Wisconsin May be Open for Business---but our Schools Will be CLOSED

Everyone understands Gov. Walker’s attempt to balance the state budget, but snatching the bargaining rights from hard-working people is like hog-tying the cow before the slaughter.

Here are some points to consider:

• People who have owned successful businesses have had good workers, good customers, good lenders or investors, as well as public services such as schools, postal services, roads, etc. Why are we giving big businesses tax breaks and picking on public employees in order to balance the budget?

• How can you be a Badger fan without supporting the educational system it is built on?

• Public schools educate the minds of children no matter how much money their parents make. Is taking away people’s hope for a better life for their children a good way to balance the budget?

• One argument for Gov. Walker’s bill is that public workers do not pay toward their own health insurance or retirement; however, those who work in the public sector make at least eight to ten percent less than those who hold comparable positions in the public sector. Years ago, teachers and other public employees were offered benefit packages in lieu of higher wages. Now that health insurance has turned into a "golden cow," they want it back without talking about it.

So far, elected officials have used the “Do as I say, not as I do” approach. They need to take the proposed insurance and retirement benefit cuts first.

People who enter jobs in the public sector do so knowing that they will not get rich. These people understand that cuts need to be made, but the sacrifices must be done across the board.

Please let your elected officials know how you feel about this.

Walker Rant

When we study Thoreau in junior English, I talk about how Martin Luther King got his idea for peaceful protesting from Gandhi and Thoreau. These people believed that if the government did something objectionable, then it was the citizen's job, and right, to object.

So, consider this an objection.

Governor Walker's stance on refusing to negotiate with unions because "the state has nothing more to give" is infuriating and unfair. If it were not for unions, workers would not have decent wages, conditions and benefits. Granted, the state and national budgets need balancing, but why not set an example and start at the top?

Why can't the Governor show that he and the other elected officials are going to do some cutting too. I want to see them slice their salaries and benefits as much as they are proposing to do to the other state workers. Then, maybe people wouldn't resent it so much. It has begun to feel like a dictatorship that is accusing the workers for being at fault for the state's budget problems.

Walker should sit down with union reps and talk about what they can do to help make the most efficient cuts so that education is not compromised. This may take some time, but this budget deficit began many, many years ago, and it is not going to get repaired easily.

One would think that Walker would want his own two high schoolers to receive a good education from well trained, well educated, well paid teachers. Or, do his kids go to a private school? I don't know. But, that is what could happen if education and teachers become disrespected. What young person wants to spend five years learning and preparing for a profession that is not respected by our state's highest official?

Only the rich will be able to afford a good education for their children by sending them to private schools. Do we want this elitist attitude? Too many good, smart people have been educated in public schools.

MOST Creative Writing Class

Thanks to all my creative writing students this semester:) I will SO miss first hour with you all, and you surely did yourselves proud on your final projects---the movie, the readings at the coffee shop with bongos and everything! Wow. It only occurred to me after I got home why you were all laughing when I was going to read a poem about my dogs. How could I forget about the standing joke about me throwing the puppy out the upstairs window when I was two?

In honor of you all, here is the song I wrote for you that is to be sung to the tune of "Winter Wonderland."

Tiffany sings, oh so loudly

While Grant drones, monotonely

Megan G. says, "That's enough,"

And Paige says, "Hey, shut up,"

In my MOST creative writing class.

Amanda draws, 'cause writing's a bother

And Daniel writes about his mother

Taylor puts her work off

While Emily doth scoff

In my MOST creative writing class

In the back, Samantha is texting

to Meg P. who's visiting Hollywood

If you look close, Caleb is dozing

And Anthony is late and in "a mood."

Erin says, "I saw a movie,"

And Sophia says, "I'm from Germany"

And Nick takes it all in

And sits there with a grin

In my MOST creative writing class!

Thank you for the great semester!

Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie

Finals week is next week, and this semester of Creative Writing will soon be a memory. A good one, at that. This year I've had an interesting mix of students, all of whom can write, despite what they say about themselves.

Let it snow!

Ah! Christmas vacation! Snow, rest, lights, fire, hot cocoa, walks, cookies, books---all the things that make being away from the daily duties of teaching worth while.

On Christmas Eve I walked the dogs up the hill after dinner as the flakes fell on as silent o' night as I can remember. Lights glowed in the neighbors' warm houses as they celebrated their various seasonal rituals and traditions. In the quietude it was easy to seize the moment for its beauty, unlike those precious ones lost in the clatter of dishes and crackle of paper.

As I returned home, down the hill, our house glowed with warmth too.

On Christmas Day I walked the dogs again, this time in the other direction. I noticed that the snow sparkled, and I tried to think of a simile to describe it without using a cliche. So, that ruled out diamonds, frosting, sugar, pieces of glass, etc., even though they were apt.

While pondering, I decided to make a snow angel, so I put down the leashes and turned my back to the snow bank and sat, then lay down. Angel, the older dog, took it all in stride, but Brady cocked his head and looked at me like he was the smart one.

I began to move the snow with my arms and legs to form arcs for my "dress" and "wings." Only, I noticed I couldn't quite get my arms above my head like I remembered doing in the past. I tried harder, but it pained my shoulders.

My angel as fully formed as I could manage, I attempted to stand up. I didn't want to put my hands down to ruin the outline of my creation---but I couldn't get up.

Brady pranced around, laughing. He trotted over to help, and I said, "No, You'll ruin the angel."

It was no use, though. Wiggle and grunt though I might, I had no choice but to put my hands down in the snow to hoist myself, which left two deep impressions on the side of my perfect angel and a sprinkle of paw prints to boot.

I thought about trying another one to improve my technique, but the dogs were impatient. The important thing is I made the angel, and it was still pretty, though imperfect, there in the snow bank that looked like a frosted, sugary cake, decorated with a sort of angel-like impression.

When I got home, I told my husband the story and said my wing span isn't what it used to be.

He laughed and said, "That's because our body span is more than it used to be.

It was funny, only because he said "our."

To Fiction or Non?

Writing fiction is fun. It's like playing God to a world; in fact, one creates a world and the characters, the setting, the plot. It's heady stuff. It's also hard to do well.

I also enjoy writing nonfiction, though, then one is limited to the facts, or at least your version of the facts. Really, there is no such thing as nonfiction. Everything written is someone's rendition of something that really happened. Even biographies tell only the writer's side, and if that writer did interviews to give a more balanced approach, it helps, but it still is limited in perspective.

Maybe fiction is more honest and true than nonfiction, for at least the author does not claim it to be real and factual. It's been shown that even studies and statistics are skewed, depending on the survey questions, the demographics of those surveyed, and the prejudices (either outward or subliminal) of the researcher.

That being said, I do like reading and writing "nonfiction," but I always keep in mind that it is one author's perspective. Both fiction and nonfiction have a basis of facts, or else we wouldn't be able to relate to it at all. Even Star Wars has characters we can relate to. We all know a Han Solo or a Luke Sky Walker. Right, Mr. Ludlum?

What do you think? Fiction or non?

NoNames Ramble

The piles of papers I have to correct has driven me to blog. Yeah, anything to avoid them. I figure the stack will take me a total of 24 hrs. to grade, so there's no way I'm getting them done today. Why even try?

Went to see a movie last night at the Avalon, the local movie hub in downtown P'ville. They're hosting the Driftless Film Festival in the area, and the feature film I saw was called "NoNames." It was pretty interesting, really, but certainly not in an uplifting way. A group of townies in central Wisconsin spend their days getting drunk and getting high as a way to escape the town without leaving it. All seem to have no end of problems and no jobs to speak of, so they bond together in their hopelessness.

Every small town seems to have these characters who graduate from high school to the locar bars. Alcohol must make life seem challenging, or why would they keep going to the same establishment, paying good money to take part in the same stupid banter and suffering the same sickening hangover?

Darren Borrows (Ed Chigliak) of "Northern Exposure" fame portrays a local deputy in the flim who tries to talk some sense into the main character, Kevin, who insists on screwing up his life, over and over again, in a cycle of stupidity. Baxter, Wisconsin is a disgusting, toilet of a town, or at least that's the side of it that we're privvy to.

I couldn't help but compare it to "Northern Exposure's" Sicily, Alaska, where life in a small rural town was portrayed at quaint, serene, and fun, though immensely quirky. The viewer would love to be a part of the simple life in Sicily, whereas life in Baxter is seen as a prison sentence and the dwellers dopes for staying there.

Small towns can be OK, I think. It all depends on how you spend your spare time and brain cells. No different than in a city, really. Cities have bleak, seamy sides, too: homeless, jobless people, crime, gangs, etc.

The film had great music; lots of accoustic guitar and folksy songs. I liked that much better than the country, Farm and Fleet musak they could have chosen for realism. The soundtrack gave the film some flavor, in a good way.