FEAR ITSELF!

Sick of the hate and bigotry of Chicago my immigrant father moved us to Wisconsin in the 60s. He wanted to return to the more pastoral life on a farm he knew in Poland. As a boy I was astonished to see how welcoming people were. Folks we never met before would see that we were new to modern agriculture and pull in the yard and offer help and advice. I made friends quickly and met a girl and eventually married her. Life was good.

We are told now things have changed and to fear immigrants, that anyone new is to be feared for bringing murder rape and drugs. We need to carry guns. That life is now a nightmare of despair and declining prospects. Watch out because someone else might get more. And sex. Everything is about sex to the point where even displaying a rainbow is promoting perversion. Any opposition to these wild assertions gets you cast as a pedophile or a “groomer” or even a communist to the point where even small towns like Kiel were beset by bomb and death threats for simply policies that called for a little tolerance.

But yet even now I look around and see none of that. I moved about these same communities with no fear. I see no more crime or decline than than in the past and in fact see the signs of prosperity all around us. We drive decent cars. Our institutions still function. We have no more war than before. Those that say otherwise don't seem to remember Korea or Viet Nam or the Gulf War or that there ever was a draft for that matter.

In a few days we have a choice. We can listen to the purveyors of doom and decline. Or, we can believe what we see around us. I see no difference from the Wisconsin I found back in 1965. It is still the land of friendly helpful people, peaceful society and opportunity that it was then if we only have the courage to see it. Anything else is what Franklin Roosevelt spoke to at the depths of the Great Depression, a nameless, unreasoning fear itself. Choose courage! The future awaits.

Bernard J. Starzewski

4823 Greendale Rd.

Valders Wi. 54245

920 684-6565

Bob's Chickens Come Home

 But the look more like buzzards to me...r:

After reading your article about the newly discovered deficit at County Government I wish I could say that I'm surprised. I and others have been warning for decades now that no enterprise government or private can simply decree that cost increases do not happen. Budget after budget Bob Ziegelbauer had declared success in holding taxes flat. Yet, even in times of nominal inflation of 2% compounded over a decade the result is nearly a 25% cut in real revenue.

Bob has preened himself as a shrewd businessman but as Ive written so many times before his practices have been more of a shell game than a business plan. Again and again we have seen millions of assets wiped out or liquidated to cover his losses not to mention deferred maintenance. Whether it was selling the then new health care center for pennies on the dollar, chopping up the fair grounds, selling off prime real estate without an appraisal or disappearing millions in cash in his first term assets evaporated as revenue shrunk.

We saw the same thing when he was Manitowoc finance director as his austere budgets cause aged and critical structures to crumble. As if by magic low taxes would fix it all. Then ever playing the curmudgeon proceeded to insult the new administrations that dealt with the challenges he created for them. Yet the city for all its expenditures looks better. Its a better and safer place to live. Things are no longer broken. The sky didnt fall. With two years to go in what hopefully will be his last term the prospects for real reform remain in doubt. One might think he could step aside and allow new leadership in but the current county board is packed with his cronies who blindly rubber stamped it all, Chairman Martel in particular. There can be no question that more progressive leadership will be dealing with his failings for years to come. That is, if we are lucky and if we at long last vote for change.

Board Chair Tyler Martel
Campaigned on Bob's no-tax-hike platform

Bob Ziegelbauer

County Exec.

"... too aggressive on holding down taxes".