiversity.com/project-2025-what-does-it-mean-for-education/
https://washingtonspectator.org/project-2025-the-latest-plot-against-america/
Our very form of government is at stake!
I continue to pray for my country and for those who are hurt by the hate and lies. I continue to pray that, We the People, will vote for sanity and preserve our form of government, its institutions, and our fellow Americans. Please join with me to do all you can to preserve our form of government. Please vote. Thank you.