DECEMBER 30, 2008 - INTER-COUNTY LEADER - NEWS SECTION - A - PAGE 9
Pull your heads from the sand I was struck by an editorial that originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and was reprinted in the op-ed section of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Dec. 3, entitled In Wisconsin Too Many Open Records Lapses. I encourage all who are interest in civil rights and good citizenship to access the article by going to the newspaper reference section at the library. What caught my eye was this sentence: “A recent statewide audit by open records advocates found that three in 10 requests made under the state’s open records law were not adequately fulfilled and nearly 10 percent were denied or ignored.” The editorial goes on to describe the Wisconsin Attorney General’s efforts to educate the public and government offi-
Letters to the editor The Leader welcomes letters to the editor. Diverse and varied opinions are welcomed. Letters are subject to being edited for length, taste and/or clarity, and we urge writers to be brief and limit their letters to 500 words or less. Writers must provide their name and give their complete address and phone number. Content that will cause letters to be rejected include: Crude language, poor taste, disrespectful comments regarding a group’s or individual’s ethnicity, gender, religion, culture, sexual orientation or race; other incendiary language or personal attacks.
Letters t o t h e e d i t o r cials at all levels on the citizens’ right to know under the law and the frustration that exists in trying to get compliance. For the past two years, I’ve been trying to gain access to public records and elected officials in Clam Falls in connection with ongoing litigation emanating from the town’s erection of a 55-mph speed-limit sign on the narrow, winding gravel road that affords access to my home and is frequently used by residents on foot for exercise or dog walking (See Inter-County Leader, letters section, “Sign of Stupidity,” 9/20/06). Early on, after months of repeated requests to have a speed control sign compatible with the road’s design, condition and use installed, and having been subject, with others, to the safety risks and inconvenience resulting from incompatible use of the road, I filed suit against the town. Commensurate with common civil legal process, as a plaintiff, I attempted to gain access to town records which might shed light on the sign’s erection and to which I have a right as a resident. Before doing so, I obtained copies of Wisconsin statutes governing open meetings and open records. It didn’t take a legal beagle to proceed. With the statutes before me, I prepared my requests to discover the rationale and communications of town officials that precipitated the sign’s erection and its sudden, mysterious removal within a few weeks following the filing of my small claims suit. My requests, even under the federal Freedom of Information Act, were thwarted, refused, ignored or denied. I learned the painful, expensive way
while you may believe, in principle, that the law is on your side, in practice, at least in Polk County, that may not be the case. I spoke with civil rights authorities and sunshine law advocates about the situation. The consensus is that the cozy, politically expedient relationship between the judiciary, law enforcement, a complacent DA and elected government officials, aided by unscrupulous attorneys, has fostered an attitude of arrogance, selective administration of justice, secrecy and benign neglect of moral responsibility that’s become culturally tolerated by the majority of folks in this area. Needless to say, I’m not one of them. My case against the town has exposed a can of worms of deliberate open meeting, open records law violations and is a long way from being concluded. I urge others to pull your heads from the sand. Exercise intellectual courage and good citizenship and demand the accountability that’s your right under the law. Remember, elections are but a few months away! Bradley Ayers Clam Falls-Somers Lake
Admission Now that Vice President Cheney openly admitted on network TV that the Bush administration gave the orders which allowed water boarding, I wonder how those who stubbornly cling to the “just a few bad apples theory” feel about this admission by the vice president.
Hopefully they do not believe, as the vice president does, that water boarding is not torture. That is a distortion of reality on a grand scale. Justification is a more likely scenario. That is if we don’t torture high-profile prisoners we put ourselves at risk. Clearly we are at risk of a terrorist attack, but it saddens me dearly to think that we have to use torture as a means of keeping our democracy safe. Doug Gray St. Croix Falls
A repeat? 1940, The Warsaw Ghetto was a walled off part of Poland where the Jews were forced to exist without adequate food water and health care by the German Nazis. Hate for the Jews was inflamed by the Nazi propaganda machine. When the Jews started an uprising it was brutally put down by the murderous Nazi soldiers with bombs and guns. 2008, The Gaza Strip is a walled off part of the middle east where the Palestinians are forced to exist without adequate food water and health care by the Israelis. Hate for the Palestinians is inflamed by the Israeli propaganda machine. When the Palestinians started an uprising it was brutally put down by the murderous Israeli soldiers with bombs and guns. History does repeat itself! Darrel Mathieu Luck
Special project will keep dignitaries warm at inauguration GREEN BAY - A Green Bay company that employs the developmentally disabled is working on a special project. Employees are making scarves that will keep dignitaries warm at next month’s presidential inauguration. The company–called ASPIRO–is used to making wool scarves for the military. But when Joan Pigeon, manager of government orders, looked at a recent order form something at the bottom caught
Tim DeChristopher is an economics
student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He had just finished his last final exam before winter break. One of the exam questions was, “If the oil and gas companies are the only ones who bid on public lands, are the true costs of oil and gas exploitation reflected in the prices paid?” DeChristopher was inspired. He finished the exam, threw on his red parka and went off to the controversial Bureau of Land Management land auction that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called “the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.” Instead of joining the protest outside, he registered as a bidder, then bought 22,000 acres of public land. That is, he successfully bid on the public properties, located near the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument, and other pristine areas. The price tag: more than $1.7 million. He told me: “Once I started buying up every parcel, they understood pretty clearly what was going on...they stopped the auction, and some federal agents came in and took me out. I guess there was a lot of chaos, and they didn’t really know how to proceed at that point.” Patrick Shea, a former BLM director, is representing DeChristopher. Shea told the Deseret News: “What Tim did was in the best tradition of civil disobe-
her attention. “It’s for the presidential inauguration, and we are making black scarves – 4,425 – for everyone that’s in the reviewing stand. So we are extremely excited about it.” The first order of 1,400 scarves is being shipped to Washington, D.C., this week. The other 3,000 must be done by the first week of January. Pigeon says about a dozen people are on the project.
They cut the American-made wool to size then finish the ends. There’s also a “made in Green Bay” label along with ASPIRO’s logo on the scarves tags. Pigeon says the workers are taking a bit of extra pride in this order. “And when they watch the inauguration on January 20, and they see anybody in the reviewing stand with a black scarf, they will know they had something to do with it because we are
resident, often invoked the dience, he did this without Industrial Workers of the causing any physical or mateWorld adage: “Direct action rial harm. His purpose was to gets the goods.” draw attention to the illegitiMore than just scenic beauty macy and immorality of the will be harmed by these BLM process.” sales. Drilling impacts air and There is a long tradition of water quality. According to disrupting land development High Country News, “The in Utah. In his memoir, BLM had not analyzed impacts “Desert Solitaire,” Edward on ozone levels from some Abbey, the writer and 2,300 wells drilled in the area activist, wrote: “Wilderness. since 2004 ... nor had it predictThe word itself is music. ... Amy We scarcely know what we Goodman ed air impacts from the estimated 6,300 new wells mean by the term, though the approved in the plan.” sound of it draws all whose nerves and emotions have not yet been ProPublica reports that the Colorado irreparably stunned, deadened, River “powers homes for 3 million peonumbed by the caterwauling of com- ple, nourishes 15 percent of the nation’s merce, the sweating scramble for profit crops and provides drinking water to one in 12 Americans. Now a rush to and domination.” Abbey’s novel “The Monkey Wrench develop domestic oil, gas and uranium Gang” inspired a generation of envi- deposits along the river and its triburonmental activists to take “direct taries threatens its future.” action,” disrupting “development.” As After questioning by federal authoriThe Salt Lake Tribune reported on ties, DeChristopher was released. DeChristopher: “He didn’t pour sugar The U.S. attorney is currently weighinto a bulldozer’s gas tank. He didn’t ing charges. DeChristopher reflects: spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. “This has really been emotional and But wielding only a bidder’s paddle, a hopeful for me to see the kind of supUniversity of Utah student just as sure- port over the last couple of days...for all ly monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and the problems that people can talk about gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that in this country and for all the apathy thousands of acres near two southern and the eight years of oppression and Utah national parks won’t be opened to the decades of eroding civil liberties, drilling anytime soon.” America is still very much the kind of Likewise, the late Utah Phillips, folk place that when you stand up for what musician, activist and longtime Utah is right, you never stand alone.”
c o o p e r a t i v e ! o w n e d
the only ones in the United States that make them.” Pigeon says ASPIRO may host an inauguration watching party, with everyone keeping a close eye to see if Barack Obama is wearing one of their scarves when he takes the oath of office. - Wisconsin Public Radio (Patty Murray)
His disruption of the auction has temporarily blocked the Bush-enabled land grab by the oil and gas industries. If DeChristopher can come up with $45,000 by Dec. 29, he can make the first payment on the land, possibly avoiding any claim of fraud. If the BLM opts to re-auction the land, it can’t happen until after the Obama administration takes over. The outcome of the sales, if they happen at all, will likely be different, thanks to the direct action of an activist, raising his voice, and his bidding paddle, in opposition. ••• Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. ••• Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 700 stations in North America. Her column’s appearance in the Leader is sponsored by the local group, The Gathering, an informal group of people of diverse ages, experience, and philosophies who meet every other week at a member’s home for silent meditation and lively discussions about peace, justice, spirituality, religion, politics, environment, global cultures and humanity. “We have a deep concern about how religious ideals affect society. Therefore, we are also interested in politics and in causes and programs, which will benefit our community,” says a spokesperson for the group.
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