Wisconsin Republicans Take Water Polluters' Show on the Road

Huge sand deposits in Central Wisconsin guarantee
environmental and health catastrophes if millions of
gallons of liquid and aerial cow manure are to
be dumped into the environment by Big Ag.

Madison, Wisconsin — The Republican Party continues its work this Summer to facilitate factory farms and other big ag operations in their deliberate poisoning and depleting of surface and groundwater.

But a traveling roadshow, the Speaker's Task Force on Water Quality, led by State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) claims to be looking for solutions to the same industrial-sized degradation to water quality for which Vos and his Party implement polluter-friendly policy on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and state legislature.

Vos' expensive sham is a political necessity for Republican lawmakers working for industrial polluters thanks to the work of citizen groups.

Even in the gerrymandered state districts drawn to elect Republicans, the polluters' lobby in the state legislature is forced to engage in propaganda campaigns claiming Republicans too believe in protecting clean and safe water.

Republicans run political interference for big ag polluters across Wisconsin. Without the gerrymander, the Party would have been run out of office by angry voters.

As the newest water polluters' political campaign, the Speaker's Task Force on Water Quality hearings are well-conceived as propaganda campaigns go, including luminaries such as George Kraft and U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist Marc Borchardt — academics whose findings on the grave danger big agriculture presents to water and life are ignored by every single Wisconsin Republican officeholder.

Republicans don't care about water quality anymore than they care about women's health.

The next stop on the traveling roadshow is in Tomahawk and Steven Point, July 23, 24. At the Stevens Point public hearing, the polluters' lobby will be met by many central Wisconsin residents whom big ag proposes to run out of their own, multi-generational homes.

PUBLIC HEARING
Speaker's Task Force on Water Quality
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
12:00 PM
Dreyfus University Center
1015 Reserve St.
Stevens Point, WI 54481
Laird Room North

A July 16, 2019 email from Saratoga Concerned, a central Wisconsin citizens group fighting for clean water and specifically against a proposed massive [Wyscoki] factory farm, urges residents to speak:

For 7 years our community has fought against the Wysocki's resisting their efforts to establish their toxic CAFO [Confined Agricultural Feeding Operations or factory farms] and polluting business practices within our township. Throughout this fight many of us have become incredibly aware of just how precious our ground and surface water is to us locally and statewide. We have learned the naked truth of how our State Legislature, controlled by deep political donors, continuously allows for the exploitation of our resources and turns a blind eye to water contaminating business practices running rampant in our state. Our beautiful Wisconsin waterways are quickly becoming toxic and our groundwater resources contaminated beyond repair. Wisconsin water resources are too precious and contamination is hitting too close to home for us to sit back and think our fight to preserve our water here in Saratoga is over. Please read the information below, then mark your calendars and plan to attend, or SPEAK, at the upcoming public hearing.

"Water quality has become a buzz phrase in Wisconsin. During his first state of the state report, Gov. Tony Evers declared 2019 'the year of clean drinking water.' Weeks earlier Assembly Speaker Robin Vos began setting up a task force to determine the key sources of water contamination and ways to remedy them," notes WUWM.

The 2020 general election will demonstrate how much damage and degradation big agriculture and its Republican allies can inflict on water before a critical mass of voters overwhelms the gerrymandered legislative maps Republicans drew to protect their party against the will of the Wisconsin people.

Small Farmer, Clean Water Champ on Christianity and Sustainability

No CAFOs

As people like John Ikerd, George Kraft and Rhonda Cain-Carrell fight for the family farmer, clean water, and sustainable and clean agriculture one has to wonder who could possibly be against their commitments.

Some thoughts by John Ikerd are below:

By John Ikerd

I am a Christian. So I celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus, as the seminal event of my holiday season. I respect the rights of others to hold beliefs different from mine– religious or otherwise. I have deepest respect for those who consistently give priority to the principles that are common to all of the major religions and enduring philosophies. Conflicts among believers invariably arise from the doctrine, dogma, and rituals that distinguish religions and philosophies rather than the principles that define human decency and goodness.

I am occasionally told that I speak like a preacher or an evangelist for sustainability. I take such remarks as compliments. In a sense, sustainability has become my religion. I was “raised in church,” as they used say about kids in churchgoing families. I attended church off and on over the years, mostly when I “raised my kids in church.” I gave up on organized religion when my religion began to interfere with my spirituality. This was about the same time as I began to understand and eventually became committed to the principles of sustainability.

I have found the principles of sustainability to be completely consistent with the core principles of virtually every major religion and enduring philosophy in the world. For example, Jesus said all of the laws of the prophets depended on two commandments.  First, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22: 37-39). The second, the Golden Rule, is a core principle of all major religions and enduring philosophies.

Sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising opportunities for the future. The needs of the present include the needs of “all” – not necessarily everything everyone wants but everything everyone actually needs. The first requisite for sustainability is simply the Golden Rule – to do for others as we would have them do for us, if we were in their situation and they were in ours. The second requisite for sustainability simply extends the Golden Rule across generations. It requires that we do for those of future generations as we would have them do for us if we were of their generation and they were of ours.

Regarding the first commandment, sustainability is rooted in a belief in some higher order, ultimate reality, or God from which the purpose of human life on earth is derived. Purpose cannot be proven through modern science; it must be accepted as a matter of faith. If there is no higher order, there is no purpose for humanity on earth, and therefore, no rational reason to be concerned about its sustainability. Sustainability is also rooted in love – in the belief the inherent goodness — of God, humanity, and the whole of creation. If the purpose of humanity is not good but evil, the earth would be better off without us. Souls gives purpose to hearts which emerge as intentions minds which guide the actions of bodies. When we act in ways the meet the needs of all of the present without diminishing opportunities for future we are expressing our love of God with all our souls, hearts, and minds.

“He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly” (paraphrasing John 10:10). This verse keeps running through my mind this Christmas, at a time when so many people in the U.S. seem desperate for fundamental change – for something more out of life. In this so-called Christian nation, there seems little hope for realizing the opportunity for abundance that was promised by the coming of Jesus. Perhaps we need to see abundance within the context of timeless religious and philosophical principles rather than contemporary economic dogma.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 37-38). Michelangelo put it simply, “As you give, so shall you receive.”  We judge and thus are judged, we condemn and thus are condemned, we refuse to forgive and thus are unforgiven, we take rather than give and thus are taken from. We are simply receiving in relation to what we are given – in good measure pressed down, shaken together, and put in our laps. The same measures we use to judge, condemn, deny forgiveness, and take away from others are “measured back to us.”

The timeless principles of human well-being tell us that abundance is not just about jobs, income, or wealth. True abundance comes from faith, hope, love, peace – from positive human intentions and relationships guided by a belief in the possibility of a life of purpose and meaning. Even our classic Christmas stories, such as Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Scrooge, convey the futility of seeking abundance through taking and hoarding rather than giving and sharing.  When we are willing to sacrifice the principles of honesty, fairness, responsibility, compassion, and respect for the sake of jobs, income, wealth, prestige, or power, we are given unemployment, poverty, hatred, and helplessness in return – in full good measure, pressed down. “As you give, so shall you receive.”

We are a deeply divided nation – perhaps more divided than at any time since the Civil War. As Lincoln said at that time, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We are as divided on the issue of sustainability as we are on many other matters.  Some see it as a national or global conspiracy to deprive them of economic opportunities. Others see it is a necessary sacrifice to keep the planet livable for humanity. Too few seem to see it as an opportunity for a more abundant life, a new reason to respect, to trust, to forgive, and to give. A commitment to sustainability gives us a logical reason to do for others as we would have them do for us, including those of future generations. The wisdom of the ages tell us that only by loving others as ourselves will we be accepted, respected, trusted, forgiven, and receive the abundance of life in return – in good measure, shaken down.

I do not write these things as one who has accomplished the mission of sustainable living but as one who is continually striving and frequently failing. That said, I feel a sense of contentment in the core of my being because I am confident in my purpose. I am confident the mission of sustainability is completely consistent the message of Christmas and the wisdom of the ages that guides us toward the positive possibilities of abundant living.