A View of the Valley

by Linda Schwanke I’ve been listening to Christmas carols this year as I always do and trying to keep There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays on repeat in my head. Because I’ll be home for the holidays whether I want to be or not. Most of us will. That’s a good thing for the sake of our health and to control the pandemic. It’s sad and hard but doing the right thing is not always easy.  I turned my mind in a different direction after getting caught up on holiday preparations: Politics. Christmas, New Year’s and the pandemic not-withstanding, it’s time to think about running for local office.  The villages and towns in the Valley all have caucuses or nomination deadlines coming up in January with the spring election set for April 6, 2021. The deadline for filing nomination papers is January 5, which the village and town of Arena, Town of Buena Vista and River Valley School District require. The rest have to have their caucuses between January 2 and January 21, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. As we have learned, following the  Wisconsin Elections Commission direction is critical. Also critical to our democracy is participation. I have never really understood people who don’t participate at all, by not voting, not running for office, not paying any attention to anything any governmental body is doing. It seems like maybe we should have to take turns running for office, especially local ones, so that everyone has a say in what happens in our communities, our counties, our state, our country. That wouldn’t work, you don’t have to tell me, because not everyone is up for it. But plenty of people are and now is the time for them – you – to step up. Local municipalities have a very real say in what happens on a day to day level in our lives. Hate that trees keep getting cut down? (Like the ones at the Spring Green golf course that were ash trees and were removed as part of the emerald ash borer control program?) Get on your local board and vote to save the trees. Love that trees get chopped down? Get on your local board and vote to chop down all the trees. Water rates, taxes, street and road projects, police protection, zoning questions, parks, pools, libraries, internet, sidewalks… so much more. Our municipal trustees and supervisors, not to mention village presidents and chairpeople, do a lot of really hard work to make our lives better and safer. Now it’s your turn.  It’s easy to complain that there’s not enough salt on the roads when conditions get cruddy. It’s harder to take a look at budgets and environmental concerns and decide what to do about it. There are so many things that can be done to improve our world. New ideas, new perspectives, new talents and backgrounds are all a vital part of our government.  I realize I’m not making running for local office sound very appealing. That’s unintentional but kind of realistic. It is hard work but I think everyone who has ever served on a board would agree that it is worth it.  Back to the holidays – I read in a bunch of places that eating cannibal (raw meat) sandwiches is not a good idea. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has been issuing warnings for years. What’s new this year is that it’s making the national news. Apparently the Wisconsinite holiday tradition of eating cannibal sandwiches (or tiger meat as it is called by some people) is news. Eating raw meat is a chancy thing. People can get really, really sick and with our healthcare system overloaded with people being treated for COVID-19, who knows what could happen. So skip the cannibal sandwiches this year and help me figure out why this particular tradition is making the rounds on national media.  Stay in touch. My number is 574-3159. Email me at homenewseditor@newspubinc.com or write to me at the Home News, P.O. Box 39, Spring Green WI 53588.