Drilling Won't Lower Price Of Gas

The Capital Times :: OPINION :: WEB
Monday, August 4, 2008

Dear Editor: Big Oil, their cronies in Congress, and the Bush administration are exploiting the pain we are feeling at the pump by touting drilling as a solution, even though they know drilling will not lower prices at the pump.

Big Oil wants you to believe that drilling is a quick fix, when the reality is that Bush's own Energy Department has said that any new drilling would have no effect on gas prices now, and an "insignificant" effect on gas prices 15-20 years from now.

The U.S. uses 25 percent of the world's oil supply, but holds only 2.6 percent of the world's oil reserves. No matter how much we drill, we could never provide consumers with real relief. Oil man T. Boone Pickens even said, "I've been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."

Russell Novkov, Madison

Sgt. Jason Lemieux, Iraq veteran, IVAW member
I was involved in firefights during which the rules of engagement were lifted by the chain of command or were simply ignored, resulting in needless and strategically counterproductive civilian deaths.
Watch and read the PBS Newshour segment here...
Youtube video here...

Iraq, Afghan Vets testify at Winter Soldier hearings

On the 5th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, Iraq Veterans Against the War presented the Winter Soldier hearings, with testimony by dozens of soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Public showings of the live testimony were held in Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, and Wausau, and at more than a hundred locations around the country, and IVAW even received reports that soldiers in Iraq were watching the hearings in their barracks.

This is just the beginning Your group can help these antiwar vets get their testimony to the public though public showings of the testimony at your school, church, public library or home. Many of the IVAW members who testified will be touring the country, to bring live testimony to the public. You can help support their work by making a donation to IVAW here...

Democracy Now! reports on the hearings here...
IVAW has archives of the hearings here...

UPDATE: The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting asks the question: Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News? with a roundup of media outlets that covered - and chose not to cover - the Winter Soldier hearings. Read more...

Orpheum Theater, Madison

Your Views: Minimum Wage Increase
Wisconsin State Journal :: FORUM :: B1
Sunday, August 3, 2008

Buying power is perpetually declining

Forum columnist Richard Berman's prediction that the increase in the minimum wage will hurt workers is inaccurate. He implies that most minimum wage workers are teenagers, high school dropouts and young black adults.

As a certified planner who consults in community and economic development, I know over half the minimum wage workers are adults aged 25 or more, many the sole supports of their families. Many of those under 25 live apart from parents and are possibly paying college tuition and fees.

Business paid a minimum wage of almost $10 in terms of purchasing power in 1968 when gas was 34 cents a gallon and you could buy a house for $14,950. Since the 1970s, worker productivity has risen, but manufacturing and non-management employees' wages have effectively increased just 35 cents an hour.

Unlike the 1940s and 1950s when both worker productivity and the median wage doubled, increases in productivity since the 1970s have gone to high salaries for CEOs and dividends to stockholders.

Although about half of Americans own stock, most own stocks worth less than $5,000.

For information on the real shifts in our economy and worker benefits and in the jobs most likely to increase before 2016, see www.connectingdots.us.

- Peggy Wireman, Monona

Don't renew Cold War with missile talks
Wisconsin State Journal :: FORUM :: B1
Sunday, August 19, 2008


Regarding Friday's article "U.S., Poles agree on base: Missile-defense plan angers the Russians," if the United States-Poland agreement to place an American missile-defense base on Polish territory goes forward, it will re-start the Cold War.

We must not allow our government to revive those days of "mutually assured destruction." Russia and the United States still have over 95 percent of the world's total nuclear weapons, with many on each side maintained on constant alert, able to be fired within minutes of receiving a launch order.

It's been nearly 20 years since the end of the Cold War -- the U.S. and Russia should be working together to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in world affairs instead of exchanging threats.

This agreement flies in the face of the world community. The United Nations' General Assembly member states adopt the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) resolution annually by an overwhelming majority.

For the past three years every nation has voted in favor of PAROS -- except the U.S., according to "Keep Space for Peace" in Nebraska Report.

American citizens must demand that our government get serious about negotiating for peace, which is much more important than billion dollar contracts for U.S. military-industrial-complex corporations.

-- Lee Brown, Madison

Restored Badger Ammo site could someday be boon for naturalists
The Capital Times
Anita Weier  —  8/05/2008 7:49 pm

Photo by: Mike DeVries/The Capital Times

Rubble from a dismantled building lines the grounds of the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, which still needs substantial cleanup before it can be turned over to new owners.

Standing on a bluff at the northern edge of the vast Badger Army Ammunition Plant, you can see land swept flat by ancient glaciers, "driftless" areas missed by the ice and remnants of prairie, oak savanna and thick woods.

"It's a beautiful view from the bluff," said Craig Karr of the Department of Natural Resources.

"The geologists are very excited about this being a public property," added Karr, who will oversee public input when some of this area is eventually transferred from the Army to the DNR. "It is unique. It shows the ancient sea beds, the glaciation, the terminal moraine."

Someday hikers may be able to trek through this land on a trail Karr's agency hopes to build from Devil's Lake to the Wisconsin River. But that day is still far into the future. Though the Army declared the 7,354-acre plant on Highway 12 near Baraboo surplus property 10 years ago, it is expected to be another five years before land transfers to the DNR, the Ho-Chunk Nation and others are completed.

Meanwhile, army contractors continue to tear down buildings and clean up contamination left by decades of explosives manufacturing at the World War II-era plant, and neighbors continue to raise concerns about pollution.

A committee that helped plan future uses for the site has suggested building a visitor center that would feature the natural history of the site, the history of the Ho-Chunk and settlers in the area as well as the story of the Badger Ammunition Plant. The 21-member Badger Reuse Committee -- convened in 2000 by the Sauk County Board of Supervisors with assistance from U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison -- included representatives of local communities, state and federal governments and the Ho-Chunk Nation.

"The reuse committee would like to see as much reconstruction of prairie and oak savanna as possible," Karr said.

But progress has been excruciatingly slow since 1998 when the Army declared the property surplus.

Reasons for the delay include bureaucracy, paperwork, federal funding snafus, disagreements about who will get which property, and disputes about levels of contamination and proper procedures for remediation.

"Badger is a very highly contaminated site and a complex site," said Eileen Pierce of the state Department of Natural Resources. "The long time this is taking is in part due to that complexity and contamination and in part due to funding." Pierce said required Army and DNR procedures, including public comment periods, lengthened the process.

There has also been disagreement among parties due to receive portions of the Badger plant acreage. The Ho-Chunk and the DNR did not reach final agreement on boundaries of their proposed sections until last year, and no one yet knows who will take care of three small cemeteries with graves dating back to the early 1800s.

Joan Kenney, installation director for the Badger plant, said the Army didn't even get money for demolition until 2004. Recent budget cuts also caused temporary layoffs of some contractor employees, and work came to a halt during the last long snowy winter when it was difficult to move around the massive site.

Army officials plan to conclude work by 2012 and complete land transfers by 2013. Much progress has been made, but neighbors remain concerned about pollution issues. Regulations concerning the disposal of some of the waste materials, for instance, were not even established when the Army started using the site to make ammunition.

"We feel strongly that all of this has to be cleaned up," said Laura Olah, head of Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, formed by people who live near the site. "The foundation for successful reuse is a clean, healthy environment for animals and people."

Photo by: Mike DeVries/The Capital Times

Contaminated groundwater from the Badger Army Ammunition Plant is cleansed in treatment facilities before it flows into the Wisconsin River.

According to Olah, the Army has approached the task of clean up by treating symptoms, rather than underlying problems. For instance, she said, a wastewater treatment system that dates to 1990 is being used to remove pollutants from groundwater before it is discharged into the Wisconsin River. But removing more contaminated soil first would have solved the problem long-term.

"It's always best to address the source," Olah said. "The remedies at Badger are mostly to cover them up instead of cleaning them up. Contaminants could eventually leach."

Nearby residents are also concerned about the extent of contamination in former settling ponds ndsh which served as waste repositories -- at the south end of the plant and in nearby Gruber's Grove Bay on Lake Wisconsin.

An ecological assessment by Army consultants determined the settling ponds were not harming birds and mammals in the area. But Peter deFur, a consultant for Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, says the Army's methodology was faulty.

He said the condition of wildlife at the settling pond site was compared with that of birds and mammals from other areas on the Badger site, instead of from uncontaminated areas; that larger animals should have been analyzed, that the study did not account for animals drinking contaminated water and that only one byproduct of the explosive dinitrotoluene (DNT) was analyzed.

The citizens' group also contends that the Army has not done enough to clean up polluted sediments under Gruber's Grove Bay, an inlet of Lake Wisconsin that borders the plant on the southeast.

Kenney counters that the bay has been dredged twice by the Army to make sure that fish would not accumulate mercury in the future. "We removed 88,000 cubic yards, and are not testing now. There are mercury problems all over the state, and most of it comes from coal-fired plants," she said.

But the state Department of Natural Resources sent a memo to Kenney in April sking for a meeting after tests it did on sediment under the bay showed "significantly higher" mercury levels than those identified by the Army. Kenney said such a meeting would probably not take place until fall.

People who live near the plant say the conflicting test results prove it is necessary to keep close watch on the Army's cleanup process.

"We support an enforceable measure that requires the Army to conduct biological surveys in the future (5 years and 10 years) to assure the ecological recovery of the bay," Olah said in a letter to the DNR.

She also says that without citizen complaints, the Army may have gone ahead with plans to burn abandoned buildings that had housed explosive processes, which would have released high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls into the air. PCBs were used in paint until they were banned in 1997 because of harmful health effects.

Kenney said that burning was commonly used at other military installations to burn off propellant residue, but restrictions ultimately imposed by the state of Wisconsin made it impractical here.

"Burning just one big building in a year would have hit the limit on emissions. We would have been here 100 years!"

Photo by: Mike DeVries/The Capital Times

Seven hundred buildings on the Badger property like these have already been demolished, but work is continuing to dismantle another 300.

Despite criticism from local residents that the Army has cut corners on cleanup in order to minimize costs, it has nevertheless spent significant amounts.

According to Kenney, the Army has spent about $143.5 million on environmental work and $57.6 million on operations and maintenance for demolition.

The DNR's Karr, for one, is satisfied: "The Army is doing a wonderful job of cleaning it up. I don't expect to find any contaminants when we get the land."

Contamination was found at Badger long before the 1998 decision to declare the property surplus. A remedial investigation in 1988 found that a plume of contaminated groundwater was moving toward the edge of the site, so a groundwater extraction and treatment system was put in place in 1990.

Army officials say they have taken great care with its current landfill, which is being used for materials from demolished buildings that could not be recycled, including carefully packaged asbestos shingles. A clay liner was installed to prevent any harmful materials from reaching groundwater, and a cap will be installed after the landfill is full.

A large excavated and lined space for another landfill will be left for the probable next landowner, the DNR. If the agency doesn't want it, the Army will close it, Kenney said.

But Olah's group remains concerned about six old landfills on the site that they fear could be contaminating groundwater. Landfills in the past were often merely unlined holes in the ground.

Since 1988, when new federal regulations went in effect, the Army has placed more than 200 test wells around the site to check groundwater. Neighbors' wells also are tested every three months, and some that showed contamination in the past have been replaced by the Army.

Photo by: Mike DeVries/The Capital Times

A new landfill is being constructed with a clay liner for materials that could not be recycled, including asbestos shingles.

"We have had to replace five home wells," Kenney said. The Army tests for dangerous explosives and solvents, and "every sample costs us money," Kenney said.

The Army is still determining what to do with the settling ponds near Gruber's Grove Bay that have been dry since 1975. "We still have to decide if we need soil remediation in pond bottoms," Kenney said.

As for the remaining buildings, 700 have been demolished and 300 have yet to be taken apart. Another 400 are expected to be transferred to new property owners after being found clear of contaminants. These buildings have been cleared of explosives and asbestos, according to Kenney, who said that two explosives experts check every structure to make sure.

Army officials are taking great care to remove any contaminants prior to transfer, Kenney said, because the Army remains responsible even after the properties change hands and officials don't want to have to revisit the problems in the future.

"After we take buildings down, we scrape soil out and take samples to see if there is any residual contamination," Kenney explained. "We check and double check to make sure it has been removed."

After 10 years, only one large parcel of the Badger ammo plant -- nearly 2,000 acres of the more than 7,000-acre site -- has been transferred to another owner, the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, which had previous operations on the site.

Eventually the state Department of Transportation will use a parcel to straighten dangerous curves on Highway 78 and the Bluffview Sanitary District will take over wastewater treatment facilities on the site to serve a community across Highway 12 as well as future landowners on the plant site.

The largest remaining pieces of property are slated to go to the DNR and the Ho-Chunk. The DNR's Pierce said "one of the big achievements" of the last year was that the DNR, Army and Ho-Chunk agreed on property boundaries.

But these transfers will not occur until the Army completes its own findings of suitability for the parcels.

The DNR plans to use its 3,850-acre parcel for recreational use and the Ho-Chunk plan to graze buffalo and restore prairie on their 1,552-acre site.

The public, however, will not be allowed onto the property unsupervised for several years. Though some land will probably transfer to the DNR this fall, it will still be fenced and guarded until the Army completes its cleanup, Karr said.

The DNR cannot start its master planning process for the site until the property is transferred, and a reuse committee determined previously that the site must be managed collaboratively by all the property owners.

"It is our dream to open that property to the public to link Devil's Lake State Park to that swath of property and to the Wisconsin River," Pierce said. "We hope for prairie restoration, but there is no master plan."

Karr noted that the reuse committee wants no motorized recreation.

"Hunting would be OK, but there will be some debate about what kind of hunting will be allowed," he predicted.

The trail the DNR would like to see from Devil's Lake State Park to Lake Wisconsin could also connect to the Ice Age Trail, which runs through the park.

Overall, Kenney and Karr would like to see the huge Badger site become a paradise for area residents to explore and wildlife to live.

Birds and animals that need uninterrupted space to thrive -- including meadowlarks, bobolinks and dickcissels -- would do well at the site, Karr said.

"It is right next to the Baraboo Hills, a huge block of wooded area with unique bird life," Karr said. "From a naturalists' standpoint, the property will be a real gem."

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Photo by: Mike DeVries/The Capital Times

"Prices are high for scrap, and we sell it to a scrap yard," said Henry Kramer, whose Iowa-based company traveled to Wisconsin to dismantle the building above

RECYCLING HELPS PAY FOR CLEANUP

There are literally tons of recycling possibilities at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, with hundreds of pieces of equipment, abandoned buildings and small items now considered decorative or historical available for reuse. And the Army is making the most of it.

Mike Sitton, property administrator for the Badger plant, takes pride in the amount of recycling that has been done since the Army declared the property surplus 10 years ago.

More than $200,000 has been raised selling such items on E-Bay as signs, fireboxes, insulators, lights and items such as big brass gauges that were used to keep track of pressure levels in steam-powered equipment. Another very popular item -- now popular in interior decoration -- has been radiators, which were too bulky to sell online but were sold by bid.

All together, more than $3 million has been earned from recycling sales.

Much of that income came from bids to take apart and carry away scrap from whole buildings -- after asbestos fibers and traces of explosives had been removed.

Kramer's Technical Services of Clinton, Iowa, is one of the companies that made successful bids to take down and remove buildings from the site. Last week one of their crews was using a huge John Deere metal shear to tear apart a former waste processing building that handled wood remodeling debris.

"Prices are high for scrap, and we sell it to a scrap yard," said Henry Kramer, whose company has taken about 10 buildings at the plant for recycling. He noted that the market is good in part because China is buying copper and lead.

Structural steel is also in demand, and copper is especially valuable.

"Every two weeks or so we have a bid process, for everything from desks to water towers to scrap metal," said Joan Kenney, installation director for the plant. "Piping, tanks, and mixing equipment, all that metal has recycle value, and a small amount of equipment could be used whole."

Half of the money earned from recycling helps pay for deconstruction of the plant, and the other half goes into an Army morale program that provides gymnasiums, pools and other facilities for the troops.
 

Badger Ammo story shows site's great potential

The Capital Times  —  8/09/2008 7:44 am

Dear Editor:

Thank you for the wonderful article by Anita Weier on the Badger Army Ammunition Plant and the challenges that we are facing here. The readers were provided with a clear and careful balance of perspectives on many complex issues from air quality and sediment contamination to future use.

At the same time, the brilliant potential for the future of these lands is evident. Even with the great interest by various parties to acquire land at Badger, it has been surprisingly difficult to garner attention and resources for a level of cleanup that will support a healthy and sustainable future. Your article told this important story.

As was aptly said, Badger is a gem in the rough -- we just need to shine her up!

Laura Olah

Executive Director

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger

Merrimac

Mayor's Plan Makes Sense
Wisconsin State Journal :: OPINION :: A9
Saturday, August 9, 2008

I share Tuesday guest columnist Joe Lusson's concern for the preservation of housing stock within the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood, but public control of lakeshore property tips the scale when considering the sale of two homes adjacent to James Madison Park - one of Madison's most-used parks.

Why should we give long-term leases to land beneath privately owned homes? This is land the city already owns, and access to Lake Mendota is already limited.

Madison would be better off to seek a long-term plan to acquire more of the shoreline of one of our four famed lakes. Consider Minneapolis and St. Paul, whose considerable shorelines have long been the property of the people.

Moving the homes 100 yards to the east onto North Blount Street, as endorsed by the mayor, would be a reasonable way to save both the houses and the lakeshore.

Nan Cheney, Madison

War protesters stop in Waunakee
The Waunakee Tribune
Roberta Baumann
Managing Editor

Walkers get ready to take their message to Main Street.

With temperatures in the high 80s and high humidity, several folks sitting under a shade tree in the Village Park seemed happy just to take a load off last week.

The 10 or so protesters against the war in Iraq stopped in Waunakee on their 450-mile walk from Chicago, Ill., to St. Paul, Minn., where they will conclude with the Republican National Convention.

They are part of the Witness Against War project, and during their stop in Waunakee June 29, several village residents came to visit with them and learn of their journey so far.

Area resident Don Spencer, planned to prepare lunch for the group the following day before sending them on their way.

Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence in Chicago, said the group had visited Gov. Doyle's office.

"People spoke with great eloquence about the reasons for stopping the escalation of the war," Kelly said.

Local residents have a chance to talk to the walkers.

The walkers come from all over the United States. Paul Melling, who served in Iraq, is from Minnesota. Alice Gerard, a freelance writer, is from New York. Josh Brollier lives in Tennessee.

But Heléne Hedburg had the longest journey to the walk - all the way from a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden.

The walkers told a little bit about themselves while resting in the shade. Many have spent time in Iraq. Dan Pearson of Chicago has worked with Iraqi refugees in Syria and Chicago.

Lauren Cannon, a minister in training now who is studying for her master's degree in sacred theology in Chicago, traveled to Iraq in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

Alice Gerard said she was working through her depression about the war, which has cost the United States $599.5 billion since 2003.

During their walk, the group said they've mainly received support from people they've met along the way.

Although one veteran initially told the group he felt their efforts negated the work of the soldiers, his view changed when he learned of one of the group's key objectives - highest quality health care, housing and education for U.S. veterans and their families, said Dan Pearson.

The other objectives call for withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Iraq, an end to all military actions there, along with funding for the reconstruction of the country.

Some members of the Waunakee community asked if Melling believed the surge was working to achieve peace in the country.

"I don't believe anything I hear from the military," Melling said.

He noted that the military had achieved a more peaceful climate by segregating the various Iraqi populations.

The Voices for Creative Nonviolence group, which travels with a bus outfitted with beds and an eating area, planned to walk to Sauk City the following day, then to Devil's Lake Park in their Witness Against War project.

One of the major stops along the road to St. Paul will be at Fort McCoy, the federal military base where troops are training to mobilize to Iraq in 2009.

Kelly noted that 3,000 Wisconsin combat troops will be deployed next year, the largest number since the world wars.

"That's Wisconsin's wealth and productivity going to a war," Kelly said.

The protesters hoped to talk to soldiers at Fort McCoy during their stop Aug. 10, acknowledging that such action is prohibited. They planned to take a nonviolence workshop the day prior.

Kelly urged others to join in the walk, noting that about 40 or so had joined in as they made their way toward Madison.

To learn more about the Witness Against War project see the Voices for Creative Nonviolence Web site at www.vcnv.org.

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners gets stuck in red tape
The Capital Times
Steven Elbow  —  8/05/2008 5:41 pm

The state Department of Corrections administrative code states that the department "shall facilitate inmate reading of publication, including books, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets."

So it was a surprise when a volunteer organization called Wisconsin Books to Prisoners, sponsored by Rainbow Books, received a letter in May from Department official John Bett that DOC "will no longer allow books or publications from Rainbow Bookstores in any Department of Corrections Facilities."

"Red tape, what would we do without it," said Camy Matthay, a volunteer with the group.

Matthay said Wisconsin Books to Prisoners has been sending books to prisoners who request them since the fall of 2006, and has had few problems.

While Rainbow Books have had its books banned by individual prisons in Utah and Texas, "currently Wisconsin is the only state that is banning books," she said.

There was a prison in California that required the group to register as an approved vendor, but that matter was cleared up with a phone call.

Bett, the DOC's Division of Adult Institutions administrator, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

DOC spokesman Alec Loftus issued a statement that said, "We are not confident that the proper security checks are in place at Rainbow Books to minimize the chance for contraband to be sent in through the books."

He said that books sent to libraries can be more easily put through security checks than books sent by mail to inmates.

"There is minimal likelihood of contraband being sent in when the book comes from a reputable book vendor and the book is new," he said, because "tampering would be more obvious."

The DOC's policy on inmates receiving publications says nothing about them having to be new, and Matthay said no other prison in the 28 states they mail books to has made an issue over the books being used.

The policy does state that "inmates may only receive publications directly from the publisher or other recognized commercial sources in their packages."

Rainbow maintains that it is a valid commercial source, selling in excess of $500,000 worth of new and used books per year and being one of the largest vendors of textbooks to UW-Madison students, Bett expressed suspicion about the book cooperative.

"Rainbow Bookstore's sponsorship appears to be an arrangement to circumvent Department of Corrections' policy that allows donated books to be sent to our institutions through authorized bookstores," he wrote in a July 2 letter.

In the same letter he said donated books had to go through the DOC's library system "for all inmates to enjoy."

He noted that Rachel Perlman from Wisconsin Books for Prisoners contacted the department's librarian, who requested a written proposal on incorporating the donated books into the prison library system.

A meeting was set up, but Wisconsin Books for Prisoners decided to pull out, according to Bett's letter.

"Our mission is to respond to requests by individual prisoners nationwide," Matthay said.

Matthay said her group was set up to provide prisoners with a valuable resource that could help them learn skills or gain useful knowledge while incarcerated.

Matthay said most of the requested books are dictionaries and thesauruses, but the group also sends out numerous how-to books on construction and starting up businesses.

Most of the books are non-fiction: U.S. history, philosophy, African American history, but prisoners also often request classic literature.

"All sorts of things you would think prison libraries would have stocked," Matthay said.

The effort started with an announcement in a prison newsletter distributed by Prisoner Action Coalition, now know as Prison Watch. Using books collected from drop-off points in Madison and Milwaukee, the project grew nationwide by pen-pal organizations and by word of mouth.

"We grew from receiving five requests a week to receiving well over 50 requests a week from prisoners all over the country," Matthay said.

Peace walk from Chicago to Minneapolis makes several local stops this weekend
By Brian D. Bridgeford, Capital Newspapers | Posted: Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:30 pm
Portage Daily Register

The core Witness Against War walkers address the audience. Photo by Hiroshi Kanno

A group of Iraq war opponents walking from Chicago to Minneapolis will share a dinner and discussion of the issues with Portage-area residents during a visit Sunday evening.

The walkers will be at Trinity United Church of Christ, 503 Prospect Ave. in Portage, at 6 p.m. Sunday for a dinner and talk about their efforts.

Local residents supporting Witness Against War's visit include the group Progressive Voices of Columbia County and a number of local anti-war activists, said Hiroshi Kanno, a rural Wisconsin Dells resident helping sponsor the event.

The walk itself is organized by the Chicago-based group Voices for Creative Nonviolence. It ends Sept. 1 in Minneapolis at the Republican National Convention.

"It's kind of a coalition of anti-war groups that have been around awhile," Kanno said. "We view this as an opportunity to re-engage and stimulate some of the discussion about the war."

Event supporters generally feel the country should end the war and bring American troops back home, Kanno said. There are a variety of opinions on whether this should be done immediately or more gradually, he said.

"The Voices group, the walkers, want immediate withdraw," he said, "some may want a little longer-term transition.

"All of us agree that the war should come to an end and our young men and women shouldn't suffer any more and have any more casualties," Kanno said.

Anti-war activists support the troops, it is the policymakers such as President George W. Bush they are in conflict with for his decision to launch the war, he said.

The walk

The core group making its way from Chicago to Minneapolis is about 10 people, said Kathy Kelly, a nationally known anti-war voice, advocate for nonviolence and co-coordinator for the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

As the group passes through different places, supporters join members for a time, she said. In Madison, the walk had been joined by about 40 people.

On Monday, they walked to Gov. Jim Doyle's mansion to deliver a letter encouraging him to support legislation by state Assemblyman Spencer Black, she said. The legislation takes advantage of a "legal loophole" to bring Wisconsin National Guard troops home from Iraq and prevent more from having to go overseas for the war.

"These young people go over to Iraq and some of them are never the same when they come back," she said. "They pay a large price in going over to a war zone and sometimes don't always even get good care when they come back and they need it."

Care for injured troops is one issue the WAW walkers want to move people to think about, Kelly said.

The walkers will also be going over to Fort McCoy near Tomah, where troops are given training before they are deployed to Iraq, Kelly said.

"We've been in touch with the authorities at the base to see how they feel about us entering with a letter and perhaps a desire to have a dialogue with some of the solders on the base," she said of the planned Aug. 10 event.

In 2009, about 3,500 Wisconsin troops are scheduled to pass through Fort McCoy for training before they go to Iraq, she said.

Dissenting view

Baraboo Republican Party supporter and political blogger Lance Burri said he respects the WAW walkers' right to express their views and their significant effort in walking from Chicago to Minneapolis. He will be attending the Republican Party convention as a blogger and said he might see them there.

However, pulling out of Iraq quickly will not benefit the Unites States or the Middle Eastern region, he said.

Burri said he has supported the war early on and believes U.S. troops must be in Iraq and involved in the Middle East for some time.

"Even if you opposed the war from the beginning, even if you wanted us to get out from the day we invaded, you can't deny we have some measure of responsibility for what happens in Iraq right now, and at least in the immediate future," Burri said. "It's too important a region and too dangerous a region for us to just say, ‘hands off.'"

Burri observed that Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama has changed his policy position. Obama is saying the decision to withdraw U.S. troops must be based on stable conditions in Iraq, he said.

"Neither presidential candidate is saying just get out," Burri said. "Simply demanding withdrawal, either immediately or on a pre-determined timeline is just not a responsible way to handle that."

It's unfortunate and tragic, but sometimes the "way of the world" is that soldiers and civilians die in necessary wars, Burri added.

‘War of choice'

Kelly referred to the Iraq War as a "war of choice," because that nation had not attacked the United States and was not a direct threat when troops invaded it. Most of the deaths and injuries have been suffered by Iraqis, often children, who have been killed in the war sparked in an effort to ensure control of energy resources by the Bush administration, she said.

"I often say, if Iraq grew asparagus, do you think it would be a discussion right now between you, me or anyone?" she said. "It's a stunning punishment that's been inflicted on them, brutal and sometimes lethally punitive."

The walkers' trip has been inspiring a lot of discussion about the war issue among grassroots groups, Kanno said. WAW walkers also will be holding events in Baraboo, Sauk City and Reedsburg before they leave the area.