Editor:
Out of all the terrible things that we’ve seen Senator Tiffany do since he’s been in office (the attack on open records, the forcing through of mining and environmental deregulation, passing 128 pieces of legislation that eliminated local control), the most disheartening one is his negligence of veterans and seniors.
While on the Joint Finance Committee, Senator Tiffany voted to take $26 million from the fund that was to be used for King Veterans Home. That $26 million could have hired more staff or fixed the undrinkable water issues. But because Senator Tiffany wants to play politics, he took that money from them and their care deteriorated. Sadly, this is not Senator Tiffany’s first attack on veteran’s care.
Senator Tiffany was a part of the proposal to regionalize and consolidate county veterans resource offices – a vital service for veterans in the Northwoods, because of the distance that they need to travel to receive care. Senator Tiffany has become out of touch with our area’s veterans and their needs for services.
I write this because of a conversation I had with Senator Tiffany’s oppenent, Bryan Van Stippen. Bryan brought up Senator Tiffany’s neglect of veterans as a top issue because of Bryan’s father, a Vietnam veteran. Bryan’s father was thinking about living at the King Veterans Home, but now after hearing about the conditions there, he’s no longer considering it.
Bryan Van Stippen believes that caring for veterans is a top priority; he talks about it eloquently and with purpose. I believe he will serve us well and will represent all the people from the Northwoods. He has earned my vote, and I hope he will earn yours. Vote Bryan Van Stippen for the 12th Senate District on Nov. 8.
Allen Leitz
Tomahawk
Dear Editor:
Whenever I hear someone support Tom Tiffany, it makes my blood boil. A person has to ignore his entire voting records and the resulting effects to think he has done something good. He has not. He has walked in lock step with the rest of the GOP and they have damaged every sector of the public sphere.
Wisconsin is now #1 in the nation in the loss of the middle class and we have the highest poverty rate in 30 years. Our educational system has suffered budget cuts that reduce the quality of every facet of education in the state, except for the corporate schools that have no accountability, are frequently investigated or closed down and are paid for by our tax dollars. Act 10 has drastically reduced the incomes of 75,000 working families, increased the cost of their health care and taken away their rights in the workplace. Educators have been attacked resulting in our present teacher shortage, social safety nets and health care programs have been cut resulting in thousands being removed from desperately needed health care.
I would submit that Tiffany, Czaja, Walker and the rest of the GOP in Madison have done nothing, absolutely nothing, that has helped this state. They did reduce the property taxes and, in true Republican fashion, the wealthy got the lion’s share of the cuts. The richer you are, the more you got. Now we are finding that we have no money to repair our roads. Where is the money? It was given away to rich contributors through tax breaks, custom legislation crafted by and for corporate interests, and business loans through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
The same thugs gerrymandered districts and legislated voter supression in order to assure they could continue to do more of the same type of damage to our state. Duffy and the Washington GOP are doing the same things. It is difficult to understand how what they do can be permitted, let alone supported. If people want our state and our nation to keep spiraling down into increasing poverty and social decay, then by all means continue to vote for those that have caused it. The GOP, Tiffany included, have no interest in the good of the people. Their interest is only in money and power. Repeatedly, they have taken our tax dollars and given them away to rich contributors while the social programs, environment, and public services our money is supposed to support are ignored. Their actions have shown this time and time again. It is time for a chance before we lose everything we have.
Doug Curtis
Gleason
Editor:
Our right to keep and bear arms has been under fire by anti-gun millionaires with armed body guards for over a decade, while the middle class is expected to voluntarily support our own disarmament during a time when lawlessness seems more prevalent than ever.
Sean Duffy supports our right to self protection. I even saw a picture on his Facebook where he wasn’t afraid of posing for a picture with a man openly carrying his gun on his hip. I’m proud to be represented by Sean Duffy, because all too often, the second amendment is paid lip service during an election year, and then forgotten. Sean has a very pro-second amendment voting record, and has an A rating from the NRA.
Duffy’s opponent does not respect our 2nd Amendment rights. She would use her cherry-picked interpretation of the constitution to undermine our freedoms during a time where we need them more than ever before.
Congress writes the laws, and that’s why it’s critical that we vote for someone who understands and respects the constitution. I’m voting for Sean Duffy, and you should too.
Thank You,
John T. Heuer
Merrill
Voters’ Dilemma?
Many voters are faced with the question: for whom shall I vote on Nov. 8? They do not want to vote for Trump, who urges us to hate and mistrust those who are different, yet they cannot trust Hillary Clinton. Of course, one may vote for a third party candidate. Yet, no third party candidate has, or will win a presidential election.
Wise parents tell their children: “You have two choices; you can have either macaroni & cheese or a peanut butter sandwich. Which will it be?” Wise voters know, that they have two choices: Clinton or Trump. Which will it be? Yet, there are voters, who feel they will maintain some vague, moral high ground, if they vote for an alternate candidate. Have you read the third party platforms? The Libertarian Party Platform would result in anarchy. And the Green Party? The Sierra Club, founded by John Muir, who was the father of the “green movement” and environmentalism, has endorsed Hillary Clinton, rather than Jill Stein, presidential candidate for the Green Party.
The act of voting should not be treated lightly, and voters carry an immense responsibility. Voting for a third party candidate, or not voting at all, is not a protest. It is a surrender to the other side, and it is self-righteous stupidity.
My fellow voters, you have two choices. Which will it be? Who will be taking up residence in the White House in January 2017? Will it be Donald Trump, the first dictator and last president of these United States? Or will it be Hillary Clinton, who has worked selflessly her entire adult life, to improve the lives of others, from working to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program to ensuring that Reservists and National Guard members access full military health benefits.
We are now, as never before, at a crossroads, and I will hold each and every one of you personally accountable if Trump is elected, because you chose an unelectable third party candidate, or chose to not vote. Please vote and vote responsibly. The future is in your hands.
Respectfully submitted,
Catherine G. LeMay-Brown
Merrill
Dear Readers,
It is with tears in my eyes that I begin this missive about the sorry mess my once beloved state of Wisconsin has become because of the blatant mismanagement by Scott Walker and his “Minions” in the state house in Madison. Reading my local paper this week, it is deplorable to see that two groups have formed to address the state of highways/roads/streets in this state because our legislature won’t do its job and fund maintenance/upkeep. Then reading further, I see the Tomahawk school district will be proposing a referendum to maintain/fund our public schools – due not only to the ongoing reduction of funds for education but also because of the inane voucher program which is now diverting $24 million to private schools that have no accountability to the taxpayers. The city of Tomahawk is also mulling the possibility of a city tax or wheel tax or other fees to pay for city street repair. The city of Rhinelander recently passed a city sales tax and a school funding referendum. It makes me shudder when I think that Mary Czaja and Tom Tiffany – sent to Madison to represent my interests – are one by one decimating what we, as Badgers, use to take pride in – a great free public education systen and decent highways. Who do you think you are kidding with your reducing state income taxes? Trying to pat yourselves on the back? Does it truly make a difference which entity we pay those taxes to – taxes levied through referendum which are borne by the property tax owners instead of all the residents and, therefore, much more burdensome to us? And that, while big tax breaks continue to be awarded to corporations, many of whom in turn “reward” their “representatives” with big campaign contributions!
Wisconsin is at the bottom of the heap in job creation. The Department of Corrections is fraught with problems – understaffing, under paid employees, etc. and in particular, Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, right here in Czaja’s and Tiffany’s back yard. Tiffany has voted time and again for environmental deregulations that, once again, help his corporate sponsors with woeful disregard for the effects of those decisions on rivers, lakes, and ultimately the people that depend on those natural resources.
It is time for the voters in Wisconsin to force the present batch of legislators to relinquish the corporate stronghold it has been gifted by our present representatives and replace them with people who will represent the people! This was borne out when e-mails sent by voters to Wisconsin legislators on the school voucher legislation were analyzed with the following results: 99.8% of the communications were against vouchers and 0.2% were in favor and the bill passed anyhow. The results for e-mails on the right-to-work legislation were nearly identical. I guess if Tiffany and Czaja and the rest of their cronies don’t want to represent the interests of the majority of the electorate, it is time to replace them. I’m voting for Bryan Van Stippen for Senator for the 12th Senate District and I hope you will, too.
Judy Leggett
Tomahawk
Letter to the Editor,
Donald Trump, America’s big embarrassment to people around the world. A Trump presidency will be a hollow conquest. The United States is envied by most countries around the world, but his presidency could assume global implications.
Trump has the make-up to be a dictator who will drag us toward the abyss. Do not be like obedient school children to be led by his destructive demons. He is a story of self-delusion and misperceptions so vast that it will turn this country into a national catastrophe. His ego, stubbornness and pride will polarize the people of this country even more than it is now. Trump is corrupted by money and power where the strong overpower the weak.
He has painted his own portrait of being irrational, arrogant and erratic behavior. It is a convincing portrait of his personality and affliction to paranoia, bigotry and outlandish egoism. Like his campaign, he shows his bullying and negativity. Don’t let him lead you to believe he is more than he actually is.
His speeches are unacceptable and riddled with errors and outright lies. One speech after another, he delivers his belligerent and bombastic comments, sounding gruff like a junkyard dog. He will say anything that he thinks people want to hear, depending on the circumstances and locations. A demagogue is not what makes a president.
Trump will put his own interests ahead of this country and will make a mockery of democracy. He does not stand for America’s enduring spirit. His qualities, or lack of, have become a laughing stock around the world. He tries to hide behind his many camouflages, has little insight and no vision whatsoever. There is an almost total absence of excellence and generosity of spirit. He has an insatiable lust for money, power and prestige. A Trump victory would vastly enhance his status and prestige; that is why he wants to be the top contender.
His irrationally and single-minded determination to build a wall shows how he is blinded by his own ideological biases. His lack of professionalism, lack of judgment, respect, temperament and virtue is wrong for America. There is no escape from being defined by what you lack.
The Republican candidate does not stand for the average hard working hourly wage workers, does not stand for the union workers trying to make a decent living wage, does not stand with the elderly on Social Security and Medicare. Instead his goal is for more organized wealth for the very rich.
Hillary Clinton is for America. She has a reputation for compassion and humanity, for being logical and rational. She holds great advantages of temper, fortitude and discipline. Clinton has the best credentials to be elected president.
Duane Hanrahan
Merrill
Letter to the Editor:
A big thanks to Sen. Tom Tiffany and Rep. Adam Jarchow for organizing the Great Lakes Wolf Summit in northern Wis. Also, appreciation to the WI Farm Bureau, WI Farmer’s Union, North Central Cattlemen’s Assocation, Wisconsin Counties Association, WI Bear Hunters Association, and WI Bow Hunters Assocation for sponsoring this event.
The Great Lakes Summit featured many people who have been affected negatively by wolves. In contrast, I have attended three “Midwest Wolf Stewards Conferences” in MI, WI and MN, and all were slanted towards people who want unlimited wolves. The WI and MN Conferences, partially sponsored by their Deapartments of Natural Resources, even featured speakers from the Humane Society of the U.S., the same organization that has sued repeatedly to keep wolves under the authority of the Endangered Species Act.
Without authority to control wolf populations, the entire Upper Great Lakes region is seeing more wolves. WI now has the second highest wolf count in the lower 48, and MN has the highest. With the increases in wolf numbers, and no authority to provide meaningful responses, we see a large increase in agricultural attacks. In fact, we may see a record number of farm animals killed by wolves this year.
Experts agree that wolf populations are recovered, and can be managed by the states. Thirty four WI county boards have voiced their opinion that the wolf population needs to be controlled. The Great Lakes Wolf Summit provided a real-life, accurate picture of the problems associated with wolves, and the solution, which lies in Congress’ hands.
Good wildlife management requires good population controls.
Laurie Groskopf
Tomahawk