Balloon Release In Milwaukee Was Inappropriate

The news from Milwaukee was sad, again. Another family lost a loved one and is grieving. However, the manner in which the ones gathered expressed part of their understandable sadness was simply inappropriate. I do not mean to sound harsh, but in 2024 the scene below should not be happening.

Amid pieces of shattered glass, white candles sit on the sidewalk near 27th and Locust on Milwaukee’s north side.

On the grassy hill above are several pieces of posterboard with writing spelling out “Forever in our Heart.”

And taped onto a nearby pole is a photo of a smiling man, with several Sharpie-d messages written around the border.

That’s the scene on Sunday afternoon, as dozens of family members and friends joined together to honor Damond Harris.

About 45 minutes into the gathering, white and gold balloons were released into the sky as another tribute to Harris.

What seemed to have gone unnoticed by the family and friends is a simple concept.  What goes up must eventually come down. This becomes troubling for animals far and wide, given the miles that a balloon can travel. The deflated balloon returns to the earth where it can cause harm to both animals and the environment. Being close to Lake Michigan made the balloon release even more dangerous.

What was released in the air this weekend will not decompose quickly. Not only is the ballon a serious environmental problem, but the strings tied to them usually aren’t made of biodegradable material. Even if the ballons and strings were biodegradable versions it can take as long as four years for them to break down. Meanwhile, animals often mistake balloon fragments for food and choke or suffocate when they try to eat them. Partially inflated balloons can block animals’ gastrointestinal tract, causing them to starve to death slowly and painfully. Shorebirds flying in the Milwaukee area can become entangled in balloon remnants. The sad truth is that due to balloons many such birds have been found dead with bits of Mylar, latex, or string wrapped around their necks, beaks, or legs.

I am not certain how much more environmental education is required so that society can finally stop the senseless act of releasing balloons for any reason. I strongly believe that no one who is honored and remembered at the time of their death would wish for animals to be harmed or perish during the celebration of life.

Balloons are prohibited in the Wisconsin State Capitol, but no state law prevents them from being released, which can harm wildlife or our environment. Seems to me there is a reasonable and bipartisan piece of legislation just waiting to be introduced and worked on in the legislature.

Voter Approval For Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Calm Midwestern Demeanor Stands Out

If you listen to the Republican majority in the Wisconsin Legislature it is because of Governor Tony Evers that many policy options have been blocked that would have benefited the state.  But if the residents are polled about the ‘impediment to better ideas’ there is a surprisingly different point of view. Last week I received an email about the latest Morning Consult polling results for all 50 governors.  In the polls they have conducted since 2017, everyone is always asked what they think of their state’s top politician no matter the main issue being polled.  It should not surprise anyone that the results in the Badger State show that Evers has positive ratings.

Using data from the Morning Consult poll the net approval rating for Evers is +8.7 ppt. (50.7% approve; 42.0% disapprove).

When I read the results, I thought about the various reasons Evers is well-received by state voters. He is a strong advocate for education at the public school level and with our UW system, believes that women should be in charge of their own health care decisions, and is a brake on bills the GOP passed that do not assist the middle class or are strident culture war issues deserving a veto. But as I watched the stormy infighting from congressional Republicans over the weekend another thought was registered about Evers as the GOP took very divided sides regarding whether they should aid in stopping Russian President Vladamir Putin’s war on Ukraine. The bombast and theatrics were a sad sideshow to such a pressing international need. While watching and listening, I compared what was playing out in DC to how Evers conducts himself in Wisconsin.

I readily admit there are times I wish Evers would put a firm fist on the podium or use his open hand to slap the table when speaking to better show his dismay over the issue of the day. Each time he has called a special session and the GOP gavels in and out in mere seconds are times when I think a more powerful response is required. But I am also very aware his controlled political modulation gains voters’ approval.  I have noticed over the years that most people in my circle like his low-volume working style, in contrast to the ever-increasingly bombastic rhetoric from Washington. Voters also appreciate the style of governing he uses as it is the same type they have known over the decades from leaders in our state. No one ever knew Jim Doyle or Bob Kasten to be flame throwers. Outshouting someone or slinging mud is just not a Midwestern style we warm to, other than perhaps when football fans are talking about the Chicago Bears or the Minnesota Vikings.

Some political analysts say the public thrills with the rancor and wild headlines of Donald Trump or Marjorie Taylor Greene. But I sense the average Wisconsinite would not welcome either of them to their home or a place at the dinner table. But if Evers knocked on the door and had time, a beer could be poured and a conversation and laughter would soon follow. Beyond the solid character of Evers is the other aspect that I hear from conversations with voters. They simply want competent and pragmatic leadership and not a blowhard with a penchant for grabbing headlines.

As I sat at our kitchen table Saturday morning with cups of coffee and watched coverage from the dysfunctional House of Representatives, I thought of this blog post and Evers. At his first inaugural, I admit to shedding a few tears when Fanfare For The Common Man, the work from American composer Aaron Copland, was played. I knew that wintery day a truly decent man was to sit in the governor’s office. As Saturday’s threats to oust Speaker Mike Johnson mounted and the art of governing seemed to be a mere joke to a large portion of the GOP, I saw in memory that day in January 2019 at the statehouse when a mild-mannered man became our governor. That night I wrote words that I think have stood the test of time. Looking at Evers taking the oath left no doubt that he is the embodiment of the ethics and soundness of the Midwestern character.  Not proud or showy, but confident and practical. 

Tony Evers stands so far apart from what we witnessed this weekend in the GOP House. That is one very strong and compelling reason his approval rating is solid among state residents.

Redistricting Victory! Governor Tony Evers Proves Pragmatic Governing Best Serves Wisconsin

Gov. Tony Evers proudly shows his signature concerning much-needed new legislative district maps

In 2013, in what newspapers statewide agreed was a most vexing political problem, there was a united effort to use their editorial pages on a specific Sunday to marshal attention to the need for redistricting reform.  The words from editors and their boards minced no words.

They changed voting boundaries and anyone who doesn’t believe how effective they were need only look at the November 2012 election when Republicans won more congressional districts, captured even more Assembly districts and built a state Senate majority that would withstand the vote of a defector.  It the same time, more Wisconsinites voted for Democrats than Republicans.  —Green Bay Press-Gazette

Competition among political ideas is good for democracy. But the opposite also is true. When districts aren’t competitive in general elections, the real election occurs in the primary, which typically is dominated by partisans. –Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 

When I heard on Monday morning that Democratic Governor Tony Evers had signed the long-promised bill with his ideas for fair legislative district maps into law, I said louder than I should, as my better half was on a business call, “YES!”  Outside of merit selection for our Supreme Court, the issue of redistricting has been the most important process question that our state faced. Today, we witnessed why it is essential when voting to make sure a reasoned and well-meaning governor sits in the East Wing of the statehouse.

In the past weeks, it was impossible to miss the angst the Republican-controlled legislature faced with a mid-March deadline approaching when the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court would make a decision for the most gerrymandered district lines in the nation.  The power-hungry over-reaching days of the GOP were about over.  With defeat ripe in the air, the GOP capitulated and quickly passed the distinct lines the Governor had crafted and crusaded with across the state–pressing over and over why they needed to be signed into law. 

I argued for decades that Wisconsin voters are tolerant of many things, but there would come a day when citizens would understand the redistricting process had been used against their interests and there would be a price to be paid. That day of reckoning took far too long to arrive, but thanks to the steadfastness and resolve of Evers, new legislative maps are to be in place. Republicans, in 2013, when newspaper editors used their pages to urge for a simple set of public hearings on redistricting reform bills, felt they could do anything and everything in their power to blunt the will of the citizens. That is why the refreshing conversation Evers had with voters resonated so powerfully over the past few years as redistricting reform was explained and demonstrated as to why it impacts not only elections but policy moves in the state.

I strongly suspect there were a few elected Republicans who asked themselves just how far they could go with abusing the drawing of district boundaries? Just how rank does redistricting have to become before it runs afoul of the limits of average Wisconsin citizens? Monday morning Governor Evers answered that question with his signature affixed to one of the best bills to be signed in many a year. It was a pragmatic move, one that placed governing and sound decision-making ahead of a gamble with a court ruling and potential and costly litigation down the road.

But let us not forget, that the next goal must be a redistricting commission for the crafting of future boundary lines.

The Other Lesson To Learn From Andrew Hitt

Michael Corleone is one of my favorite film characters. His storyline in The Godfather motion pictures is gripping, and demanding our attention. What always strikes me in the first film is the clear path he had set for his life.  He was enrolled in college as WWII broke out and quickly signed up for military duty.  When returning home from overseas he still wants to live a life outside of the ‘family business’.  There was a clear choice before him, but as we know Mario Puzo wrote the story which takes Michael down the wrong path in life.  I thought of this famed character while I watched 60 Minutes Sunday night as the fake elector story in the Badger State following the 2020 presidential election was told through the eyes of Andrew Hitt, the former chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. If people could only rewrite their personal script of life, how fewer messy headlines there would be.

The absolute absurdity by the Trump base from the Oval Office to the preposterous lawyers who made outrageous claims on the sidewalks outside a courthouse but never dared to recite the lines in front of a judge, to the various states involved with concocting ludicrous schemes at overturning the results of the 2020 balloting that elected Democratic nominee Joe Biden to the White House has been reported and dissected from every possible perspective. No matter how that slice of history is reviewed the devious acts, insurrection, seditious activity, and unconstitutional behavior are vile and loathsome. No one can say there was not a serious and willful strike upon our democracy, or question why going forward all need to be mindful of what can happen, even in the United States.

There will be national and state columns written about the CBS program and lessons we should draw about our political culture and the depths that tribal politics takes some party followers. There might even be a few reporters who will try again to have Senator Ron Johnson add a dose of honesty about his role with Wisconsin’s fake elector’s paperwork after it arrived in Washington. There is plenty of fodder for the political writers this week. But, as for me, I want to tack in a different direction. After all, before we get to the political chicanery and illegal behavior there is a question begging to be addressed about the character of the people who somehow found themselves willing to do literally anything for Donald Trump.

As I write this evening my thoughts include a young boy I came to know in the Big Brothers program. It was at the UW-Madison Arboretum where he stood and looked up high into the branches that towered over his head. Kids often ask the most impossible questions, and he was no different than his peers. He wondered how many kids his size it would take to get to the very top of the tree he stood under. While math is never my friend, his question I recall, opened up an opportunity to impart a bit of wisdom that the program was designed to provide. I told him there was a way to approximate how far the roots of the tree extended away from the trunk and that while trees must have strong healthy roots, so do people. Our roots are called character and the way we act both in public and in private matters. We sat for a bit under that tall tree and talked about several things until his energy level demanded we strike out for a new sight to see.

Moral values are not only for kids to learn but they must be employed throughout life. As I listened to Hitt being interviewed by Anderson Cooper it would have been easy to become angry over the absurdity of what people in the Trump orbit actually fell for, even though they were educated and likely good people in their local communities. What I found enveloping me, however, as I concluded the 60 Minutes segment was just sadness. Hitt had lost his compass heading at some point and drifted so he was no longer even able to publically declare his educated decision about an election that was not stolen, if we are to believe his words, due to fears for his family and his own life should the angry Trump base deem him somehow responsible for a final outcome they may find objectionable.

Somewhere in my past, probably when I was about the age of that young boy looking up into the tall tree at the Arboretum, my grandmother first said to me, ‘Walk with wise people and you will be wise, too’. Those were words she also wrote to me in a card at the time of my high school graduation. The words proved true. The reverse of that line is also true. That is the other lesson we learned Sunday night from Andrew Hitt on 60 Minutes.

Shirley Tinberg Gave The World A Smile

Shirley Tinberg Dec. 2023.

More than twenty years ago, at Cub Foods on the Westside of Madison, I was in line with my food items. The woman at the checkout was smiling, laughing, and very chatty. A few days later I was shopping again and found myself enjoying the same personality greeting everyone with a smile. It was not long before I was in her line each time I went grocery shopping and discovered there was a bevy of folks, like me, who waited to be in Shirley Tinberg’s checkout line. Everyone just felt better after receiving one of her smiles.

I am not sure if I first said something about politics, and it could have just as easily been Shirley who made the first comment, but once it was discovered that we ‘sang from the same hymn book’ there was never a shopping trip that did not include a few comments on the news of the day. At times, Shirley would lean in over the counter, lower her voice, and say what she really felt about the political world. Then she would laugh heartily, and I moved along so the next in line could get their food paid for and bagged.

James and I had moved into a nice apartment on Tree Lane in 2002 and soon discovered a wonderful crab-apple tree where we picked the fruit and made jelly. Shirly was a grandmotherly type of person and so one day as we went shopping, we took her a jar with one of those colorful old-fashioned lids. As we gave it to her, she smiled and said, “Oh, you don’t bring me food in a grocery line, I check out food for you!” Over the years smiles and conversations about politics and loads of laughter about everything under the sun were a part of our interactions. From get-togethers at Culver’s to the more recent years when health issues forced her to adjust to assisted living, there was never a shortage of her spirit that had first caught my attention in her checkout line.

Last Saturday, we were alerted that Shirley had been placed on hospice. We got ready to go see her and in the car, I told James we had to get some good coffee for her. As we entered her room James said we had brought coffee and she replied, “Oh, no, I don’t drink coffee anymore. I hate what they make here”. She was correct about the ‘brown colored water’ that was passed off as coffee in the facility, but James quickly let her know this was some good coffee we had brought in just for her. “Oh, that sounds good!” In a couple minutes, I had a mug with a handle from their kitchen and a straw that bends to make it easier to enjoy. Her arm was very weak and so while James and she talked about lots of things both light-heartedly and seriously I lifted that mug over and over to make sure she was able to enjoy one of those simple pleasures of life. I asked at one point if I should pour more into her cup to warm it up, “Oh, sure”. Some food came from the kitchen, and we asked if we might cut it up for her and help with her eating. No, she said, “but I will have a bit more coffee”.

We talked some politics, laughed about a few silly things, and she smiled over the story about a raccoon that has called our place home since last fall. We told her we loved her and left as the sun was setting. At 7:30 Friday night Shirley left this world.

We could not have known that James’ homemade jelly would further introduce to us a very special person who allowed for two decades of friendship and laughter. Her memory will long remain. Thank you, Shirley.

Godspeed.

Fair District Maps In Wisconsin Will Increase Legislative Elections Being About Issues

May 2020, Highway 39, Waushara County, middle of the day, as dirt blows from open farm fields, causing massive car pile-up.

I grew up in Waushara County, where Plainfield sand is a term known in agricultural classes across the nation as deep, excessively drained soil.  But for the residents of the area such soil presents challenges as farmers use high-capacity wells to irrigate the always thirsty acres of potatoes, beans, and corn while those seeking residential well-water must dig deeper and deeper at ever higher costs. Massive pileups, such as in 2020 on Highway 39 in both the north and south lanes, due to a blackout from the dirt being blown, is the sort of problem that has been long in the making.  But no legislation for the required planting by large farm operations of tree rows or other corrective measures has been made by the Republican elected officials of the area.  Since there is no actual need to be competitive with ideas and conversations with voters at election time due to the way the partisan district lines have been drawn, means that come spring the winds will blow again, the sands will darken the sky, and youngsters will be able to glimpse what the Dust Bowl looked like.

The clean water of Waushara County was something I grew up hearing about as Mecan Springs was renowned for its trout streams. I recall the real dread from locals when the area was eyed by bottled water giant Perrier for a high-capacity pumping station near the Springs. A little over a decade ago, there was much concern regarding manure runoff from a proposed 5,000-cow farm that would have resided close to Coloma in the western part of the county. In addition to runoff issues, it was the estimate from the ag corporation that water usage at the facility was estimated to be about 52.5 million gallons per year that brought a very loud and united front of opposition. I followed closely the desire from voters for stronger state regulations concerning such proposed farm operations as Richfield Dairy.  I also noted the lopsided nature of the often-heated conversations from the local citizenry with the Republican majority, a party that was in power due to partisans having created the district lines, but then not producing outcomes that were working for so many in Waushara County. Or the Central Sands area.

What has been missing from many ongoing issues across the state is a strong competitive discussion at election time where two candidates have an equal chance of winning as voters head to the ballot box. Having a rigged Republican majority or a Democratic majority in the state legislature that was created for predetermined partisan outcomes has left voters highly dissatisfied and a bevy of issues not resolved.

The need for voters in large and small counties alike to have their voices reflected by state legislators is obvious.  The fact they are not is also obvious, as noted in a news story in the Wisconsin State Journal about the various options the Supreme Court will consider as it seeks to remedy the decades-long problem of rigged Republican district maps in our state.

In the report, the consultants also pushed back against a common talking point among legislative Republicans — that Wisconsin’s geography, which sees Democratic voters more condensed in urban communities while Republicans are more dispersed among the state’s rural areas, all but guarantees Republican majorities.

The four Democratic-supported maps would each likely provide the party who wins the most statewide votes with a legislative majority, the consultants said. Democrats have won the vast majority of statewide elections since 2016 but Republicans currently have a 64-35 majority in the Assembly and 22-11 majority in the Senate.

In 2020, I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Waushara Argus urging more thought be given to the need for redistricting reform and I provided a few examples as to why it matters.

If you shake your head in derision when our state legislature balks at even the most lukewarm funding strategies for our transportation systems or fails to protect groundwater chalk it up to the way district lines are designed. If you wonder why districts are deep blue, or red and why there is no real electoral competition so to debate issues and choose among candidates it is due to redistricting.  If you feel the most strident voices from both sides of the aisle dominate while the moderate and compromising middle of the electorate is not visible, that is also due to the current way redistricting occurs.  

We cannot have a functioning state government that addresses the needs of the people if the politicians choose their voters. Many citizens in Waushara County have known that fact for a long time.

Speaker Robin Vos Caught The Proverbial Car, Now What?

One could almost feel the deep anguish and despair in the words of Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos as he replayed in his mind the GOP political conundrum.  What does one do when the proverbial car is caught, and the dog’s teeth are snarled around the bumper?  With only 37% of the state residents approving of the removal by the Supreme Court of protections for women’s reproductive health care rights where does the party that advocated those severe restrictions go for relief?

Based on recent developments in Wisconsin, to the lunacy side of the political divide.

Wisconsin legislative Republicans wish to place on the April ballot a binding question, that would become effective if passed on the day after the balloting, that would remove abortions after 14 weeks.  There is more of a chance that Madison streets will be salted and cleared of Mother Nature’s fury by the time I finish this sentence than to think the latest attempt at sidestepping the GOP albatross will not be…should I go there….aborted.

Governor Tony Evers is not going to further place women into a public framework so that the Republican Party can try to find a way to unthread the tapestry of political zealousness that placed reproductive healthcare up for a vote. Male voters have as much say about the abortion issue as I do in recommending how best to design a rocket engine for a Mars mission. Evers will veto any such boondoggle the legislature can concoct.   14 weeks!  Why does the GOP have such a disdain for women in our nation? And why shouldn’t women and reasoned voters, once again, feel that the rights of personal choice are being tossed away for conservative partisan games?

So, it was interesting how the frustrated words of Vos, who co-authored the 14-week proposal, are ones any politico in the state can actually feel when reading them.  They were provided to the Wisconsin State Journal for a December news story.

“Our entire system should not be governed on, ‘What’s your position on abortion?’” he said. “That is one very important topic. It shouldn’t be everything for every person in every election. I’m fundamentally pro-life.  I’m proud of that. I think people shouldn’t use abortions.”

But he added that he would rather find a consensus to rally around than have Democrats use the issue to their advantage.

Now, Vos is a smart and savvy politician, not necessarily an ethical one following the bending of the knee to Donald Trump so to curry his favor, but what precisely did Vos think would be the reaction to a court precedent being ripped apart and women not having the power over their reproductive health choices?  Just what does a dog think is the next part of the proverbial story once the car is chased down the road and it is finally caught within its jaws? Surely the powerful and insightful Assembly Speaker thought about the day after the decades-long partisan game was called a victory for his side?

Or was it a victory? Let’s ask Kansas……Ohio…..Virginia…..Wisconsin…..

Student Journalism Bill Needs Passage In Wisconsin Senate

Every now and then not only does a very good idea emerge from the state legislature but it also receives bipartisan support. With reporters and journalists coming under more partisan attacks and a dearth of examples where both parties can find agreement on issues of the day, comes Wisconsin Assembly Bill 551 which protects budding journalists, a measure that has united some disparate voices in the Statehouse. The proposed legislation would protect student media from censorship. Over the years we all have read or heard about situations akin to a student journalist who was taking photos of a protest occurring at a high school when a school official confiscated the journalist’s camera or notebook. Or told to stop covering the protest and head back to the classroom. No student journalist should suffer fear of retaliation or repercussions for writing or reporting a news article, as made clear in this proposed bill.

While 17 states have such a statute in the books, Wisconsin does not.  So, it was most heartening that Republican Assemblyman Dave Murphy, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities made the push for a law to be authored and passed in our state.  The bipartisan measure (and it actually feels good to write such a phrase at my desk today), was introduced on October 23, passed out of committee on November 2, and soon thereafter was passed unanimously on the floor of the Assembly. 

The bill has several components, but the central ones that drive home the need for Governor Evers’ signature relate to student journalists having “the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press in school-sponsored media.” The bill also allows student journalists to determine “the news, opinion, feature, and advertising content of school-sponsored media” and prohibits school officials from “exercising prior restraint of materials.”

The bill just needs to clear the Senate and then our governor will sign it into law. The passion that young reporters and journalists have concerning news and its dissemination should be strongly encouraged.

The reason we can strongly applaud and approve of this legislation is that our First Amendment rights should not be a partisan issue. The bipartisan appeal of AB551 makes that point clear. The need for young journalists to be mindful of the breadth of considerations that are to be taken into account when gathering facts, placing them into context, and constructing powerful paragraphs places them in a position to further that skillset with higher education and a future in a newsroom, if they desire.  Such activity when in high school also allows for a broader perspective about the issues in their communities and helps to sharpen more diverse views about the world they will fully enter as an adult. That should all take place without higher-ups at schools using tactics or procedures that stymie First Amendment rights.

This bill needs quick passage in the state senate.