“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison
The
By Gabriella Hartlaub STAFF WRITER
Gov. Tony Evers declared a “year of mental health” during his fifth State of the State address Tuesday evening in a speech outlining a flurry of investment in education, workforce development and state welfare programs.
Evers opened Tuesday’s State of the State with his usual grandfatherly excitement as he announced “It’s good to be back!” to the crowd gathered in the Assembly chambers. The rest of his speech focused on the success of his administration over the last four years and ambitious proposals for Wisconsin’s record budget surplus of approximately $7 billion.
“I am proud to report to you tonight that in 175 years of statehood, our state has never been in a better fiscal position than it is today,” Evers said.
He went on to advocate for expanding state social welfare programs for small businesses, workforce retention and child care programs to keep Wisconsin’s economy growing and curb the state’s “brain drain” of young, educated workers.
“We can continue our progress making the wise investments we’ve long needed to — and not because anyone wants to make government bigger, but because Wisconsinites want a government that works, and works better,” Evers said.
Evers declared 2023 “The Year of Mental Health” as a way to a rm his commitment to curbing the mental health crisis in Wisconsin. Approximately one third of Wisconsin youth face feelings of “sadness and hopelessness” nearly every day and more than half report anxiety, according to the O ce of Children’s Mental Health’s 2022 Annual Report.
“The state of mental health in Wisconsin is a quiet, burgeoning crisis that I believe will have catastrophic consequences for generations if we don’t treat it with the urgency it requires,” he said.
and bridges were in “disrepair.”
Throughout his speech, he focused on his administration’s e orts to repair the state’s physical infrastructure and increase access to high-speed internet.
“We’ve gotten to work fixing the darn roads,” Evers said, adding that his administration has repaired over 5,000 miles of roads and 1,600 bridges throughout the state. “More than 387,000 homes and businesses will have new or improved access to reliable, high-speed internet, and I want to double that number by the end of this term.”
school employee recruitment and development and a $50 million investment to bolster the state’s healthcare workforce.
Beyond recruitment, Evers proposed investments in programs to expand public transportation for workers and expand access to childcare providers through employers.
Evers also talked about tax reform in regards to Wisconsin’s historic budget surplus.
Capital
All copy, photographs and graphics appearing in The Daily Cardinal are the sole property of the Cardinal and may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor in chief.
The Daily Cardinal accepts advertising representing a wide range of views. This acceptance does not imply agreement with the views expressed. The Cardinal reserves the right to reject advertisements judged offensive based on imagery, wording or both.
Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor in chief. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager.
Letters Policy: Letters must be word processed and must include contact information. No anonymous letters will be printed. All letters to the editor will be printed at the discretion of The Daily Cardinal. Letters may be sent to opinion@ dailycardinal.com.
Evers spent ample time restating his commitment to increasing funding for public schools and vetoing any abortion bills on his desk that would not overturn Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban. However, the Democratic governor made no mention of marijuana legalization, an issue that has been discussed in the last few weeks.
Evers instead focused his address on four main areas — mental health, infrastructure, workforce development and tax revenue.
His plans for addressing this crisis included investing $30 million of pandemic-related federal funds into new mental health resources in schools and $500 million from the state budget into behavioral health resources for adults around the state.
“We cannot look back two years from now as we prepare the next budget and wonder whether we should’ve done more and sooner to take good care of our mental health,” he added.
Evers mentioned Tuesday that, four years ago, Wisconsin’s roads
Evers also announced millions of dollars for workforce innovation during his speech. His proposals called for expanding access to jobs and diminishing barriers that keep people from long-term careers.
“We need to bolster the middle class; we need to maintain our economy’s momentum, and we need to reduce barriers to work and recruit and retain talent to address our state’s workforce challenges,” Evers said.
Proposals included $10 million for initiatives to retain and attract worker talent in the state, $20 million toward teacher and
He proposed a budget provision that would send up to 20% of state sales tax revenue back into communities for shared revenue and heralded his administration’s tax cuts for the middle class. However, he specified that he doesn’t believe in large tax cuts for the wealthiest 20% of earners, referencing Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu’s proposal to move Wisconsin to a flat income tax rate of 3.25%.
Evers described creating tax cuts for the wealthy as “reckless.”
“Spending billions on a flat tax isn’t a workforce plan or an economic development plan,” he added.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) responded to Evers’ speech Thursday night by taking questions from reporters after the event.
“This is typical Tony Evers, very liberal, a little bit more than he knows Republicans would ever accept,” Vos said when asked for his thoughts about the speech.
He went on to explain that he feels Evers’ proposals would increase government size and spending more than he would like.
He also made specific comments on taxes — an issue he felt deserved more of the spotlight.
“Evers spent so little time talking about tax reform. Almost the entire speech was about spending, one government program or another — my focus is on how we are going to reduce taxes by the most that we can a ord to also invest in,” said Vos.
you again and again because trauma and PTSD force you to relive that moment over and over. When Republican abortion bans supported by Dan Kelly and Jennifer Dorow force pregnancy and birth on a survivor, your right to choose what happens to your body is violated for a third time.”
Normalizing abortion is another step towards reproductive justice, according to activists and organizers at the Women’s March.
“Every one of us loves someone who has had an abortion, whether we know it or not,” Jabril said.
By Sarah Eichstadt STAFF WRITERThousands of protestors marched down State Street and gathered in the Capitol rotunda for the Women’s March Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights decision that was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2022.
Women’s March is a national organization that has held an annual march since 2017. Initially organized to protest former president Donald Trump’s election, Women’s March continues to advocate for women’s rights and social justice more broadly.
The organization chose Madison for the 2023 flagship march “Bigger Than Roe” because of Wisconsin’s upcoming State Supreme Court election, the outcome of which could determine the future of abortion access in the state. Several sister marches were held across the United States on the same day.
The protest began at Library Mall, where activists began their march to the Capitol. Representatives from Women’s March, the Madison Abortion and Reproductive Rights Coalition for Healthcare (MARRCH), and
Mobilize Wisconsin gave speeches inside the Capitol building.
Speakers at the Women’s March called on people to vote in the Wisconsin Supreme Court primary election on Feb. 21 and the general election on April 4.
Women’s March Executive Director Rachel O’Leary Carmona said she hopes the election is a step towards repealing the active 1849 law that bans in-state abortion unless it’s performed to save the pregnant person’s life.
“You and me need to make sure that our chosen leaders share our values and our vision for the future,” O’Leary Carmona said. “Nothing less than our whole democracy is on the line.”
Healthcare providers and other reproductive rights activists also took to the podium, saying the 1849 law puts pregnant people at physical health risk, despite the exceptions.
Providers face up to six years in prison or a maximum fine of $10,000 for violating the ban. Hannan Jabril, a self-managed abortion facilitator and MARRCH member, said it’s dangerous to let the law determine when an abortion is necessary to save the pregnant person.
“So much of medicine is
nuanced,” Jabril said. “Judgment calls between the provider and the patient and the care team. That’s why there is no safe way to restrict abortion access.”
Community organizer and MARRCH representative Amadi Ozier said steps toward a more feminist future include overturning the 1849 ban, reopening Wisconsin abortion clinics, providing free abortion services and allocating part of Wisconsin’s budget surplus to fund out-of-state abortions.
Abortion bans don’t a ect everyone equally. Black and Indigenous pregnant people are two to four times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than white people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Duke University study estimated that a nationwide abortion ban would increase maternal mortality by 21% overall and 33% for Black Americans.
“The battleground for reproductive rights is Black people, trans people, poor people, workers, incarcerated people,” Ozier said. “People without health insurance, people with mental health issues, people who already have children.”
Speakers stressed that reproductive justice encompasses more
than just abortion access.
T. Clearwater is an indigenous and reproductive rights activist with Mobilize Wisconsin. They spoke about the increased rates of domestic violence and kidnapping that indigenous women and other marginalized communities face.
“Women are kidnapped due to hypersexualization from being Indigenous and a very colonial racist idea,” Clearwater said. “It’s all fairly intertwined to an extremely deep point. I want to make sure that people who are marginalized aren’t erased in these conversations.”
According to Native Women’s Wilderness, over half of Indigenous women in the U.S. experience domestic violence, and Indigenous women are murdered at 10 times the rate of other ethnicities.
Current Wisconsin law does not allow abortions for pregnancies resulting from rape. Jabril said forcing a survivor of rape to carry out a pregnancy violates that person’s body.
“Abortion is a mercy for survivors,” Jabril said. “When you are assaulted, your right to choose what happens to your body is taken away from you. Afterwards, your right to choose is taken away from
Activist Rachel Fields, a Women’s March participant, held a sign that read, “I don’t regret my abortion.” She said she brought the sign to contradict the perception that pregnant people often regret terminating their pregnancy.
“As women, we are told that abortion is something you should regret,” Fields said. “For me, it was a healthy decision. It enabled me to have my family as it is today. I think that abortion saves lives.”
Although the majority of protestors came in support of the Women’s March, several pro-life advocates stood outside the Capitol building. John Goeke said he stood at the front of the Capitol to advocate for a more pro-life future.
“I want people to know the love of Jesus,” Goeke said. “If people are here wanting the right to kill their own child, they don’t know Jesus.”
The upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election is a nonpartisan election, but candidates vary ideologically. Conservative candidates Dan Kelly and Jennifer Dorow have been endorsed by prolife organizations while liberal candidates Everett Mitchell and Janet Protasiewicz voiced disapproval of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
After the Feb. 21 primary, the top two candidates will advance to the general election on April 4.
Benjamin Jealous spoke to members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison community at the Memorial Union as the keynote speaker for its Martin Luther King Jr., Symposium. The MLK Symposium, named after the civil rights leader who spoke in the very same hall in the 1960s, is held annually and features prominent Black individuals who have in some way advanced King Jr.’s fight. Past speakers include astronaut Mae Jemison and journalist Nikole Hannah-Brown.
At the age of 14, Benjamin Jealous began volunteering with Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign. He then started the first high school chapter of the Students for Environmental Action Coalition. This first foray into politics and grassroots organizing precipitated a lifetime of activist leadership that took many forms: the NAACP’s youngest-ever president, Maryland’s 2018 Democratic nominee for Governor and, currently, the president of People for the
American Way and executive director of the Sierra Club.
Despite the extensive work Jealous has done in the activism sector, he said in an interview with The Daily Cardinal and the Black Voice that he started college with the intent to pursue a career on Wall Street.
“Then, I realized how much the companies I would be investing in were part of the problem,” said Jealous, underscoring Wall Street’s problematic impact on civil rights and environmental justice.
Although he did not pursue work on Wall Street, Jealous still chose to devote part of his career to investing, though only in companies that have a “positive social impact,” he said. In his speech he delivered at the Union, he emphasized the inseparable relationship under our current economy between capital and the ways in which we can make forward progress.
He drew attention to the fact that prison budgets have significantly increased over the past few decades while education budgets have decreased. Those two trends are
interconnected, according to Jealous.
Jealous explained that the school-to-prison pipeline is a well-documented phenomenon that disproportionately affects Black and low-income communities and is intrinsic to the functioning of the prison industrial complex upon which the American economy in part relies.
“Poverty is maintained for division,” Jealous explained. “Your debt is literally the price to keep someone else’s kid incarcerated when he may just be addicted to drugs and in need of rehab.”
Jealous especially emphasized that lower-class white people have more in common with lower-class Black people than with wealthy whites — a point that King Jr. also espoused during his lifetime, along with other Black and white radicals and activists. He encouraged a unity based more on class than race, like the Black Panthers did when they collaborated with the working-class white group the Young Patriots Organization.
In modern sociology, a term often
employed for this is intersectionality: The ways in which various identities and social issues intersect in unique ways to create unique positioning in society. Jealous’ involvement with both racial and environmental justice organizations is no coincidence. He described the urgency of the latter issue, noting that “no battle for human rights matters if humanity itself is wiped out.”
Earlier in January, Jealous released a book called “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing,” which aims to subvert the identitybased boundaries that separate different groups in society to confront issues that face American communities together.
Throughout his speech, Jealous emphasized his commitment to helping young people advance the struggle for liberation. He described student debt as a shackle preventing that progress.
“If you want to truly see King’s vision realized, do whatever it takes to end poverty,” said Jealous. “Start by freeing yourselves from student debt.”
The current climate crisis presents a myriad of challenges: biodiversity loss, increased rainfall, flooding, erosion and extreme weather. The global scope of these e ects paints climate change as a daunting threat, but turning back to nature could provide potential solutions, according to the United Nations.
Land-based practices utilizing nature are a way to help lessen the e ects of climate change, according to the Guardian. At the local level, certain instances are being implemented in southern Wisconsin and on campus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Community members are using practices like ecological restoration and natural climate solutions to mitigate the e ects of a changing climate. UW-Madison built green infrastructure projects into its campus, and in southern Wisconsin ecologists are working to restore native ecosystems.
A microcosm of a larger trend in ecosystem restoration comes into view by zeroing in locally. This trend could be a promising solution to stabilizing the climate and conserving biodiversity on Earth, according to an article in Nature.
Restoration solutions in the field
Thor Gustafson, an ecologist who founded his own restoration firm, Gustafson Guild LLC, works with clients in southwestern Wisconsin’s Driftless area. His firm takes degraded farmland or personal yards and restores them back to native ecosystems, like prairies.
Gustafson said he believes there’s a
growing awareness among land managers that controlling complex and dynamic ecosystems won’t work in the future. He hopes ecological restoration will become more of a trend.
“Humans are expending a tremendous amount of time and energy and resources to come up with human solutions to problems that would have been mitigated had we not destroyed ecosystems,” Gustafson said.
Intact native ecosystems provide beneficial services like clean water filtration, nutrients, erosion control and flood mitigation, according to Gustafson. Prairies are especially good at storing carbon because of their deep soils that retain large stores of organic matter, he said.
“It’s a lot easier to have a prairie or have native woodland filtering your water than it is to have really bad water and have to build a huge [filtration] plant,” Gustafson noted. “But I think there’s a growing awareness of the services [ecosystems] provide.”
Susan Carpenter, an ecologist and native plant garden curator at the UW-Madison Arboretum, said humans are obligated to help ecosystems and nature because they provide those natural services for free.
Carpenter and her husband Steve own a 100-acre plot of land in the Driftless area that they actively manage, care for and restore. The land has a diverse range of plant and animal species, and ecosystems like forests, wetlands, prairies and streams.
The diversity gives the space a high conservation value, which enabled them to get a conservation easement stating the land will never be developed, Carpenter said.
“Having that diversity is going to probably provide the best kind of insurance for the future of healthy lands,” Carpenter said.
The complexity of whole, intact ecosystems adds to the ecosys-
Gustafson said.
The Campus Planning & Landscape Architecture division of Facilities Planning & Management
on campus. These features utilize natural land features to help direct and manage ground and stormwater, among other environmental benefits like providing biodiversity.
According to James, green roofs are particularly beneficial as they collect rainwater, absorb carbon, help buildings stay cooler and absorb heat to help lessen the heat island e ect.
“What we’re trying to do with green infrastructure is really marry [functionality and aesthetics] into something that’s more performative, in the sense that it’s doing something while looking good, and having all these other benefits,” James said.
tem’s benefits. When balanced, the intricate web of interrelationships between organisms allows biodiversity to flourish.
“You’re not so much protecting each and every little critter, but you’re protecting a system which supports itself,” Carpenter said.
Gustafson said the relationships between native plants, pollinators and other species is an example of these interconnected parts. The unique communities have evolved over thousands of years together and are integral for species to survive over generations.
“If we start messing with that, and we allow the wrong species to go extinct or we cross a certain critical threshold, we could see the biological collapse of these systems and lose all of the services they provide,”
at UW-Madison implemented urban natural solutions on campus, like green infrastructure. While different from large ecosystem restoration initiatives, the projects use and interact with the land to provide benefits as well.
The 2015 Campus Master Plan includes a Green Infrastructure and Stormwater Management Master Plan, which outlines various projects and opportunities for land use changes on campus over the current decade.
Green infrastructure is infrastructure that is not a hard surface or pipe and blends science and engineering with living things and art, explained Rhonda James, a senior landscape architect at UW-Madison.
Examples on campus include green roofs, porous pavement, rain gardens and native species plantings
A tenet in campus planning is to capture water where it lands and get it back into the groundwater where it belongs. This prevents the transfer of pollutants that typically travel with stormwater, said Aaron Williams, director of campus planning and landscape architecture.
“The environment tells us what it wants to do. Right now, there’s so many signs in the environment telling us humans are screwing this up,” Williams said. “I think we have to look back to how the environment functions.”
Land-based initiatives implemented locally connect to the broader worldwide trend of natural climate solutions, and Gustafson claims the livability of our planet depends on them.
“I really want to mitigate climate change and species loss, and I believe intact native ecosystems are the way to do that,” Gustafson said. “The most direct way to do that, certainly.”
As the University of Wisconsin-Madison reconciles with its past — one that critics argue is filled with expropriation and dispossession of Indigenous lands — new funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is allowing a group of faculty, sta and students to explore educational opportunities for the community.
A recent grant from the NEH provides funding for the education of indigenous land dispossession, entitled “Whose Land Was ‘Granted’ to the Land Grant? Teaching Indigenous Dispossession in Wisconsin and Beyond.” This program aims to educate community members about the Morrill Act — the 1862 grant of 1,337,895 acres of land for educational institutions (such as UW-Madison) from the Menominee, Ojibwe, Dakota and Ho-Chunk tribes to the United State government.
The funding was awarded to a team of project directors — Professors Kasey Keeler, Ruth Goldstein, Joe Mason, Caroline Gottschalk Druschke and Jen Rose Smith — who received the funding through NEH’s Humanities Initiative Grants. According to the NEH, the funding is intended to “strengthen the teaching and study of the humanities in higher education through the development or enhancement of humanities programs, courses and resources.”
“The NEH grant will allow our project team to dedicate time and resources to creating accurate, respectful and responsible educational modules about the land grant history of UW and how the land grant system worked across all of Wisconsin,” the team of project directors explained. “[This funding will] make visible the precise ways UW-Madison and other land grant universities directly benefited from the dispossession of Indigenous lands across Wisconsin and the way this has long been reinforced and upheld as settler colonial institutions.”
Project goals include the creation of interdisciplinary educational materials, along with lessons for interested commu-
nity members, the group explained.
“[The grant will be] used to create curricular materials, as either stand-alone one-day lessons that last from 50-75 minutes or as buildable lessons that allow faculty to incorporate a series of lessons [into their class],” the project directors continued. “It is also our goal that these materials be used outside UW-Madison by community members and tribal nations as educational resources.”
According to the team, funding will be used to “bring on several graduate and undergraduate students in paid roles to help us develop these materials.” Planned usage of the funding also includes capabilities for work outside of traditional educational responsibilities, with summer work being a main point.
The funding, allocated for 18 months, makes input from Native community members a main initiative.
“This [outreach e ort] may look like our project team traveling to visit the tribal nations of the state to learn from and with them and sharing or presenting our work, it may look like hosting tribal representatives at UW-Madison or it may look like paying stipends to community members who share their knowledge and expertise with us,” the team noted.
The group expressed that, although the eventual goal of the project is to inspire other universities created through land grants to “tell their own story,” the educational goals of the project are centered around Madison and the greater Indigenous community. The project directors are supported through a group of UW-Madison graduate and undergraduate students through volunteer work.
“We would also like to see this work extended into other institutional interventions, building from the important work of the Native Nations initiative, the work of the Our Shared Future Initiative and the work of the American Indian Studies program,” the project directors said.
In regards to future goals, the project includes advocacy
for free tuition for Indigenous students. In their view, this would establish a foundation for consistent dialogue concerning “what co-governance or even restored land and justice can look like at UW-Madison.”
The group explained that their work around Indigenous land dispossession and its education is only a first step. Even so, the team expressed that the work done by the project puts a large focus on the stories of tribes that were displaced as well as the history around them.
“We want to acknowledge the emotional labor of our Indigenous colleagues, tribal partners and American Indian community members — particularly those of Wisconsin tribal nations — who are regularly called upon to do the work of reconciling and being in dialogue about this painful history,” the team concluded.
The historic University Club building reopened on Monday, now operated by the Wisconsin Union. As part of the reopening, the University Club will add another union dining service called the Union Commons at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Union Commons is located on the first floor of the University Club building on Library Mall. A dining room, reading room and cafe each have several dining options such as Rooted Ground co ee and espresso drinks, hot and iced teas, a variety of toasted sandwiches, soups, chilis and other beverages.
The new venue not only provides another dining option for students but adds another seating location and study area which may be beneficial considering the regular long lines and limited seating at other Unions around campus, according to Shauna Breneman, the communications director for the Wisconsin Union.
There are several benefits of adding another university dining location for students, especially considering the growth of the student body, said Breneman.
“We are reopening the University Club in a way that maximizes seating and provides fast counter service at two Union Commons counters in the building,” said Breneman. “We worked to create another campus living room, like our buildings Memorial Union and Union South, that welcomes, engages and connects the campus community.”
In the past, the University Club provided
a place for members of the community to host educational and social events that promoted the cultural and intellectual life of the campus and community, said Mark Guthier, executive director of the Wisconsin Union, in an interview with The Daily Cardinal.
The club entered a state of financial exigency after the building was shut down due to COVID-19 conditions in March 2020, said Guthier.
“We, at the Wisconsin Union, look forward to continuing the University Club’s more than 100-year tradition of serving as a hospitality destination that provides dining experiences and spaces that promote social and cultural diversity and intellectual exchange,” said Breneman.
Members at the Wisconsin Union hope this newly renovated space will provide another area for students, faculty and Madison residents to grab a co ee, eat lunch or simply meet up with a colleague or friend.
Under the management of the Wisconsin Union, the Union Commons will be run similarly to Memorial Union, Union South and several other markets and cafes located around campus.
“We are thrilled to re-open this important and historic space for the benefit of the UW campus and Madison communities,” said Guthier. “We believe it will serve as another wonderful example of the positive impact the Union has in bringing people together.”
After being closed for a three-year period, the University Club has been working for
over a year to rebuild the Union Commons. The team professionally cleaned and repainted areas on the first floor, updated and installed equipment, and implemented Wiscard capabilities in the cafe and dining rooms, according to Guthier.
“Changes include redesigning seating; creating a new menu of sandwiches, soup, pastries and beverages; only o ering seating on a first-come, first-served basis; and o ering counter service rather than table service,” said Breneman.
Students and sta will be able to use their Wiscards at the Union Commons
and are eligible for a 10% discount on foods and beverages, according to the Wisconsin Union.
“We took time to thoughtfully plan how this space could best serve students, sta , faculty, the Madison area community and visitors,” said Breneman. “We are honored to re-introduce the University Club and open the new dining option Union Commons at the University Club.”
Both the University Club and Union Commons will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
By Nadya Hayasicl STAFF WRITER
A student-organized drag show at Madison East High School was postponed after conservative backlash on social media led to safety concerns surrounding the event.
The drag show, initially planned for Jan. 19, was organized and planned by the school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance. East High Principal Mikki Smith described the event as a “family-friendly drag show intended to celebrate, affirm and support EHS students and staff in [their] LGBTQIA+ as well as [the] larger school community.”
The school and the event received backlash after a popular conservative Twitter account, “Libs of TikTok,” posted a screenshot of an East High newsletter promoting the event. The original tweet received over 1.5 million views and over one thousand retweets, including one from former Republican Governor Scott Walker, who compared the event to a “strip show” which is “particularly wrong at schools.”
Madison Metropolitan School District spokesperson Timothy LeMonds described the decision to postpone the event as “pretty cut and dry” due to messages received by the school and the district that raised concerns about the safety of both students and faculty. He said the school district was overwhelmed by the number of threatening messages and could not coordinate with local
law enforcement to create an adequate safety plan.
“Even more concerning was what we were seeing being said on social media,” LeMonds said in a statement.
“Everything collectively just rose the security level quite dramatically. Now we’re talking about folks who are calling for protest and disruption outside the borders of Wisconsin.”
“Libs of TikTok,” run by former real estate agent Chaya Raichik, currently has 1.8 million followers. The account repeatedly faced temporary suspensions from Twitter for targeting members of the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as educators and healthcare professionals who provide gender-affirming care.
This is not the first time that “Libs of TikTok” has targeted and criticized a high school drag event in Wisconsin. In April 2022, the account posted a video of a teacher at Middleton High School performing a drag routine during a staff talent show, calling it “sickening.”
“Libs of TikTok” received a seven-day suspension from Twitter in October after criticizing UW Health for their gender services program. The account posted a thread targeting a UW Health surgeon for providing gender-affirming procedures to minors with parental consent. The account has been suspended multiple times on various platforms, including Twitter and TikTok, for inciting hateful comments and violent threats.
While LeMonds did not
specify the nature of these safety concerns, he said postponing the event is necessary to further assess the risks and reevaluate their safety plan to keep students and faculty safe.
“We’re a school district that prioritizes safety,” LeMonds said. “We felt from the time that this went viral to the time that the event was scheduled, we were not going to be able to work with law enforcement and develop a true comprehensive safety plan within that short period of time.”
LeMonds said though
students
“I think there’s a lot of disappointment because there are a lot of people, students, staff and even family members who are really looking forward to that event,” LeMonds said.
“But I think in general, people were very understanding and appreciative that we were prioritizing student safety.”
Madison East senior Ry Feiner, a member of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, told
“I hope this does not hinder the ability for us to continue hosting these events in the future,” Feiner said. “Whether it be drag shows or other queer events of any kinds, none of these things should be endangered.”
LeMonds said organizers have yet to find a new date for the show, but a decision will be announced within the next two weeks.
As a young student at Sauk Trail Elementary School in Middleton, Alex Joers could never have imagined that, in a couple of decades, he would have an office in the Wisconsin Assembly, advocating for public school investment.
But, that’s exactly what happened when Joers was elected to his first term in the Assembly this November.
A resident of the Blackhawk neighborhood in Madison, Joers represents the 79th District, which includes parts of the west side of the city of Madison and surrounding suburbs. He succeeds Dianne Hesselbein in the position, who was elected to represent the 27th Senate District this fall.
Although he has had the job for less than a month, Joers sees his first term as an opportunity to bring his constituents’ voices to a Republican-controlled Legislature he believes “does not represent the will of the people.”
“We have a lot of work to do to ensure that we’re pushing for not only fair maps, but the policies that Wisconsinites care about,” Joers said, referencing Wisconsin’s notoriously Republican-heavy state district maps.
Reconnecting with Madison roots Joers, 30, boasts a packed resume for his age. He earned degrees in political science and public administration at the University of WisconsinLa Crosse in 2015, where he was also a member of student government and worked on voter engagement campaigns.
After his college years, Joers moved back to Madison to work as a policy aide for the likes of Democrats such as now-Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard, former Sen. Jennifer Shilling and Hesselbein, according to his campaign website.
Joers also just began his second term representing District 9 on the Dane County Board of Supervisors, a position he was first elected to in 2020. During his time on the county board, Joers said he has prioritized ground-level issues that support healthy communities, including land conservation, flood mitigation, small business recovery, public health and affordable housing.
His priorities reflected his family’s background as small business owners. The Joers family opened The Little Gym in Middleton in 2004, according to his campaign website, giving Alex experience behind the scenes of a family-owned small business while leading activities and
according to WisPolitics. He was also active in the implementation of a gun buyback program last August in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, according to the Cap Times.
However, Joers felt his priorities weren’t reflected on a state level, where policies like affordable healthcare and public school funding often face “huge roadblocks” in the Legislature.
Joers ran for Assembly to change that — and to “reconnect” with the people of the 79th District, who he felt were worried about democratic decay.
“[My constituents] were very concerned about our democracy and making sure that we had institutions that were representative of the people,” Joers said. “That’s really what I’m here to do, is represent the will of the people and push for meaningful change in the state Legislature.”
Legislating in the minority
Joers now faces the challenge of getting his constituents’ voices heard in the 2023-25 biennial state budget. The Assembly will have a record state surplus of nearly $7 billion to work with — a sum Joers wants to give directly to municipalities for local public safety and public education investments.
Fulfilling campaign promises will be no easy feat for Joers, who sits in the minority of a 64-35 Republican-dominated Assembly. For Joers and fellow Democrats, working across the aisle will be necessary to pass any legislation.
Joers possesses a reserved optimism for bipartisanship. He noted there were “opportunities for us to work together and build bridges,” but that there were some key issues — notably, abortion and public school investments — he refused to compromise on.
“We need to start by making sure we get that [1849 abortion ban] off the books,” Joers said.
Investing in education
Joers looks to make a big impact on higher education, specifically through his seat on the Committee on Colleges and Universities this term. Investing in public schools is an issue that Joers feels “has to be a priority for Wisconsin if we want to build a better future for our kids”
Students in UW-Madison’s class of 2021 graduated with an average of over $27,000 in debt each, according to the university.
Joers, a UW System graduate, took issue with the increasingly unaffordable cost of college.
His top priority on the Committee is to push for student loan debt advocacy bills that prevent students from “being taken advantage of” by lenders.
“That starts with making sure our UW System and technical colleges are funded
in the way that they should be so students aren’t having to take out these huge loans to be able to seek a degree that they need to get a job,” Joers said.
The weeks since inauguration have been busy for Joers, who’s jumped between meetings while trying to settle into his new Capitol office. But for Joers, the people of the 79th District are always on his mind.
“I’m just really looking forward to the opportunity to do my best to bring the voice of the 79th district to the state legislature,” he said.
The Wisconsin Badgers’ surprise hire of Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell has given the program what they’ve desperately lacked in recent years — momentum.
The No. 13 Wisconsin Badgers picked up their first conference win Friday against the No. 24 Purdue Boilermakers before falling just short of an upset on Sunday against the No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes in a weekend pair of home dual meets.
Wisconsin’s narrow 19-18 loss against the Hawkeyes came down to criteria, with Iowa winning what was originally an 18-18 tie because they scored more overall points through all 10 matches.
Hawkeye wrestlers dominated early matches after a strong start at 125 pounds, where Iowa’s top-ranked Spencer Lee pinned Wisconsin’s Eric Barnett late in the second period. Iowa won three of the next five matches to take a 15-3 lead.
However, Wisconsin quietly chipped away at the deficit with a pair of close wins from Dean Hamiti at 165 pounds and Josh Otto at 174 pounds before roaring to life with Tyler Dow’s stunning upset over No. 8 Abe Assad at 185 pounds. Dow hit double over hooks to pin Assad midway through the first period, sending Badger fans into a frenzy.
While Iowa ultimately prevented an upset, the Badgers’ performance Sunday exceeded expectations.
The undefeated Hawkeyes entered the Wisconsin Field House as one of the nation’s top teams and had more ranked wrestlers than the Badgers, according to Intermat.
Wisconsin head coach Chris Bono cited the electric atmosphere at Sunday’s dual as a contributing factor to the Badgers’ surprising success.
A total of 5,256 Badger wrestling fans packed the Field House to shatter the program’s previous attendance record of 4,168 set during the 2018-19 season, according to UW Athletics.
“This is what I envisioned when I came here,” Bono told
reporters Sunday afternoon. “It’s such a home-field advantage for us.”
Sunday’s loss was the second meet in a three-day stretch for the Badgers, who secured their first conference victory Friday evening with a 28-9 home win over the No. 24 Purdue Boilermakers.
Purdue jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in hard-fought lightweight bouts, but Badger wrestlers outshot the Boilermakers to clean up seven out of eight remaining matches.
Wisconsin’s highlight win came midway through the evening at 157 pounds, where Garrett Model upset Purdue’s No. 3 Kendall Coleman. Though Coleman led most of the match, Model hit a last-second takedown and rode out Coleman for a 4-3 decision that electrified the Badger crowd.
“Not giving up eight, 10 points in the first period, my track record says, helps me go get that takedown at the end [and] secure the match,” Model said after the dual.
Wisconsin’s win over Purdue on Friday was their first taste of victory in a Big Ten conference that has five of the top ten NCAA Division I wrestling teams in the nation, according to Intermat Wrestling’s latest rankings from Jan. 17.
With Sunday’s loss against Iowa and three other conference losses this month to Illinois, Michigan and top-ranked Penn State, Badger wrestlers currently sit near the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
Still, Bono said the weekend matchups marked a “really big improvement” in energy level among Badger wrestlers and remained optimistic about the rest of the season.
“I’m super proud of the environment that has been created by this team, our administration [and] our University,” Bono told reporters Sunday evening. “We’re on an upward trajectory.”
New offensive coordinator Phil Longo is bringing the “Air Raid” offense to Madison, which will represent a culture shock relative to the traditional plodding offenses that Badger fans have become so accustomed to. Longo’s system emphasizes passing. It’s built to stretch out receivers to create open windows in the defense.
The system was pioneered by the late Mike Leach, who led moribund programs such as Texas Tech and Washington State to new heights with the help of the Air Raid.
In order for the offense to work optimally, it must be led by a dynamic quarterback with enough arm talent to throw vertically, while also providing a rushing threat.
In a matter of weeks, Fickell completely evolved the quarterback room via the transfer portal and recruiting. The wealth of new options should give the Badgers a chance to contend in the Big Ten for years to come. Let’s preview who might be behind center this year.
Tanner MordecaiOf Fickell’s many transfer portal acquisitions, Mordecai was the big fish. The graduate transfer is coming off of two prolific seasons at SMU where he played in 24 games over two seasons, while also posting huge numbers. In those two years, he racked up 7,152 yards and 72 touchdowns, with only 22 interceptions.
Mordecai started his career in Oklahoma under the tutelage of quarterback whisperer
and coach Lincoln Riley. ESPN rated him a four-star recruit out of high school, and despite barely playing for his first two seasons, Mordecai has more than lived up to his rating.
The transfer quarterback will almost certainly be Wisconsin’s starting quarterback next year, and fans will hope his one and only year will be as successful as Russell Wilson’s Badger stint a decade ago.
Evers was Fickell’s first quarterback addition out of the portal, and many viewed him as the next expected starter before Mordecai came along. Evers most likely won’t start this year, but it’s entirely possible he will get the keys to the offense after this upcoming season.
Evers is still young, as he was only a true freshman for Oklahoma last year. As a consensus four-star prospect out of high school, Rivals tapped him as the fourth best dual threat QB in his class.
Evers didn’t get the chance to prove himself this year, but considering he received offers from Auburn, Florida and Oklahoma, he is clearly a talented passer who can start for multiple years after 2023.
Chase WolfWolf is the elder statesman of the Badgers quarterback room, as he is entering his sixth year on the roster. Most of his tenure has been spent doing mop up duty, as he has backed up multiple Badger quarterbacks over the years, mostly Graham Mertz.
The veteran got his moment to shine this past December, when he led Wisconsin to a win in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl by going 14-31 for 229
yards and two touchdowns in Fickell’s first game on the sideline. Wolf’s experience and leadership will be useful this season, but don’t expect him to get major playing time unless there are injuries.
Burkett is another young quarterback who is certainly intriguing, but is simply stuck behind more experienced options on the depth chart. The Franklin, Wisconsin native was a true freshman last year and is entering his sophomore season in 2023.
He was a three-star recruit — according to Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN — but had a prolific high school career. He earned the Wisconsin AP and Gatorade Player of the Year honors as a senior, and led his high school to a sterling 14-0 record and a Division 1 state title. Burkett is an under-the-radar name and could realistically compete with Evers for the starting job once Mordecai leaves. Keep your eye on Burkett.
LaCrue is the youngest in the room, as he will be a true freshman next fall. He was mostly recruited by the previous Badger regime as a three-star prospect, but he will have as much of a chance as any young Wisconsin signal-caller.
He led Broomfield High School to a state championship and an undefeated season in Colorado, where he threw for 2,648 yards and posted a stellar 26-to-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio. LaCrue is a developmental project right now but will have every opportunity to learn behind more experienced Badger quarterbacks and will provide depth.
After an arduous campaign season, the nominees for the 95th Academy Awards were finally announced by Academy Award winner Riz Ahmed and actress Allison Williams via livestream early Tuesday morning from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Of the 301 films considered, 54 emerged with nominations in 23 categories, but just 10 managed to receive a nomination for the coveted Best Picture award. The field of contenders this year is notably diverse in style and tone, from the profoundly comedic “Everything Everywhere All at Once” to introspective period pieces à la “The Banshees of Inisherin,” and — in a rare move for the Academy — major blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
The 2023 field of Best Picture contenders is noticeably broader than those of previous years — nominees included both Hollywood darlings and obscure arthouse films. This could be the Academy’s attempt to draw in greater viewership to the awards ceremony on March 12. Last year, despite the buzz garnered by Will Smith’s controversial Oscars slap, the Academy experienced its second worst ratings of all time, bested only by the year previous.
As of now, the masterful “Everything Everywhere All at Once” seems to be the frontrunner for Best Picture, amassing a total of 11 nominations — more than any other nominee this year. However, the film has some sti competition. Read on to see what the Cardinal sta has to say about each of this year’s Best Picture nominees.
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
Edward Berger’s 2022 adaptation of Eric Maria Remarque’s novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” translates plain prose to brutal, pictorial visual language. What begins with a quiet and pastoral landscape turns eventually to ceaseless carnage and violence underscored by gripping cinematography and individual performances from Paul Baümer.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” is a seminal reworking of the original book that relentlessly pummels and violates. It’s not a necessarily pleasant viewing but instead one which pays respect to the magnitudes of human brutality and turmoil.
— Kai W. Li, Arts EditorSince “Avatar” was released in 2009 and became the highest grossing film of all time, it has been subject to discourse surrounding its cultural impact and jokes about its lengthy runtime. Director James Cameron seems to have taken those critiques and retorted with an astounding three hour and twelve minute sequel.
Cameron’s latest is, to put it lightly, a masterpiece. The sequel follows protagonist Jake
Sully, his wife Neytiri and their family, whose lives are uprooted following the return of humans to Pandora. In order to protect their tribe, Jake and his family flee their home, finding solace in a coastal tribe. With wellexecuted themes of anti-imperialism and environmentalism, mind-boggling visual e ects and emotional storylines, “Avatar: The Way of the Water” is a phenomenal sequel that proves Cameron’s continuing pentalogy can win over audiences and critics alike.
— Annika Bereny, Sta Writer“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“The Banshees of Inisherin,” written and directed by Martin McDonagh, is a stellar tale exploring the abrupt end of a great friendship. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson give touching performances as Padraic and Colm, respectively. Kerry Codon delivers a standout performance as Padraic’s sister Siobhán, who o ers intelligence and rationale against the irrational reasons for the friendship’s abrupt end. Both characters make you feel the loss of their falling-out as well as the lasting e ects it has on themselves and the people around them. With the help of Ben Davis, McDonagh does a fantastic job of showing the growing separation of these characters through excellent cinematography while also highlighting the beauty of the Irish coast. Lastly, McDonagh shows his genius as a director by enhancing the movie’s commentary about friendship and loss of humanity via setting the film during the Irish Civil War.
— Kennan Chojnacki, Sta Writer“Elvis”
My first impression of “Elvis” was one of absolute hysteria, thanks to my mom Gina. Gina has been a fan of Elvis Presley since childhood. Sitting before the big screen with my sister and I perched comfortably on either side, my mother could barely contain her excitement. As the movie progressed, we were transported into the fanatic world of Elvis Presley through Austin Butler’s spectacular performance. The use of modern musical theory interwoven among iconic rhythm and blues tracks made the film a perfect piece for viewers of all ages (Note: points were removed from my rating due to Tom Hanks’ unsavory and frankly annoying performance).
— Athena Kafkas, Sta Writer“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is undoubtedly the best movie I have seen this past year. From its outstanding editing, set design, world-building and choreography to unforgettable performances by Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, this movie definitely checked all the boxes for me. And to only have a budget of $25 million and
five people in the VFX department — just wow! It definitely felt like I was on an emotional rollercoaster all throughout the movie. It’s equal parts exhilarating and exhausting, tied in with hilarious, gut-wrenching fun. The movie itself is simple yet extremely e ective in plot and writing, allowing the actors to leave everlasting emotions and thought-provoking questions about the contemporary world. With that being said, this movie deserves to win because when we pull back the curtain — in this case the universe jumping and crazy shenanigans — the viewer is left with a profound and relatable story of self-discovery and family reconciliation.
— Alicia Zilch, Sta Writer“Everything Everywhere All at Once” feels at once tributary and personal, pushing irreverently against the scrim of its genre. Its setting within an eclectic multiverse often feels pointed and intensely parodic of Hollywood tropes without losing its intention, sincerity or voice (its stylistic flairs of old retroHong Kong martial arts films feel, at least for me, deeply nostalgic). In all its visual fractures and cinematic oddities, what truly ruptures and overwhelms you is the emotional sincerity of its characters and their actors. It’s why the film feels large and allusive without confounding grandeur with excess.
— Kai W. Li, Arts Editor“The Fabelmans”
Directed and written by Steven Spielberg, and inspired by his life, “The Fablemans” tells a heartfelt coming-of-age story centered around Sammy Fableman, played by Gabriel Labelle. Although the movie may over-fantasize life and pull the audience out of the film, the solid emotional beats highlighting the dynamic nature of life keep the watcher emotionally invested. A standout performance adding emotional weight is Michelle Williams’ portrayal of Sammy’s
Mom, Mitz Fableman. Williams does a fantastic job highlighting her discomfort and inner suffering as an artist trapped in a boring, hierarchical family. At its heart, the movie is an ode to rising artists and old cinema that highlights the beauty and sacrifices one must endure to succeed.
— Kennan Chojnacki, Sta WriterThe only words to describe Todd Field’s “Tár” are riveting, mystifying and gut-wrenching. The film follows master conductor Lydia Tár who is stunningly portrayed by Cate Blanchett in what might be the best performance of the year. At the movie’s onset, Lydia is at the height of her career — she’s an esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, has a new book on the way and teaches a masterclass at Juilliard. However, Lydia’s egoism and flagrant abuse of her status soon catch up to her as her life begins to unravel in a spectacularly and utterly horrifying way. Expertly crafted and performed, “Tár” is one of the most competitive nominees for Best Picture this year and would be well deserving of the distinction.
— Noah Fellinger, Arts EditorAt first glance, “Top Gun: Maverick” is an unlikely Best Picture nominee. But unlike its military propaganda predecessor, this iteration depicts the titular Maverick (Tom Cruise) as a man working through feelings of irrelevance and loneliness in a world that’s moved on from the aggressive masculinity of the 1980s. It’s a far more compelling story arc that Cruise executes masterfully alongside a new cast of Top Gun recruits, including Goose’s resentful yet delightfully fruity son, Rooster (Miles Teller). The added character depth, when combined with the original movie’s exhilarating midair antics and invigorating sound e ects, makes Top Gun’s sequel a summer blockbuster worthy of
“Triangle of Sadness” starts out with promise but ultimately ends up feeling about twice as long and half as deep as it should be. The core premise — a luxury yacht has a disaster-filled night and eventually strands its passengers on a deserted island — has most of its potential squandered by on-the-nose portrayals of upper-class entitlement and hypocrisy. Parts of the film are definitely entertaining, especially the drunken ramblings of Woody Harrelson as the ship’s Marxist captain, but it hardly feels Best Picture-worthy. However, the performances and direction are solid, and class satire is all the rage right now, so a win wouldn’t be too surprising.
— Spencer Ball, Sta WriterOne of the most harrowing and powerful movies in recent memory, “Women Talking” is a film that delves into the complex and emotional lives of women in a remote Mennonite community. In the film, the women of the Manitoba Colony discover that the men who have controlled them through religion their entire lives have been using anesthetic to rape them for many years. This sparks a debate among the women: should they leave or stay and forgive their abusers? The film expertly balances the gravely serious subject matter with raw humanity, making it a truly moving and impactful viewing experience. The performances by the all-female cast are outstanding, particularly those of Claire Foy and Frances McDormand. “Women Talking” is a must-see film for anyone interested in exploring the complexities of gender, power and religion. Though it might not be a clear frontrunner for Best Picture, the award is certainly not out of reach.
— Noah Fellinger, Arts EditorNothing says January quite as much as the smell of excess hope in the air; The ambitious progress is at an all time high, and of course, the gyms are at their peak attendance.
Ah yes, the era of New Year’s resolutions has fallen upon us once again.
We all know — either from personal experience or ongoing jokes — about the lack of longevity for New Year’s resolutions. Forget a whole year, if you can survive a whole month of following through with the goals you set, then you’re already an outlier compared to the rest of the population.
But, have we ever really stopped to think about why these resolutions are rarely seen all the way through? Perhaps what leads to these failures is the goals themselves, and not the people setting them.
Let’s be honest with ourselves here: It’s not at all pragmatic to assume that the second the clock hits midnight on Jan. 1, we will all of a sudden be able to up and change habits we have from the previous year.
That kind of pressure we all put on ourselves is
the real issue at hand — not our willpower.
In order to make New Year’s resolutions realistic for the entire year, we have to start aiming smaller (at least initially). But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t set big goals for yourself, it just means that in order to reach those big goals, you have to let your “new” lifestyle develop at a comfortable rate rather than push yourself into one that’s not sustainable.
You wouldn’t run a marathon without ever having completed a 5k run, would you? View New Year’s resolutions the same.
We have to build our way to them; the results we want won’t come immediately. Pushing yourself a bit more day by day is where the most headway will be made.
And, what I think is most important to remember, is that your January of this year isn’t going to look like your December.
It won’t look identical to anyone else’s either, and it shouldn’t.
By December, your habits will have followed a natural progression so they will actually become a part of your daily routine, whereas at the start of the year, you’re just beginning your journey.
As with anything new that you introduce, it won’t be comfortable at first. It might feel unfamiliar, strange and outright wrong to change your lifestyle, but at no point should it feel unreasonable. If so, perhaps consider eas ing up on your expectations so it becomes more practical for you.
If your goal is to read more books this year, start off with a timeline you know will push you but still allow you to get that daily reading in.
If you aim to get more sleep, don’t attempt to go to bed one night five hours earlier than usual and assume you will continue. Instead, go to bed half an hour earlier at first.
If you desire to be more physically active, start by moving your body in a realistic way for you, rather than creating an intense workout routine you’ll have forgotten about in two weeks.
2023 doesn’t have to follow the same patterns every other year has.
Aim big, but give yourself a timeline and an environment you can thrive in so that your resolutions become part of a sustainable lifestyle and not just a month’s phase.
By Eliza Tool STAFF WRITER
It’s time to spring into second semester at the University of WisconsinMadison, and if you’re looking for some advice, here’s a shower of suggestions. School is hard, winter is cold and moist socks are uncomfortable, but finding ways to freshen up your school year isn’t an impossible task.
or the scenic Edgewater Ice Rink.
You could take a relaxing stroll through the capital or drill a hole in the ice and go swimming in Lake Mendota.
Consider visiting the Chazen Museum of Art for some elevated views.
PAIGE STEVENSON/THE DAILY CARDINALThe New Year comes with many resolutions, but don’t forget that you are already amazing!
As the new year begins, you know what that means — many of us are taking time to reflect on the past and setting goals for the future. But before you go crazy with unrealistic goals, let’s talk about how to improve the most important aspects of your life slowly yet effectively.
While it can be challenging to completely overhaul our routines, taking a more moderate approach can make a big difference over time. One of the best ways to do this is by turning our past patterns into healthier (and smarter) choices — one step at a time. Take the routine you already have and modify it.
Maintaining better physical health is one of the goals most of us set for ourselves each January. Whether that’s sporadically purchasing a gym membership (see you at Kamps classes) or suddenly becoming vegan — physical health is a great start. One surprising way you can
improve your health is through your sleep habits. Simple changes such as going to bed just a few hours earlier can really impact your motivation and energy levels, and propel healthier choices. Allow yourself to do what is necessary to stay healthy like walking that extra mile or attending that cycling class at the Nicholas Recreation Center you’ve been dying to try.
Another way to start the year o right is by setting goals for your mental and emotional well-being. Standard remedies include practicing mindfulness, journaling or seeking out therapy or counseling. Start small — take your daily walk while listening to your favorite podcast or call a family member during a co ee outing at the Memorial Union, and make it a permanent part of your routine.
Everyone is fulfilled in di erent ways. Brainstorm ways to determine what fills your cup and makes you happy.
By setting goals that are impossible to achieve
overnight, you’ll find yourself discouraged and will fall right back into old habits.
Instead, implement modest changes that will enable you to achieve greater success in the long run. Lasting, meaningful change takes time.
Start this year off right by telling yourself there is no limit. The only thing limiting you is yourself — you are worth it. Make 2023 your year. It’s the year that you can set and reach your goals.
Remember that as long as you are being true to yourself, that version of you is enough.
The new year is a great time to reflect and start fresh. By turning our comforts into more restorative options, we can improve our overall well-being without feeling deprived or restricted. Starting small will ultimately yield big results. Remember that progress, not perfection, is what’s important. So, let’s make this year one of slow and steady selfimprovement and have a Happy New Year!
Grocery shopping on a budget is always a challenge, and keeping food sustainable is another goal on many people’s minds. The Open Seat Food Pantry provides students with meal boxes at East Campus Mall. Free on Monday nights? Slow Food UW prepares a “pay what you can” meal each week to connect the campus community with sustainable food from farmers around southern Wisconsin.
Fun activities in Madison
While winter is still in town, try ice skating at the Shell during Open Skate, available five days a week,
The Winter Carnival is coming up, and the Wisconsin union is hosting a slew of free events for students, including guest speakers and film screenings. Speaking of films, the Wisconsin Union Directorate hosts movie nights weekly at Union South.
If you’re three Bubblrs deep at 11 p.m. and don’t know where to go to finish that essay, Kwik Trip is open all night and has both table and countertop seating. Another late-night destination, the business library is regularly open until midnight.
For academic help, UW provides tutoring to students in sev-
eral ways: “Drop-In” to GUTS for last-minute help on a tricky problem or make an appointment at the writing center.
And, to fill some free time, you could join a club! The student organization fair is Jan. 31 at the Kohl Center.
Shopping near campus Fashion fanatics will love the Dig-And-Save, where you can pay-bythe-pound and find cheap clothes and furniture alike. Proper interview attire is available for free to students at the Career Closet where you can select four pieces a semester.
This spring, you don’t have to walk around with wet shoes: locations around Madison like Burlington Coat factory sell discounted winter boots.
Although winter is long and cold, spring is almost here, and the hope for warmer weather and happy faces is growing every day.
Even throughout the cold winter months, shelves in Wisconsin’s supermarkets are perpetually stocked with lettuce, berries and citrus of all kinds. While Wisconsin’s growing season might be over, warmer states such as California and Florida continue to grow produce that we enjoy everyday. Extreme weather events, however, may make it harder to find the seasonal produce we’ve come to expect.
Wisconsin’s agriculture and economy are heavily linked to both its fellow states and neighboring countries. In the United States, Wisconsin is the leading exporter of ginseng, cranberries, whey and sweet corn. The state’s economy, however, is also heavily dependent on imports from across the U.S., especially fruits and vegetables. A large player in keeping produce on Wisconsin’s shelves, even through the dead of winter, is California.
“There are a lot of foods, especially a lot of fruits and vegetables … that are really well suited to California,” said Andrew Stevens, assistant professor of agriculture and applied economics at the University of WisconsinMadison. “If [Wisconsin] is a part of the breadbasket of the United States, California is the salad bowl.”
California produces over a third of the country’s vegetables as well as three-fourths of its fruits and nuts. California is able to produce this much
produce, especially leafy vegetables with a short growing season, because of its irrigation techniques. Over 40% of California’s agricultural land is irrigated, totalling 9.6 million acres and consuming over 34 million acre feet of water. That much water could fill Lake Mendota 83 times and cover over 31 million football fields in one foot of water.
“One of the benefits of irrigation is that you can give a plant exactly the optimum amount of water when you want to,” Stevens continued. “For a lot of farmers in California, as long as they have access to water, they don’t want it to rain because the rain screws up their whole system.”
This carefully maintained system, however, has been heavily affected by the devastating storms and flooding in California that started in late December 2022. These seemingly never ending storms were caused by waves of atmospheric rivers. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands in the atmosphere that carry immense amounts of water vapor. Most atmospheric rivers are relatively weak systems that provide beneficial water and snow. This year, however, backto-back confluences of atmospheric rivers, com-
bined with a sudden drop in pressure called a “bomb cyclone,” has caused flooding, destruction and the death of over 19 people.
While these storms seem far away from Wisconsin, they have potential ripple e ects that could a ect your next trip to the grocery store. These floods can wash out entire fields of high demand — short life cycle crops such as lettuce or kale.
“Do I think you’re going to see empty shelves? No, but that’s because the prices [will be] higher,” Stevens said.
Stevens went on to describe that because much of the crops a ected are planted in short, overlapping cycles of two to three months, California’s agricultural system will bounce back relatively quickly. However, this may lead to a short term increase in price, as less produce is imported from California and may instead be imported from places farther away such as Mexico and South America.
“To some extent, these higher prices are the economy working to ensure that there’s still lettuce on the shelf when you go to the grocery store,” Stevens commented. “If you’re doing a double take and saying ‘Maybe I’m not gonna have a salad this week,’ that’s the system working.”
By Julia Wiessing SCIENCE EDITOR
In the darkest time of year, it is still di cult to see stars from Madison. Walking down State Street at the end of a busy night, you likely won’t be able to spot many bright stars, much less constellations. People across the world have been noticing this phenomenon, and a citizen science project has found that light pollution is causing the night sky to get bright, making our stars and constellations “disappear.”
This paper, published in early January and helmed by a team of researchers from Germany and Arizona, used citizen science observations to track light pollution from 2011 to the present. Light pollution is caused by artificial light, most often in cities or other populated areas. Light pollution causes skyglow, wherein the night is much brighter. You might notice that in densely populated areas like Madison, there isn’t a clean transition from sunset to the night sky. Instead, the city is blanketed in an artificial twi-
light as man-made light scatters across the atmosphere.
In order to measure skyglow over time, research tapped into citizen scientists across the globe. Individuals were given examples of different skyglow, from very dark to very bright, and asked to choose the image that most closely represented their night sky at home.
Researchers paired these observations with satellite data and found a statistically significant change from 201122. They found that there was a 9.6% annual increase in sky brightness, likely caused by the increased use of artificial lights outside. If these trends continue, someone born today would have night skies four times brighter than ours and see many fewer stars than we do today.
Sky brightness not only a ects our star gazing — it also a ects our culture and the natural world around us. One consequence of skyglow is changing relationships between night-time predators and prey. Predators require su cient light to
hunt by, and a brighter night sky means an easier time seeing and catching prey.
Artificial light can also a ect natural cycles in the environment. In Florida, baby turtles use the light from the horizon to guide them to the sea. Light pollution, however, may confuse them and cause them to crawl in the opposite direction away from safety. Increased sky glow also a ects migrating birds, disrupting their circadian rhythms and disorienting them, often leading to collisions.
Nevertheless, there are
solutions to light pollution. For us in Madison, the easiest actions to take include shading light when possible and not overusing it. Shades on lights and lamps direct light downward, preventing it from bouncing into the atmosphere. Light overuse can be a large problem in urban areas. You can prevent light overuse by turning o lights when they’re not in use, limiting the scope and brightness, and reducing the time it is on.
If you’re looking to escape Madison and see the stars again, there are places in
Wisconsin and around the world that have escaped the worst e ects of light pollution. Dark sites like these are some of the best places to view constellations. Wisconsin is home to 12 dark sky parks, most far away from urban areas. One of the closest parks to Madison is Devil’s Lake, nestled in the foothills of Baraboo. The park is a scenic hour drive away, and hosts fantastic hiking, climbing and swimming. If you go on a clear night, you may even be able to spot a far o planet or star you’ve never seen before.
The concept of artificial intelligence first punctured my juvenile mind on a brisk fall morning five years ago. At the time I was an arrogant ninth grader, enveloped with a façade of self-importance and completely disinterested in the slow crawl of societal advancement.
Community is my suburban high school’s sales pitch, and it’s expressed through the ritual of morning assembly. Every day at 8:15 a.m., our 600-person student body filed into the auditorium — usually to entertain mundane announcements and chidings over our inevitable shortcomings. But every so often, we were treated to the spectacle of an outside speaker sharing “real-world knowledge.”
I especially hated these mornings. Between the hours of eight and nine, all I could think about were the flu y pillows and warm duvet I illogically abandoned an hour earlier. I groggily lacked the desire to explore any existential questions deeper than what the cafeteria was serving for lunch sixth period.
One November morning in 2017, I deserted my thick pyramid of blankets and collapsed into my assigned seat — hoping to capture the final fumes of sleep before they evaporated forever. I was completely unaware that half of Silicon Valley would have mortgaged a limb to trade places with my slumped corpse.
Our guest that day was Sam Altman, John Burroughs School class of 2003 and President of Y-Combinator, a company I did not
know or care about. But during his presentation, he pivoted to discussing a side project — his new start-up, which he called OpenAI.
Five years after I almost fell asleep listening to his presentation, Altman and his little company would release the most powerful computerized assistant ever — ChatGPT.
That vignette is how I, a human being, decided to open this column. From the time we were restless elementary students, our English teachers taught us to “show, don’t tell” because stories engage the audience’s mind. Starting an essay with an anecdote is an e ective way to hook the reader, which is why so many writers rely on the trope.
There are many ways to write a lede, of course, because elegance and e ectiveness are subjective, highly situational choices. Another route I could have taken was this: As we move into the future, it is clear that artificial intelligence will play an increasingly central role in our lives. From self-driving cars to virtual assistants, artificial intelligence is already beginning to revolutionize the way we live and work. But what does the future hold for this rapidlyevolving technology?
Some predict that AI will eventually surpass human intelligence, leading to unprecedented advances in science and medicine. Others worry about the potential negative consequences of such a development, including job displacement and the loss of human autonomy.
As we navigate this brave new world, it will be important to consider the implications of our choices
and to ensure that the technology is used ethically and responsibly.
Bored? Yeah, me too. That’s how ChatGPT would have started the article. More specifically, that’s how ChatGPT thought Joan Didion, my favorite writer, would have started the article.
A language master, Didion possessed the command of a Cy Young
in gas stations.”
If I attempted to emulate the woman who titled her anthology “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live” with writing as vague as what ChatGPT spat out, I don’t even think my mother would have pinned it to the refrigerator.
This is the essay of someone who just found out it’s due tomorrow.
YouTube and many other competing forms of entertainment, a reader can find better things to do than ponder redundancies like “already beginning to revolutionize …”
Altman concedes that his technology is still “incredibly limited.” But, artificial intelligence will improve and has improved even since I started writing this piece. Where it is now is not truly important — what matters is the ceiling.
Five years ago, when ChatGPT was no more than an idling concept in a spiral notebook, potential is what Altman focused his presentation on. “This is going to change everything about everything,” he declared at the time.
ChatGPT is a language learning model — it analyzes a slew of written text from every corner of the internet and picks words based on prior human choice. It studies what has been done before and mimics it, not truly creating anything new.
winner. Her pitches were powerful verbs and descriptive metaphors, which she used like a devastating slider on an 0-2 count.
She once likened the 1960s American to San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, declaring that “In a city dedicated to the illusion that all human endeavor tends mystically west towards the Pacific, Grace Cathedral faces resolutely east.” When covering the 1988 Presidential Conventions, she mused that there was a reason “the people with whom I had preferred to spend time in high school had, on the whole, hung out
We’ve all been there, losing it in the library — lacking any substance and needing a whole lot of makeup. We resort to stringing synonyms together (“ethically and responsibly”) and using overworked clichés (“this brave new world”) that once meant something before they solidified into an uninspiring sequence of words.
Didion often described writing as a “hostile act.” Her job, as she saw it, was to force the audience to understand her perspective through rhythm and unique structure. Channeling this emotion is even more important today. With Netflix,
On a surface level, human creativity is not much di erent. Just as Didion influenced me and my writing, she found inspiration in Ernest Hemingway and Henry James. We do not conjure ideas from our mind’s abyss; we build bridges on pre-made foundations.
Take William Shakespeare, the grandfather of English vernacular, as an example. While he did not invent the rhythmic concept of iambic pentameter, he is remembered as the meter’s master.
He saved it for his most powerful lines, and littered scenes of intense emotion with the style.
Readmore@dailycardinal.com
“You can’t help screaming — [the torture] makes you writhe all over … We had hallucinations afterwards, we each lost five pounds from the torture sessions. We couldn’t talk straight. We had burns on our hands. They didn’t allow us to sleep for almost two nights running. We were threatened with rape from the beginning.”
This harrowing account by two sisters, detained and tortured under martial law in the Philippines, is just one of many testimonies in a 1976 Amnesty International report which uncovered the endemic torture and human rights abuses of political prisoners under former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
University of Wisconsin-Madison historian Alfred McCoy estimated that 70,000 people were arrested, 35,000 tortured and 3,257 killed under martial law in the Philippines.
My family lives in the northern part of the Philippines, a Marcos Sr. stronghold, since he hails from the province of Ilocos Norte. His cult of personality is so prominent that my Lola (grandma) insisted we drive eight hours north to see his remains when I was on one of my first trips to the country, at age six.
But with numerous conflicting narratives about the Marcoses blurring the distinctions between truth and reality, I wanted to develop a better understanding from someone who was actually there.
Martial law: A dark chapter in Filipino history
Martial law was declared in 1972
as Marcos was approaching the constitutional limit of two presidential terms. The o cial justification was quashing an ongoing communist insurgency. However, within hours of martial law being declared, Marcos’ strongest political opponent, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, was arrested despite lacking any ties to the insurgency. An initial 50,000 people were detained within the first few weeks of the declaration of marital law.
The majority of the imprisoned were common people, “not suspected communists.” Some were engaged in political criticisms of the Marcos administration, others were simply arrested for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. All were detained for extended periods without due process and without being told the charges levied against them. When the 14-year period ended in 1986, the communist threat was (and still is) ongoing.
Despite this dark chapter of Filipino history, Bongbong Marcos, the despot’s son, won the Philippine presidency in the 2022 April elections and questioned the legitimacy of the report. In an interview leading up to the election, he said, “Let us ask Amnesty International to share that information that they have and maybe it will help us make sure that the system works and what alleged abuses occurred should not occur again.”
While visiting my Filipino family during the lead-up to the 2022 presidential election, I attempted to interview both supporters of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and his opposition candidate, former Vice President Leni Robredo. I quickly
gave up the e ort when I tried to interview sta ers in Robredo’s campaign o ce. Rather than supporting her campaign, the sta ers I interviewed were actually Bongbong supporters who simply were doing a job.
However, this failed interview attempt does not diminish the active resistance against the Marcos family.
News organizations like Rappler have made an active e ort to expose the terror of the Marcos era and promote remembrance of martial law human rights abuses. For this work, founder Maria Ressa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
Additionally, survivors of martial law torture have not remained silent through the ascension of Bongbong Marcos Jr. A coalition of activists, led by former political prisoner Bonifacio Ilagan, presented multiple petitions to the Philippine Election Commission on Bongbong’s ineligibility due to charges of tax violations. The Supreme Court, however, dismissed these petitions in a decision Ilagan lamented as a “an o cial stamp to the restoration and rehabilitation of the Marcoses.”
In spite of these valiant e orts, Bongbong Marcos won 29.9 million votes — almost double that of his closest competitor, Robredo.
When I contacted human rights activist, poet and photographer Thomas Jones — one of two Amnesty International lawyers who traveled to the Philippines where he interviewed political prisoners and published the titular 1976 report — I suppose I was looking for a way to make sense of what was happening. I
sought reassurance that my country might be okay, but the answer was complicated.
Jones began the interview by showing me the documents he accumulated throughout his career in human rights. Among these documents lay undeniable proof of Amnesty International’s work in the Philippines, contrary to Bongbong Marcos’ feigned ignorance of the 1976 and 1981 reports and Marcos Sr.’s claims that Jones had never even visited the Philippines. One of the most damning pieces of evidence is a letter from the Philippine Embassy, which explicitly arranged a meeting between the Amnesty International lawyer and Marcos himself.
When describing Marcos, Jones characterized him as charismatic and “brilliant,” but throughout their meeting, he knew the dictator “put on a show” for the delegation. Jones said he was actually grateful to Marcos for “opening the door
When asked if Bongbong shared the same brilliance as his father, Jones replied, “Not at all. He’s very weak… He’s not a leader. He’s a tool of the forces of authoritarianism.”
Regardless of his level of intelligence, the Bongbong campaign has run a sophisticated crusade to rehabilitate the image of his family and promote the Marcos era as a “golden age” of stability and economic growth for the Philippines. Bongbong has further sowed disinformation in speeches and interviews. When questioned about the Marcos Family’s $10 billion dollars of ill-gotten wealth, he asserted such accusations were “fake news.”
for us to go into the prison[s].” He credits the openness of the regime to Amnesty International being underestimated, as the mission to the Philippines took place prior to the organization winning its Nobel Peace Prize in 1977.
