The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: 6A
Monday, January 2, 2006
Buzz Davis, Robert Kimbrough, Veterans for Peace Chapter 25
Dear Editor: As a follow-up to John Nichols' editorial ("Censuring Bush requires citizens' help," TCT, Dec. 29), the Clarence Kailin Chapter of Veterans for Peace will be giving the citizens of South Central Wisconsin the opportunity to help censure Bush by organizing an extended "town meeting" Jan. 7, 2006, on the combined topic "Out of Iraq and Impeach the Leaders."
This meeting will coincide with others across the country in answer to a nationwide call by the AfterDowningStreet.org Coalition of peace and justice organizations.
We invite the citizens of every village, town and city in South Central Wisconsin to join us on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 1 p.m. at the Madison Labor Temple, 1602 South Park St.
We intend to start organizing. Please join us to help our nation live by the rule of law.
John Nichols has eloquently challenged us: "It is unlikely that the effort to censure Bush and Cheney, let alone impeach them, will get far without significant organizing around the country."
Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law Wednesday a bill that will require that touch screen voting machines produce a verifiable paper ballot.
The bill requires that if a municipality uses an electronic voting system that consists of a voting machine, the machine must generate a complete paper ballot showing all votes cast by each elector that is visually verifiable by the elector before he or she leaves the machine.
"This is important for democracy. Voters have to be able to trust that their votes are counted," Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said after the bill signing.
The bill, AB 627, also will ensure that reliable recounts can be done, added McCabe, whose organization lobbied for its enactment.
Doyle thanked Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Rep. Steve Freese, R-Dodgeville, who authored the bill, as well as co-sponsors Sen. Jeff Plale, D-South Milwaukee, and Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, for their work on the bill.
Other legislation signed by Doyle included AB 522, which requires a court to examine the criminal records of step-parents, boyfriends/girlfriends or roommates of parents or potential custodians before awarding custody of a child.
"This bill is an important step in protecting our children," Doyle said. "It requires the court to consider the records of everyone who will be involved."
\ E-mail: aweier@madison.com
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: B1
Friday, January 6, 2006
JASON STEIN jstein@madison.com 608-252-6129
Gov. Jim Doyle, under investigation for his campaign fundraising, unveiled a broad ethics reform package Thursday to stinging criticism from one GOP reform supporter.
"I hope we don't go right into the finger-pointing and yelling about this," Doyle said in response to the criticism. "The basic fact is that these are far-reaching reforms and we have Democrats and Republicans saying that they support (them.)"
But in interviews Thursday, the package's legislative supporters revealed fundamental differences over how to go about the difficult work of passing any bill into law.
Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, who was included in Doyle's announcement as one of the supporters of the reform, bitterly rebuked the governor's tactics even before what Ellis called a "tepid reform package" was unveiled. Several of the proposals have already been introduced in the Republican-controlled Legislature, he said.
"Suddenly, in an election year, when he is being investigated ... the governor gets religion and starts to pose for holy pictures. Give me a break," said the statement from Ellis.
Both Doyle and an aide to Rep. Steve Freese, R-Dodgeville, said Thursday that work had been proceeding on the reform package for months. The ethics package, which has not yet been introduced as a bill or put into draft form, would:
Ban fundraising by state incumbents and challengers for the six-month period every two years when the state budget is before the Legislature. A similar bill, AB 66, is awaiting a vote by the Assembly.
Place a one-year ban on elected officials and political appointees lobbying their respective branches of government after they leave office. The proposal expands AB 524, which would only apply to former lawmakers.
Ban the use of campaign contributions or state tax dollars to pay for a politician's legal defense against criminal charges -- a move that drew protest from Republicans such as Ellis. Though he supports the ban, Ellis did not agree to include it in the package because it might be seen as a slap at GOP state Rep. Scott Jensen, one of the five lawmakers charged in 2002 in the state caucus scandal who established legal defense funds that used campaign donations to cover attorney fees. Jensen is awaiting trial.
Offer full public funding for Supreme Court candidates who limit their campaign spending.
In addition, Doyle also called for the passage of SB 1, which would merge the state Elections and Ethics boards into one bipartisan board with greater enforcement authority. The bill has passed the Senate and awaits action in the Assembly's Campaigns and Elections committee.
Government watchdog groups called the changes worthwhile but modest steps, saying they failed to address the bigger issue of campaign finance reform.
"Are
each of these proposals good in and of themselves? Yes, but that's not enough," said Jay Heck of Common Cause in Wisconsin.
Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, agreed. "Unless you address the campaign money chase, you're leaving a big part of the broken system intact.
"I think obviously the governor is feeling some heat on the ethics front and he's trying to respond to that. I don't personally think this package is going to turn down the heat much," McCabe said.
State Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic have said they're looking into the awarding of a $750,000 state contract to a travel agency after a top executive and board member of the company contributed $10,000 each to Doyle's campaign.
The State Journal has also reported that investigators are looking into a controversial Department of Transportation fundraiser as well as a decision by state regulators to approve the $390 million sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant, which was owned by utilities with executives who contributed to Doyle's campaign.
Doyle has repeatedly said he's done nothing wrong and will cooperate with investigators. Lawmakers, he said, should focus on whether the changes are worth making.
"The issue is whether or not they support some really basic reforms to the system," he said.
Republican Rep. Steve Freese of Dodgeville, who has introduced bills similar to those Doyle announced, praised the proposals but said they would probably need to be rolled up into one bill to get them by lawmakers worried over fundraising changes and the loss of lucrative lobbying work after they leave office. "This is all going to be like a tightrope walk."
But Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, said it is critical that the individual reforms be kept separate to avoid one provision sinking the whole package.
Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, said Senate Republicans would consider them. "This is all good stuff."
Bob Delaporte, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, declined comment.
Wisconsin traditionally errs on the side of democracy. That means that, when there is a dispute over the petitions required to place the name of a candidate or a referendum proposal on the ballot, Wisconsinites make every effort to respect the intentions of the citizens who signed the petitions.
The standard is simple and clear: If a sufficient number of Wisconsinites want a candidate or an issue to be considered, the bureaucracy will not use petty excuses to deny democracy.
We recount this well-established standard as a reminder to Monona officials that they have broken faith with Wisconsin traditions and legal precedents by demanding that Monona members of the Bring the Troops Home Coalition must recirculate petitions seeking to place an anti-war referendum on the spring local election ballot.
The coalition gathered 570 signatures, more than enough to meet requirements to place on the ballot the question: "Should the United States bring all military personnel home from Iraq now?"
Under Wisconsin law, however, referendum proposals cannot be phrased as questions. But state law also clearly makes provisions for amending the language of proposals of this kind.
In recent weeks, in other communities where anti-war activists had submitted similar referendum proposals in the form of questions, they were informed of the wording requirements and allowed to adjust the language. So long as the meaning of the proposal is not altered, it has been widely accepted that there is no need to force citizens to recirculate petitions.
With that in mind, the Monona activists have amended their proposal to read: "Resolved: The United States should bring all military personnel home from Iraq now."
This should have settled things.
Unfortunately, Monona City Clerk Karen Eley says that William Cole, the city attorney, has determined that the group must recirculate the petitions. And Monona Mayor Robb Kahl has suggested that the city must follow the city attorney's directive.
The problem here is that Cole is wrong. The city attorney says those who circulated the petitions cannot reword the proposal because the intentions of the signers might be violated. That's simply absurd. The shift that is proposed in the language of the proposal merely turns a question into a statement -- using the same words and expressing the same sentiment. No one could possibly be confused by the change; and no intentions could possibly be violated.
Cole's approach respects neither the law nor its intent -- and it runs the risk of disenfranchising hundreds of Monona citizens who expressed a desire to have the referendum on the ballot as well as thousands who could be denied an opportunity to weigh in on the issue in April. It also opens Monona to possibly long and potentially costly litigation that it would, ultimately, lose.
The Monona City Council needs to intervene. In order to avoid needless legal wrangling, the council should accept the amended proposal and take the steps needed to ensure that it ends up on the April ballot.
That's precisely what Ald. Doug Wood wants to do. "The way I look at it, they got enough signatures," says Wood, who plans to ask the council to use its own authority to place the anti-war referendum on the April ballot. "The people who signed this wanted it on the ballot and it's being rejected more or less on a technicality."
The rest of the council should embrace Wood's common-sense response -- not merely to avoid legal fights but to respect the best intentions of the political process.
As Joy First, one of the organizers of the Monona petition drive, says, "It's an important issue. I think it should come before the voters in a democracy."
The question now is whether a majority of the Monona council feels, as Wood does, that their city is a place where democracy is practiced Wisconsin-style. If they do, they will clear the unnecessary roadblock that has been erected by ill-informed officials and allow the voters to have their say.
People could anonymously examine statements listing the financial interests of public officials under proposed legislation.
Under current law, people who look at the financial statements must disclose their names and employers -- information that is sent to the public officials who filed the statements.
Open government advocates say that can intimidate people.
Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, introduced a bill that would allow people to look at the financial statements without having to disclose their identities.
Mike McCabe, executive director of the government watchdog Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said his group supports the proposal.
"I think that's what needs to be done to make this information truly useful to the public and make them truly open records," he said.
Dear Editor: I've been talking to friends lately and I think they share my feelings of total frustration with the leadership of our country. It seems like we can't keep up with the scandals and the abuse of power.
There is campaign finance fraud on the state level.
There are outrageous things happening with Republican leadership from money laundering to people under indictment for stonewalling investigators. Just as soon as we learn the details about one way that Bush and his administration have mismanaged one crisis, we find out that something else is going terribly, unconstitutionally wrong.
Now we hear that Bush approved spying on people in this country. Bush is acting without restraint or respect for civil liberties. I can't help but wonder how his nominee for the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito, would rule on the limits of presidential power. I hope that our senators, Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, will ask Alito serious questions about how he would consider all right-to-privacy issues. We usually see battles over the Supreme Court with regards to the right to abortion, but while that is very important, we are realizing that privacy issues are being attacked in even more ways.
This country works when there are checks and balances. I hope that we will soon find a real balance between the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the federal government. If for nothing else than to keep Bush's abuse of power contained.
MOUNT HOREB - It was an emotionally and physically painful couple of days, pounding the pavement and knocking on doors. But Ken Scott thinks he collected enough signatures to make it possible for Mount Horeb residents to vote on a resolution in April on whether the United States should bring troops home from Iraq.
"My feet would ache, and I had to take Ibuprofen," Scott said of the five days he spent collecting the 350 signatures. "But it got to the point that I was grateful that I had limbs that could ache after seeing what my fellow Americans have gone through. It gets to be a very philosophical experience, collecting signatures."
Village Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Sutter confirmed to The Capital Times that a petition had been turned in to her. Sutter explained that she has 10 days to confirm that the signatures all belong to voting age residents of the village. If the signatures are indeed valid, the petition will proceed to the Feb. 1 Village Board meeting. At that time the board could choose to pass the resolution itself, or the board could turn the resolution to a referendum for village residents on April 4.
Scott said he had been "beating himself up" over not having started a petition in Mount Horeb months ago when he saw Madison residents collecting signatures for a similar petition over the summer. Then, at a Southwest Wisconsin Area Progressives' meeting last month, Scott heard fellow Mount Horeb resident Steve Books tell the crowd he thought a petition for a referendum for troop withdrawal could work in Mount Horeb.
"I just had to join in," said Scott. "I knew I had no choice. You try to imagine the misfortunes that may have been avoided if communities had spoken up about the Vietnam War 10 years earlier than they did."
Books, Scott and others got started with a petition for a referendum question asking voters: "Should the United States begin an immediate withdrawal of all military personnel from Iraq now?"
By last Thursday the group had 50 of the 343 signatures required by state statutes for a citizen group to send a question to referendum.
But then they found out that Monona City Clerk Karen Eley declared an identical petition invalid in that community because it was in the form of a question rather than a statement. Eley told Monona's Bring Our Troops Home Coalition to change the wording, but on Tuesday night City Attorney Bill Cole declared that the change was a "substantive" one, and that a new petition would have to be circulated.
This left Books and his group in a quandary.
While a referendum has been written in the form of a question in some communities throughout Wisconsin, they didn't want to risk getting overruled like the group in Monona did.
Scott said it was a "painful" decision, but the Mount Horeb group chose to scrap its original petition and head back out to collect signatures on a new petition that read, "Resolved: The United States should begin an immediate withdrawal of all military personnel from Iraq now."
The group worked throughout the weekend and collected the last of the required signatures outside of a Plan Commission meeting Monday night.
If Sutter finds that not all of the 343 of the signatures are valid, she will send the petition back to Books and the other petitioners. At that point the time frame necessary to get the petition on the April 4 ballot will have passed, and the referendum will have to go on next November's ballot.
Published: January 11, 2006
Dear Editor: Over a period of six weeks, 25 volunteers gathered more than 570 signatures in the city of Monona to put a referendum on the ballot in April seeking to bring the troops home from Iraq.
Because the referendum was worded as a question rather than a statement, city officials deemed the petitions insufficient. The original petition said "Should the United States bring all military personnel home from Iraq now?" We amended the petition as provided for by state law to a statement and it still was not certified by the city. The amended petition said "Resolved -- The United States should bring all military personnel home from Iraq now."
The city attorney argues that the amended petition has a substantially different meaning than the original petition, but we disagree. Whether you vote yes or no for either one, the meaning is the same.
There will be 27 other municipalities in Wisconsin voting on this issue in April. Several of these municipalities had the same wording, amended it, and the petitions were accepted. We do not want to see our right to speak out against the war taken away because of a technicality.
One possible solution is to have the City Council pass a resolution to put the referendum on the ballot. Councilman Doug Woods agrees that Monona residents should have the opportunity to vote on this and will be proposing a resolution to get this on the ballot at the Monona City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
Monona residents who signed the petition overwhelmingly were relieved to finally have a way to express their disapproval of President Bush's policies regarding the war. Monona residents want the right to vote on this important issue.
Monona residents, please contact your council members, and come to the council meeting on Tuesday and express your views to the City Council. Let them know that you want the right to vote to bring the troops home on April 4.
Lost among the headlines about Iraq and secret detentions was the story of the death last week of a hero and a patriot: Hugh Thompson.
In 1998, Thompson was awarded the Soldier's Medal, for heroism not involving conflict with an enemy, for his actions to save civilians in My Lai, Vietnam, on March 16, 1968. Thompson died of cancer Friday morning in Alexandria, La., at the age of 62.
Reading the press coverage of the presentation of the Soldier's Medal to Army pilot Thompson and his two helicopter crewmen, Larry Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, could leave the impression that the award was the culmination of a natural and just process.
These three heroes, led by Thompson, rescued 10 Vietnamese villagers who were about to be killed by American soldiers, and they were responsible for stopping the My Lai massacre, led by Lt. William Calley Jr.
It took 30 years for Thompson to receive proper recognition for his actions that day, 30 years before it became safe to honor him for standing up to fellow American soldiers.
Hugh Thompson believed deeply that the military was an honorable profession and that in time of war it was important to behave in an honorable way. He paid a heavy price for his beliefs.
Flying a reconnaissance mission over My Lai that March day, Thompson looked down to see carnage. Bodies of Vietnamese villagers were strewn over the ground, and he could see 10 villagers huddled in a bunker as Calley's soldiers approached them. Thompson landed his helicopter and ordered Colburn, his gunner, to train his machine gun on the American GIs. He told Colburn to "open up" on them if they began firing on the Vietnamese. Then Thompson coaxed out the terrified villagers using hand signals and radioed for another helicopter to come rescue them.
When it became known what Thompson and his crew did to stop the My Lai massacre, his life became a living hell. He was nearly court-martialed for his actions. He was shunned by fellow pilots, dead animals were thrown on his doorstep, and he received death threats.
Contrast this behavior with the treatment of Calley.
When he was finally sentenced to life in prison, the outcry by the American people against the sentence persuaded President Nixon eventually to pardon Calley. The lieutenant served only three years under house arrest, with organizations such as the American Legion raising funds for his defense.
Judging by the treatment of these two men, who did the American people really see as a hero?
The betrayal Thompson felt was so profound he never recovered from it and spent the rest of his life committing suicide by alcohol.
This feeling of betrayal is something most veterans have in common. All of us were taught to know right from wrong, to know good from evil.
We trusted our institutions -- our government and our schools. We listened to so many of our churches promoting war and bowed our heads as our chaplains prayed over us to be successful in killing other human beings. We trusted our parents, who told us we were doing the right thing, and then we went to war in Vietnam (and now Iraq) and found we had been duped. We had been tricked into committing evil.
It comes as no surprise, after having the very foundations of life betrayed, that so many veterans have committed suicide. Or that so many veterans end up in jail or homeless or addicted to drugs.
Referring to the men who took part in the massacre at My Lai, Ron Ridenhour wrote in "Four Hours in My Lai":
"Only a few people in those circumstances had the presence of mind and the strength of their own character that would see them through. ... Only an extraordinary few could withstand the pressures and maintain their moral beings in that awful place, in those terrible conditions. ... But we shouldn't -- our society shouldn't be structured ... so that only the extraordinary few can conduct themselves in a moral fashion."
Think about this. We are horrified when we hear about the massacres perpetrated in Vietnam and Iraq, and yet our society created the conditions for these atrocities to happen.
These atrocities will not end until we Americans, all of us, whether we were soldiers or not, recognize our own culpability.
Like most Americans, I lived with the myth that as an American I could not possibly commit evil and that those Americans who did were deviants. It took me years to realize that the only difference between me and those who committed the massacre at My Lai (or Auschwitz or Nanking or Rwanda) was that I was lucky; I wasn't there. I had to face the deeper truth that the capacity for evil exists in all of us.
* As long as there is war there will be atrocities and the need for the courage of men like Hugh Thompson. Only through the abolition of war will there finally be an end to atrocities.
\ Mike Boehm is chair of the My Lai Peace Park Project and a member of the Madison Veterans for Peace, Chapter 25.
E-mail: tinhkhe@yahoo.com
Mccabe Sees Tipping Point On Horizon In State Politics
The Capital Times :: METRO :: 1C
Friday, January 13, 2006
Rob Zaleski
There are days he still can't believe it.
How could a state once known for its squeaky clean politics have degenerated into the cesspool that it is now -- and in a relatively short time -- Mike McCabe wondered aloud during an interview this week at a downtown coffee shop.
And yet, while he hates to sound naive, the 45-year-old executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign believes there are definite signs that the public is finally waking up, and that we may be in the early stages of a "throw the bums out" movement.
One sign was the October survey by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute that showed just 6 percent of state residents believe elected officials are representing their interests, says McCabe, whose nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group has been fighting Capitol corruption since 1995.
Another was the recent state poll -- largely unreported, he notes -- that St. Norbert College did for Wisconsin Public Radio in which political corruption was cited as often as gas prices when people were asked to name the No. 1 problem facing Wisconsin.
"As often as gas prices! That was pretty stunning to me," McCabe says.
Why are people suddenly paying attention?
Because the stench emanating from the Capitol has gotten so bad that even TV could no longer ignore it, McCabe says.
"Most people out there -- even after the caucus scandals broke, and even after there were criminal charges filed -- didn't really didn't have political corruption on their radar screen," he says. "But once you get this parade of lawmakers into courtrooms and actually get convictions, it becomes TV news. And, sad to say, that's when it started getting on the radar.
"And so that group of people who were completely clueless is shrinking. No question about it."
A former farm kid from Clark County, the boyish-looking McCabe -- who has a journalism degree from UW-Madison and once dreamed of becoming an investigative reporter -- has never been one to pull punches. And he was in top form during our hourlong interview.
Some excerpts:
So you're actually encouraged right now?
"I have no doubts that we're approaching a tipping point. The problem with tipping points is that you don't know exactly when it breaks. It can take months, it can take years.
"But I do think this public awareness, this public awakening, is something that's irreversible. Something has to be done to restore public faith. Those kind of concerns aren't going to go away unless there's some sort of political response."
Judging from media reports, you weren't very impressed with the ethics reform package recently proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle.
"They're all good things, but if all of them were put in place tomorrow, it would be a pretty modest step forward. And I also don't think it would stop the bleeding. I don't think it would make the public feel that clean and open government had been restored and that the political corruption dragon had been slayed. I think people would still feel that there's some pretty serious things wrong."
Many Democrats feel betrayed by Doyle. Why do you think he's reneged on his promise to make campaign finance reform a major issue?
"It's impossible for me to look into his heart. He's really the only one who could answer that. But from a distance, it seems that Doyle is a very conventional politician. He practices politics by the book. He ran as a reformer, he said cleaning up government and restoring integrity to state government was going to be a top priority -- and then ran screaming from the issue as soon as he got inaugurated.
"And it wasn't until he was into an election year and under investigation that he finally came back to this and put forward an ethics reform package -- and even then it was a very tepid step.
"What all that says to me is that as soon as he was elected, he realized that as governor he could raise a boatload of money and that he could play the game in the conventional way. And I think his strategy must be that he's just going to raise boatloads of money and be able to define his opponent with a blizzard of ads...and that that's going to carry him through.
"And maybe he'll be right. Maybe that tipping point won't arrive in time for it to effect the outcome of the 2006 gubernatorial election. But I think we're getting to a moment when conventional politics goes right out the window. And one day you're going to see the electorate behave in surprising, maybe even astonishing ways -- and conventional politicians aren't going to see that coming in time."
A lot of people figured veteran Republican Sen. Mike Ellis would run against Doyle. But last week Ellis said he can't afford to run because he's not rich and he doesn't sell out to special interests. I take it you weren't surprised?
"No. And I don't know how seriously Ellis was thinking about running. But he was thinking about it, and it's a daunting task to think you're going to compete in a race statewide. The cost of the last governor's race was $23 million. And this one's going to cost more -- probably more than $30 million.
"The one thing I wonder about though is, if the right set of conditions surfaced in time for the 2006 elections, you could see a situation where somebody wouldn't need $10 million, which is what the consultant told Ellis he'd need.
"Think back to 1976. When people first saw Jimmy Carter, they all wrote him off because he was the unlikeliest of candidates. And yet a set of circumstances compelled him to the presidency.
"Carter had a smile, a manner, a demeanor that was the antithesis of Richard Nixon and the Beltway politicians. And so you had Watergate, and in response to Watergate, people turned to this figure that they saw as very trustworthy and very anti-Washington. And Jimmy Carter became credible and electable -- not because of Jimmy Carter, I think, but because a set of circumstances that made him the right guy at the right time.
"Well, who knows what Jack Abramoff and all the rest of this stuff is going to do to the political terrain?"
But anyone running for governor would still need a boatload of money, wouldn't they?
"Not necessarily. What happens if Doyle is still under a serious cloud -- or, God forbid, is criminally charged? You don't have to follow the money very far and you see similar concerns for (Republican gubernatorial candidates) Mark Green and Scott Walker. What if the voters are faced with a field of conventional politicians, all of whom are operating under a cloud of scandal?
"And then somebody emerges and says I'm not going to play the game this way, in sort of Jimmy Carter fashion. How do voters respond to that, if they see all these people with $10 million as unacceptable options?"
Some say they'd love to see Mike McCabe run for governor. (McCabe ran for the state Assembly in 1998 and lost in the Democratic primary to Mark Pocan.)
"I'd rather not. It's just not me. One of the things that's really important in life is knowing where you fit in best and not letting your ego get the best of you.
"To me, a good elected official is like a mirror. When voters look at that elected official, they should be able to see themselves in that person. And I don't think I'm all that representative.
"How many people grew up on a farm, for crying out loud. And my life experiences aren't that much like the life experiences of most people. For instance, I don't have any debt. That's positively un-American.
"I don't owe a penny to anybody. I don't have credit card debt, I don't have a home mortgage, I don't have a car payment. I'm absolutely 100 percent debt-free. It's because of the lifestyle that my wife Marilyn and I have chosen to live."
Some would suggest that's a wonderful thing -- something we should all emulate.
McCabe laughs.
"But nobody's emulating it."
\ E-mail: rzaleski@madison.com
Monona Gives Voters A Chance
Peace Group's Iraq Referendum On Ballot
The Capital Times :: METRO :: C1
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
By Samara Kalk Derby The Capital Times
MONONA
Voters here will get the chance to weigh in on a referendum to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.
After weeks of setbacks for peace activists, the Monona City Council voted 5-1 Tuesday night to allow the "bring the troops home" referendum question on the city's April 4 ballot.
Earlier in the day the Monona Peace Coalition filed suit to get the City Council to reach the same conclusion.
"Now we have to do a lot of community education and work to get it to pass," said Joy First, one of three members of the coalition, which organized the petition drive and collected more than 570 signatures last month.
City Clerk Karen Eley originally denied the referendum because it was worded as a question instead of a statement. Under Wisconsin law referendum proposals cannot be phrased as questions. But the law also makes provisions for amending the language.
However, when the activists amended the referendum to read as a statement, Monona City Attorney William Cole said they had changed the meaning and that a new petition would need to be circulated. The activists declined.
In the end, the council left the original language alone.
The Monona referendum will read: "Should the United States bring all military personnel home from Iraq now?"
Cole said today that the question is legal when adopted by the council, and that the law requiring an affirmative statement only applies to direct legislation.
At least 15 Wisconsin communities, including Madison, will have anti-war referendums on their spring ballots, and more cities could follow suit.
Nine people spoke in favor of putting the referendum on the Monona ballot Tuesday. Another 16 registered in support but did not speak.
One Monona resident, Dan Long, spoke against it, encouraging supporters to contact Wisconsin's congressional delegation instead.
Long also took a shot at Ald. Doug Wood, who sponsored the resolution to put the referendum on the ballot, and Ald. Peter McKeever, who spoke in favor of the move.
"If you really do love Madison politics, you can move there," he said.
Throughout the controversy, Monona Mayor Robb Kahl stuck by the city attorney's decision. He stressed that personal politics played no role in his position.
"Believe me, this is not what I want to be spending city time on," Kahl said.
When people stop him in the supermarket, they want to talk about Monona Drive or the city's parks, he said.
"If you called (U.S. Sen.) Russ Feingold and asked him what he was going to do about the potholes on Monona Drive, he would look at you like you were crazy," Kahl said.
Monona Peace Coalition member Christine Hrenak called the war in Iraq a personal issue for her, in that it diverts money from education and social services on both a state and federal level.
Hrenak, a single mother of two, has been on food stamps and has received state assistance for health care and day care.
"This is a local issue," she said. "It affects us personally in Monona."
Ald. Lisa Nelson, the only council member not to vote with the majority, said she doesn't agree with pulling American troops out of Iraq immediately.
"If you think putting this on the ballot in Monona is going to change the world, well it won't," she said.
\ E-mail: skalk@madison.com
With What We Now Spend, We Can Provide Health Care For All
Quality Health Care For All Is Possible
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Eugene S. Farley, M.D. Verona
Dear Editor: Thanks to Dave Zweifel and others at The Capital Times for taking a clear and rational stand on health care reform. I wish the rest of the state would wake up and listen to you.
Day after day we learn more about the serious crisis of our American health care system (or nonsystem). Experiences of individual patients, families, communities, businesses, governments and even doctors all indicate that it is increasingly difficult to afford our present, expensive, complex, administratively top-heavy, bureaucratic system that leaves over 45 million people without coverage and is an associated cause of over 50 percent of personal bankruptcies.
Our country and Wisconsin have some of the world's best health care resources. The present archaic and inappropriate system of funding these resources allows the system to serve some very well, but does nothing to assure that the most effective use is made of these resources or the money spent on them. Whatever health care system we choose, 100 percent of its costs are paid for by the people.
With all the complaints about the health care crisis, it's time people learned about the Wisconsin Health Security Act (SB388, AB807), the one proposal that does make effective use of our health care resources and assures every one in the state high quality health care coverage. A summary of it can be found on the Coalition for Wisconsin Health Web page, www.wisconsinhealth.org. With the same amount of money the American people already spend, we can have a system that serves everyone with high quality care.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
DEAR EDITOR: BARBARA WALLRAFF OF WORD COURT (JAN. 18) REPORTED THAT "INTEGRITY" WAS MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S WORD OF THE YEAR BECAUSE IT WAS THE MOST LOOKED-UP WORD ON ITS ONLINE DICTIONARY. WALLRAFF SPECULATES (OR HOPES) THAT IT'S NOT THAT PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THE DEFINITION OF INTEGRITY; RATHER, THEY'RE LOOKING FOR ITS MATCHING ADJECTIVE, WHICH, SHE REPORTS, DOESN'T EXIST.
I happened to read the article while sitting within arm's reach of Merriam-Webster's second and third editions (respectively published in 1934, edited by William Neilson, and 1961, by Philip Gove). Listed in the second, but missing from the third, was the word "integrious," defined as "characterized by integrity." So what happened -- between 1934 and 1961 -- to "integrious"?
"Integrious" was equally unused in 1934 as it was in 1961. What changed was the standard for admission -- and conversely, omission -- of words. In his 1948 review of the American College Dictionary, H.L. Mencken wrote, "The hardest problem confronting a dictionary editor is that of selection." With post-war college attendance booming, editors had to compromise the immense amount of information in previous dictionaries with the convenience and affordability of, as Mencken put it, more "handy and sightly" volumes.
So while Neilson and Gove, in their respective prefaces, described the process for admitting words as "highly selective," Gove was incontestably more so (Gove's edition is more than 500 pages shorter than Nielson's). In 1934, Neilson wrote, "In general words which had become obsolete before 1500 have been omitted." In 1961, Gove used nearly identical language, but placed the admittedly inexact cut-off date at one quarter of a millennium later: 1755. (Both editors, appropriately, make exceptions for the otherwise obsolete words found in well-known works; Chaucer's vocabulary, for example, is cited by Neilson as "retained.")
These dates are relevant because "integrious" hadn't caught on after Sir Henry Slingsby used it in his 17th century diary. But obsolescence wasn't to be Gove's only consideration. As he elaborated, "selection is guided by usefulness, and usefulness is determined by the degree to which terms most likely to be looked for are included."
So if Wallraff's speculation -- that people are looking up "integrity" in search of its adjectival equivalent -- is accurate, then, at least according to Gove's standard, "integrious" belongs back in the dictionary! At least any integrious one.
Chris Dols Madison
Sunday, January 22, 2006
DOUG ERICKSON derickson@madison.com 608-252-6149
The proudest moment in Mary Kay Baum's eight-year tenure as executive director of Madison-area Urban Ministry came just this past week, she said.
Baum, who is retiring from the leadership position due to health problems, learned Wednesday that Dane County will get nearly $100,000 in new federal money to help former prisoners find jobs.
Some of the money will pay for an employment counselor for offenders -- Baum's longtime goal. The nonprofit organization, known by its acronym, MUM, led the initiative to get the federal money, and, under Baum's leadership, has made the rehabilitation of parolees a defining focus.
"It was definitely Mary Kay's initiative to serve this group in Madison, and she has gone about it in a genius way," said Sheila Spear, president of MUM's board of directors.
Baum, a longtime community activist and former elected official, will be honored this afternoon during an open house at the organization's headquarters in Villager Mall. She will retain the title of executive director through February but has been on sick leave since early January. The board hopes to have her successor on board by March 1.
Baum said she was diagnosed in 2001 with vascular disease, a blood vessel disorder that hampers the flow of oxygen to the brain and can lead to dementia. Both her mother and aunt suffered from vascular disease and, later, dementia.
Baum noticed a mild inability to find certain words that has increased over time, and she said she occasionally loses her train of thought. She has been dealing with fatigue and depression, both of which could be side effects of medication to prevent seizures or strokes, she said. The symptoms make it difficult to work full time at a demanding, stressful job, she said.
"I don't feel I can be as good of a manager as I was eight years ago, or even a few years ago."
By taking medication, including anti-inflammatory herbs, and focusing on nutrition, rest and exercise, Baum thinks she has halted or at least significantly slowed the disease's progression. "With these measures, I will be myself much longer," she said.
She is hopeful that life holds many more new experiences for her. When she became MUM's executive director in 1998, she expected to stay just three to five years, then take a ministerial position at a church. (She is an ordained Lutheran minister.) A part-time pastoral position still appeals to her down the road, she said.
She also plans to keep volunteering for some of the programs she helped develop at MUM, such as a mentoring program for children with incarcerated parents and a simulation program in which community members walk in the shoes of new parolees.
MUM is an interfaith social action organization supported by roughly 50 local congregations. It has five full-time and three part-time employees and a budget of about $350,000. MUM has spun off other service organizations over 30-plus years, including Transitional Housing Inc. (now Porchlight) and the Madison Community Health Center.
Spear credits Baum with successfully continuing the anti-poverty and anti-racism programs of her predecessor, Chuck Pfeifer, while expanding into new areas such as prisoner rehabilitation.
"She engages with people with a wonderful spiritual sense, yet at the same time she has a good, clear vision of what needs to be done," Spear said.
Baum said she concluded many years ago that communities were no safer by ignoring people released from prison. She said she has been surprised and heartened by people's willingness to learn about the needs of offenders and to help them start anew.
"The work has been much more emotional and vital than I ever expected," she said.
The Rev. Gregory Armstrong, pastor of SS Morris African Methodist Episcopal Church, 3511 Milwaukee St., said Baum has an amazing passion for helping people on society's margins and a wonderful ability to see beyond the labels such as "homeless" or "ex-prisoner."
"Her departure is going to be a great loss," he said.
Mary Kay Baum
Position: Retiring executive director of Madison-area Urban Ministry (Sept. 1998-Feb. 2006).
Age: 58.
Personal: Husband, George Swamp, social worker at Madison's Lincoln Elementary School; two children, Dawn, 29, and Jake, 17.
Education: Bachelor's degree and law degree, UW-Madison; master's of divinity degree, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.
Background: Former nun; served two terms on the Dane County Board of Supervisors (1970-74) and two terms on the Madison School Board (1985-91); won 1987 mayoral primary and became first female to make it to the general election, then lost to incumbent Joseph Sensenbrenner; court commissioner for Wisconsin District 7 (1979-92).
If you go
What: Open house for Mary Kay Baum, retiring executive director of Madison-area Urban Ministry.
When: 2 to 5 p.m. today, with remarks at 3:30 p.m.
Where: Villager Mall atrium, 2300 S. Park St.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Samara Kalk Derby The Capital Times {CORRECTION} A story in The Capital Times Monday noted that U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wausau, and other Wisconsin representatives received money from tribes represented by the law firm of convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Obey's name was on a list compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics earlier this month that showed possible links to Abramoff.
The nonprofit research group later revised its list, removing Obey and other lawmakers, Obey's press secretary pointed out. (Correction published 1/24/06)
She's no longer logging the same kind of mileage, but Doris "Granny D" Haddock is still going the distance for campaign finance reform.
"I wouldn't mind if I died five minutes from now because I think the movement has started," said Haddock, who walked 3,200 miles across the country six years ago to draw attention to the issue of campaign finance reform.
"I don't think the movement will die right now."
Haddock, whose speech is punctuated by short gasps for air, was 90 when she completed her 14-month walk. She turns 96 Tuesday.
A great-grandmother of 16 and unsuccessful 2004 U.S. Senate candidate, Haddock was here today to organize Wisconsinites around camaign finance reform.
She spoke during a forum at the Capitol this morning as part of the People's Legislature, a year-old grass-roots citizen assembly whose mission is to take back government from the special interests.
"I don't mind going out and planting a few more seeds, but I expect other people to nurture them," Haddock said Sunday evening during a private conversation at a small reception in the home of People's Legislature organizer Ed Garvey.
While the federal McCain-Feingold law, which prohibits the use of "soft money" in election-related communications, has lacked teeth, Haddock said she is encouraged by a recent breakthrough in Connecticut.
Late last year, the state passed a set of reforms that wouldd prohibit donations from lobbyists and others and create a voluntary system of state financing and spending limits for political races. Arizona and Maine have both approved similar public finance laws through ballot measures.
Haddock is also optimistic that the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal that has gripped Washington in recent weeks will lead to new, stronger reforms. She compared it to the 2002 Enron debacle, which gave McCain-Feingold the push it needed after other campaign finance proposals withered in Congress.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "was the first one to get caught with his hand in the cookie jar," said Haddock. "Way over here in Wisconsin, there were four or five people involved with Abramoff."
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan said he didn't know Abramoff but was donating $950 to charity to offset the $949 that his campaign received from the ex-lobbyist in 2000.
Other Wisconsin lawmakers also stressed that they didn't know Abramoff or why some of his Indian tribe clients, none of which were based in Wisconsin, gave them political donations.
Tribes represented by Abramoff's firm also gave money to Republican Rep. Tom Petri and Democratic Reps. Ron Kind and Dave Obey, the Journal Sentinel reported.
To be safe from the appearance of impropriety, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., returned four donations from Abramoff associates totaling $1,600. One $500 donation made in 2004 was from Abramoff's former law firm, seven months after Abramoff left the firm.
Garvey, for his part, said he is disappointed that campaign finance can't gain more traction in Wisconsin. Gov. Jim Doyle, who declined a request to appear at the People's Legislature event, won't take the lead on reform, Garvey said.
Today's event was billed as a "public telling" to give Doyle and legislative leaders a chance to tell the public where they stand on campaign finance and other issues.
"I think people are ready for this reform," Garvey said. "We just can't get the leadership to take a position and fight for it."
No one gives you $1,000 just because they like you, Garvey pointed out.
"Have you ever had anyone give you $1,000?" he asked.
"It's because they want something."
\ E-mail: skalk@madison.com
People's Legislature Heads To Capitol
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: A5
Saturday, January 21, 2006
By David Callender The Capital Times
Amid complaints that ordinary citizens have been shut out of legislative hearings, the People's Legislature will take over part of the State Capitol on Monday to give them a chance to talk to their legislators.
The grassroots legislative effort -- which began last year with a session that drew 1,100 people to the Alliant Center -- has invited Gov. Jim Doyle and top lawmakers to answer questions about the role of money in state government and efforts to stem corruption.
So far, Doyle and Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, have indicated they don't plan to attend, Mike McCabe, executive director of the pro-reform Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said Friday.
Senate Majority Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, hasn't responded, McCabe said.
Among those scheduled to appear are Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, who has become an outspoken advocate of campaign finance reform after prosecuting the political corruption case of former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala.
Also set to testify is Doris "Granny D" Haddock, who at 90 years old completed a 3,200-mile cross-country walk to demonstrate her support for political reform.
And the group will hear from Lyndee Woodliff, whose maiden name was Lyndee Wall, a former legislative staffer whose allegations led to a probe of lawmakers' use of their staffs for illegal campaigning.
As a result of Woodliff's allegations, prosecutors launched a probe that resulted in the criminal conviction of four former lawmakers. A fifth current lawmaker -- Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha -- is set to go to trial next month on felony misconduct in office charges.
Most importantly, McCabe said, the session will allow ordinary Wisconsin residents to speak out about political corruption in the state.
"Part of this is based on the way we've heard people are treated in the Capitol in recent years," he said.
"They tell us that they drive for hours to get to Madison to appear at a hearing, only to wait for hours more while lobbyists discuss the bills they've written. Then when it's finally their turn to testify, they're treated like trash, cut off and sent home."
Monday's session marks the first time the People's Legislature will convene inside the Capitol. The group has held other sessions around the state, and last fall, members marched into the Capitol with brooms to sweep out corruption.
"People wanted to bring the fight to the Capitol so they're heard loud and clear," he said.
\ E-mail: dcallender@madison.com
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Joy First Monona
Dear Editor: I want to thank the Monona City Council for passing the resolution proposed by Doug Wood to get the referendum on the ballot in Monona to bring our troops home and bring an end to the illegal and immoral war in Iraq.
The council did the right thing. Twenty-three volunteers collected 570 signatures from citizens of Monona who want the opportunity to voice their opposition to the war.
One alderperson said that having this resolution on the ballot will not do anything to stop the war. I strongly disagree with her. It is the power of the people that makes this country strong. We must claim that power by speaking out against the war.
Though voting to bring the troops home in and of itself will not stop the war, I believe that when almost 30 municipalities in Wisconsin vote to bring the troops home it will send a strong message to Washington that cannot be ignored.
But we have to do more than vote in April to bring the troops home. It takes all of us speaking out in different ways that adds up to a powerful movement to stop the war.
We should not be there. We are occupiers in Iraq, and 82 percent of Iraqis want us out of their country. The majority of Americans also want the war to end. We don't liberate people by killing 30,000 to 100,000 of their citizens. This war is making the world less safe every day. Not one more person should die in this war. Not one more dollar should be spent.
Each and every person who sees the insanity of this war must speak out. We need to march in the streets, write letters to Congress and the president, protest at military recruiting stations and government offices, hold candlelight vigils and participate in acts of nonviolent civil resistance.
We need to talk to our neighbors, our friends and our families about why this war is wrong -- speaking out loud and clear. All of these actions add up and will raise the consciousness of others. Soon the powers in Washington will not be able to ignore us.
Thanks to the City Council for giving the people of Monona a way to speak out against the war. Please vote in Monona and other communities across the state to bring our troops home now. If you live in a community where the referendum to bring the troops home will not be on your ballot, please contact the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice at www.wnpj.org to find out how you can work to get this on the ballot in your community for the November election.
Let us all continue to speak out ever more loudly and clearly against the war in Iraq. We must not stop until our sons and daughters are safe at home and we are providing support to Iraq to rebuild their war-torn country.
As Martin Luther King said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Let us not remain silent. Each voice is a cry in the wilderness for peace that cannot be ignored.
Submitted by WNPJ Program Coordinator Steve Burns in respose to Isthmus article
"True Believers" 12/16/05
To the editor:
Can College Republican Robert Thelen really believe that the $6 billion the U.S. spends in Iraq each month is being used for "nice schools, better roads, a reliable electric grid and proper waste water treatment"?
Here are the facts, Mr. Thelen: Congress has allocated more than $200 billion for the military occupation of Iraq, and only $18.4 billion for reconstruction of the country's infrastructure. Of that $18.4 billion, less than half has been spent. In fact, the bulk of funds used in Iraqi reconstruction are taken from Iraqi oil revenues, and most of that money has gone to politically well-connected U.S. contractors like Bechtel and Halliburton instead of Iraqi firms. These American contractors often refuse to hire Iraqis, preferring more pliable workers from the Phillipines and India - one of the reasons the Iraqi unemployment rate remains near 50%.
Maybe that's why most Iraqis see the US occupation as a scam intended to enrich Americans at their expense.
And maybe that's why a recent poll taken by the British Ministry of Defense found that 82% of Iraqis were "strongly opposed" to the presence of U.S. and British troops in Iraq.
We've been in Iraq for nearly three years, and, unpleasant as it may be, its time to face facts - and the facts say it's time for us to bring our troops home.
Submitted by WNPJ member Roger Chapman in response to Isthmus article
"True Believers" 12/16/05
I have done anti-war work
with Rae Vogler. She is the
most hard-working, big-
hearted woman I know. Dur-
ing the Vietman War I was
Mr. Thelen's age. Like him, I
was part of the problem.
Dear Editor: Thank you for your endorsement of democracy in Monona! The vote on the war is the best of local politics.
But, your blaming of the city attorney for the difficulty is unwarranted.
The city attorney is an employee, a lawyer for the city, and he did what the mayor and some on the council wanted. Since 2002-03 when many Mononans went to the council to protest going to war, the mayor and several of the council members rejected the issue of war as not germane to council business. Even some of the council members who voted to adopt Ald. Wood's resolution to put the war question on the ballot qualified their vote, saying that war is not the proper jurisdiction of a city council.
William Cole is not the bad guy in this story. He did what any good lawyer does. He gave an opinion that served the interests of his client. The mayor directed the city clerk to follow the attorney's opinion. Many of the council members hastened to say that the city did the right thing in following the attorney's opinion.
The mayor and a few council members read the writing on the wall and, as you wrote, saw they would lose politically and financially. They were forced to change their votes politically. The blame lies with the politicians, not with the city attorney.
Praise belongs to the petitioners who kept up the pressure, and to Ald. Wood who, belatedly, came to their support. Do not praise the majority of Monona politicians.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
By Nick Grube Special to the Capital Times
As conflicts loom and international frustrations mount over the proliferation of Iran's nuclear technology, two Madisonians traveled to the country with a peacekeeping delegation to heal relations between the people of Iran and the U.S.
"When governments don't talk it's important that people talk to each other," said Bonnie Block, who with her husband Bob went to Iran with the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an interfaith organization aiming to create social change through nonviolence.
During their 10-day trip in December they delivered over 500 postcards, written by people from across the U.S., each with a personalized message of peace and friendship.
"It was a people-to-people kind of thing," said Bonnie Block, 64.
"We felt we had a real personal experience with Muslim hospitality," Bob Block, 69, said, noting that they never felt threatened during their travels.
"This is not the Taliban, it's not the Wahabis in Saudi Arabia," said Bonnie Block about factions that the U.S. government considers threats to national security and hindrances to stability in the Middle East.
"They clearly differentiate between the American people and the American government," she said.
The only signs of anti-American sentiments the Blocks and the other 14 delegates on the trip encountered were while visiting the former U.S. embassy in Tehran. Bonnie Block said they saw a poster depicting an image of the Statue of Liberty with a skull covering the face and another picture with a group of Iranians held at gunpoint with what resembled the American flag.
As a family law practitioner and divorce mediator, Bonnie Block always needed to differentiate between sides and separate issues, and she said that is one reason she became involved with FOR, because she knew there was more than one side to every dispute.
"We need to listen up to the other side of the story," she said. "Then we sit down and work out our conflicts. And that for me is a critical thing, that we don't do it militarily."
While in Iran the FOR delegation spoke with many local Iranians.
"They are very mistrustful of our government and our intentions," said Bonnie Block, especially when it comes to nuclear development in Iran. She said they feel that the U.S. is imposing a double standard when dealing with Iran.
"Why doesn't (the U.S.) say anything about Israel and Pakistan and India and North Korea?" is a question Bonnie Block says many Iranians have.
"They feel beleaguered and encircled and they need weapons to protect themselves," Bonnie Block said, especially considering they are surrounded by Israel, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, all countries that, the Blocks say, Iranians fear.
After accusing UW-Madison administration and the federal government of improper surveillance of its Madison chapter, Stop the War members gathered Tuesday to protest the presence of military recruiters on campus.
Disapproving of the war in Iraq and military recruitment, about 20 Stop the War members entered the Government, Non-Profit and Volunteer Career Fair at the Memorial Union with anti-war signs to speak with UW-Madison students near the recruitment tables and hand out anti-war literature.
"Military recruiters use the same tactics of deception and empty promises that the Bush administration used to recruit America for its war on Iraq," UW-Madison senior and Stop the War member Benjamin Ratliffe said in a speech. "We believe young people seeking the opportunities and benefits of an education should not have to kill or be killed to get them."
Supporting Stop the War’s efforts, Dane County Board candidate and UW-Madison junior Ashok Kumar said he was there to protest in light of close friends recently being deployed to Iraq.
While Stop the War reaped the support of various community members, students and political figures, UW-Madison College Republicans denounced the organization’s complaints.
"Even though Stop the War would rather we do not defend ourselves, the College Republicans support President Bush’s actions," said UW-Madison College Republican Chair Jordan Smith in a statement. "I sincerely hope the men and women fighting for our freedom realize that we support them, even amid the actions of anti-troop and anti-war groups."
Military recruiters present at the fair included the United States Air Force and the United States Marines. They said the protest was expected.
"It happens all the time," said USAF Gunnery Sergeant Gann.
"We knew they were coming," USAF Technical Sergeant Joe Metzger added. "They have every right, I guess."
Chancellor Wiley issued a statement before the protest, saying, "Open debate, particularly about matters of great societal concern has long been a hallmark of this campus."
Although he said protesting should not be a "harassment or disruption," and that UW-Madison "will protect the rights of students who wish to associate with military recruiters."
"Should a student or student group make a decision to act outside of our established parameters for protest, they are essentially accepting responsibility for the consequences of their civil disobedience action," Wiley said.
With regard to Wiley’s precautions, Stop the War did not block recruitment tables or directly interrogate the recruiters, and no arrests were made at the fair.