14 results for month: 07/2023
Writer challenges legislator Robin Vos on stand against DEI programs at UW System
Here are two questions for the readers:
Do you contact Wisconsin legislators?
Do the legislators respond?
Recently, I sent an email to Assembly Speaker (Robin) Vos regarding statements Vos has made during and after the 2023-2025 budget session. Here are some of the statements I addressed in the email.
Speaker Vos said he is embarrassed to be an alumni of UW-Whitewater. He stated he and his fellow Republicans will withhold the $32 million allocated to the UW-System in the 2023-2025 budget.
What is his reason? He disagrees with the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs that are happening throughout the UW-System.
I sent ...
Friends for Peace
Following is a special opportunity to participate in a UN Committee discussion regarding the settlement policies on the Palestinian population. Do take time to read the following information and join the Zoom meeting if you can.
We also hope you can join us for the event at the Marathon County Library on Tuesday, July 25 at 6 pm for a presentation and discussion by our honored guests, Karen and Tom Getman who have devoted their lives to advocacy for peace in Palestine and Israel.
This UN event will be livestreamed as outlined below.
“The impact of Israeli settlement policies on the Palestinian population in ...
JUST MONEY FIVE
The following 1-minute video shows former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, Alan Greenspan, educating former Congressman, Paul Ryan, about Social Security solvency. I’ve used it before, but Greenspan’s words are relevant to recent congressional budgetary arguments. Ryan begins by asking Greenspan to agree that Social Security benefits would be more secure if a percentage of retiree contributions were invested in personal retirement accounts (Wall Street Individual Retirement Accounts – IRA’s) rather than the government run Social Security system. Greenspan’s reply lays bare the ignorance of both Ryan and current budgetary argument...
Wisconsin Budget Woes
“I see a gun constantly aimed at our feet, wondering when our next self-inflicted wound will occur...” Kirk Bangstad, small business owner and political activist.
Mr. Bangstad was talking about education funding in the state budget but his comments apply to the rest of the budget and the budget process itself. Too often the important, long term investments needed by the state and the people of Wisconsin are lost in the political wrangling and ideological power struggles.
Governor Evers and the Republican controlled legislature are busy maneuvering to achieve competing, mutually exclusive goals for state's spending priorities. Governor Evers ...
Brook Trout in the Coal Mine
To say that I come from a long line of fisherfolk requires something to measure that line by, so let's see what a brief glance at Google suggests. Though not as helpful as I'd supposed the lineage of fishers clearly goes back a long, long way. Somewhere between two hundred thousand and forty thousand years ago is the scientific range, forty thousand being the first time clear evidence of a heavy fish diet shows up in skeletal analysis. He's known as Tianyuan man, and chemistry of his bones tell us he fished in eastern Asia and ate his catch regularly.
So when I say a long line it is sparklingly clear that we hominids have been ...
A Special Primer on Peace Initiatives Between Israel and Palestine
Please Join Our Peace Dialogue Group
For
A Special Primer on Peace Initiatives
Between Israel and Palestine
Tuesday, July 25
6 to 7 pm
Marathon County Library Meeting Room
Featured Speakers: Karen and Tom Getman, Lifelong Activists and Humanitarians from Washington, DC
We are honored to have Karen and Tom Getman visiting Wausau this July. Tom was the Director of World Vision for 25 years. Tom and Karen have lived and worked in South Africa, Palestine, Israel and Geneva, Switzerland supporting social justice and humanitarian concerns. As Director of World Vision, Tom oversaw programs in Jerusalem, the ...
The Rights of Nature
We are happy to share a project that has been in the works most of this year by our Rights of Nature group. At the bottom, you may click to see page two as well.
https://
The Jefferson Project: Thomas Jefferson’s Death Day and a Fourth of July Remembrance
Back in the mid-1980s, an outfit called Anvil Press published a book of mine. Its title was—still is—Nature’s Unruly Mob: Farming and the Crisis in Rural Culture. The topic (or its urgency) hasn’t gone away.
Anvil Press printed the book as a special issue of its occasional quarterly magazine, North Country Anvil. The magazine was full of larger-issue farm news and analysis, and it made the Anvil shop a hub and gathering spot for farm activists—all this in southeastern Minnesota, in a village called Millville, nestled below limestone bluffs, through which the Zumbro River tumbled toward the Mississippi.
Caught up in the energetic and ...
Wisconsin Education Issues
Education is an essential component of modern societies. It is self-evident that virtually everything in our current social, economic, political, and technological world is impacted by education.
Given this obvious reality, it is inexplicable to me that education – especially universal public education – is under attack in so many ways. Funding for K-12 schools, tech colleges, and universities is inadequate and being eroded by inflation. Students are being expected to pay for higher education with student loan debt. School “choice” and vouchers divert public money to private (mostly religious) schools with no gain in academic achievement. ...