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Anyone want to talk into the microphone?
This entry was posted on 11/3/2009 4:08 PM and is filed under Crappy Economy Redux, Local Politics, Are we really inept.
My God...or in the readers' case...my what-ever-God-you-bring-with-you! Having resurrected my interest in writing, and in this far worse economy than when I quit writing a year ago, I took a moment to find a posting I was sure I did on local governmental boards. Specifically, citizen participation time. More specifically, "Does anyone from the audience have anything to say?" Often the honorable chairperson has to ask three times. If you do sidle up, you'll usually get three minutes at the microphone, but on a slow night maybe you can prattle on a bit.
Sure enough I found my posting...and my God, it was November 5, 2007. That long ago (long before it was admitted there was a recession - now "Great Recession"), yes, two frikken years ago it was, that I was noticing something conspicuously missing in board meetings. And that is, that no one steps up to mic and says, "Hey you bastards, your economy ruined my life and I have packed my bags and I am out of here dude!" Or worse, "Hey assholes, you can find me at the homeless shelter because your policies have driven me out of my house and home!" Nope, by the time it comes to that...said complainants are...say it with me...long gone!
And go figure, now long after it is too late to pass on old warning signs, only recently have the collective media, and academia, even remotely mentioned the recession of the 1970s and early 1980s. That being another bone of contention I often harp about.
Here's what I wrote before the said "Great Recession" besieged us all - no where to hide this time - no good states to go to this time. Here's what I wrote then to deaf ears. No one cared then that some of us were already the canaries in the economic coal mine. I know it bears repeating:
November 5, 2007
Over the last year I have attended a few Janesville City Council meets and as well, have sat in on quite a few Rock County Board meetings. Since this is the World Wide Web I should say Janesville, Wisconsin is the county seat in Rock County. The Janesville City Council chambers in the Janesville City Hall are conservative, smaller, yet neat and have all the tech to wire the meetings to where ever they need to go. The Rock County Board chamber however is in a huge court room. It looks almost state capital-esk in pomp.
One thing is for sure. I have noticed a glaring consistency to both governmental bodies. They both offer time for the public to speak during their meetings. Few do speak unless of course there is a major issue. "Major" is defined by whose ox is getting gored. Topics about old hotels, old barns, sidewalks, and annexations often hold the microphone. Yet, some meetings no one comes to speak. We do get the government we deserve. The gallery chairs are often empty except for me. And finally, that lends me to ponder, "Who is not speaking up?"
I work with and around people who are working three jobs to try to make ends meet. Couples who would never have dreamed of the job just 10 years ago are delivering daily papers in the middle of the night for extra cash and probably to be together. One of my two employers recently laid off about 15 people. It struck me that none of them (them among thousands now in Wisconsin losing their jobs) came in to vent at the honorable elected officials.
We Americans and Wisconsinites just tuck it in and tough it out. No one comes in to tell the city council or county board to "go kiss off" after they give up and before they leave the area to hopefully find work. No, they just load up their junk cars, take one last look at the "home" they are leaving and head to what for them they hope will be a better life. Or, they just find another part-time job here to add to their already full-time job and go off to work, meet themselves coming home, only to go right back out to work the second job. They do not remember an era when one did not work on weekends. Nor, have they ever been presented in school or the press with the ugly story of Wisconsin's awful 1970s economy - so they do not know they are actually being screwed again just like their parents were.
Those citizens never take time to speak. Perhaps they are not skilled in public speaking; perhaps they are too busy; perhaps they are embarrassed to be out of a job - our society does after all usually blame the worker not the society's ills; and, perhaps they just know in their hearts there is probably no point in venting to public bodies that they feel just don't speak for them. They fade stoically into the night like good patients should - the good patient affect.
Perhaps good readers, the two honorable bodies need a succinct critical word or two from Cool Dadio. I have so far vowed not to fade quietly in the night like a good sick patient should.
...end of November 2007 posting...here is the original link: " Who you won't see at local government meetings "
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Private First Class Kyle M. Hemauer, 21, of Manassas, VA, died May 23, 2005, in Afghanistan. Hemauer was assigned to the Army National Guard's 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division based in Manassas, Virginia. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Kyle grew up in Chilton, Wisconsin and played foot ball for the Chilton High School Tigers where he was named to all-conference status. He is a 2002 graduate of Chilton, a city of about 3,800 in Calumet County, Wisconsin. He went on to play punter for the Northrop Grumman shipyard Apprentice School football team at Newport News, Virgina. There he studied sheet metal apprentice. He was named to the second offensive team of the All-Atlantic Central Football Conference. The Journal Sentinel went on to note that at the time of his death Hemauer was survived by his mom and dad, Andy and Ann; and two brothers, Brad and Lucas. Private First Class Kyle M. Hemauer was Wisconsin's second military service person to die in the Afghanistan War.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
94,008 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,308 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,365 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
911 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
594 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,557 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,434 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
101 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
16 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
139 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
17 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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