On The Importance of History

 We Learn from History

Let’s not repeat previous mistakes

 

Our legal system, like many others around the world, is a social construct designed to maintain the status quo. Ours came from Anglo-Saxon England and started as rules established by Kings to maintain order, punish violators, and provide mechanisms to resolve disputes. What developed over time, was a series of decisions that came to govern resolution of current disputes. If a past decision was based on a previously established rule and was based on a certain set of facts, a current dispute with similar facts should be resolved in the same way. Order is maintained and affairs become predictable. 

 

The rules and decisions of Kings gave way to written laws passed by Parliament and written decisions based on them were handed down by courts to punish violators and resolve disputes. The written decisions became the precedents used to resolve later disputes. The goal was the same, maintain order and predictability.

 

As English colonial expansion spread out of their island kingdom, the English legal system followed. Parliament and the King sought to maintain order and make sure that the colonies continued to support the homeland by passing laws governing the affairs of colonials. They were enforced in the colonies by appointed governors who appointed magistrates to resolve disputes and were backed up by standing English armies in local garrisons. 

 

We all know how that system ended here. Colonials in the Americas rebelled. The legal system tried to keep order but became largely ignored and military force failed to bring the rebellious colonials back in line. 

 

Our ancestors started to create a “more perfect union,” declaring our independence from the Crown and deciding that rule by monarchy should be replaced here by a democracy where laws were passed by elected representatives and disputes resolved by judges appointed by an executive with the “advice and consent” of popularly elected senators.

 

We would not know about these basic tenants of our form of self-government were it not for the study of history. Studying history is important so we know where we came from and how we got to our present state of affairs. It is critical so we do not repeat some of the mistakes all societies make as they develop. Hence the old saying, “those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.”

 

There is another old saying that comes to mind, “history is written by the victors.” 

 

No one likes to be cast in a bad light. Americans are no different. We don’t want to be seen as having created our “more perfect union” on the backs of enslaved Africans on land stolen from those people who were here long before our English ancestors invaded. We don’t want to be remembered for the genocide and forced relocation of indigenous populations as white people moved from East to West in pursuit of our “manifest destiny.”

 

What we did as the victors was to write a history of slavery and the treatment of indigenous peoples that did not make us look so bad. Africans became inferior beings that needed discipline and were better off as slaves here than they had been in their homelands. Indigenous peoples became savages to be conquered or “Tonto” like helpers to white saviors. When gold or oil were discovered on lands the “savages” had occupied for millennia, we just stole the land and moved the original inhabitants to reservations for their own good.

 

If we jump forward a couple of hundred years, the descendants of those enslaved Africans and displaced indigenous people have been joined by those of us who have studied the real histories of our ancestors’ mistakes. What came out of that collaboration is something called “critical race theory” which is merely a vehicle to keep us from making some of those same mistakes our ancestors made by studying a more accurate version of our history and learning how racial distinctions became embedded in our institutions.

 

Right wing extremists, recognizing that knowledge is power, have organized a public campaign to get school boards and states to ban teaching about the accurate American history to perpetuate principles of white supremacy that form the core of their platform. 

 

We need to recognize that our system of government made mistakes and that our legal system was complicit in them. In the desire to maintain the status quo, our Supreme Court approved of slavery. It approved of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It approved of how we treated indigenous peoples. Racial segregation was enshrined in “separate but equal” schools. Poll Taxes and literacy tests prevented newly freed slaves from voting. Labeling a social practice “legal” does not make it right.

 

We have not yet become “a more perfect union.” The study of our real history and the lessons it teaches may just help us get there.

Our Road Trip - Part Two

Our Road Trip -Part Two

 

My last column chronicled the first part of our Great American Road Trip towards the East coast with family. When that column was submitted, we were still in Kitty Hawk, NC on the Outer Banks.

 

We finished our stay there by driving south on Hatteras Island and marveled at the wetlands that buffer the North Carolina coast from Atlantic hurricane storm surges. We saw inlets that welcomed the pirates and provided refuge from storms at sea. More seafood beckoned at seaside joints that offered views of brave para-surfers flying across the bay. The next day, we headed West stopping at Fort Raleigh and the Lost Colony that was home to some of the first European immigrants until they vanished. 

 

Then it was onward further West to Greensboro, NC and a visit with my older brother who retired there after serving in law enforcement in California, working for our father in the family business and raising his family. He returned to the area where he met his wife while serving in the 82^nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. It was good to connect with him and share family stories from our early California childhood.

 

We next trekked further west to Knoxville, TN where we reconnected with our youngest and her family and we all met up with our second youngest granddaughter and her new husband, Kevin. The interesting connection here is that Kevin now works at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory which is where our youngest daughter’s husband worked after receiving his PhD. While there we went to the Museum of Science and Energy which traces the history of Oak Ridge in the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear energy during World War II and after. Current work at the lab continues to provide solutions for our energy needs and the decommissioning of nuclear weapons from around the world. 

 

After Knoxville, we went to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. It is truly a mammoth cave and the park on top of it is spectacular. Our daughter and her family took the extended tour below ground that descends over 600 vertical steps. My wife and I took the less strenuous, old geezer, tour which only went down and back up about 100 steps. The history of the place is fascinating. The cave has been in use for thousands of years by native inhabitants of the area and then later European immigrants who settled there. It has been a tourist attraction since the early 1800s. Now a National Park, the various aspects of the cave and surroundings are being preserved for future generations. 

 

After Mammoth Cave, it was time for us to head back home. Three weeks on the road and over 3,000 miles driven is enough. 

 

We saw America on the move as we travelled. The more parks and historical sites we visited, the more families we encountered. We kept track of the license plates we saw and counted all but Wyoming and Vermont on the cars and trucks we saw on the road. We also encountered staffing shortages in restaurants and park facilities due to pandemic furloughs. Many could not fill available tables or spaces due to lack of staff. 

 

The other major issue that struck us was the condition of the highways and back roads we traveled. We went through Michigan, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois on our venture. We were struck with the quality of the roads we took. All of them, in every state we were in, had better highways and secondary roads than we find in our home state of Wisconsin. It did not seem to matter whether the states were controlled by Republicans or Democrats, they all appeared to invest in building and maintaining good roads for travelers. Instead of visiting bogus election audits in Arizona, our legislators should just get in their cars and take a road trip to see what we are missing.

 

All in all, we had a great trip. It was wonderful to reconnect with family and hug our kids. We loved visiting places where history was made and learning about the feats of everyday Americans that built this country. We have been privileged to see much of our country’s parks and monuments and hope to continue the journeys as America recovers from COVID.-

Summer Travels

Post-Pandemic Road Trips

Reuniting Family

 

One of the worst things about the pandemic over the past year was our inability to be with family. Our kids and grandkids are scattered across the country and in Canada. Travel to see them was impossible until we all got jabbed and the country in between our respective homes became safer for travelers. 

 

Now that all of us, except the youngest granddaughter, are fully vaccinated we are embarked once more on a great American road trip. 

 

We started early in the morning and boarded the Lake Express Ferry with 20 other people for the journey across Lake Michigan to Muskegon. We then drove to Ann Arbor to see a first cousin. Like the others on the ferry, I noticed that many of the others on the road were geezers like us. 

 

After a lovely dinner sharing family stories, we retired to a sparsely populated hotel for the night. The next day, we drove to Pittsburgh to see our son and his wife. We stayed with them and caught up on the news of their kids and new changes to their family business. 

 

Three days later, the four of us drove to America’s newest national park, the New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. We rented a large Airbnb in Fayetteville close to the longest single arch bridge in the Northern Hemisphere that spans the river. We were joined there by our youngest daughter, her husband and their two daughters. The family stories flowed, and laughter followed. It was good to have us together once more. 

 

Our middle kid lives in Canada with her husband and they could not join us in person, so we FaceTimed with them for a virtual whole family reunion. Hopefully, we will be able to be with them later this year when the border reopens to visitors. 

 

The next two days were spent exploring the New River ecosystem which is older than any of the generations of humans who have occupied parts of the gorge etched through the steep mountains by relentless moving water. The National Park Service has done a great job protecting the space which was designated a National River by President Jimmy Carter. Now that it has joined the National Park system, more will be protected for future generations. 

 

In addition to the water and forests, we were able to explore a mining camp ghost town, Thurmond, which straddled the railroad tracks that opened the area to coal mining and lumber operations which lasted from the late 1800s into the middle of the last century. Native American histories are also preserved in the Visitor Centers that surround the park. 

 

Then it was on to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and a rented house on the beach at Kitty Hawk across the road from America’s first airport that was home to Wilbur and Orville Wright and their first flight in a powered aircraft. While the area has some of the trappings for tourist crowds, it seems sparsely populated with outsiders. Fresh seafood called out for the first night’s supper and Henry’s did not disappoint. Crab cakes, scallops, shrimp, and flounder accompanied with hushpuppies and served with a Southern drawl were a warm welcome after a long day on the road. 

 

Our son headed home to Pittsburgh from the New River, so we just have our daughter and her family on this leg of our journey. The first morning, we just sat on the beach and watched the pelicans fly in a line down the shore looking for their breakfast. We all collected shells brought in and left uncovered by the tide and waves. Dolphin fins cut the water just offshore as small waves broke on the sand. The water is cool in comparison to the hot humid air blowing from the shore towards the sea. 

 

Evening dinner at The Black Pelican was a seafood lover’s dream. Baked crab and shrimp in a butter garlic cream sauce with green beans Southern style and garden rice was a delight. Shared deserts finished it perfectly. At the beach house we watched a summer thunder and lighten display fill the night sky over the ocean.

 

The next day, we drove to the northern end of the Outer Banks to a restored historic village with an old lighthouse that warned sailing ships off the shoals that claimed many a shipwreck. Descendants of Spanish mustangs washed ashore there still populate the wildlife refuge. A truly magical place.

 

In our isolation over the past year, we missed seeing new parts of this globe we call home. On this trip, we’ve passed through wildly diverse ecosystems and geological formations. It never ceases to amaze me what a diverse and beautiful country we have the privilege to occupy. That diversity certainly includes the people and cultures included in our United States of America. 

 

Visiting our National Parks, Monuments, Seashores, Wildlife Refuges, and other protected places refreshes the soul and provides a unique opportunity to experience how we grew and changed into the vibrant society we have today. Teaching our children and grandchildren the history and how important it is to protect our varied heritages is made easier with each visit.

GOP Failures

GOP Legislators Fail Again

Tend to the People’s Business

 

Our Republican controlled legislature outdid itself once again, proving just how anti-life they really are. They rejected once again, Gov. Evers’ call for them to accept federal Medicaid expansion money which would have pumped $1 Billion federal dollars into Wisconsin coffers and provided much needed health insurance coverage to 91,000 more Wisconsin citizens. 

 

Our legislators first stripped the proposal to take the federal money out of Gov. Evers’ proposed state budget for the next biennium and then, this past week, gaveled in and out of the special legislative session Evers called to take up the proposal in record time.

 

The people most impacted are poor people without access to employer health insurance plans who made too much under earlier guidelines to qualify for insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid expansion would have changed the rules to lower those standards, making the insurance more affordable. Without access to more affordable insurance, many Wisconsinites will become ill and die due to their inability to access needed health care services. 

 

The $1 billion federal incentive, which comes out of federal taxpayer dollars, was earmarked by Gov. Evers to provide $200 million to expand broadband internet services to more in rural areas, $100 million to replace ageing and dangerous lead water pipes, $100 million for bridge and road projects and over a dozen local construction projects. 

 

In addition, Evers proposed using the Federal funds for increased mental health services, veterans housing programs, increasing tourism, more DNR Stewardship programs and better opioid data systems. On the local level, Evers wants to use the funds for a community health center in Racine, paper mill assistance in Wisconsin Rapids and Park Falls, mental health facilities in Eau Claire and Wausau, manufacturing apprenticeship programs, support for rural emergency medical services.

 

Gov. Evers condemned the GOP leaders’ failure to take up the proposal. "I think we should be doing everything we can to make sure our economy bounces back from this pandemic, and this special session was about finding common ground and getting bipartisan support for our efforts," Evers said in a prepared statement. "Clearly, it’s disappointing Republicans don’t seem to take that responsibility seriously, and they’ll have to explain to Wisconsinites why they made the decision they did today."

 

GOP legislators have opposed the expansion ever since it was introduced by the Federal government in 2014, claiming it is unnecessary welfare and that it might cause additional burdens on Wisconsin taxpayers in the future should the benefits decrease. They also take issue with Evers’ authority to spend the federal dollars, claiming it should rest with the Legislature instead.

 

So far, 38 states have accepted Medicaid expansion benefits without any substantial issues. Those state that took the funds show decreased mortality rates when compared with states that rejected the funds. They have used the funds creatively to help combat the pandemic and increase services for their citizens with no adverse impacts. 

 

It is clear that the real opposition is rooted in fears that Democratic governments will actually take care of working people and their families and win the policy wars in our divided America. They fear actual debate in open sessions of our legislative bodies on the merits of the proposals and the actual impacts their decisions will have on the rest of us. It is much easier to just say no to what ever Democrats propose. 

 

On the other side of the same coin, Assembly Leader Robin Vos (R-Mount Pleasant) just approved spending $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to hire retired police officers to investigate the last statewide election to see if there were irregularities that warrant new election laws. It does not matter that GOP presidential minions already floated their conspiracy theories in Wisconsin and Federal Courts after the election only to see each and every one shot down because they could produce no facts to support their outlandish claims. Vos is wasting precious tax dollars chasing ghosts of long dead conspiracies. 

 

The Republicans in our Legislature have wasted our time and money doing nothing but trying to undo what made Wisconsin the progressive leader in America and opposing anything proposed by Democrats. We elect our Representatives and Senators to look out for the common good and address real problems affecting significant parts of the populace. It is time we hold them accountable and elect those willing to tend to the people’s business. 

Supply and Demand

Supply and Demand

Workers Have Power

 

Conventional wisdom has it that markets are balanced by supply of what people want and demand from others for those same things. That maxim applies to current employment opportunities. 

 

As pandemic restrictions on public gatherings are eased, many businesses are gearing up to put their wares back on the market. Nowhere is this more obvious than in restaurants and other places where wages are low yet demand for service is increasing rapidly. “We’re Hiring” signs are popping up everywhere.

 

Places where employees were laid off due to pandemic restrictions are looking to bring those employees back into service and are finding it hard to make that happen. Even with demand at a high level, many are finding it hard to find people willing to work for what they earned before the pandemic sent them home. 

 

Several trends are emerging. Some employers are griping that the current unemployment benefit levels are keeping people at home. Some republican controlled states are buying into this notion and moving to cut unemployment benefits or reduce the amounts paid. Current benefit levels finally approach basic cost of living levels and pay more than many pre-pandemic employment packages offered. I doubt that this is the main driver of the difficulty employers face finding people to fill open positions. After all, people are social beings and want to interact with others and not just sit at home in front of the TV.

 

Recent polling suggests there are other factors at play. One is childcare. Low wage jobs no longer cover the cost of childcare much less provide cost of living wages. People who do not have childcare for pre-school age kids cannot go to work if they cannot cover that cost plus bring home money for food, housing, and other necessities. One of the provisions of President Biden’s rescue plan is to beef up childcare subsidies making it possible for parents of preschoolers and even school age children to re-enter the workforce.

 

Workplace safety is another new complication employers face finding people for their open jobs. Many food and tavern jobs require servers to interact with those who are not wearing masks and may or may not be vaccinated against the coronavirus. People who have been hunkered down at home with their families, trying to stay safe from the pandemic, are understandably reluctant to go to work in places where they feel likely that they will be exposed to virus carriers. The lure of low pay and long hours are just not enough to bring them back. Employers who give incentives to vaccinated workers and discounts to masked customers may be able to overcome potential employee fears.

 

A third factor is the label, “essential worker.” Many employers seeking to reward the workers who stayed on the job during the pandemic bestowed that label on their workforce and many took it to heart. The belief that I am “essential” to my employer’s success brings with it a legitimate sense that I am worth more than I was before I earned the title. With that, it is only natural that I get paid more for my work than I received before, especially as demand for what I produce is going up. This is a natural wage increase driver.

 

Finally, many former low-wage employees are coming to realize that they no longer must take whatever is offered from an employer. People are starting to demand more than what they might have made before for the same work because they see increased competition in the marketplace for their labor. We see that pressure in the long-term care industry where care givers move from job to job, facility to facility, when hourly wages go up by a dollar or two.

 

Employers need to rethink their business model, especially when they rely on low wage workers to provide the services they sell. If the model was only workable if the cost of labor did not produce a living wage, it unlikely your business will survive in this market where wages are going up significantly past previous levels and hefty signing bonuses are becoming more common. 

 

It is just not as simple as unemployment benefits are too high. There is much more in play and employers are going to have to start providing safe working conditions, pay living wages and provide real benefits such as paid child-care if they hope to stay in business. 

 

It is supply and demand. Maybe a $15 an hour minimum wage is a foreseeable reality after all.

Rojo Must Go

Senator Johnson Care More about Freedom than Life

It has got to be hard when facts and proven scientific evidence come into conflict with one’s ideological or political beliefs. A rational person would examine that conflict and try to adjust the beliefs to come into some degree of harmony with the facts and supporting evidence. It must be even harder when one’s political and ideological beliefs lead to the suffering, illness and death of your fellow human beings. 

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s recent public comments questioning the need to vaccinate the population against COVID-19 and the effectiveness of wearing masks show that Johnson has made his choice. For him, ideology and political expedience win out over facts supported by the scientific evidence. Unfortunately for some of his followers and others who choose to believe what he says, Johnson’s words will lead to unnecessary suffering and maybe even their death.

Johnson is reaching the end of his current term in the United States Senate. Even though he promised to only serve two terms when first he ran, he has not told us if he plans to run for a third term or not. He has, however, openly embraced the former resident of the White House, supported false claims of fraud in the last national election, questioned whether it was really supporters of the former president who stormed the Capitol on January 6th and ventured into support for other conspiracy theories. It is not surprising then to hear him openly contradict nationally recognized experts on getting COVID vaccines into as many arms as possible and the need for wearing masks to reduce the virus spread.

It is high time that Johnson declares his intentions for the upcoming election. Three Democrats have already announced their bids to replace him. The first in the ring was Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson. Nelson has run before and has a slew of endorsements. Next, Alex Lasry, Vice President of the Milwaukee Bucks organization, threw his hat in the ring and announced endorsements from prominent Milwaukee political figures. The third candidate to enter the race was Sarah Godlewski, the newly elected Wisconsin State Treasurer, who has been preparing to run against Johnson on social media for the past year. Other Democrats will probably come in as soon as Johnson announces whether he will run again or not. 

Conservative Republicans, used to mounting primary challenges from the right, don’t know what to do. It is hard to get further to the right than Johnson is already. The former president has already endorsed him for a third term which prevents other ultra conservatives from entering the race. More moderate Republicans have not figured out a message that will resonate with enough GOP voters to win a statewide race and do not want to sign up until Johnson declares what he plans to do. 

Without a viable GOP replacement, Johnson owns the bully pulpit on the right and will unfortunately end up hurting a lot of people. We can only hope that the new national leadership will continue to let the scientists carry the load of convincing more to get their shots, practice social distancing and continue to wear masks around the unvaccinated. 

Another front is opening as well. The University of Maryland recently announced that no one will be allowed on campus next fall unless they have been vaccinated against COVID – 19. Even with Johnson openly opposing vaccination requirements or vaccination passports, the European Union is opening up visits from U.S. citizens if they have been fully vaccinated. Airlines are beginning to enforce mask wearing on flights and banning those who refuse. Socially responsible businesses are also beginning to step up with mask requirements as well. App developers are already marketing vaccination passports for your phones.

It is sad that Sen. Johnson refuses to follow the science and has lost his compassion for the health of his constituents while following the banner of false personal freedom. To see him wallow in false choices brings fears that he will follow Fox’s Tucker Carlson who now exhorts his viewers to confront masked people and asks them to call the police to report child abuse when they see kids in masks. 

We are all in this together and the sooner our elected officials take on that world view, the sooner we can get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Courts

How Courts Work Or Don’t

A recent letter to the editor of this page criticized me for questioning a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reverse Governor Evers’ second emergency declaration regarding the spread of coronavirus. The writer opined that, as an attorney, I should know that a decision by the State’s highest court was the law of the land and the end of the discussion.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending upon your point of view, there is no absolutes in the law. 

Laws passed by legislatures and administered by the executive branch are always, repeat always, subject to interpretation. There are usually, if not always, lots of lawyers available to interpret what is written in different ways and arrive at different conclusions about what the words really mean. No writer is ever able to convey a complex topic with absolute clarity. There is almost always room for argument and discussion. 

That is why we have courts to exercise the power to decide which of the competing interpretations of the written law will prevail. Even courts are not correct all of the time. That is why we have three layers of courts in Wisconsin. Trial courts in each county get the first shot at finding the correct interpretation. The losing side in the trial court, then gets to appeal to the Court of Appeals in their district. The Court of Appeals then gets its shot at telling the parties and the trial court which interpretation is correct. That court may or may not get it right. 

Whoever loses in the Court of Appeals then gets to ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up the case. While the Court of Appeals has to take every case filed and render a decision, the state Supreme Court gets to pick and choose which cases it wants to hear. That decision usually depends on whether the issue presented by the case is of statewide importance and not controlled by an earlier decision by the Supreme Court that ruled on the same issue. 

When our Supreme Court agrees to take a case, it too tries to decide what the controlling law is and how that law applies to the facts of the case before it. It is the rare case indeed where all of the Justices on the state’s Supreme Court can agree on whether the case should be heard in the first place, what the controlling law is or what the correct interpretation of that law happens to be. In the end, decisions are usually based upon the Justice’s judicial philosophy, political persuasion and ability to persuade a majority of the other Justices on the Court to agree with her reasoning. 

The resulting majority decision from the Supreme Court controls the actions of the parties in that particular lawsuit for sure. It can also be argued that the decision also controls other cases that present the same facts. Beyond that, the application of a particular decision by the Court to a new or even slightly different set of facts, sets the process going all over again. 

If the state Supreme Court’s decision involves an issue of federal constitutional law, then the decision is subject to challenge and further appeals in the federal judicial system. Where the interpretation battles start all over again. 

With this understanding of how the judicial process works, or does not work, we are allowed to give an opinion that a given decision was decided incorrectly. 

Some decisions by state supreme courts are clearly incorrect and reversed by federal courts when they violate federal constitutional principles. Even decisions by the United States Supreme Court turn out to be wrong after the passage of time and changes in the will of the body politic. 

The infamous Dred Scott decision by the United States Supreme Court in 1857 is the classic, but not the only, example. In that 7-2 decision, the Court held that a slave, Dred Scott, who lived in a state where slavery was prohibited was not entitled to his freedom because African Americans could never be citizens of the United States. The Court further ruled that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that declared certain states “slavery free” was unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote “…We think they (people of African ancestry) are…not included, and not intended to be included, under the word “citizens” in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.”

By any measure in today’s understanding of American citizenship, Taney’s words are clearly and unequivocally incorrect. 

So too were the decisions of the Wisconsin Supreme Court which overturned Governor Evers’ emergency declarations and occupancy limits in public establishments. They were based on interpretations of laws passed limiting the powers of the governor which disregarded the overriding need for prompt an effective action in the face of a public health emergency. 

The deaths resulting from premature actions by people eager to get back to “normal” who choose to go about their lives pretending there is no threat will be on the hands of Wisconsin Supreme Court majority who decided those cases.