From Charles R. Wellington
Monroe
To the editor:
The Republican dominated legislature here in Wisconsin is giving new meaning to the old metaphor about boiling a frog in a way it doesn't notice - start with cold and heat slowly.
Following our governor's latest budget, together with a stacked legislature that barely blinks an eye at his proposals, the following have happened with little pushback:
1. We became a Right to Work State - with a title like that who could be against it?
2. The university system has been attacked in a way that hardly disguises an inexplicable hostility toward one of our state's finest institutions.
3. The Department of Natural Resources has experienced an all-out offensive against its Science Services group which can only be explained as retribution for its pointing out the dangers of allowing an open pit iron mine on the shores of Lake Superior which holds one-tenth of the world's fresh water.
4. It should be pointed out that both the university and the DNR are governed by Gov. Walker's political appointees who have taken no serious role in defense of those institutions.
5. The decimation of our public school system with the expansion of vouchers. Arguably, it was money from the voucher groups that helped tip the balance in the last election for several legislators, including Todd Novak.
6. We now learn of yet another Republican proposal - this one to do away with the Legislative Audit Bureau. Consistent with their other recent moves, when independent fact gathering agencies don't provide the information they're hoping for, they seek to get rid of the agency and replace it with a more sympathetic voice.
The influence of money, much of it "dark" on the environment, public schools and on "checks and balances in the system" is taking us in a most dangerous direction.
Wake up Wisconsin, the water is getting hotter.
Monroe
To the editor:
The Republican dominated legislature here in Wisconsin is giving new meaning to the old metaphor about boiling a frog in a way it doesn't notice - start with cold and heat slowly.
Following our governor's latest budget, together with a stacked legislature that barely blinks an eye at his proposals, the following have happened with little pushback:
1. We became a Right to Work State - with a title like that who could be against it?
2. The university system has been attacked in a way that hardly disguises an inexplicable hostility toward one of our state's finest institutions.
3. The Department of Natural Resources has experienced an all-out offensive against its Science Services group which can only be explained as retribution for its pointing out the dangers of allowing an open pit iron mine on the shores of Lake Superior which holds one-tenth of the world's fresh water.
4. It should be pointed out that both the university and the DNR are governed by Gov. Walker's political appointees who have taken no serious role in defense of those institutions.
5. The decimation of our public school system with the expansion of vouchers. Arguably, it was money from the voucher groups that helped tip the balance in the last election for several legislators, including Todd Novak.
6. We now learn of yet another Republican proposal - this one to do away with the Legislative Audit Bureau. Consistent with their other recent moves, when independent fact gathering agencies don't provide the information they're hoping for, they seek to get rid of the agency and replace it with a more sympathetic voice.
The influence of money, much of it "dark" on the environment, public schools and on "checks and balances in the system" is taking us in a most dangerous direction.
Wake up Wisconsin, the water is getting hotter.
