Sometimes, and most acutely this week, because of the recent elections, I have been overwhelmed by the fact that the Wisconsin I know and love seems to be slipping needlessly from my grasp. This is a state where we have cities like Green Bay. It has been said that Green Bay is a drinking town with a football problem and although I rarely drink any more, it still holds quite a bit of truth for me. Children in my part of the world often learn to drink before they learn to drive and parents routinely host their children's drinking parties so that there is less chance of losing them to drunken driving. We have a long history of taking care of ourselves and helping neighbors, but those "good old" days are slipping from the face of cities across our great state. Time honored traditions, like Deer Camp, the mystique of going "Up North", tailgating at Packer Games and learning to bait a hook from your grandfather have nearly disappeared from our culture.
Many, many times, I have met folks just moving here from other parts of the country (or indeed the world) who were curious about how to make a go of it in a place where winter begins early and typically over-stays it's welcome. I often tell them two things that make Wisconsin-life better than many other places. I say, "Make friends with your jumper cables. If you do not have any, get some, spend the extra money, to get good ones, and know how to use them. Never pass up a chance to help someone else who needs a jump. That way when your battery dies (and it will) there will be someone to jump your battery." Regarding vehicles, I also urge folks to get good tires before the snow flies and each time it snows, test the limits of the road surface before you get off the block. If you have never driven in snow, make a special trip to a large un-plowed parking lot and play around a bit to see what it feels like to drive on a giant ice rink. Test how long it takes to get going, how to recover from a skid and how long it takes to stop. With regard to snow generally, I encourage them to shovel their neighbor's sidewalk from time to time, or help them dig out the giant pile that the plows throw up when they go by so that if you are ever gone or unable to do it, one of those neighbors you helped might come to your aid as well.
In the old days, we used to carry logging chain as well as jumper cables and frequently good neighbors would help pull one another out of the ditch if a car ever slid off the road. In our state today, it is illegal to pull stuck cars out of mud or snow. Only state-licensed and specially insured tow trucks are allowed to do that now. Having been pulled back on to the road a few times myself, I can attest to the fact that having to be pulled out of the ditch is never fun, but having to pay a tow truck to do it is even less fun and typically takes a lot longer. Those of us who grew up here still carry a full winter kit, including car blankets, candles, non-perishable food, water, first aid kit, flashlight, flares, tow chain, etc. but if we are in the process of pulling someone out of the ditch, we are hyper vigilant for rollers (emergency vehicle lights) I was with a fellow two winters ago who had stopped to pull a stuck vehicle out of the ditch and just as we got the chain hooked up, a "good Samaritan" stopped and said, "I just called 911 to report that you are in the ditch." We were literally moments away from having the car back on the road and good to go, but my friend bent back down and unhooked the chain. The fine for breaking this particular new law is nearly a thousand dollars. We had been willing to take our chances with the possibility of a random cop driving by, but now that we were a destination, the possibility of a fine skyrocketed. We got back in our car and left the scene.
We constantly hear the beating of an ugly drum by right-leaning politicians, they tell us that left-leaning people want to live in a "nanny state" where we are cared for cradle to grave by a gigantic government social system and it is bullshit. There are things that government can and should do for people, but the law regarding towing folks out of the ditch is just a form of corporate welfare, not only for tow truck drivers and the companies they work for but a way to subsidize the use of even more fuel to accomplish the same effect. In the Wisconsin that I learned to know and love, we the people learned to share what we have, care for one another and get along without the intrusive government oversight that has been mandated by those same politicians who say we want a welfare state.
My head often spins as I learn more and more ways that we are having our state and the unique culture that thrives here, undermined, dismantled and outright stolen from right under our noses. This year, the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has chosen to allow anyone with $1,000 or more to buy and use a crossbow for hunting deer in the state. In the old days, you had to be handicapped or frail in some way to get a special permit for taking deer with one. This was for two reasons. First, the discharge of a firearm, especially out of season, was a dead give away to game wardens that you were killing deer without a permit. The archery season was also for honing tactics, stalking and practicing the finer arts of tracking, getting to know your prey and still hunting in places where you knew deer would be. Fewer hunters are willing to go those extra miles and so, there were still plenty of deer to be taken during the gun hunting season. Increasing the firepower and effective kill range with the nearly silent crossbow has allowed a massive increase in poaching while simultaneously virtually eliminating the chance of being caught at it. I know people who have bragged that they have already bagged five deer, but at the end of this moon, when gun season finally opens, the deer camps will be lucky to have any deer left to shoot at.
As we shift our awareness from what is best, right and good, to "What can I get away with?", many of the things that made our state wonderful disappear from our consciousness. As we wonder and worry about whether we will be "caught" doing the right things for our neighbors, children, wildlife and resources, it unleashes a great sense of useless stress and fear that we may be found out. In many ways, the "nanny state" argument is a better fit for the corporate welfare elites who capitalize on the support offered them by new laws. When doing the wrong thing has more benefits than doing the right thing, many will be tempted to work against the best interest of all for the short term benefits that they can get for themselves. Those of us who have seen the slow demise of many of the things we hold dear will never forget what we had to give up to get what we have now, but for those who have never experienced the Wisconsin that I have come to know and love, it will remain hard to put into words.
Many, many times, I have met folks just moving here from other parts of the country (or indeed the world) who were curious about how to make a go of it in a place where winter begins early and typically over-stays it's welcome. I often tell them two things that make Wisconsin-life better than many other places. I say, "Make friends with your jumper cables. If you do not have any, get some, spend the extra money, to get good ones, and know how to use them. Never pass up a chance to help someone else who needs a jump. That way when your battery dies (and it will) there will be someone to jump your battery." Regarding vehicles, I also urge folks to get good tires before the snow flies and each time it snows, test the limits of the road surface before you get off the block. If you have never driven in snow, make a special trip to a large un-plowed parking lot and play around a bit to see what it feels like to drive on a giant ice rink. Test how long it takes to get going, how to recover from a skid and how long it takes to stop. With regard to snow generally, I encourage them to shovel their neighbor's sidewalk from time to time, or help them dig out the giant pile that the plows throw up when they go by so that if you are ever gone or unable to do it, one of those neighbors you helped might come to your aid as well.
In the old days, we used to carry logging chain as well as jumper cables and frequently good neighbors would help pull one another out of the ditch if a car ever slid off the road. In our state today, it is illegal to pull stuck cars out of mud or snow. Only state-licensed and specially insured tow trucks are allowed to do that now. Having been pulled back on to the road a few times myself, I can attest to the fact that having to be pulled out of the ditch is never fun, but having to pay a tow truck to do it is even less fun and typically takes a lot longer. Those of us who grew up here still carry a full winter kit, including car blankets, candles, non-perishable food, water, first aid kit, flashlight, flares, tow chain, etc. but if we are in the process of pulling someone out of the ditch, we are hyper vigilant for rollers (emergency vehicle lights) I was with a fellow two winters ago who had stopped to pull a stuck vehicle out of the ditch and just as we got the chain hooked up, a "good Samaritan" stopped and said, "I just called 911 to report that you are in the ditch." We were literally moments away from having the car back on the road and good to go, but my friend bent back down and unhooked the chain. The fine for breaking this particular new law is nearly a thousand dollars. We had been willing to take our chances with the possibility of a random cop driving by, but now that we were a destination, the possibility of a fine skyrocketed. We got back in our car and left the scene.
We constantly hear the beating of an ugly drum by right-leaning politicians, they tell us that left-leaning people want to live in a "nanny state" where we are cared for cradle to grave by a gigantic government social system and it is bullshit. There are things that government can and should do for people, but the law regarding towing folks out of the ditch is just a form of corporate welfare, not only for tow truck drivers and the companies they work for but a way to subsidize the use of even more fuel to accomplish the same effect. In the Wisconsin that I learned to know and love, we the people learned to share what we have, care for one another and get along without the intrusive government oversight that has been mandated by those same politicians who say we want a welfare state.
My head often spins as I learn more and more ways that we are having our state and the unique culture that thrives here, undermined, dismantled and outright stolen from right under our noses. This year, the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has chosen to allow anyone with $1,000 or more to buy and use a crossbow for hunting deer in the state. In the old days, you had to be handicapped or frail in some way to get a special permit for taking deer with one. This was for two reasons. First, the discharge of a firearm, especially out of season, was a dead give away to game wardens that you were killing deer without a permit. The archery season was also for honing tactics, stalking and practicing the finer arts of tracking, getting to know your prey and still hunting in places where you knew deer would be. Fewer hunters are willing to go those extra miles and so, there were still plenty of deer to be taken during the gun hunting season. Increasing the firepower and effective kill range with the nearly silent crossbow has allowed a massive increase in poaching while simultaneously virtually eliminating the chance of being caught at it. I know people who have bragged that they have already bagged five deer, but at the end of this moon, when gun season finally opens, the deer camps will be lucky to have any deer left to shoot at.
As we shift our awareness from what is best, right and good, to "What can I get away with?", many of the things that made our state wonderful disappear from our consciousness. As we wonder and worry about whether we will be "caught" doing the right things for our neighbors, children, wildlife and resources, it unleashes a great sense of useless stress and fear that we may be found out. In many ways, the "nanny state" argument is a better fit for the corporate welfare elites who capitalize on the support offered them by new laws. When doing the wrong thing has more benefits than doing the right thing, many will be tempted to work against the best interest of all for the short term benefits that they can get for themselves. Those of us who have seen the slow demise of many of the things we hold dear will never forget what we had to give up to get what we have now, but for those who have never experienced the Wisconsin that I have come to know and love, it will remain hard to put into words.
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