The Soul of Wisconsin
“The Soul of Wisconsin is a sacred thing” is the way Marijane Curry begins her poem, Soul of Wisconsin.
Over the past three and a half years the “Soul of Wisconsin” has been trampled and broken by forces one can hardly comprehend. The “Soul of Wisconsin” has been “divided and conquered” by a governor and his billionaire friends.
Two of the governor’s “friends,” David and Charles Koch, are worth over $80 billion and have spent millions of dollars in Wisconsin to crush the “Soul of Wisconsin” by manipulating our governor to do their bidding.
David Koch ran as a vice-presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in 1980. Following is a partial list of the resolutions of the Libertarian Party platform that have been put into place or are in the works in Wisconsin:
1. “We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws,…” The twists and turns of the latest John Doe investigation into the governor’s “criminal scheme” is meant to get rid of campaign finance laws in Wisconsin.
2. “We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.” The governor refused federal funds to expand Badgercare/Medicaid to cover more people at a lower cost. As a result, about 77,000 people lost coverage under Badgercare.
3. “We oppose all personal and corporate taxation, including capital gains taxes.”
The wealthy and the corporations in Wisconsin have been given huge tax breaks with more to come.
4. “We support repeal of all laws which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as the minimum wage.” The governor says increasing the minimum wage is a “political stunt” and opposes it.
5. “We advocate the complete separation of education and State.” “Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.” Wisconsin’s governor has begun the process with $1.6 billion in cuts to public education in his first budget while expanding tax-payer funding of private schools. Public schools all across the state, especially in rural areas, are in jeopardy. The plan is to label 5% of public schools as failing each year and turn them over to private charter schools. Private schools are being subsidized by taxpayers at the present time. Is it the vision of the Kochs that only the wealthy children will be educated? Read further.
6. “We condemn compulsory education laws…and we call for the immediate repeal of all such laws.”
Who will educate our children?
7. “We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.” This is being put into place in Wisconsin. Rocketship Schools are one example. Parochial schools do not pay taxes. Parents who send their children to private schools get a tax deduction for each child in the private school.
8. “We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.”
9. “We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs.” This is in the works in Wisconsin. In the governor’s first budget, we saw deep cuts to programs that help working families: Earned Income Tax Credit and The Homestead Credit are examples. Wisconsin will receive $89 million less from SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). These cuts will affect 861,000 people–the majority are children, the disabled and elderly.
Marijane Curry ends her poem with this: … “we are the Soul of Wisconsin.” We, “The Soul of Wisconsin” have a decision to make on November 4th. What will it be?
By Joyce Luedke