Not Giving Up, Not Going Back

So how are we all doing? The fact that you are sitting up reading this is a good sign. We are not giving up, we are not going anywhere and we are DEFINITELY not going back!

We will be meeting next week for our first post-election celebration. There will be time to talk with each other. There will be time to appreciate the fact that we continue to move blue. Five short years ago, we had zero Democratic representation in Madison from Ozaukee County. We now have half of our representation in Madison for the majority of our county as Democrats. So join us.

We will also be taking nominations at the November meeting for candidates to be members of the Executive Committee. You must be a paid member to run and to vote. The election will take place at our December meeting. The positions are: Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and three members at large. I plan on running for Chair and would appreciate your support.

On November 30th, we will be marching in the Grafton Christmas Parade. Please sign up and bring your family and friends. Look for further details in this newsletter. I believe it is very important to be seen at this point in time. The parade is a relatively short one and well attended. I am not asking you to walk across the Selma Bridge.

Which brings me to my final points. Indulge me. In the fall of 1963, when I was 10 years old, my grandfather Dassow, who was a union electrician, died from a fall electrifying the new construction of a church on Capitol Drive in Milwaukee. It was my first experience with the death of a close family member. A month later, President Kennedy was assassinated driving in a motorcade in Dallas. Days later, I was home from school sick with strep throat as was my father. We were watching television together when Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald.

Earlier that year, our country witnessed the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. He was shot in the back at his home in Jackson, Mississippi, by a Ku Klux Klan member hiding in the bushes. Evers began his journey as a civil rights activist when he and five friends were turned away from a local election at gunpoint. He had just returned from the Battle of Normandy in World War II and realized fighting for his country did not spare him from racism or give him equal rights. (Think of the tens of thousands of undocumented soldiers who serve in our military only to be deported when their service ends.)

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Two months later, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed on June 5, shortly after giving a campaign speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. My generation has seen some terrible things. This needs to fortify us, all of us.

I know we will not let the anti-democratic and evil plans generated by Trump et al deter us. We will need to work to maintain the progressive majority on our Supreme Court and elect Judge Susan Crawford on April 1, 2025. We will be able to say, “Senator Jodi Habush Sinykin,” thanks to the massive effort we put in to elect Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023 and the consequent unrigging of the maps.

This week we saw the Wisconsin Supreme Court take up the case of the 1849 Abortion Law. You can view a short clip here. We need to maintain our progressive majority. This case would not even be heard if not for them.

Please join us next week for our meeting at the office and walk with us with pride at the November 30th Grafton Christmas Parade.

Thank you for reading.