BALLOONS AND CIRCUS CLOWNS
Grab your cell phone. Go to google maps. Click on satellite view. Search for Beijing, China. Zoom in. Want to sit on the roof of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong? Zero in – you’re there. How about the Beijing Marriott Hotel? Not a problem. Wander around Tianamen Square? Go for it. Check out the curving roof ridges on the buildings in the Forbidden City? It’s all yours. Hungry? Head for Hongrongyuan Dumpling or Wankelai Beefsteak Hotpot. Heard they’re great!
Ah, but let’s head back to America. Do a search for the White House, Pennsylvania Ave. Wander around the ...
Freedom Is Healthcare For All
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”
Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News anchorman for 19 years (1962 to 1981) and "the most trusted man in America.”
The United States is the only country of the major economic powers where medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy. Only in America do people live in fear of an illness resulting in financial ruin. Only in America do 30 million people, 9.0 % of the ...
A History of Mining Failures in Northern Wisconsin
Tom Tiffany’s mining fantasies have not been working out. He authored what may go down as one of the worst laws ever written, designed to create a low cost iron mine by removing the top of the Penokee Hills and filling in the headwaters of the Bad River, a major river feeding Lake Superior, with the mine wastes. It did not end well for Mr. Tiffany.
Then Senator Tiffany’s dream came true when he was able overturn the so-called “Mining Moratorium Law”, despite overwhelming opposition to his scheme. The law was never a moratorium on metallic mining in our ...
Supreme Court Elections
Day in and day out, our lives are impacted by decisions made by our state Supreme Court. Now, we get a say in making that court work for us. The only way to ensure that the Wisconsin Supreme Court does its job and represents our communities is to make our voices heard in the upcoming judicial elections. Please vote in the primary election on February 21, and the general election on April 4.
You might be seeing ads or reading stories about the political balance of our state Supreme Court. But this election is about more than just politics, it’s about the problems ...
Democracy and Political Violence
“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his book “Strength to Love.”
Driving to Green Bay recently I noticed a number of billboards that said “Thank a cop.” That part of Wisconsin being staunchly right wing, one would assume this message was a reaction to Black Lives Matter protests and efforts to make police more accountable for excessive use of force against minorities.
We were driving through a snow storm and it occurred to me that ...
THE WISDOM OF NIKITA
Older Americans remember well the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The then Soviet Union had placed nuclear armed missiles on the island nation mere minutes from being able to destroy most major American cities, including Washington D.C. and New York. As a sovereign nation, Cuba, like Ukraine today, had every legal right to have Soviet missiles placed within its borders.
Of course, these Soviet missiles were an existential threat to the U.S. and President John F. Kennedy was left in an impossible situation. No matter the international legalities, under no circumstances was ...
A Review of Curt Meine’s Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work on the Occasion of Aldo Leopold’s 136th Birthday
One could tick off details about Aldo Leopold’s life—born January 11, 1887, in Burlington, Iowa; educated as a forester at Yale; worked for the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico and Arizona for roughly two decades; married Estella Bergere in October of 1912; accepted an appointment to the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1924; and, in 1935, came into possession of “the shack,” near Baraboo, along the Wisconsin River, a place that figures as a hub in A Sand County Almanac, and on which property he died, of an apparent heart attack, while fighting ...
The Proposed Master Plan for Rib Mountain State Park Open Letter
The Proposed Master Plan for Rib Mountain State Park which was submitted to the NRB on Dec 14th, 2022 had gone through an extensive public comment process as required by Wisconsin law. However, at the NRB meeting, the plan was significantly amended on the motion of a now former board member changing the plan by adding approximately 28 acres to the parcel to be leased by Granite Peak Ski Corporation.
The amendment designated this added land for construction of three new downhill ski runs and a new ski lift. The new runs and lift will wipe out several existing and ...
TECTONIC SHIFTS
History matters. As World War II came to an end in 1944, Europe and Japan were in ruins while the U.S. had become the world’s economic powerhouse. At a historic meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, forty-four countries agreed to fix their currencies to the U.S. dollar and the dollar was made convertible to gold at $35 per ounce. Thereafter countries would settle their international trade in dollars, and the dollar became the world’s reserve currency.
As one might expect, having the dollar as the world’s reserve currency proved enormously beneficial to America. ...