Words to Live By.

So the way to live your life and interact with others is  end up on the new Watch List and have the Westboro Baptists demonstrate at your funeral. Got it.

Voices

People ask what can I do? I'm just me, one lone person. What can I do?

Use your voice. Follow the mantra, "if you see something, say something." No don't call the police, call your legislator, call the president-elect, write letters to the editor, get 10 of your friends and pay for an ad in the paper, join the Democratic Party and help change its direction, buy something on the Standing Rock Amazon Wish List, donate to an environmental protection group, support the ACLU, talk to your neighbors.

One voice matters. Your voice matters. Our voices matter.

Theaters are not Safe Spaces

My friend Michael got it correctly. Trump got it wrong. Theaters should never be safe spaces for the powerful.

Stand Up to Hate and Intolerance

Here's my response to the election results.

Stand Up Against Hate and Intolerance

I must admit that I never saw a Trump election victory coming. I refused to believe that so many of my fellow citizens would buy into his hate filled and fear-mongering messaging or fall for the greatest con since P.T. Barnum. But it is what it is.

With no one left to blame, the new world order of the Republican party now owns whatever comes next. I still fear the worst and take no comfort in Trump’s command for his supporters to stop the hate crimes, especially given his pick for Senior White House Counselor, Steve Bannon, who is a self-proclaimed racist, misogynist and anti-Semite.

With no real agenda of his own, Trump will gladly take whatever House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell serve up and sign it into law. One can only hope they temper the urge to completely dismantle the progress made since the Great Depression. The signs are not encouraging and I fear Social Security and Medicare will be among the first legislative casualties.

The message that hate is the order of the day continues to spark unacceptable behavior towards those made out to be responsible for our lack of “greatness.” Hate speech, neo-nazi graffiti and white supremacist rantings are being widely reported. The Klu Klux Clan will hold a victory rally later this month. Talk of a mandatory Muslim registry with Japanese World War Two internment camps serving as prescedent runs rampant. With an over zealous evangelical Vice-President elect ready to attack the LBGTQ community with conversion therapy and roll back same sex marriage victories, many fear for their safety and the safety of their families.

So where do we go from here?

All of this forces a necessary discussion in communities across the country. Is this what we really want to have happen where we live, go to school, attend church and raise our families or do we want something different?

Several campaigns have sprung up to address these concerns. One has people willing to stand against hate and intolerance in all its forms wearing safety pins. The pins are a visible symbol that the wearer is an ally to those made fearful or attacked in our current climate. We stand ready to intervene when we see inhumanity visited upon another person. We will record and report those who attack and shelter those oppressed with kindness. We will say no to hate and intolerance and try to defuse emotional situations with kindness and redirection.

The safety pin became a symbol in Britain of solidarity with and protection of immigrants who were being attacked after the vote to leave the European Union.

Locally, some are opening their businesses and homes as Safe Spaces for those subject to hate and intolerance. Soon you will begin to see Safe Space signs in windows so that those in fear know they have someplace to go for help, comfort, referrals and assistance. In community Safe Spaces, all will be respected and treated with the dignity they are due as fellow human beings without regard to gender, sexual orientation, race, immigration status or other targeted minority status. Safe Space providers will not accept hate or intimidation in their businesses or homes. 

Choosing to provide a Safe Space or wear a pin will hopefully help send a message that we build a nation based upon dignity and respect for all and not by giving into fear of the “others” who can conveniently be blamed for what ails our society.  Having Safe Spaces will lead to a discussion of what kind of society do we want to share with our neighbors and the rest of the world.

If you want a Safe Space sign like the one above, I can send one to you for your window. They print up nicely on photo paper. If you want training in how to be an effective ally to those in need, let me know and we can let you know when the training starts. You can reach me by email at waringfincke@gmail.com

Anyone can wear a pin or provide a Safe Space. You just have to care about your fellow human beings and be willing to help those in fear or in need.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County.

Make Your Space a Safe Space

Put this in your window and welcome those rendered fearful by Trumps's bigotry

Stand Up to bullies

I have been a member of the ACLU since 1975. My grandparents helped found the first Civil Liberties UNion in New York. Now they need our help more than ever. Please join

I am an Ally

I am an Ally for all targeted by bigotry and all of the Trump promoted "isms."

The Republicans Own This One

With majorities in both houses of Congress and the white house and all three branches of Wisconsin government firmly in Republican hands, they will have no one left to blame for the damage that is to come. We are left to hold them accountable for that damage and to protect the many who will be disenfranchised and abused by the new legislative majorities. Stay active and vigilant and stand up for your beliefs,

Our Future

This is how 18-25 year olds voted yesterday translated into Electoral College votes. This is our future, we just need to help them organize,

Onward

I worked at our poll in the Town of Barton yesterday and was too tired to watch returns last night. Woke up this morning to the awful news and the fear of what is to come.

My initial response is that as bad as it may get, we will do what we have always done. Stand up for what we believe. Fight for what we believe. Organize with others to make our community a better place.

Onward.

Before the Flood

This is a very important documentary by National Geographic on climate change.

Before the Flood

Our Community Garden

We are proud members of this wonderful effort. Join the Washington County Community Garden.
Here's the year end report.

It was a phenomenal year at the WCCG, not only in terms of the length of the growing season, but also in the amount of produce harvested. We recorded over 8,885 pounds of produce in "the book".

Since our collective crops have an average fair market value of $2.00 per pound, we grew over $17,000 worth of food on our little acre on the corner of Water and Indiana.I am in awe. This extraordinary record is due in no small part to a wonderful growing season with plentiful rain and optimum temperatures. The time which gardeners volunteered on work days and maintenance projects is a near-record 310 hours, with a marketplace value between $5,000 and $6,000.

These impressive numbers validate the importance of our community garden. If you are not a member of this wonderful community of gardeners but would like to join in the fun, send an email with your contact info to communitygarden@co.ozaukee.wi.us.

More Words to Live By

Retired or Retiring Soon - Fix Social Security

Here's one from June that's still relevant today.

Save Social Security

Your Retirement Depends on Making it Stronger

If you are retired like I am, care about someone who is retired or plan to retire at some point, then we have something in common. Social Security. 

Most people who still work do not think about Social Security much, except perhaps to notice the deduction from each paycheck that goes into the Social Security Trust Fund. Many working Americans have fragile 401(k) retirement accounts, some funded by employers and some self-funded, that are supposed to take the place of formerly robust employer funded pension plans. Most, however, have no retirement savings and cannot pay themselves for their future because of the demands of current economic circumstances. 

As the current generation of the soon to be retired start to consider their so-called golden years, they realize their current standard of living is about to decline. Recent surveys note that 44% of Americans over 50 say that Social Security will be their largest source of income in their retirement years. With an average annual benefit of about $16,000, that is not a lot with which to pay for housing, utilities, food, medical expenses not covered by Medicare, transportation and modest entertainment, much less travel, grand children and other retirement goodies. Single women, whose earnings usually have been less than men, fare far worse than the average benefit. In some years, benefit payments increase along with the cost of living. In others, like this year, seniors see no cost of living increase in benefits paid. 

Those in Congress charged with helping people split along partisan ideological lines divorced from the harsh economic realities of modern retirement requirements. 

Republicans opposed to large government “benefit entitlements” want to get out of the retirement savings business all together by turning Social Security over to Wall Street investment firms to manage. There is, after all, a profit to be made investing all that money. Not realizing that the money going into the Social Security Trust Fund comes directly out of working people’s earnings, they claim that payments out of the fund during retirement are a benefit that people are somehow not entitled to in full measure. Benefits must be reduced in order to stretch payments further. Social Security, in their worldview, will soon be “broke” and therefore benefits need to be cut now in order to save it for future retirees. They neglect to mention that privatized investment management could never match Social Security’s current 0.7% administrative cost to benefits paid ratio.

To be fair, there are some Democrats who side with Republicans on cutting Social Security benefits, raising the retirement age when benefits can be claimed and imposing some form of means testing on benefits paid. Most, however, favor increasing benefits to retirees without such restrictions and guarantee increases in benefits paid to cover those expenses most seniors must bear such as increased medical costs and assisted living expenses. A majority of Americans support these more favorable provisions.

Current Democratic presidential hopefuls cover the Social Security spectrum with Hillary Clinton taking a more moderate approach and Bernie Sanders espousing a full blown fix that provides a decent retirement to current participants as well as those who come along after.

President Obama recently joined the discussion in a speech in Indiana this past Wednesday, coming down on Clinton’s left and Sanders’ right. 

Here’s part of what he said. “We can’t afford to weaken Social Security. We should be strengthening Social Security. And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it’s time we finally made Social Security more generous and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they’ve earned. And we could start paying for it by asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute a little bit more. They can afford it. I can afford it.”

There are relatively easy fixes to make the Social Security Trust Fund more solvent and stable while increasing benefits to current and future retirees. Remove the $118,000 annual earnings cap on wages subject to Social Security withholding. Raise the tax rate for Social Security withholding taxes from the current 6.2% for employees and employers or 12.4% for the self-employed. Repay the money taken from the fund by previous administrations to pay for other government spending.  Remember, the money you pay into the system now is yours to live on when you retire. Benefits pay to you until you die.

There are lots of organizations working to make Social Security stronger. Try AARP, the Alliance for Retired Americans, Social Security Works or the Strengthen Social Security Coalition. Please join one or more and help protect your retirement.

Talk to all of your Educators WBSD

The West Bend School Board still has not fixed this one.

Opportunity Missed

Meet with the WBEA for honest educator concerns.

West Bend’s School Board recently missed a golden opportunity to open a meaningful and honest dialog with its teaching staff, claiming support from a legal opinion it refuses to disclose, all in pursuit of ideological partisan purity. The decision not to meet and confer with the teachers’ elected representatives forces staff concerns to be aired in public instead of across the table and sends the new Superintendent into his new duties with one hand tied behind his back. 

With the change in school board leadership and the hiring of a new Superintendent, the West Bend Education Association reached out to both asking not to “negotiate” the terms of their working conditions, but merely to sit down and discuss them in order to let the Board and Superintendent know how teachers honestly feel about how education is delivered. Both requests were denied, relying on a very strained reading of Act 10, which only limits “negotiations,” not “discussions.”

When speaking in a representative capacity, labor laws protect teacher Association leaders’ speech. They cannot be disciplined for saying things District leaders may not want to hear. When individual teachers speak up about concerns that might shine a negative light on the District, they can and have been disciplined for speaking “out of school.”

Some history is in order to understand why teachers might prefer to have their concerns aired in a representative capacity. 

Even before the passage of Act 10 in 2011, some in our community publicly castigated, demonized and threatened public school employees. Teachers had their salaries published in a paid advertisement in this newspaper while talk radio and bloggers spread false information including claims that teachers are just glorified, overpaid babysitters who feed at the public trough, only working nine months a year while getting paid all year. While this vilification of our teacher corps continued, both school administrators and board members were silent. 

When Act 10 passed, our School Board and former Superintendent, Ted Neitzke, adopted the “tools” it provided with a vengeance. Not only did they cut teacher take home pay, reduce retirement benefits, increase healthcare contributions, increase class sizes and sections taught, they introduced governance by favoritism, fear and intimidation. 

WBEA leaders were the only District voices that stood up for teachers and the students they educate. Those leaders then faced administrator imposed disciplinary actions for speaking out about teacher concerns. It took over a year and a half of filing and mediating prohibited labor practice complaints to have those punishments overturned. The District finally withdrew all the punishments shortly after Neitzke’s last day on the job and just before the new Superintendent came on board. 

It is no wonder that teachers are afraid to speak up individually without the legal protections provided to their elected representatives. 

School Board President Rick Parks’ choice to stand by a legal opinion that evidently supports a strained explanation of the “intent” of Act 10 continues this historical trend of treating teachers like second class citizens unworthy of a seat at the table. 

Even more disturbing is the District’s refusal to disclose the legal opinion Parks hides behind. After he mentioned it twice in a Facebook discussion on Benders for Better Public Education, I asked him to disclose it. He was silent. I then filed an open records request with the District seeking release of the opinion. It was initially denied based upon a claim of attorney-client privilege. I then filed a request for reconsideration showing that Parks’ public comments on Facebook broke the confidentially that normally accompanies attorney client discussions and protects them from disclosure. Parks responded on Facebook announcing he would no longer participate in the Benders forum because people questioned his decisions. The District denied my second request claiming Parks did not waive the privilege by his disclosures. Parks clearly does not want to have a meaningful discussion with his staff about what needs repair and is hiding behind an outlier opinion that he admits can be ignored if the Board so chooses. 

It is interesting to note that the law firm that represents our District also represents the Shorewood School District.  Shorewood administrators meet regularly with their teachers’ association about issues of mutual concern, apparently with the blessing of their lawyers.

Superintendent Olson publicly stated he wants all District voices to be heard. He needs open and honest input from his staff that he can only get if teachers can communicate with him with legally protected speech. That cannot happen under current policy.

The current School Board can fix this problem easily. They can adopt a new policy that follows what school boards in other districts like Shorewood, Elmbrook and Arrowhead do to meet and confer with their teachers’ Associations. They can legally adopt a policy that prohibits retaliation or discipline for teachers’ elected representatives who bring concerns about what is happening in our schools to administrators and the public. The Board can put WBEA nominated representatives on School Board committees and require regular discussion between Association leaders and the new Superintendent and School Board President. 

If the Board truly wants a collaborative staff effort to improve our schools it has the power to make the changes necessary to bring that about. They just have to choose to change. 

In the meantime, the WBEA will continue to represent its members, speak out privately and publicly about staff concerns and work to mobilize support for rational choices for our children and their education. It is the only safe voice teachers currently have in the discussion. 

It's not about the bathroom

My take on the which bathroom should "they" use issue.

It is not about the bathroom

Just like it was not about the bubbler. 

When a group of people gains the same rights the rest of us enjoy, it does not mean our group has less rights. Rights are not finite in number. Rights belong to all in equal measure under our system of government. 

It has not always been so. We started with rights just for white male protestant landowners. Slowly, we white male protestant landowners begrudgingly recognized that others were just as entitled, but we did not give up easily. 

We constructed arguments that the “others” were somehow intellectually and genetically inferior. Because the “others” were obviously criminals, we insisted that our “safety” was endangered with the new inclusion. We proclaimed that we were “protecting” our women and children. We proclaimed that “they” did not share in our religious beliefs. In the end, each time, we were proven wrong, that the differences did not matter, and the pool of those with whom we had to share grew larger. 

The vestiges of our past discriminatory ventures remain. Even though we fought a civil war to settle the states’ rights argument and end slavery, many still deny equality to people whose skin has a different pigment. Women, who fought and died for the right to vote and equality in the workplace and the home, still are paid less than men for equal work and do not have control over their own bodies. Immigrants from non-protestant denominations ultimately found success, but faced religious purity tests when running for high public office. Gays and lesbians, now free to marry those they love, still face discrimination in the workplace because they can be fired based just on who they married. 

The newest group seeking entrance into the “rights” club are those born with gender dysphoria. They are “transgendered” in common parlance and “trans” for short. 

Many, still reeling from having to recognize same-sex marriage and Gay-Straight Alliances in local schools, raise the same tired arguments to oppose trans people entrance to the equal rights club.

Leading the fight are the same white male protestant landowners who seem least likely to embrace change that most others have already accepted. Recognizing they cannot win on the science, gender dysphoria is real just like evolution, they raise many of the same hackneyed objections used in past battles. As the flawed premises have been debunked, they have retreated to the last bastion of hope, the bathroom.

The argument, embodied perfectly in laws being passed with lightning speed in Deep South states North Carolina and Tennessee, is “we are just protecting our women and children.” Our own state representative Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) tried to jump on this train during the last session with the help of the infamous religious freedom crusaders Juliane Appling and West Bend’s own former book burner Ginny Maziarka of Wisconsin Family Action. After his bill did not even make it out of committee in the last session, he recently vowed to bring it up again in the next.

The trans bathroom bills start with the flawed premise that the transgendered are sexual predators who will use bathrooms to prey upon defenseless women and children. Forget the fact that there are no reported valid cases where a transgendered person sexually assaulted anybody in a public bathroom. Forget all of the cases where white male political leaders made unwanted sexual advances in public bathrooms. Forget the idea that anyone can walk into any public bathroom dressed as the gender they appear to be and commit whatever crime they choose by just ignoring the sign on the door. Forget about designing a mechanism to enforce bathroom use by those with the “correct” genitals that does not embarrass the daylights of those we are trying to “protect.” The bills are merely solutions in search of a non-existent problem.

The opposition to these bills has been swift. Many large businesses already have inclusive bathroom policies for their employees and customers. When the retail giant Target announced their employees and customers could use whichever bathroom they wanted based upon their chosen gender identity, the anti-trans folks went ballistic threatening a national boycott. The boycott rapidly lost steam when the long list of the businesses with similar policies came to light. Many large business, sports leagues, and entertainers have taken their business to more inclusive venues in other states, costing them millions.

Legal consequences soon followed. The U.S. Department of Justice just announced that North Carolina’s law, HB2, violated federal civil rights laws and would cost the state and its federal education support additional millions in lost revenue, not to mention the costs they will incur to defend the litigation. Rep. Kremer just sees this as another example of President Obama’s left-wing agenda. 

Changing one’s beliefs about the “others” is hard. Sometimes it takes generations to erase the hatred engrained by mistaken belief and a misplaced sense of entitlement. Accepting the change and moving on is the healthier alternative.

We are not a Christian nation.

Another good one from 2011.

Religion and Politics Don’t Mix Well

Recent events again raise an interesting and important question. What happens when an elected official's religious beliefs conflict with their legal obligations? 

If a person runs for office as a Buddhist, indicating the Buddha’s teachings will inform all their future official decisions, and then wins the election, some believe the electorate has indicated the official can make decisions based upon her religious beliefs, even if they violate established legal duties. In a community made up solely of Buddhists, this would probably not present much of a problem.

Once a community becomes more diverse through the addition of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Druids, Pagans, Pastafrians, Agnostics and Atheists, the problem becomes stickier. Many countries with governments based upon a single religious ideology have run into trouble with mixtures of religious minorities, especially when minority belief systems conflict with the state sanctioned one. Religious repression gets ugly quickly. A quick look at the histories of China, England, India, Pakistan, Israel, and many Islamic Republics confirms the observation.

The major concern is that the will of the Buddhist majority will prevent divergent religious views from being expressed and honored. The more draconian view allows the Buddhist majority to define its view as the only acceptable one, relegating all others to illegality.

In this country, we do not allow religious views to be a legitimate basis for governmental decisions. Every person who is elected to public office takes an oath to support the Constitutions and laws of the United States and their state. At that moment, the official's religious beliefs become irrelevant when there is a legal duty to do or not do something contrary to the command of the official’s beliefs. Religious beliefs are not a majority wins trump card. They do not allow officials to just obey those laws with which they agree or meet with the approval of their deity’s interpreter.

Throughout our history, many with strongly held religious beliefs have been elected to office with a view towards imposing those beliefs upon those they were elected to serve and happen to hold different beliefs. When those beliefs have come into conflict with legal obligations, mostly of constitutional magnitude, our secular courts have stepped in to return the elected official to the path the law requires. We have seen it most clearly in the context of the First Amendment protections for freedom of speech and religion and the prohibitions against discrimination based on race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and others. 

Sometimes, officials with strongly held convictions understand the role of religion as a value system when it comes to governing. It is perfectly acceptable to ask yourself what would Buddha do before making a decision. It is not acceptable to allow Buddha to make the decision. 

Sometimes officials have to be taught by a higher power that they cannot impose their religious belief system that may be shared by a community majority upon those who do not share those beliefs. It is a hard lesson to learn, because it requires acceptance of differing belief systems as equal to your own. Sometimes it requires acceptance of differing belief systems that your belief system condemns as morally reprehensible. Sometimes it requires acceptance of belief systems you do not fully understand. This is the price citizens must be willing to pay if they accept a governing role over their fellow citizens.

Elected officials should take training from those skilled and versed in the art and business of governing before starting to govern. Our universities have the expertise. The training would help define the boundaries of personal, moral and religious beliefs and the legal obligations that might conflict with them. Civics foundations taught in public and private high schools could better provide these foundational concepts. This training, when understood and taken to heart, would help reduce much of our current political turmoil. 

We can debate the merits and impacts of fiscal conservatism, let the majority rule and pay the consequences. We cannot allow religious beliefs to trump constitutional or legal guarantees in the process. Even Buddhists are required to follow the law.

Words to Live By

Stand with Standing Rock

What government authorities are doing to Native American land, culture and sacred sites in North Dakota is fundamentally wrong. President Obama's wait and see response is too little and too late. If the current conflict continues to escalate, it is just a matter of time until someone dies and we face another Wounded Knee.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Washington DC

Our Survival Depends Upon Public Education

From time to time, I will post up articles I wrote in past years that still seem relevant. Here's one from 2011 about public education, one of my passions.

Our Survival Depends Upon Education

 We survive as a species because we educate our children.

It starts with, "don't bite," moves on to, "don't touch, it's hot," and never stops.

When we lived off the land, education was a family responsibility. "If you plant this, water it and pull the weeds, we all get to eat." Parents could handle it.

As tools and structures became more important and complex, people banded together and passed on the needed skills through apprenticeships with more skilled artisans. Formal education was a luxury reserved for the privileged wealthy.

Somewhere along the line, we decided that everyone needed to know how to read, write, add and subtract, probably because the body of accumulated knowledge was becoming too large to pass down around the home fire. Teaching became a desirable skill.

Then we figured out that teachers could teach more than one student at a time and public education was born. Families banded together, built a school and hired a teacher. Parents brought their kids in from the fields and they started learning about more than farming. They were taught to read fiction and think critically.

Society has been transformed by education. We are now very sophisticated and well educated. The days of the generalist are gone. Apprenticeships are gone. Following your parents’ footsteps to the assembly line are gone as well. Success today depends upon specialized knowledge and skills far beyond what your parents or the one room school marm can teach.

In order for the species to survive, today's children need significantly more education than their parents and grandparents received. Our world has become extremely complex and demanding. Instead of competing with the guy down the street, we're competing with folks we will never see from the other side of the planet. The technology explosion requires skills unheard of thirty years ago.

Today’s teachers hold the keys to our survival. They are the most important group of people on the planet. K-12 public education is the single most important institution in our society. Those that work there provide the foundations upon which future lives, families, businesses, governments, sports, arts, sciences, philosophies will be built. Without solid K-12 foundations, further education and training is not as successful and mediocrity becomes the standard.

Do we want to dumb down our kids by turning back the clock? We will soon be eclipsed by those countries that better educate their children. Teachers today must have the resources and support needed to prepare the next and future generations for their increasingly complex world.

It is inconceivable that school boards and legislators are currently charged with and believe in taking resources out of public education. We need to be doubling the resources devoted to public education, not decimating them.

We are told we cannot afford more money for education and that schools have to do more with less, just like the private sector. We are told that teacher compensation far exceeds private sector compensation and should be reduced accordingly.

Since when is the "private sector" business model the gold standard for education? We’re not turning out widgets. We are molding the future success of our society in 12 year cycles that start over again every year.

Just because some have hoodwinked workers into to giving up benefits and accepting lower wages, does not make it right or even a "best practice." Instead, we should be saying, “Look what we pay the people who guarantee our survival. I'm bright and educated and if you don't pay me a comparable package, I'll become a teacher.”

We must significantly increase the resources devoted to educating our children so they can compete for and in their future. There are positive things best business practices can bring to the business side of education, but paying teachers less because you are paid less makes no sense, much less common sense.

Recognize the value teachers provide and compensate them accordingly. Make teacher compensation the gold standard and we will all benefit. Then we might all aspire to teach the next generation. Think of the possibilities when the best and the brightest clamor to teach our kids because their work is valued, honored and compensated fairly.

Get ready for the holidays

I'm done with election coverage. Here's today's thoughts on what's ahead.

Real Holiday Cheer
Its not too early

With the election almost over, many are starting to think about the upcoming holidays. Some big box stores are already selling Christmas decorations and I expect carols to replace grocery store background music any day. I can remember the good ol’ days when these things did not happen until well after Thanksgiving.

Our holiday seasons have become little more than accelerated opportunities for retailers to sell us more stuff. We already have way too much stuff and hardly need more to prove that friends and family care about us.  Yes, I understand that many retailers make their entire annual profit during the holidays, but that does not justify our societal conspicuous consumption.

Most year-end holiday celebrations pay lip service to noble religious values and practices. Thanksgiving celebrates peaceful pilgrims’ first meals with first Americans. Christmas proclaims the birth of a savior and goodwill to all of humankind. Jewish Hanukkah traditions mark the defeat of those who would prohibit the practice of their faith. Kwanza celebrates the growth and importance of community. Others similarly embrace our better selves as we wish them to be.

Unfortunately, our commercial drive has subsumed these noble ideas with commands to buy more in order to give more so we can show how much more we care. Thanksgiving has become an excuse to over-eat in preparation for daylong football binging, perhaps to mask the centuries of resource wars waged against those first hosts.

If we are to truly celebrate the end of another successful year and pay due respect to the religious beliefs we hold dear, let me suggest ways that are closer to what was intended.

Given the importance of the holidays to our children, here are ways to help kids appreciate their true value. Give them something they need like clothes, a new bike or another item that helps them keep moving. Next, give them books to read, art supplies or a musical instrument that nourishes their creative spirits. Finally, take them with you to perform some kind of community service to show them the true meaning of your beliefs.

Community service is important for us adults too. It puts your values into practice. Donate to the Full Shelf Food Pantry or the Senior Center. Serve meals to the homeless or elderly through your church or service organization. Give gifts of clothes or food or books to the Gingerbread House or Family Promise. Donate blood to the Red Cross. Donate warm coats to one of the various coat drives held by fire departments and local businesses. Take a donation to the Washington County Humane Society, Interfaith Caregivers or the others who serve people in need in our communities. It never hurts to do good work for those less fortunate.

If you still feel compelled to shop, patronize local small businesses. They need the revenue much more than those who own the big box stores. Shopping small and local keeps your money in our local economy where it does the most good. It will help keep your neighbors employed and make more money available to others locally as well. The same holds true for holiday meals. Eat at locally owned restaurants that serve locally grown and raised food. Find a local farmer and buy a CSA. Stay away from the chains and processed foods that have traveled too many miles to your table.
Pay particular attention to the folks in our community who have to work during these holidays. Send cards to local fire and law enforcement departments along with hospital emergency rooms thanking them for their dedication and willingness to be away from their families while we spend time with ours. The Red Cross sends cards and packages to those serving overseas in the military as well. Send some cards and packages for them too.

Spend time with the elderly. Seniors don’t need more stuff, but many do need services. Learn what they may need and help them find the resources to meet those needs. If you know someone older, invite them to share a meal and some of their stories. Show your kids how to respect and care for elderly family members and neighbors. You might just learn something new in the process.

We can all make the upcoming holidays better for everyone if we just take time to care.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I am a Progressive Democrat who lives and works in Washington County, Wisconsin. Our fair county is controlled, lock, stock and barrel by ultra conservative tea partiers. I write a column published every other Saturday in the West Bend Daily News as Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County. I hope this effort will let Progressive folks know that they are not alone out here and can have a positive impact on daily life here. Follow along and let me know what you think. I'm always looking for new things to explore. Onward.