THIS IS REALLY, REALLY EASY!

(Home Culture & Society Politics, Voting & Elections/Frazer Chronicle)

Who are you supposed believe, who are you supposed to trust, and finally, “and I really mean finally, who are you going to vote for, without exception, that is the $64,000 question. I’ve read and heard about voting being our solemn duty because we are members of the greatest country ever invented by man.

 

If it’s so important for us as American citizens to be “counted” at the voting places, somebody please tell me why in the world people are expected to vote in parts of New York state and many areas in New Jersey…..bet you can’t.

 

All the jabbering, cat-fighting, mudslinging, negative ads, and good old “dirty politicking,” only two candidates and two parties survived the campaign. Nobody else has a chance, and they really never did, the Green, the Libertarian, Constitution, American Populist, Socialist Action, or the Socialist Alternative parties all came in a distant 3^rd. compared to the Republican or Democratic parties.

 

There are literally hundreds of political parties in the United States, there are even some that are registered, but do not nominate candidates, or list an agenda…..they just are. States have an “official” state chapter of major parties as well as some of the minor parties. New York State has 9 such parties, Oregon 4, Puerto Rico 8; Puerto Rico isn’t even a state, “aren’t they a commonwealth or something?”

 

My point with regards to all of these different political parties in our country is…..”you know me,” simple.  If we allowed, “as a nation,” so many political parties, the cost would be monumental, and the time necessary to sort out all the candidates would be unbelievably labor intensive.

 

So we’ve come up with this basic two party system to hoist one of the candidates into the President’s chair in Washington for a 4 year term. “I’d say something like (it, our system, isn’t perfect, but it seems to work for us,) but I won’t, why you ask…..because it isn’t true. Fraud misappropriation of funds, twisting truth is just the “tip of the ice-berg” of what is wrong with our system.

 

I have a solution, a really simple way of cutting through all the bull----, Republicans want less government, they do not believe in entitlements, and think taxes are way too high. I know it’s simple, sure I left a bunch of stuff out, but what I have said explains in a “nut-shell” what Republicans are all about.

 

Democrats would like to see a bit more government, and for sure not to reduce its size the way it is at present. They think government knows best, want to help people, expand entitlements, and raise the tax on rich people. Again, I’ve left some out, but you get the just of where I’m going with this.

 

No alternatives…..not at all, on this final day of campaigning, I want to throw a new name into the “hopper” what about a comedic, a funny man, somebody who has the capacity to make most of us laugh almost all the time, and about any subject…..he’s smart too.

 

WHAT ABOUT:

What about a fella that fills the bill to a “T”, a guy who has been in a slump lately, but is ready to break out, and regain his role as an innovator of government, as a man with foresight, able to deftly handle any political emergency, and to boot, is a likeable, good looking fella.

 

His political party, STAG “Self Talking American Government Party,” their political platform, everybody’s got a voice and needs to be heard. It’s time for visionaries to take charge of government, and get things going for the people, not for special interests groups, or some black or white guy thing. Poke-a- dot, that’s where we need to go, and then everybody is happy.

 

That man…..Pat Paulson, he is immanently qualified, and has but one flaw…..he died in 1997….but that is just a technicality, one that I’m sure we can overcome…..if we all work together. Remember, vote early and often tomorrow…..November 6, 2012.              

 

YOU WANT MY WHAT!

YOU WANT MY WHAT!

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Frazer Chronicle)

Every day for the past three weeks or so, calls from high ranking officials, the President, the challenger, his wife, my Senator, my Congressman, a former President, and pollsters. To top the whole thing off, I’ve even gotten a couple of calls from my friendly bill collectors; thank God my dog hasn’t died yet.

 

Any more I hardly listen; I pick up to either silence, or break into the middle of a conversation and simply hang up. Am I tired, absolutely, can I do anything about it…..no, I suppose I’m sounding like kind of impotent bastard…..which I am. I’m going to put with this crap until November 6 at which time they, “the calls,” will magically stop. “I can hardly wait.”

 

This morning my wife pointed out an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about this lady in Mukwonago, a Milwaukee suburb, who like me, is sick and tired about all the calls she is getting. What made both my wife and I stop was the fact that one caller knew that this women had an absentee ballot, and why she hadn’t voted yet.

 

There was a recall election several months ago attempting to remove Governor Scott Walker from office, “which failed,” and pollsters had access to who voted…..and how they voted. That’s right, I voted to get the “dink” out of office thinking my vote was private…..but it wasn’t. I was shocked, the reasoning, it, the vote, was a different kind of voting, therefore was open to public viewing…..wow, wow.

 

Now these data base places can have access to “not how you voted,” but whether or not you voted, and if you applied for an absentee ballot. I’m sure the rest, (at this point) is guess-work as to how you voted. However gathering “cookies” from a computer, getting a list of the most recent books you have read, or which newspapers you read or the magazines in your trash can give one of these data base businesses a pretty good idea about which way you will vote.

 

MILLIONS IN CAMPAIGN SPENDING:

I get several pieces of political advertising every day, it’s disgusting, at least to me, it represents a huge waste of time, effort and money plus the fact that I am more than capable of making up my own mind about who to vote for. I watch, I listen and I read and after this, I throw out what I feel is nothing more than “feel-good” or “stroking” and I make up my mind.

 

There aren’t any last minute revelations that are a “game changer” for me, I have already methodically researched each candidate, and will vote for, who in my mind is the best person for the job. The last thing that would influence me in a Presidential election is whether the candidate is black, white, a Catholic, or a Muslim, I simply do not care, I base my opinion on fact, and what each candidate has said, and for how long they say the same thing about a particular issue, in other words, “no flip-flopping.”

 

 

 

I do not look on elected officials as a special “breed of cat,”  capable of making only just and righteous decisions, I realize that these people, in the public eye, stand tremendous scrutiny, they are probed, poked and are basically living in a looking glass.

 

It’s a life-style that comes with the territory of being a publically elected official, they know it, or at least they’d better know it, and they have to deal with it. For most of us, that is the big draw-back, being under the eye of a telescope no matter where you go, or what you do.

 

You picture is pasted on all sorts of advertising literature with your approval…..or not. Old school friends, mostly girls who are now women come right out of the wood-work in tell-all interviews, newspaper articles, or worse, in books written hastily, and often with the help of an imaginative ghost writer.

 

Do we need to keep an eye on our elected officials, “you bet your sweet little Bippy,”  these people are as flawed as any of us, in fact, maybe more so, they seem to have almost “unchecked” apatite’s when it comes to making good sound decisions…..”the wrong way.” They have so many chances to go astray that it’s no wonder they fall off whatever wagon their on.  But fall off they do, and we, as human beings seem to help them dust off, rearrange their cloths and allow the person to  go on with their job.

 

TOO MUCH AT STAKE TO ALLOW SHENANIGANS:

Every single election, from city dog catcher to the President of the United States, any event where people gather together, and appoint through their vote is important, it is a building block of what we are, how we collectively think, and how our democracy operates. Our system is the envy of much of the world today.

 

Polls, guesses, and projective predictions on who is a winner cuts out what our system is all about. We vote, and we wait for the eventual winner, the way our system is supposed to operate, it, waiting for the winner is the very best part of the process. I don’t care how you voted, and I won’t divulge how I voted, I am more than willing to wait for the morning paper to let me know who won.

 

Campaign reform…..absolutely, we need it, and we need it now, I could care how the Supreme Court rules, or what their opinion is, reform belongs in the hands of the electorate. We need to get a level playing field so that anybody with good ideas can run for public office, or for that matter…..anybody can run, even if they have lousy ideas.

 

These pollsters, data gathering companies, and super packs need to stop, forthwith. If a data gathering outfit can get information on whether or not you have an absentee ballot, how long do you figure it will take them to extract whatever information they want, “huh,” maybe…..forthwith.

 

Maybe the lady in Mukwonago let it slip to a neighbor that she hadn’t voted yet, and that person called a date company with that valuable info…..one never knows.

THE WALL!

(Deltawin/Frazer Chronicle)

 

N.P.R. "National Public Radio" really has it all together, the radio network is pretty much nation-wide, and unlike talk radio, offers both sides of an issue equal time to express their differing opinions.....and then "doesn't express their own opinion on the subject."

 

Ya that's right, a radio host that doesn't interrupt, doesn't talk over guests, and doesn't call people derogatory names," I know, I know, it's hard to believe.....but it's true, "way to go N.P.R." I wish there were more like you out there.

 

I was listening this morning to this political scientist, "I'm not sure what that means," and he was talking about election trends, political polls, and how they, "polls" can effect voters. This one women called in, and talked at length about the importance of religion in our leaders, and how the issue plays out in every election  at least for her and many of her friends.

 

She didn't name "her friends," but I will.....they are "bubble people," those people that live in a bubble and have little or no idea about what is going on within the confines of our country, and surely not with the world at large.

 

This lady, I'll call her "Bubett" said that "she now felt at ease about both Obama, and Romney because they both had expressed their belief in God." She, "Bubett" was now thinking of voting for the current President because of this fact.....Obama's religion. She was, and is a Republican, voted for McCain in the last election, but now that Obama was a religious man, and she didn't like some of what Romney seemed to stand for, this single fact, about religion, might give her an alternative.

 

Without a doubt, this women is the epitome of stupidity, obviously she's never heard about the separation of church and state, or the wall that exists between church and state, and has since 1801 when Thomas Jefferson wrote these now famous word:

 

"I contemplate with Sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should (make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,) thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."

 

TODAY'S GRITTY QUESTIONS ABOUT RELIGION:

You know the questions that seem to plague us every four years or so, the radical Godless left, the uncaring right wing. Two different thought processes that never seem to come together and work for the good of the whole of America. Both sides, liberals and conservatives have their "hawks" who beat their collective differing  drums.

 

Pledging ones allegiance to a country, or saying the Lord's prayer at the beginning of every school day isn't outdated, or for that matter an influence to be patriotic or religious, it's something I did every morning of my "school career" until either the 7th. or 8th. grade. It was simply a quite time before the rigors of the school day began.

 

And believe it or not, today I can understand the questions surrounding what I took for granted and never questioned, before the start of every single day in my early schooling years. Pledging allegiance to a flag, or saying a prayer doesn't make a kid a patriot, or a religious zealot, it's just something that we did.

 

I didn't pen this phrase, but I've found it to be accurate, "I don't trust anybody who doesn't drink, smoke, or swear." Everybody has a flaw, a weak point, or a soft spot for something a religious person shouldn't have. I think it's why we call ourselves human beings. We all were born in sin.....if you believe that kind of stuff.

 

My mother, "rest her soul" was a private person with regards to her religion, she felt that her religion was something to be lived each and every day of her life. One of her "weaknesses" was food, my mother lived to eat, loved to cook, and loved to serve others with what she had prepared. I have somewhat the same problem with food, and like my mother, I've battled all my life with weight problems.

 

Religion has absolutely no place in politics in our country, with almost no exception. Women's rights, equal rights should be practiced by everybody.....and it will happen just as soon as women decide that they really don't need a man to hold a door for them, or expect men to "man up," when it comes to dealing with a situation, how they may be treated, or what their "manly responsibilities are."

 

DID YOU EVER HEAR ABOUT THE RELIGIOUS WARS?

Religious wars have been going on for centuries throughout the world, these wars are an example of the weaknesses that each of us has as human beings. Why would one religion be better then another.....ya, I can't figure that one out either.

 

There are hundreds of religions around the world, some believe one way, another believes another, yet every religion has a supreme being, a "boss" if you will,  that must be respected, prayed to, and tithed too.

 

I never have figured out way people need to pay, monetarily to a religious supreme being, somehow it almost seems like a luxury tax, like I got this big old Cadillac, or this huge boat, and I gotta pay a luxury tax on. I understand that God is great, and he's good, but he needs 10% of my paycheck.....wow, that seems a bit high in this day and age.

 

I believe.....in something, and my belief does in fact have a supreme being, my belief is kind of like a circle.....so the devil  can't corner me. My religion, my faith.....is quiet, is personal and private, how I was raised. I do not judge people, or at least I try not to. I don't feel that I have that right. I of course have an opinion, but it's only my opinion.....and we all know that people have at least two things that are the same, a posterior area and an opinion, and both should be kept to ones self.

 

I know it's close to elections, whether the current president, or the challenger capture the office, I would hope that religion isn't a deciding factor.....it would be a mistake of monumental proportion. Not being "religious" does not make a person bad, it makes them kind of clueless, and searching for answers.....kinda like the rest of us.....damn.

 

Anyways, like the man on the television ad said, "vote early.....and often! 

 

         

  

WHAT DO FORMER POLITICIANS DO AFTER "PUBLIC SERVICE."

(Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo News/Frazer Chronicle)

 

I've always found it funny when people that are either voted out of, resign from, get pushed out of, or actually are fired from public office do with their time. Lobbyist are what many of these people do after "public service," its kind of like they are growing up when they are elected to, or appointed to a public service job.

 

I make this comparison because mostly, when former politicians, or appointed people are out of office for whatever reason.....they are older, have learned their craft pretty well, are well connected, and naturally are a big help to business, Kind of like a kid graduating from high school, then attending college to further their education, and then.....bingo, they get hired to be a lobbyist for some big deal company.

 

We now must add an additional "after government job" profession, a talk show host, just check out that foxy former Governor from Michigan, Granholm, or the dude from New York state, Spitzer, they have talk shows. Now we can add Mike Brown, former FEMA director.

 

You remember Michael Brown, ya he was the very first Undersecretary of Emergency and Response (EP&R) in President George W. Bush, and used that position to "spring-board" to the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003.

 

It was the same Michael Brown who, in the 2005 Katrina Hurricane disaster himself was a disaster, resigning from that office September 12th. saying that "it was in the best interest of the agency and the President."

 

Mass incompetence was the term mostly used when referring to how Brown's actions and reactions were in the wake of one of the countries worst disasters. If I was Michael Brown, "and believe you me, I've pulled off some real bone head deals," I would have kept my mouth shut tighter then a bull's behind at fly-time.

 

BUT GUESS WHAT:

Being the real trooper he must be, Brown went to work for a cotton company and actually referred to the "lessons that he had learned from his experiences as the head of FEMA during hurricane Katrina, "talk about making hay from a bad deal," unbelievable.

 

Next Brown headed up some sort of Next of Kin Registry, or (NOKR) based out of Washington D.C. NOKR is the central depository for emergency contact information in the United States and 87 other countries.

 

Brown next took a position with Cold Creek Solutions which offers consulting practice for disaster recovery, Michael Brown's position, Vice President, disaster recovery service.

 

Brown also has a week-night talk show in Denver, Colorado, station KOA, and teams up with David Sirota on radio KKZN,  the two are known  as KHOW in the afternoon drive home.

 

In addition to his radio talk showing, being the VP of the Next of Kin Registry, and his consulting for Cold Creek, Brown finds time to write, he co-authored Deadly Indifference, The Perfect (Politician) storm, the Bush White House and Beyond.

 

YOU REACT WAY TO FAST:

And now, Michael Brown has taken on a new position, criticizing Barack Obama and how.....are you ready for this..... the President was TO FAST with his actions with regards to hurricane Sandy. That's right, good old "Brownie" as President Bush referred to his FEMA director for some unknown reason has forgotten about some of the emails that he wrote during the 2005 disaster, and how ill-equipped he seemed to be in his reaction and handling of Katrina.

 

The "can I quit now," or how about "can I come home now," are by far the best, (in my opinion), "I'm trapped now, please come and get me." All during these "frantic" emails for help, personal help, good old "Brownie" was taking home $148,000 a year, and he would continue getting paid for almost two months after he resigned his post on September of 2005.

 

Brown talks about how Obama "went to Las Vegas while Benghazi was happening, but left the campaign rail, returning to his D.C. digs to personally keep tabs of the disaster that Sandy has become.

 

Maybe, just maybe.....and I'm spit-balling here, but it seems as if "Brownie" might be barking up the wrong fire-hydrant this time. Taking advantage of a sitting president by talking about his response, a response that will cost billions, and has cost a minimum of 33 people is, well really.....come on "Brownie" get a grip.....oh, and by the way, "Brownie," I wouldn't  be making any trips up the east coast of the United States at least for several months.....you just might not return.

 

 

 

 

   

THE “N” WORD!

THE “N” WORD!

(Ron Fournier, National Journal/Jennifer Agiesta, Sonya Ross, Associated Press)

(Mark Felsenthal, Reuters/Frazer Chronicle)

So my friends, here we are, heading for the finish line with a Republican, Mitt Romney and a Democrat, incumbent, Barack Obama gouging huge chunks out of the others message, spinning, telling half truths and sometimes outright lies. Don’t worry, the half truths and lies department are pretty much right down the middle.

 

What we have here is two flawed candidates running for the highest office in the country; some say “the world,” but I’ll leave the answer to that statement to historians in the future. What we have before us is a race to the White House that is once again generating almost wholesale pros and cons of the men running, the parties that they represent and the people that they are supposed to work for…..us.

 

I watched Bill Maher last night on his weekly “Real Time” television show on H.B.O. it’s “at least for me,” amusing, entertaining, and also gives me some insight into how the Democrats are thinking on an intellectual plain…..Anyways, at times. Maher always has a mixture of both Republicans and Democrats on his panel, although it’s usually “slanted” towards the Democratic mentality.

 

Last night Maher brought up the problem with race and the political campaign for the White House and he, “Maher” has concerns about how race may determine the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come January of 2013.

 

RACISM IS ALIVE AND WELL HERE IN THE UNITED STATES:

Anybody who denies the fact that America isn’t a racist country either lives way, way out in the wilds of California, the Virginias’ or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The color of a person’s skin or how many “ya'lls” are in a sentence doesn’t really understand how racism works…..in any country.

 

My introduction to Wisconsin racism was during my first Packer football season way back in 1986, when, sitting in a tavern watching the “Pack” playing the Chicago Bears, somebody yelled out, “God, look at that nigger run.” I almost fell off my bar stool, never in, (at that time) my 43 years had I heard that term used in a public venue.

 

Here in Green Bay, Wisconsin I can truthfully say “race relations haven’t gotten any better,” people still us the “N” word, privately as well as in public. The mayor is white, 90% of the police force is white as well as publicly elected officials. With few exceptions, key positions are held by white people, few Blacks, Hispanics, or Asians have managed to “worm” their way into the hierarchy of either the business community or public office.

 

And Green Bay is nothing more than a microcosm of every city throughout the country; let’s face the facts of life with regards to how we, as white people, react towards black people, “do you want to live next door to a black family?” I live across the street from 2 Hispanic families, and every week-end, without exception, they are out fixing cars and trucks…..every week-end. I’ve gotten used to it, but it’s still kind of strange to me, why, because I’m not used to neighbors like that.

 

Neither Obama nor Romney talk about racial situations here in the country, they kind of ignore the obvious. I voted for Obama in 2008, and I will again in 2012, I wouldn’t vote for Romney even if somebody paid me…..well, let’s wait on that one because it would depend on the dollar amount, ha, just kidding.

 

It troubles me that color will play a part in the 2012 election, for a fleeting moment, back in 2008 I thought we had the racial problem here in our country “on the run,” but sadly I think the problem is bigger today then it was in 2008.

 

It’s my fault, yours and President Obama’s. Ya, that’s right, Obama has this detached attitude about himself, kind of like he understands, but somehow really doesn’t. He’s kind of aloof, you know, remote, like he is on a different plane than the rest of us.

 

Make no mistake, he understands the problems that everyday Americans have, but either his advisors, or he himself has decided to remain detached, separated almost, from everyday people like us. I think he still wants to help, to remain aware, but has a problem reaching out, touching as it were, the voters that put him in office.

 

WHO WILL WIN?

Until we quit this stupid white thing against all people of color we are destined to remain a jumbled mess, and a people who get next to nothing done in a positive manner. I don’t go along with that “we are all brothers and sisters of the world crap”, each ethic group has its very own habits, beliefs and favorite foods. Many people have a different religion, and I think that they have the right to worship however they want…..as long as it’s not in a threatening way.

 

Who’s gonna win in November…..you tell me, I don’t know, however I do know that if we aren’t as educated as possible about the issues and the man, we are, as a people destined to lose. After all the bull-crap, after all the half truths, the innuendos and the bald faced lies have been uttered, and it’s time for us to exercise are right to vote…..be vigilant, keep an eye on the polls, the predictions, and even the election booths, be involved.

 

Because this election just might be the most important in your life, for me, I already had my “most important election,” it was back in 1963 when I voted for John F. Kennedy. “He had a dream,” a dream that bore no fruit, but still it was a beautiful dream…..”Look it up sometime.” (Vote early and often.)  

HUT, HUT, $$$$$$$

HUT, HUT, $$$$$$$

(Jeff Graham/ Huff Post/Marquette Mining Journal/Frazer Chronicle)

 

Going, going, gone, or so tax advocates say, you know those groups that use as a corner-stone of their fair and reasonable platform on taxation issues. Like politicians, these jokers have never see a proposed tax, or an existing tax that they didn’t want to cut down, or abolish all-together. I hate to have to admit it, but on this particular issue, I gotta sit in their “camp.”

 

What would make me, a reputed flaming liberal cross over into the conservative side of at least this issue? What is the issue…..how high school athletics are funded throughout America. I know, I know, most of you know that I am a dyed in the wool sports nut. If it doesn’t take air, (basketballs, and footballs) or if wood can’t hit horsehide, its worthless right, well, I hate to admit it, but sports costs, and how those costs are paid for has always been a tough and touchy issue for me.

 

The time and effort that educators spend on creating funding for their extracurricular activities is at the very least commendable. Of course many of the programs for high school students aren’t really for the kids at all; it’s for the teachers that create them. Through these programs they “teachers” continue living their dreams’ and that’s okay, I have absolutely no problem with that attitude.

 

Athletic facilities, football stadiums, baseball fields and gymnasiums are built with taxpayer money and whatever donations can be obtained during construction. Once these facilities are in place, they should be used not only by high school students first and foremost, but by whomever else would like to shoot baskets, or swim in the pool, or try and hit a baseball over a ball diamonds fence. But student and school activities should always come first.

 

The first thing on the cutting block whenever school districts run short of funding is extracurricular programs, band, choir, and athletic programs. Sometimes the tactic is a scare tactic, everybody knows it, and sometimes it works. It’s less than an honorable way for school districts to get what they want, yet if all else fails.

 

The time that a school’s Athletic Director spends on raising outside funds to continue the sports programs is a full time job, yet most of these people are also full time teachers. The effort necessary for these people to accomplish their bottom line is herculean, and whatever extra money they might get is definitely not enough.

 

MOST EXPENSIVE SPORTS PROGRAM:

Football is definitely the costliest of the high school sports programs offered; it can cost as much as $1000 to completely outfit a player. Taking a modest figure, say $500, multiply that by 40 players and your getting into pretty reified air, say $20,000. Add in travel costs, maintenance and upkeep of the playing facility, insurances, coach’s pay and whatever other miscellaneous that are incurred, well, it’s not long before an operational budget gets up to a hundred grand real quick…..at the minimum.

 

What does football mean to a community, what are the benefits to those in attendance, and more important, is the teaching tool for the student athletes worth the time, effort, and the money? The answers to these questions aren’t arrived at quite as fast as a running back that can do a 10 second flat 100 yard dash, but they can be ferreted out if you look long enough.

 

Of course a school’s football program, basketball, baseball, hockey and even track, which “I hated in school,” are worth the price. We collectively just have to find a better way to fund them. I agree with the folks who talk about teacher paychecks at the end of the day as being way too inflated. I do however also realize that a teacher…..of our children is of utmost importance to us, to our cities, to our states, and in the end, to our country.

 

When that much importance is placed on an education, those people that administer the programs that are offered to students need to be “all encompassing,” they need to be strong building blocks in our kid’s lives. Culture isn’t just for the nerds, the rich kids, or kids with professional parents, culture, reading, theater, and the classics must be nurtured by teachers for all students.

 

Sure football games are more fun to watch, but the debate team needs the same kind of monitory support proportionately as football. The money sports have always been football and basketball, they fund most of the rest of the extracurricular programs, and I really don’t know how to get around that fact.

 

However, it appears that a new approach is going to be necessary in the not too distant future, so why not start right now…..today. I have a novel idea, all after school programs need to support themselves. A debate team sells tickets to their function, a Chess club match…..$5 admission, band and choir, part of the football program and baseball, advertising on outfield wall-signs.

 

It would require more attendance from parents, grandparents, friends and the general public, but just think of the rewards, lower taxes, or better yet, a better way to use our tax dollars. My idea…..everything must support itself. Gee, wasn’t that a simple act to a seeming confusion and involved problem, proving once again that SIMPLE is always better.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE LOCATION MEANS!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE LOCATION MEANS!

(Green Bay Press Gazette/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Chicago Tribune/Frazer Chronicle)

 

It is really interesting how a newspaper seems to mirror their communities’ attitudes with regards to the local news that is covered. Here in Green Bay it’s the Green Bay Packers first, in the middle, and at the end. During the season, the football season (is there any other) you’d swear that the local newspaper, the Green Bay Press Gazette was a major shareholder of the team.

 

During the season, almost every day, the front page of the sports section is headlined by Packer stories, their transactions, “even if one of the players has the runs,” and a continuing barrage of news, non-news, and what is called “filler articles,” stories with little or no purpose, but fill out a page.

 

The front page of the Press Gazette also reflects the importance put on the Packers in the community not only by the local fan, but the newspaper itself. Headlines about the Packers are a weekly routine, and I’m sure the coverage is popular with many, many readers in the entire region. I’m sure the newspaper uses this ”tool” to enhance sales…..and it is a service, but guess what, real news, real coverage of important issues suffer about as often as Packer stories appear on the pages of the paper.

 

I’m a sports fan, I root for the Packers just as much as my next door neighbor…..except when they play the Lions, but I also want to know what’s going on in the city as well as the region, and that is where the Press Gazette fails on all counts.

 

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION:

Have you ever been to Chicago, well I have…..way too many times, I’ve been lost there, spent a couple of days there, toured the Sears Tower, some of the downtown sections, “ya gotta know what the different colored zones are to safely travel there,” and was awe struck with the beautiful buildings, their size, and their regal appearance.

 

Chicago is a wonderful city, and if you’re in the right parts of town, a tremendous experience. I remember taking a trip with a baseball team from Northern Michigan to Chicago, getting lost…..and low on gasoline…..not a good thing on a Sunday night. Getting directions and gasoline was like being in a “killing zone.” Windows were grated, there was a little square to either pay in cash or drop your credit card in, and the directions…..well let’s just say, we found our own way out.

 

I checked this morning’s headlines out on the Chicago Tribune’s online site and was astounded at the headlines. Murder, rape, thugs, rip-offs, rap feuds, thievery, headlines that do not appear in my local paper. The city has a problem, clearly any community that is billed as “Murder Capitol of the United States,” has issues that really…..really need addressing.

 

Again, the cities’ newspaper clearly reflects what is important to their community, anytime you count in the hundreds the deaths of kids under the age of 20, something is graphically wrong with a large section of the population. The actions of a few, speak volumes of what is wrong with an out of control segment of Chicago’s citizenry who, mostly are under the age of 25.

 

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE BANK!

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about a hundred twenty miles south of Green Bay is another example of how a newspaper mirrors its community, and potential readers. There is hardly a week that goes by without a story of some state of federal agency getting ripped off, or some service group absconding with funds that were meant for disadvantaged folks.

 

I know every community has to, is, or has dealt with unscrupulous organizations or key members in alleged absconding with funds, paid the wrong people, or have been lax in how their organizations were being run.

 

I like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I think that their paper is newsy, informative, and digs at the truth on a myriad of issues. In addition, they seem to have an investigative attitude and really root out stories on abuse by individuals, organizations, and don’t really care who the people are…..they just report the news.

 

Their latest jaunt into the darker side of government is how a state funded, “taxpayers” job-creation agency has lost (potential) millions of dollars because nobody was tracking who borrowed the money, where it went, and exactly who was repaying the loans.

 

If Chicago is the murder capitol of the nation, then I guess maybe Milwaukee would be the corruption capitol of the nation. Clearly corruption, mismanagement or ineptness in government or private benevolent agencies is running at an unchecked breakneck pace.

 

There has been and is corruption in local government, in Governor Walkers appointed officials in the city and county police departments, and even on the judicial levels. It is abundantly clear that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is taking advantage of the foolish business practices, the ethics of individuals, and the greed in community hierarchy.

 

The Milwaukee newspaper is doing it’s job in a credible manner, placing focus on a troubling aspect of the greater Milwaukee community with regards to those people seeming intent on ripping off taxpayers two ways, taking the tax money that Milwaukee residents pay for services, and then ripping of those people who need those services.

 

TROUBLE IN DREAMLAND:

Ah Traverse City, Michigan, a wonderful, beautiful place to live…..if ya got the money to do so, the fantasy that Traverse City is not touched by urban blight, homeless people, or that programs for the poor are being cut, or erased altogether truly is a facility.

 

The Traverse City Record Eagle is not one of my favorite newspapers, in my opinion the regions only daily paper is like a “homer umpire,” they make calls that please the home team. I lived my formative years in this beautiful northern Michigan community, tucked away from the big city squabbles, injustices and corruptions.

 

Like everybody else, I knew that the city and region had some of the same problems as the bigger communities to the south, cities like Lansing, Grand Rapids or Detroit. But whatever the problems Traverse City and the region had, we could overlook because they weren’t quite as bad as those down state metropolitan areas.

 

But come to find out, Traverse City does have some of the same big time problems as the rest of us have. Homelessness is viewed like some sort of unmentionable, and now there is a real possibility that a “wheel” has come off the Meals on Wheels program.

 

Meals on Wheels feed poor, elderly folks that have no other access to a decent well balanced meal, even if it’s only once a day. Let’s face the facts of life, for many old people; a visit from a “meal wheeler” is the only contact they get with the outside world.

 

Although Traverse City has a population of less than 20,000, it is a hub community, serving more than 100,000 visitors on at least a weekly basis. There is a cultured atmosphere and attitude that the community portrays, and it is exhibited with pride…..as it should.

 

But the hard hitting reporting of the Record Eagle on these two major issues is to be commended, possibly the paper is moving more towards reporting what I suppose could be called the “underbelly of the community and region.”

 

The issues, stories and the reporting of them are crucial to people of any community understand, reacting, and actually moving on some of the more important issues of the day. People in this day and age still do rely on the printed media. Coming home after days’ work, drinking a beer and reading the newspaper after supper is still popular.

 

Rising in the morning, cup of coffee in hand, and a newspaper in the other is a world-wide habit that won’t be broken unless the printed media allows it. For me, reading newspaper articles is how I get my information, it’s what I base my blogs on, it’s also how I conduct certain portions of my life.

 

Remember that the next time you pick up a newspaper at your local supermarket, newsstand, or read the day old stuff at your local library. Printed material is still important in the 21^st century, newspapers need to remember that.