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To the Editor:
It’s interesting to live in a rural Wisconsin county that’s modestly poor, at least by affluent, middle-class standards, and to contemplate the apparent indifference of citizens—at least a large percentage of citizens—who passively watch a rightwing county board kill a vehicle registration fee that provided over $500,000 per year to an underfunded Highway Department, kill University Extension, and then decide to sell the county-owned five-star nursing home.
This rightwing county board, proclaiming financial and political expertise, tried (and at first failed) to sell the nursing home—with no appraisal of the nursing home’s worth—at a fire sale price that roughly matched the remaining debt on two recent additions. To sweeten the deal, they threw in the Social Services building with a 10-year rentback clause that essentially gave the building away for free.
These community wreckers call themselves conservative. I thought (correct me if I’m wrong) that conservative was in the same nest of meaning with conservation and conserve. Taking care of the old, infirm, and incapacitated is a community responsibility. It’s a fundamental democratic obligation. It’s how we uphold our self-respect. That’s how, at least in part, we conserve our moral, ethical, and spiritual dignity. Honoring that collective responsibility is at the heart of what it means to be conservative. But how does wrecking a place get to be called “conservative”? Is that what “conservative” means to you?
– Paul Gilk
Merrill, Wis.
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