Listen to the Virus

Listen to the Virus
It will dictate our future

Once again, we are at a life-threatening crossroads. After fits and starts in the battle to contain COVID-19, we finally saw state and federal governments agree to a plan to slow the spread of this deadly virus through aggressive treatment of those who become ill from it, school and business closings, restrictions on large public gatherings and enforced physical distancing requirements. There is little doubt that the rate of infection increases has gone down, hospitalizations are starting to level off and the death rate among those infected is slowing down. 

These measures, popularly called STAY AT HOME orders, are working and lives are being saved as a result.  

As with all pandemics, the measures needed to beat them come with a staggering economic cost. More Americans are out of work now than we saw during the Great Depression. Businesses are closed and many will never reopen. Savings have been depleted. Investments have taken a substantial hit. People are clamoring for help. Food banks cannot keep up with the demand. Stimulus checks and unemployment benefits will help some and cannot come soon enough. 

Besides the economic toll, government services and quality of life programs are being curtailed. Some see individual liberties being curtailed. Protests by some of those aggrieved by the orders closing parks and businesses are springing up here and around the country.

We must choose how we will move forward. Do we continue the stay at home orders, keep non-essential businesses shuttered, keep schools closed and require physical distancing to protect lives? Do we heed the calls to re-open the economy, put Americans back to work and risk more deaths?

It is at this cross-roads where our political divide rears up once more. 

On Thursday afternoon, President Trump retreated from his earlier proclamation that he would be the one to decide when to re-open the country. Instead, he finally listened to his scientific advisors and legal team and recognized that the nation’s governors should be making the decisions about when to re-open their individual state economies based upon the conditions presented. He offered a reasoned plan for all to follow on how such decisions should be made. 

First, we need to look at the rates of infection, hospitalizations and deaths. Are they going up, down or staying level? As long as the rates continue to rise or stay high, economies should stay closed and physical distancing enforced. 

Second, with declining rates of infection, hospitalization and death, we need to ramp up our ability to test people to see if they are infected. Without testing, we will be operating blindfolded and if infection rates start going back up, we will not know it until it shows up in increased hospitalizations. Then, it will be too late. 

Third, with any economic re-opening and lessened restrictions on physical distancing, the chances of a new wave of infection and death will go up substantially. We must rebuild or hospital capacity to be able to handle any new wave. That means more hospital beds, more protective equipment for healthcare workers and first responders and more ventilators and other life sustaining medical equipment.

Fourth, we need to develop and test the efficacy of a vaccine to inoculate the public from contracting the virus in the first place. This will, by most scientific measures, take the better part of a year. 

Under the President’s guidelines, governors can slowly re-open their state’s economies as they are able to meet each of the listed benchmarks in turn. Some states have been hit harder by the pandemic than others and will be slower to reopen than those with fewer infected citizens. 

Governor Evers also spoke about these issues on Thursday. He too recognized that a slow, measured response to the virus threat was needed to protect Wisconsin citizens as much as possible. Evers will not be throwing a switch to re-open Wisconsin, but will use a dial to lessen restrictions as the benchmarks are reached. It will take time. 

For starters, Gov. Evers extended his stay at home order until just after Memorial Day, May 26. The need for the extension is manifest and is in keeping with President Trump’s guidelines. He will allow some businesses to reopen under physical distancing guidelines and offering limited services.

Unfortunately, the republican leaders in our legislature do not see fit to follow their President and Governor. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Majority Leader Robin Vos both signaled Thursday that they would pull out the stops to pass measures to end Evers’ orders. They seem hell bent on putting Wisconsin back to work and letting the lives of the vulnerable in the balance fall where they may. This is at least consistent with their efforts to force people to vote in the last election during the pandemic, making many choose between their right to vote and the risk of contracting a deadly disease. We know how that turned out.

Now is the time for restraint and listening to the scientists. As Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Trump’s advisor on infectious diseases, said recently, “the virus will tell us when to re-open the country.” We ignore it’s call at our peril.

Look for the Helpers

Look for the Helpers
Kindnes goes a long way

My wife and I are in our middle to late 70s and have health issues, putting us in the high-risk category for contracting and dying from the Covid-19 virus. We have been staying and working from home since the middle of March to avoid exposure. This has necessitated interesting changes to our routines. 

We have always been social people who love to be in contact with our friends and family. I even strike up conversations with strangers in places like the grocery store, just to increase sociability. The government has urged “social distancing” to flatten the curve of exposure to the virus. We found that to be a misnomer. We use “physical distancing” instead, keeping at least six feet between us and others when we do go out. 

We have learned to keep up contact with our friends and family using technology. We love making and receiving phone calls. We use Facetime and other video conferencing platforms for virtual dinners and happy hours. Meetings for work are now audio or audiovisual and work just fine. Seeing the grandkids laugh and hearing them sing or play their instruments on a computer screen or iPhone is not as good as it would be in-person, but suffices in these uncertain times.

Shopping has also been interesting. I usually shop for the groceries for us. I miss the time spent cruising the aisles looking for new culinary experiences and speaking with others doing the same. When we first shuttered in, I used the pick-up services at Pick N Save and Sendiks. They worked very well initially, but the time between placing the order and being able to pick it up has now increased to over a week. Luckily, our local Piggly Wiggly has a wonderful volunteer, out of work at a local public school, who will shop for us and deliver the food to our garage on the same or next day after I email her my order. She has been a great help and I try to just call on her service once a week so she has time for other orders for those like us who have self-quarantined. 

I have also ordered more things on-line, mostly through Amazon. Hand sanitizer ingredients and coffee pods in bulk are now shipped directly to a bin on our front porch. So are books for the avid reader next to me on the couch. 

We are mailing more as well. We’re getting drawings and other refrigerator art from the grandkids. Videos of past concerts also come by mail. Letters from friends checking in come as well. We used the mail to send postcards to potential voters as part of the new campaign methods of voter contact have emerged. 

Dining out was always a treat for us and we loved to patronize our favorite local pubs and eateries. Now we do take out or curbside pick-up from these local businesses to try and help them weather the storm and take a break from cooking and dishes. 

My work as a guardian for the elderly, most with dementia, has been curtailed significantly. I would normally visit my wards in the facilities where they live to check in on them, review medical records and speak with caregivers. With the pandemic, all assisted living and nursing facilities have banned outside visitors, except for medically necessary ones, so I cannot visit in-person. That means family cannot visit their loved ones either. I have switched to email and phone contact with facility staff to keep up with the condition of my wards and have picked up more contact with their family members as I relay changes in visiting rules and health conditions. 

Through all of these changes, we have found that the people involved are going above and beyond to take care and be kind. Civility is on the increase as folks realize that we are all in this mess together and it will take each of us maintaining our “physical distance” for the contagion curve to flatten. 

I, and many others, are grateful for the helpers who have stepped up to help us survive. Let’s work to continue the kindness once this pandemic passes.

Bi-Partisan Help

Bi-Partisan Help Works

Ignore it at our peril 

If there was ever a time for bi-partisan action to address a national crisis, this is that time. Unfortunately, the Republicans who represent Wisconsin in the United States House of Representatives and Senate chose to ignore the memo. All of them voted against the bi-partisan bill that provides relief to those impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak that even President Trump supports. 

Senator Ron Johnson has been the most vocal about his views on the pandemic we all face and his vote not to help any of us out. Johnson took to the airwaves afterwards, trying to put a positive spin on COVID-19 that shows how completely tone deaf he really is. 

Johnson’s remarks ring especially hollow to those without paid sick leave from their employers. As one of the few civilized countries without required paid sick leave, many Americans will feel pressured to go to work when they do not feel well, even though that will increase the chances of virus spread to more folks. The bill passed by the House and Senate and soon to be signed by the President provides some limited relief for working people, but even that meager response was too much for Johnson who believed it would “incentivize people to not show up for work.” Johnson apparently believes people should continue to go to work, even if exposed to or are already carrying the virus. He believes COVID-19 is not the same as Ebola, MERS and is less serious than the seasonal flu and cannot be allowed to harm the economy. 

Trying to calm the instant backlash his comments provoked, Johnson went further. “Right now, all people are hearing about are the deaths. I’m sure they are horrific, but the flip side of this is the vast majority of people who get coronavirus do survive.” He went further in comments to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel where he noted that only between 1 and 3.4 percent of the population would die. “But that means 97 to 99 percent will get through this and develop immunities and will be able to move beyond this. We don’t shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on highways. It’s a risk we accept so we can move about. We don’t shut down our economies because tens of thousands die from common flu,” Johnson proclaimed. 

Clearly, Johnson failed math in school. There are over 329 million Americans on our shores according to the U.S. Census Bureau. If the virus kills 3.4 percent of the population, then 9 million Americans will die. If the virus only kills one percent, it means over 3 million Americans will die.

Johnson’s numbers also show what medical experts fear most, that our healthcare system will be overwhelmed far beyond present capacities. Our healthcare system is just not prepared to handle significant numbers like these. Johnson also ignores the dangers of community spread of the virus, especially when it comes to the elderly and those at risk due to compromised immune systems.

We are faced with a conundrum. If we overreact to the crisis, there may be long term financial consequences to the economy. My 401K has already taken another substantial hit. But, what happens if we under-react? Our healthcare system will get over run and collapse under the weight of too many seriously ill and dying patients. This will increase community spread and kill far more of our citizens than a flattened curve of virus spread. Johnson has chosen to support under-reaction to our collective peril.

Democrats in the House and a majority of the Senate have taken timid first steps to provide some relief. Even President Trump is on board. GOP Senator Mitt Romney, famous for his 47 percent of us are moochers comments, now supports sending every American $1,000. 

Many of the dwindling tea party followers now claim that free virus tests, checks to families, paid sick leave for some and tax relief to businesses just amounts to more of the evil “socialism” they fear more than the virus. They and Johnson cling to their “I’ve got mine, you are on your own” mantra while going about their business out in public oblivious to community spread warnings. Those who see a creeping police state in mandatory close your public spaces and stay home orders will ignore them. They should send back those checks the government sends out to ease the pain.

My wife and I are grateful we do not have to go out and that those infected or exposed will not be coming over to visit. We see the government’s response as yet another halting step towards healthcare as a universal right which this latest crisis has writ large on the community wall. It is a time to come together and support those in need. We are all in this together.

I choose Bernie

Wisconsin’s Presidential Primary 

The Battle for Democracy

The results of the primary elections on Super Tuesday have reduced the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination down to a two-person contest between former Vice-President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Because the delegate count between those two is very close, Wisconsin’s presidential preference primary on April 7^th becomes an even more important stop on the road to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee in June.

The national Democratic presidential primary has become a replay of the 2016 primary that pitted the moderate centrist, Hillary Clinton, against the progressive democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders. As we all remember, Bernie lost to Hillary who became the party’s standard bearer and then lost the presidency to Donald Trump even though she had more total votes cast for her than Trump did. 

We also all know that Trump’s presidency has not delivered on most of the things he promised on the 2016 campaign trail. It has also devolved into one of the most corrupt, conflict ridden, racist, misogynistic and ineffective administrations in modern history. This makes this Democratic primary all that more important. While we suspected what a Trump presidency would look like in 2016, now we know that another four-year Trump term will bring much more of the same. 

A majority of the voters in Trump’s electoral college victory states were enough to carry the day. All of the states Biden carried on Super Tuesday went for Trump in 2016 and are likely to vote for him again in 2020. This certainly dilutes the significance of Biden’s victories there this past Tuesday. Even though Biden won more states, the delegate count is all but even with Sanders’ wins in Vermont, Utah, Colorado and California.

The real contest now in play is for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Will it remain controlled by the corporatist centrists who trust Joe Biden not to rock their boats or will the torch be passed back to progressives who care more for working people, income equality, universal healthcare, women’s reproductive healthcare and protecting the environment?

The 2008 Obama presidential campaign set the stage for a progressive democratic comeback when it organized local campaigns like the one we mounted in Washington County. The message Obama’s organizers left with us was “we want the effort to continue after election day to support democratic initiatives and policies.” We took that message to heart and continued organizing and agitating to the point where we were able to open an office year-round in one of the reddest counties in Wisconsin. We have kept it open ever since and show no sign of slowing down.

Wisconsin voters can send a clear message on April 7^th.

If you cast your ballot for Joe Biden, the signal will be that you stand for the status quo in failed Democratic Party leadership. Biden voted for America’s longest war, allowing states to overturn the protections gained by Roe v. Wade for women’s reproductive health, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after attacking Prof. Anita Hill who stood up to accuse Thomas of inappropriate sexual conduct, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid and a host of other progressive legislative initiatives. Biden opposes most of the progressive policies put forward by the progressive wing of the party.

A vote for Bernie Sanders who carried Wisconsin in the 2016 presidential primary, will signal that now is the time for change. We desperately need a return to the progressive roots of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, embodied in Sanders’ visions of a Green New Deal, universal healthcare, affordable college education, strong labor unions, income equality, racial equality and protection of the planet. He has concrete plans on how to pay for these bold initiatives through taxes on the very wealthy and wall street speculators and cuts to military spending. Sanders’ policies come out on top in polls across the country with voters in all demographic groups. 

The unfounded fear is that America will not elect a “socialist,” or, as others here have labeled him, a “communist.” Sanders, by all measures is nowhere near communistic. He has never advocated having the government take over the means of production. He is more akin to European democratic socialists who embrace a more democratic capitalism that includes care for the less fortunate as well as profit. 

I supported Bernie Sanders in 2016 and I continue to support his candidacy this time around. He will bring our party and country back to more compassionate and caring policy positions that will benefit all of us, not just the privileged few. 

Vote

Voting is Key to Democracy

Stop Voter Suppression

There is no better way to participate in our democracy than exercising your right to cast a ballot for the candidate of your choice. After casting my ballot this past Tuesday, I also had the privilege of assisting others to do the same by working as a poll worker in the Village of Kewaskum. 

Poll workers play an important role in ensuring that the votes cast are properly recorded and counted. We registered new voters as well as re-registering those new to our communities who have voted elsewhere. We are trained by our municipal clerk who is in charge of the polling place. Our training brings us up to speed on voter eligibility and how to maintain the integrity of the voting process up to the point where our vote totals are transmitted to the county clerk to be added to the votes cast in the other municipal voting locations.

In the seven hours I worked while the poll was open, I saw all manner of my neighbors exercise the franchise. There were young, first time, voters and those who have voted for years. There were working folks who came straight from work. There were educators and other professionals, retired hippies and local farmers. All took time from their busy lives to make sure their voices were heard. 

Polls in small towns and villages are social places too. Some of those working in our polling place seemed to know many of those who came to vote and they stopped to chat. We thanked every voter who took a ballot and put it in the machine to be counted. 

After the poll closed, we noted the count on our machine that took each ballot. We then took out the ballots and counted how many there were. That number had to agree with the total number of ballots handed out during the day and received from absentee voters. We did not count the number of votes cast for each candidate on the ballot. The results were transmitted electronically to the county clerk and the machine tapes and all of the ballots were transported by the village clerk to the county clerk’s office where they will be maintained in case of a recount. 

I believe that there was nothing done at our polling location that would alter the results. My only concern is with the integrity of the voting machines and the digital transmission of the results up the chain. We are told that the Election Commission has tested the machines for accuracy in how votes are recorded and that they all pass before being put in service. We are also assured that the digital transmission of vote totals is secure and not vulnerable to manipulation. Short of independent testing of the machines and transmission protocols, we have no way of making sure the process is completely free from tampering.

Of even greater concern is voter turnout. Our Village has 2,478 registered voters. Of those, only 466 voted in this past election, roughly 18 percent. The county turnout was a bit better at 22 percent. Statewide, the voter turnout was about 16 percent which is an improvement over previous spring primaries. Some believe this improvement was driven by the contested primary in northern Wisconsin for the Seventh Congressional District. In any event, I find it troubling that so few took part in an important election that set the stage for the April general election where we will elect a Justice for the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a ten-year term.

Even with low voter turnout, we are also seeing increased attempts to suppress voter participation. We all know about voter ID laws that help prevent those who live on society’s edges from being able to vote. A conservative law firm has brought suit to purge over 200,000 voters statewide from the list of registered voters solely based on the failure to return a card mailed to them to make sure that they did not move. Those who did not return cards tended to live in more Democratic voting districts like Madison and Milwaukee and a recent analysis of those voters shows that a majority of them are recent voters, having voted in the 2016 election. Conservative republicans seem to believe that lower voter participation favors their candidates. 

Voter suppression has a long and sordid history in this country dating back to laws only allowing white, land owning males the privilege of selecting their representatives. After the Civil War, newly emancipated slaves were prevented from voting by Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and other schemes. Federal courts recently struck down a provision that prohibited felons from voting if they had unpaid fines or court obligations. Women only gained the right to vote when a constitutional amendment was passed giving them the franchise. 

The only way we can keep our democracy strong is to make sure that everyone old enough to vote can actually cast a ballot that is accurately processed and counted. You can verify your status as a registered voter and find other valuable information by going to https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/ Your vote is important.

Funding Public Education

Don’t Ignore This One
Public school funding needs fixing

Nothing shows the difference between Republicans in control of the Wisconsin Legislature and Democrats in control of the Governor’s office and the Department of Public Instruction than what they propose to do with a projected state surplus. 

The state’s non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau announced last month that the state is projected to take in $818.2 million more in tax collections through mid-2021 than previously calculated. After deposits to the state’s rainy-day fund, that state is projected to have $451.9 million in the general fund for the rest of the 2019-21 budget. 

Making good on a campaign promise to fix public school funding, Gov. Tony Evers just announced a special legislative session on February 11th to consider his proposal to take $250 million of the projected surplus to “recommit to two-thirds state funding for K-12 education including investments in school-based mental health services and special education aid, $10 million in sparsity aid and $130 million in property tax relief through equalization aid.”

Evers coupled his announcement with a plea to legislators to stop choosing between tax relief and education funding. “I’ve always said that what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state, and every kid deserves access to high-quality, public education regardless of their age, identity, background, economic status or zip code,” Evers said. “We don’t have to choose between investing in our kids and reducing property taxes-we can do both,” he noted. 

To support claim to bi-partisan support, Evers indicated that since 2011, nearly one million Wisconsin voters voted to raise their own property taxes for local public schools. In 2018, voters approved more than $2 billion in debt and revenue increases for their schools. In addition, Evers reminds us that the Republican’s own Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding recommended renewal of the state’s obligation to fund two-thirds of the cost of public education. 

State Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor issued a statement supporting Gov. Evers proposal. “I am grateful for the governor’s plan to provide additional resources for our schools. As I travel across the state, I continuously hear from our educators and parents, and I see the need for the state to provide more support, especially in the areas of special education and mental health resources in our schools. Additional resources are essential to achieving the DPI’s mission of ensuring all of our students receive what they need, when they need it, to be successful.”
Evers’ proposal would mean that local school districts would receive estimated payments for special education costs: Kewaskum - $118, 819, Slinger - $181,951, Hartford JT 1 - $150, 940, Hartford Union High - $93, 882 and West Bend - $537,799 In addition, Hartford Union High would receive an estimated $151,930 in sparsity aid. 
The Wisconsin Association of School Boards quickly issued a statement supporting the Governor’s proposal and the special session to consider it.

WisPolitics came out with a story on Republican legislative leaders’ views about the projected surplus before Evers special session call. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Wisconsin Counties Association event that his members plan to pay off debts, cut property taxes and offer “robust” aid to struggling farmers. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is plugging property tax cuts and an income tax cut. 

Almost immediately after Gov. Evers’ announcement, both Cos and Fitzgerald rejected spending any more money on public schools and reiterating their calls for more tax cuts. 

Ever since the early days of Scott Walker’s administration, public education funding has been on the Republican chopping block. Even with more recent additions to state education funding, we are barely approaching the funding levels we saw in 2009. When you add the cost of inflation, we are still far away from proper funding for public schools. When you add in the hit to local districts caused by school choice vouchers taking money out of local schools to fund private school costs, the damage is even worse. 

Governor Evers is right to call the legislature back into session to address education funding shortfalls, especially those in special education and student mental health areas and to offer a sensible path to some property tax relief. Special education shortfalls are critical, especially since the elimination of school based social workers. In West Bend, for example, the only mental health counseling provided in the schools is provided by not fully trained graduate students on field placements.

Our legislative leaders would do well to actually take up Evers’ proposals next week and not ignore them as they have his past two special session calls to address urgent statewide concerns on the minds of a majority of Wisconsin voters. 

Governor Evers Spotlights Important Issues
Legislative inaction is not an option

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers delivered his second State of the State address to both houses of our Legislature this week. In his remarks he proposed two sweeping and badly needed agendas to address Wisconsin’s dairy farm crisis and gerrymandered state and legislative districts. The first met with mild approval from the GOP controlled legislature while the second was dismissed out of hand. 

Wisconsin has been losing two family dairy farm operations a day for far too long. Small dairy operations have not been able to cope with the punishing Trump tariffs and trade wars that have curtailed their markets and made it virtually impossible to turn a profit. Evers condemned the Trump administration’s distain for small family farmers noting, “we have not forgotten those who have shared the harvest and bounty, feeding our families, our communities, our state, and our country for more than a century. And tonight, we say we are ready to be a partner in the promise of prosperity.”

Evers announced his call for a special legislative session, as early as next week, to consider a package of bills he will be sending to both houses. They would create a new program to increase Wisconsin dairy exports to 20 percent of the nation’s milk supply by 2024. The effort will be supported by expanded state services for farmers including better access to mental health services and a new program to help farmers connect with state universities, technical colleges, hospitals and local businesses. Finally, Evers will create a Blue-Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity and a state jobs agency Office of Rural Prosperity to help farmers to better manage state programs and aid.

Legislative leadership, which has been loath to work with the Governor or to adopt his proposals, was surprisingly lukewarm in response. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was open to finding ways to help Wisconsin farmers as was Sen. Albert Darling. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was oppositional as usual, warning that help Wisconsin agriculture would just lead to more government handouts. He followed by issuing a press release stating that the Assembly would not convene for a special session to address the dairy farm crisis to debate Evers proposals and act to stem the rising tide of farm closings. Instead, he will refer Evers’ proposed legislation to various Assembly committees for hearings. Vos knows this will drag out the chance for passage of any farm aid relief packages, if it does not kill them all together. 

Governor Evers second major proposal came in the announcement that he would create, by Executive Order, a non-partisan commission that would be charged with drawing new state and congressional district boundaries after the upcoming census. Evers commission would not include elected officials, lobbyists or consultants and, hopefully, will conduct its deliberations in public. The resulting maps would be turned over to the legislature for consideration when it draws the new maps. Evers hopes the proposed maps will be adopted by the Legislature.

Republican legislators were quick to dismiss Evers’ plan to create fair maps. Majority leader Fitzgerald called the plan “completely unconstitutional” based upon the constitutional duty placed on the legislature to draw the maps after every census. Rep. Vos also rejected Evers proposal indicating those in control of the legislature will select the process for drawing new maps. Our current legislative and congressional district boundaries were selected by lawyers hired by the GOP majority who worked with GOP leadership in secret allowing those in power to draw districts that included more Republican than Democratic voters and cramming more Democratic voters into districts that usually vote democratic anyway. 

Governor Evers continues to put issues of statewide importance before the legislature for action. By using calls for special legislative sessions, he puts the spotlight on the GOP majorities in both houses. So far, his calls have not met with any positive responses. The legislature refused to even debate the very reasonable gun violence proposals Evers put forward in the last special session by adjourning as soon as the opening gavel fell.

Unless the republicans now in legislative control change their methods and engage in constructive debate resulting in passage of bills that command widespread public support, they will face the voters’ wrath in the next election cycle. They need to understand that there are issues that transcend the partisan divide and command the support of a majority of the electorate. If they continue to turn a blind eye to the will of the people, they will soon be out of work.