Letters to the Editor

Dear editor, The flag is at half-staff. Again. Does it refer to those killed yesterday? Or last week, last month? And just how is one supposed to respond to the sight? Are we being called upon to honor someone, stand in solidarity or just feel sad? For most of us, the emotional response will be nil. Even the most sacred expression can become, after countless repetitions, no more than a mindless litany.  In any case, today I am unable to dismiss the half-mast flag as irrelevant. Today it wrests my attention as a symbol of cowardice, of failure. A flag of surrender to an aggressive minority unable to see past its own fear. It was not until 1954, when the Eisenhower administration established a formal protocol, that the lowered flag came to be broadly accepted as a symbol of tragic loss to the public, as a whole. Since then, we have seen it employed to mark the passing of presidents, astronauts, police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty, and recently, the victims of COVID. Over the past several decades though, the incidence of flag lowering has been categorically dominated by mass murder, which most often has resulted from mass shootings.  Everyone understands that such shootings are the intersection of deep-seated anger and unbridled access to the instruments of mass murder. As a society we have made some serious attempts to address anger and other motives. Yet against the aspirations of an overwhelming majority of Americans, we have seen only occasional, feeble gestures toward controlling the means. At this moment, every elected official in every town, city, county and state must be held accountable and required to act to end the carnage. There is no doubt that meaningful action can be undertaken at every level. It should begin not in the lowering of flags to half-staff, but in refusal to raise them again. Until Congress proves willing to assume responsibility for the runaway proliferation of weapons designed expressly for the efficient killing of human beings, every flag in our nation should remain at half-staff.  In only this way, can we assure that the flag at half-staff regains meaning – not as a passive expression of hopeless mourning, but as a demand for solutions. Michael Brandt Arena   Dear editor, After Governor Tony Evers included a mask mandate in an emergency order designed to address the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin, a major Republican donor named Jere Fabick brought a lawsuit seeking to strike down the emergency order.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court ultimately voted 4-3 to invalidate the order and, in so doing, caused Wisconsin to become ineligible for federal food assistance benefits to the tune of $49 million a month for more than 400,000 struggling Wisconsin households.  Rather than capitulate, Governor Evers negotiated an agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to continue to provide $70 million a month in federal food assistance. In addition, the federal government estimates that every dollar of FoodShare benefits spent generates additional economic activity and increases jobs.  Evers stated, “I’m proud we were able to work with our federal partners to come to an agreement that will ensure we can keep providing these critical resources to Wisconsinites across our state.”    Evers deserves much credit for his work on behalf of struggling Wisconsinites to find a solution that benefits hungry families as well as businesses and farmers.  Thank you, Governor Evers.  Marilyn Martin Richland Center   Dear editor, This week the Spring Green Village Board will install four brand new board members, the largest turnover the board has seen in many years. We expect this change-over will be quite smooth thanks to the long standing and exemplary service of the four members leaving - Eugene Hauser, Joel Marcus, Luetta Miller and Norm Miller. This village is in excellent fiscal and physical condition due to your perennial level headedness, attention to detail, willingness to deeply explore and understand the issues, insistence on thoroughly examining all sides, and commitment to the truth and to stay in budget. We are indebted to you for your service and wish you well in your retirement. You have left us with very big shoes to fill. Robin Reid Spring Green Village Board President   Dear editor, It is time for another “How Dumb Do They Think We Are” letter...except the events of the past week are so horrifying that I can’t even come up with a smidgen of humor in any of it.  I’ll start with (ok, a bit of humor) Matt Gaetz.  Enough said?  Then what about Jim Jordan?  Enough said, there, too.  So let’s get to Florida and the Republican legislature.  Their recent enacted law has literally made me sick to my stomach.  They are so against children who are trans that they are willing to have female trans kids physically checked to see what their genitals look like.  I think this is one of the most awful invasion of privacy/sexual abuse situations I have heard of.  If your child had to pull down their pants to show their genitals, what guarantee would a parent have that the person who was “checking” wasn’t of the mindset of a sexual abuser?  What comes next?  Touch?   Nothing surprises me about the Republican lawmakers anymore.  Nothing surprises me about DeSantis and Florida anymore.  What does scare me, however, is our Wisconsin lawmakers who are Republicans.  Boss Vos said he was considering a similar statute.  If the Assembly is considering it, I think we can be assured that the Senate will, too.  Would anyone with an ounce of empathy in their body think this is ok?   I also find that although a bill like this is abhorrent, it is also sexist.  It’s always about trans girls… never about trans boys.  Why is that?  So parents of girls, beware.  The Republicans will do anything to denigrate females.   So...here goes.  I challenge Senator Howard Marklein and Representative Todd Novak, as well as Representatives Tony Kurtz and Travis Tranel to publicly state whether they would support or not support such a bill.  As voters, we have the right to know how our elected officials feel about a law like this.  It is our right, and their responsibility  as our elected officials to not hide behind “I have to see the law first” or “I haven’t made up my mind yet”....but to say “Yes, I am against LGBTQ children and adults” or “No, I believe in the US Constitution in that ‘all humans are created equal’ ”. Barbara Voyce Lone Rock