WI Mine Site Tensions Ratcheted Down, And...

For the record, let's look at the language and declare that the "confrontations" enumerated in this helpful and educational piece by the Journal Sentinel's Bill Glauber began when the GOP-controlled state legislature, with the blessing of Gov. Walker, jammed through step-by-confrontational-step the iron mine-enabling special-interest bill.

With the deliberate exclusion of the Bad River Ojibwe band and disregard for its land, water and treaty rights.

And, similarly, for the quality of the natural environment.

And for the quality of life for other nearby residents, farmers, and business owners lacking insider connections and lobbyist representation that elevated into state law the interests of the mining company and a separate business that has sold the mining company an option to drill for and extract iron ore.

Dynamiting, drilling, and hauling by the millions of tons - - for perhaps 35 years  - - in what could become a 22-mile long acid-draining open-pit mine half a mile wide and 1,000 feet deep where tall hills and forest cover had stood for ages.

Those political, partisan and profit-driven actions were inherently confrontational, but escape that definition because they can be spun as business as usual.