Progressive Thinking

The recreational sport of wakeboarding is popular along the Black River, but the constant large wakes caused by the boats has effected people’s use of the river and caused damage to piers and docks and erosion of the shore. Sen. Kathleen Vinehout attempts to find a solution that allows everyone to enjoy the river.

LA CROSSE, WI - “People are being driven off the river,” Sue told Black River area residents. “My kids can’t dive off the dock with the big boats. … It didn’t used to be this way. We could all get along - kayakers, canoers, and boaters. I wouldn’t dream of letting my kids kayak now.”

Friends of the Black River gathered to talk with boat owners about river use. Some felt big boats had taken over the river.

Playing nice in the sandbox means respecting others play. The six-year-old bully who throws sand and drives other children away does not ‘play nice.’

The public meeting I attended with Sue and about seventy others had at its heart the request to ‘play nice’ on the river.

A few years ago, some river users brought ‘wake boats’ to the river. They used the Black River Flowage for the sport of ‘wake boarding’.

Sometimes called ‘wake surfing’ or ‘wake skating’, wake board riders follow a boat designed to create a large and sustained wake. Residents said these waves could be two or three feet high. We learned from DNR officials that wake-action from these boats was four times greater than a typical ski-boat.

Wake boarders at the meeting described the Black River as ideal for their sport: the river is straight (“the straighter the better”) and smooth.

Other residents complained the wakes created by these boats damaged floating piers and docks, exacerbated erosion along the river increasing the number of down trees and damage to the bank. One person shared a story about the wake knocking over an elderly man standing on a dock, sending his walker into the river.

Residents showed photographs of the damage caused by constant large wakes. “This photo shows an area on my property where the bank was undercut by four feet or so…I lost six feet of property over the last 20 years.” Jeff described how he built a sea wall to protect the shoreline. He continues to have problems with large waves that result in broken lights, dents and dings to his pontoon boat tied up at his dock.

Other families told stories about how they curtailed or lost their use of the river because of the wake boats. Wally Capper said his family used to come to the river to canoe and kayak. “Every one [of the wake boarders] likes to do a U-turn in front of our property.” His family no longer comes to canoe and kayak.

Wake boarders defended their use of the river. One woman reasoned all city residents made an investment in the river – the flowage area created by the Black River Falls dam. “We enjoy the river,” she said. “I don’t want to take away the option of people to use the river.” A man added, “This seems like a witch hunt to me… There are a whole lot of factors that led to riverbank erosion and dock damage.”

The local warden explained current boating ordinances: boaters must use ‘slow-no wake’ speed within 100 feet of the shoreline. Boaters must also stay 100 feet clear of swimmers. The widest spot in the river is 405 feet and the narrowest is 315 feet. This leaves “very little or no channel for boats to go by without slowing to ‘no-wake’ speed.” The warden asked people to “be my eyes and ears”.

People argued and sometimes talked over each other. Emotions were high. Nevertheless, people were civil – on both sides – often referring to each other as “Sir” or “Ma’am”. One man described it as thus: “Upper Black River has a lot of families, a lot of locals. No one wants to turn in their neighbor.”

As I left the meeting, one wake boat supporter asked if I had “an easy solution.”

“No,” I shook my head. The easy solution is to ‘play nice’ and let everyone enjoy the river safely.

Lawmakers get involved to help make sure people ‘play nice.’ Laws protect weaker users and restrict potential bullies. However, there are consequences – sometimes unanticipated – to new laws.

The best solution is the one created at the lowest level possible – between neighbors.

Donald Trump is the Republican Party’s new national standard bearer. Trump’s pitch appeals to the darkest impulses, but it also zeroes in on how everyday Americans have been betrayed by ruling elites and how the government is serving a few at everyone else’s expense. The establishment types of both parties have conspicuous blind spots to this appeal, as both Trump and Bernie Sanders are seen as unwelcome intruders.

ALTOONA, WI - Establishment Republicans are having to come to terms in a hurry with the unsettling reality of having Donald Trump as the party’s national standard bearer. Nowhere is the discomfort higher than in Wisconsin where top GOP leaders and right-wing talk radio mouthpieces led the #NeverTrump movement, uniting behind a candidate they can’t stand in hopes of derailing one they despise and fear even more.

While they either can’t see it or won’t admit it, in some ways Trump is a perfect reflection of what the Republican Party has made itself. In other more important ways, Trump exposes the party leaders’ biggest blind spots.

Trump understands something the party brass can’t bring themselves to accept. Most voters — including many who consider themselves either Republicans or Democrats but also the self-described independents who make up the biggest single voting bloc — hate both major parties and believe that your average politicians are nothing but self dealers, interested first and foremost in advancing their own careers and feathering their own nests. Trump appeals to quite a few of those who are thinking this way because he’s already rich and famous and doesn’t need to hold any office to make a name for himself or line his pockets.

The other blind spot Trump is exploiting is that Republican insiders figure most Americans hate the government, period. For decades they have demonized anything having to do with government. Their message has been self-centered, putting the individual on a pedestal, and their policies have torn at the fabric of society. It’s clear Trump sees a miscalculation here. He’s found sizeable numbers of disenchanted voters — especially working-class white men — who clearly yearn for some common aim or uniting cause. He seems to instinctively sense that it’s not the government itself they hate, it’s a government that they believe stopped working on their behalf quite some time ago that has them exasperated. He’s offered them common enemies to unite around, tapping into powerful feelings of nativism and nationalism.

Trump’s pitch appeals to the darkest impulses, the fear of outsiders, the fondness for walls. But it also zeroes in on how everyday Americans have been betrayed by ruling elites and how the government is serving a few at everyone else’s expense. All of this leaves the Republican Party at greater risk of splintering and disintegrating than at any time in living memory.

You’d think this would put the Democrats in the proverbial catbird seat. But Democratic establishment types have conspicuous blind spots too. Those blind spots explain why they couldn’t see the Bernie Sanders insurgency coming and why they still can’t seem to fathom Sanders’ appeal, especially to young Millennials. Like Trump, but for different reasons, Sanders is immune from the “typical politician” characterization. With Sanders, the immunity was built up over a lifetime of standing on principle even when those principles weren’t fashionable. And like Trump, but in a vastly different way, Sanders calls Americans to a common purpose while Democratic insiders continue to cater to their most loyal constituencies and ignore other very large swaths of the population.

To party regulars, both Trump and Sanders are seen as unwelcome intruders, as skunks at the picnic. On one side, the skunk is feasting. The other side’s skunk is being shooed away. But the fact that the inner circle on both sides see both Trump and Sanders as such says a lot about the similar mindsets in the two major parties and the glaring vulnerabilities both parties have.

— Mike McCabe

The recent 10 year anniversary celebration demonstrated not only the success of the Recovery Court but the support of the entire Trempealeau County community. Everyone sees it as a wise investment that saves lives.

TREMPEALEAU COUNTY, WI - Addiction may begin in a very private way. But, healing from addiction can take a village and can be very public.

“This is a big challenge,” Taavi McMahon, the Trempealeau County District Attorney told me. “People get up in front of everyone in open court and spill the beans about their whole life.”

Recovery Court in Trempealeau County recently celebrated 10 years of helping addicts return to a healthy life and avoid prison. I was blessed to be a part of the anniversary celebration held in Whitehall.

“All of the Black Tar China Girls raise your hands,” said Kim Walker to the crowd of community members and graduates of the Recovery Court. Folks raised their hands. These were heroin or other opiate drug addicts who changed their lives.

Kim Walker worked with addicts through intensive outpatient counseling. Her smile and sparkling enthusiasm for life was infectious. Those recovering crowded around her and took “selfies” to mark the anniversary of the program that brought them from the brink of death to a full life in a supportive community.

I saw clearly how the Trempealeau County community rallied around the Recovery Court to help heal those suffering from addiction. Church members, food pantry workers, local employers, mentors and sponsors all played invaluable roles.

The Recovery Court team managed the anniversary celebration, including addiction counselors and behavioral health specialists, office staff, probation officers, law enforcement officers, mental health professionals, family court commissioners, the district attorney and the judge.

By every account I heard, Judge John Damon was the driving force behind Recovery Court. “I cannot emphasize enough, Judge Damon got it going,” said Justice Coordinator Patrick Bell in a follow-up interview. Ten years ago, the retiring judge’s vision led to several staff taking intensive training to learn skills necessary to run the court.

“We didn’t have any money when we first started,” Judge Damon told the crowd gathered at the Recovery Court celebration. “So when we rewarded the participants, we gave out candy bars.” He laughed and handed each of the graduates of the program a chocolate bar in fond remembrance of their success.

Law enforcement also plays a key role in Recovery Court’s success. Sheriff Rich Anderson spoke with the group reminding them of how far they have come and how much the Recovery Court is needed in the county.

Local employers, including Gold’n Plump and Whitehall Specialties, support the program by encouraging participants and allowing employees to take time off for therapy and drug testing.

County board leadership played a key role in the program’s success. County Board Chair Dick Miller received an award at the celebration on behalf of the entire Board. Later District Attorney McMahon told me, “The County Board is very in favor of justice reform. We have a lot of good people who believe in redemption and believe in second chances.”

Justice Coordinator Patrick Bell, who worked with participants in Recovery Court for many years, told me about the importance of drug testing. “It really holds them accountable. People do relapse and slip off to the bad side again.”

Participants are required to call every day. Trempealeau County Health Department does drug testing. A randomized system tells recovering addicts when to test. Sometimes the system will order a test every day. Participants have a two-hour time slot to show up and be tested. Testing can detect drugs, including alcohol, taken many days prior. By the time a participant finishes the nearly two-year long program, they might be tested over 230 times.

Recovery Court is part of a movement across America to treat addiction rather than incarcerate addicts. The program is run through the court system often with some state money. Those who fail the program are incarcerated. However, completing the program allows recovering addicts to start their lives anew without prison.

“People do stay straight,” said Patrick Bell. He noted that many give back to the community. “A participant started an AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] support group on his own…the program really works.”

The camaraderie among graduates and their enthusiasm for life moved me. Money was saved because these folks did not go to prison. Crimes were prevented. The community was safer. Moreover, lives were changed.

It’s almost as if the unofficial slogan of the U.S. has become No We Can’t. Forgotten is how past generations of Americans who had far less than we have today made great progress. But we seem to lack their optimism and boundless faith in America’s potential.

ALTOONA - From the time of the nation’s founding through the first 180 years of the American experiment, our country’s motto was E pluribus unum. In 1956 it was officially changed to In God We Trust. But as more and more Americans grow increasingly pessimistic about the future — even more pessimistic than people in economically underdeveloped countries — it’s almost as if the unofficial slogan of the U.S. has become No We Can’t.

When it is suggested that we should stop sentencing the nation’s youth to debt and make education as affordable for our children and grandchildren as past generations made it for us, this aspiration is widely dismissed as a pipe dream. Some bitterly grumble about “free stuff” while many others wonder aloud how we could possibly pay to extend the promise of free public education all the way through college.

Seemingly forgotten is that past generations of Americans created and paid for a system of free public education through high school, and they were far poorer than we are now when they did it. Many who did the paying had no high school diploma of their own at the time, but knew that industrialization meant that many of their kids and grandkids would be leaving the land and heading to factories and offices and would need more education and job training if they were to have a shot at experiencing the American Dream. So they dug deep and provided future generations that shot.

Here’s the question for us: Is a high school diploma alone a sure pathway to the American Dream today? Of course not. Then where is the resolve in us that our grandparents and great-grandparents had in such abundance? Where in us is their willingness to pay it forward?

When it is suggested that every American should be able to get medical care, this ambition is roundly condemned as pie in the sky. Calls for universal health insurance produce more griping about “free stuff” and many a baseless claim that guaranteeing medical care for everyone would be the mother of all jobs killers.

Forgotten is how past generations of Americans who had far less than we have today made rampant poverty among the nation’s elderly a thing of the past by creating and paying for such things as Social Security and Medicare, and these inventions didn’t ruin the economy. Didn’t even slow it down. The U.S. economic engine roared as never before.

When it is suggested that high-speed Internet and mobile phone service be brought to every doorstep in America, this digital-age necessity is shouted down as an unaffordable extravagance. Still more complaining about “free stuff” ensues.

Forgotten is how past generations of Americans found it within their limited means to pay to bring electricity to every farmhouse and barn in the country. Electric companies never would have taken on the expense of stringing electric wires down every backroad just to pick up a handful of additional customers. Rural electrification took a decades-long national effort.  We all benefit today from that massive undertaking past generations of Americans were willing to support.

Today’s telecoms aren’t going to lay fiber optic or erect cell towers or mount transmitters in every nook and cranny of the country, just to get a few extra customers. The realization of universal access to high-speed Internet and wireless voice services will again require a sustained national effort.

In so many ways, we have more going for us today than past generations did. We have more money than they had, we are more highly educated than they were, we have far more material possessions, more free time on our hands, not to mention more and better ways to communicate with each other. The one and perhaps only thing they had and we seem to lack is their optimism and boundless faith in America’s potential.

— Mike McCabe

Gayle Harper traveled the entire length of the Great River Road after reading that it takes 90 days for a raindrop that falls at the Mississippi River headwaters to travel to the Gulf of Mexico. She spent time with people along the river and celebrates the peoples, the land and America’s greatest river in her new book, Roadtrip with a Raindrop.

LA CROSSE, WI - “A single drop of water falling into the headwaters of the Mississippi in Minnesota would travel the river for 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico.” Gayle Harper, author/photographer, read this detail on the National Park Service website.

“Every cell in my body felt the impact of that and came to full attention. It felt as if someone had hit the ‘pause’ button on the world.”

She was captivated. How would it be to voyage the entire length of America’s Greatest River for 90 days with an imaginary raindrop?

This moment of inspiration conceived a project that resulted in a story of the peoples, land and waters of the Mississippi River – one of America’s Greatest Treasures. Gayle Harper traveled the Great River Road along with a fictitious raindrop she named “Serendipity.”

Gayle presented her work at the national conference of the Mississippi River Parkway Commission in La Crosse. I serve as a Parkway Commissioner. The Wisconsin Commissioners hosted the national organization charged with protecting the Great River Road. America’s longest and oldest National Scenic Byway stretches 3,000 miles through 10 states.

Through an assignment for Country Magazine Gayle was inspired to learn more about the river and its people. She sat down with a map of the Great River Road and divided her journey into 90 segments. Each day she would travel about 27 miles.

With no money to support her project, Gayle wrote letters to Chambers of Commerce and other groups asking if they would be interested in helping. She ended up with “more invitations than nights available!”

Local people “chose unique and historic places – a fisherman’s cabin, a trendy downtown loft, a tugboat converted to a bed and breakfast, a share croppers cabin, a plantation mansion, and was given keys to the 30 room mansion,” said Gayle. “’Just leave the keys in the box,’ I was told.”

“I did the research, but I didn’t have any planned interviews. I decided to leave it to Serendipity. I met amazing people everywhere. People invited me into their homes. They took me to meet Aunt Betsy. I went to a little girl’s birthday party. I went to dances, barbeques, barges, festivals, whatever was going on.”

The talented author described the spirit of the river: “River-lovers know – it’s in us. It flows through our hearts. It never leaves us.”

“The soul of the river is its people. They teach us to be innocent and to live in every moment. Life is a series of fleeting moments never to be repeated.”

Just like the single raindrop.

Gayle described the “mysterious nature of creativity that we can receive but never claim.” She got back home with “thousands of photographs and impressions”. She was a little overwhelmed about how the project would come together. But beauty and order emerged. “Life has taught me that it works best if I just stay out of its way.”

The result of her work is Roadtrip with a Raindrop, a 240-page book of “200 compelling full-color photographs and 55 beguiling tales from the road.”

The book, published just over a year ago, has won three major book awards.

Gayle was quick to share her accolades with others. “The work you are doing touches hearts,” she told the Commissioners. The Mississippi River Parkway Commission created the map that inspired her journey.

Commissioners asked Gayle about her next project. She hedged a bit and described the creative process “like a baby growing before ultrasound. It’s brewing but you can’t say too much about it.”

I asked Gayle about the “mysterious nature of creativity” that can seem squashed by modern life.

“Funny you should ask,” she said. “My new project is about the creative spirit. Creativity is equally available to all of us at all times… If you feel the creative spirit is squashed, the spirit hasn’t gone away. You need to open the channels.”

Gayle finished with a challenge for all of us. “It’s tempting, if you watch the news, to think that fear, isolation, and mistrust are rampant. And that is just not the case. All these people [the river people] taught me the world is filled with wonderful people.”

Indeed it is.