Monthly Archives: April 2016

Voter ID – The True Purpose Revealed

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Glen Grothman (Republican in Wisconsin’s State Senate) said it out loud and into a microphone. When asked how he thought a Republican could win Wisconsin in the general election when such an event hasn’t happened since 1984, he responded, “…now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference.”

Voters now need to present a photo ID at the polls every time they vote. Drivers’ licenses, passports, military IDs – easy, right?

Wrong.

Let’s take Amigo for example. He’s blind; he doesn’t drive. He has a state photo ID because he had access to the documentation he needed and he had someone to drive him to the DMV to get it. When he lost his wallet at a school reunion, he was able to replace that ID at the DMV. It was a bother, but he had a ride (me) and someone to fill out the form for him (also me).

Not everyone has the advantages that Amigo does. He also votes in his home city, so the address on his ID is current. Take college students, for example. The liberal arts university in my fair city’s downtown had long, long lines last week. Long, long lines that meant waits of more than an hour. One reason: These college students moved annually, so their campus addresses changed. Another reason: the poll workers were stymied by the college IDs, identification that didn’t have addresses or dates on them.

In general, high voter turnout often favors Democrats. When the Republicans controlling our state government introduced and passed the law requiring photo ID at the polls, we progressives complained, and loudly. We knew, just KNEW that the goal was to make voting more difficult. We could tell this law wasn’t intended to combat fraud, but intended to keep more voters away from the polls. The right wing denied it over and over and over. And then Grothman went oops. He admitted publicly that he thought Voter ID would give the GOP an advantage over the progressives and Democrats so popular in our grand old state.

What’s next? Registration tests? Gerrymandered districts? Oh, wait, that’s already happening. More important, readers: what do we do next?

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The Dreaded Influenza A

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Most of my family members faithfully get the flu vaccine each year. Chuck doesn’t. For some reason, he doesn’t seem to be as vulnerable to the annual flu virus. This year, flu season is different.

Flu season this year came later than usual. Here it is April – April! – not November, not January, and both Chuck and Amigo are down with diagnoses of Influenza A. Chuck ended up in the emergency room a few days ago, struggling to breathe. After a chest x-ray, a nebulizer breathing treatment, and a flu test, the official word was Influenza A. Flu. The upper respiratory virus from hell.

Amigo got his a few days later. We were a little bummed; he’d been ill with some sort of virus for about two weeks, and I thought maybe that was his flu. He gets the shot every year, and that might have mitigated the severity somewhat. No such luck; he is currently curled up on the couch with pillows and blankets and a humidifier on high. Well, the humidifier is on the floor nearby. He’s not curled up with it. Yet.

Chuck most likely came in contact with the virus Tuesday night. His symptoms started in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Tuesday night he was out late covering Ted Cruz’ primary election event in Milwaukee. Governor Walker was there, too. Can I blame Cruz and Walker for my dear hubby getting sick? Maybe not, but I do like to blame the governor for anything and everything possible.

Meanwhile, he brought home the bug and got quite sick, too. I’ve been taking care of him the best I can, treating the symptoms and cooking up comfort foods.

Amigo’s symptoms turned up overnight Friday. His diagnosis was confirmed over the phone with the nurse on call. Once again, we’re treating the symptoms. Chuck was too late for the famous Tamiflu. Amigo couldn’t get an appointment within the magic first 24 hours, and the nurse told me many doctors are hesitating to prescribe it these days. There is some doubt as to its true effectiveness.

Meanwhile, I’m still healthy and knocking on wood and washing my hands and trying not to breathe near either of my guys. If I make it past this week…well, let’s not chance anything.

Readers, I’m feeding the sick ones (and myself) chicken soup and other sources of fluid and nutrition. Advice is welcome – for treating their symptoms and keeping myself flu-free. Add your prescriptions for comfort in the comments.

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The Spark Plug Award

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He said it felt like the Oscars. He was surprised. No, he was blown away when his name was called. He had no idea he was getting an award.

Despite his shock and awe, Amigo managed to give quite a nice acceptance speech. He thanked his parents for driving him to practice. He gave credit to his high school music teacher for getting him off to a good start singing. He mentioned that he had grown up surrounded by music and he enjoyed singing barbershop style.

His award is called the Spark Plug. The Spark Plug award goes to someone whose enthusiasm and energy bring a spark to the group. Amigo brings a spark with his voice, of course (he’s good! very good!), and he brings a spark with his attitude, too. He brings his voice, his musicianship, and his sense of humor to each rehearsal and performance.

I was such a mom. I had a major lump in my throat watching my boy, my young man, getting recognized and rewarded for being who he is – outgoing, friendly, talented, fun.

Anyway, readers, after the dinner was cleared and the awards were given, there was karaoke. Karaoke, at a barbershop party? These guys love to sing! I could have listened all night. But Amigo and Chuck were ready to lug the trophy home, so I enjoyed one more song (a local restaurant owner singing Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time”) and joined them to head home.

The Spark Plug Award has a place of honor on our fireplace mantel. It’ll stay there for a while – until next year, when Amigo gets to make a short speech and hand it off to the next harmonizer who energizes the group.

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Apathy; We can’t afford to go there.

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“The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”
-Jane Goodall
“Stopping Trump is the short term solution.The long-term solution – and it will be more difficult – is fixing the educational system that has created so many people ignorant enough to vote for Trump.” – Andy Borowitz
In Daisy language, the first quote tells me, “Get up and speak up. Do more than just vote; make sure others are getting to the polls. Get up off the couch and go make a difference. Get back into the volunteer circuit and do something to get a strong, decent, candidate on the way to becoming a strong, decent president.”
The second quote is more difficult. As I read between the lines, I see an indictment of today’s public education system, and I’m part of that system. So how do I address Andy Borowitz when he says the educational system is creating (infer: graduating) ignorant people?
Maybe I don’t need to address Andy. I know our public educational system has limitations. It’s not perfect by a long shot. One of the downfalls comes in the concept that public schools educate everybody; rich or poor, smart or not-so-smart, eager or apathetic learners.
And yet – and yet – that’s what makes our educational system unique. We educate everyone. One of the best lessons we can teach is that: everyone deserves an education.
The tougher lesson to teach, the one Borowitz suggests, is fighting ignorance. To root out ignorance, we (educators and families and whole villages) need to teach high level thinking skills. We need to teach our students to read, to analyze, and to form conclusions. With that in mind, I’ll pull up the late George Carlin. He’s the one who said, “Don’t just teach your children to read…Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.”
It’s in the questions that we’ll find answers. It’s in the questioning that we’ll find thoughtful, insightful voters. When those analytical, thinking voters get going, we’ll see an intelligent, analytical, thoughtful, insightful, candidate become an intelligent, analytical, thoughtful, insightful president.

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