What WI can reclaim as elections, Earth Day approach
[Updated from 10:33 a.m., Monday, April 4] I read this Capital Times account of yet another Ron Johnson struggle with logic and language and was struck by this staggeringly awful irony:
Wisconsin's iconic environmental statesman Gaylord Nelson - - The Man from Clear Lake - - held the US Senate seat which Johnson is currently debasing and the Wisconsin governorship which Scott Walker is degrading.
Think about what's been lost in this systemic devaluation, but which can also be reclaimed:
Nelson founded Earth Day first celebrated with massive statewide, national and worldwide participation on April 22, 1970 and set in motion the bi-partisan Wisconsin public land acquisition program now known as the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.
Walker, by contrast, installed a corporate team atop the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources led by former developer and known DNR-basher Cathy Stepp to oversee a) slashing the Stewardship Fund, b) selling 10,000 public acres managed by the DNR, c) cutting DNR science staff and reducing pollution inspections and enforcement, d) removing operating funding for the state park system, thus forcing up fees, and e) implementing several wetlands-filling, waterway-polluting, groundwater-abusing and clean air dismissing bills, laws and policies - - all of which undermine the Wisconsin quality of life and devalue Nelson's legacy, too.
And while Nelson used his Senate role and later position with The Wilderness Society to continuously champion a fragile planet's clean air and water, Johnson's contribution to environmental awareness has been to blame climate change on sunspots - - so put a $24 trillion price tag on that ignorance - - and push a far-right, pro-coal, anti-conservation agenda.
You can bet that Walker will try and stop Russ Feingold from ousting Johnson from the Senate because a Feingold win would put Wisconsin back on the public-policy and environmental paths which Nelson literally helped blaze, as did earlier Wisconsin conservationists including John Muir, Increase Latham and Aldo Leopold.
You don't have to wait for April 22nd to remember Gaylord Nelson and honor his work; voting for environmental progressives up and down the ballot tomorrow is a good way to prove that everyday and every election day is Earth Day.
Wisconsin's iconic environmental statesman Gaylord Nelson - - The Man from Clear Lake - - held the US Senate seat which Johnson is currently debasing and the Wisconsin governorship which Scott Walker is degrading.
Think about what's been lost in this systemic devaluation, but which can also be reclaimed:
Nelson founded Earth Day first celebrated with massive statewide, national and worldwide participation on April 22, 1970 and set in motion the bi-partisan Wisconsin public land acquisition program now known as the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.
Walker, by contrast, installed a corporate team atop the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources led by former developer and known DNR-basher Cathy Stepp to oversee a) slashing the Stewardship Fund, b) selling 10,000 public acres managed by the DNR, c) cutting DNR science staff and reducing pollution inspections and enforcement, d) removing operating funding for the state park system, thus forcing up fees, and e) implementing several wetlands-filling, waterway-polluting, groundwater-abusing and clean air dismissing bills, laws and policies - - all of which undermine the Wisconsin quality of life and devalue Nelson's legacy, too.
And while Nelson used his Senate role and later position with The Wilderness Society to continuously champion a fragile planet's clean air and water, Johnson's contribution to environmental awareness has been to blame climate change on sunspots - - so put a $24 trillion price tag on that ignorance - - and push a far-right, pro-coal, anti-conservation agenda.
You can bet that Walker will try and stop Russ Feingold from ousting Johnson from the Senate because a Feingold win would put Wisconsin back on the public-policy and environmental paths which Nelson literally helped blaze, as did earlier Wisconsin conservationists including John Muir, Increase Latham and Aldo Leopold.
You don't have to wait for April 22nd to remember Gaylord Nelson and honor his work; voting for environmental progressives up and down the ballot tomorrow is a good way to prove that everyday and every election day is Earth Day.
10 comments:
I heard a political ad for Cruz today wherein Cruz says he will scale back the EPA. That's completely consistent with Walker saying he'd eliminate the EPA.
I suppose they want us to be just like China in all respects.
Calling all Progressives, the only way to stop Cruz from becoming the next President will be to vote for Trump in the Republican primary.
The current batch of teabaggin' repugs want to bury the legacy of Gaylord Nelson in a manure lagoon at a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Not only was he too liberal for them, but his name sounds gay.
Anon: 12:23
Good thing Wisconsin now has a Harley ridin' suds sickin' macho man for Guv named "Scottie".
Absentee voter turnout in Wood, Adams, Juneau and Kewaunee is pathetic. All you residents who are worried about your water might want to consider turning out to vote tomorrow.
Anon 11:13
Voting is for FOOLS! The welfare of the unwashed masses will be taken care of by the Koch brothers and not some foolish little peons that think their votes count.
And make sure you vote for the one Supreme Court justice who might actually take steps to keep your drinking water safe. That would be JoAnne Kloppenburg
What I don't understand is why don't Republicans run on their "sh!t in your water" agenda. Surely their base would put on cheesehead hats and GOTV for that.
@jake
Trump and Kloppenburg are my choices.
Any candidate to upset the status quid pro quo single party control.
Yes, I think KLOPPENBURG would be a staunch protector of the people and our environment.
Any port in a storm. I'll accept it, and I wonder if quite a few others did the same Trump-Kloppenburg pick. May be more than the "experts" think
Sadly, not enough.
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