Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo, a Democrat from Mississippi, would most likely have given a thumbs up to the 18-year-old who gunned down 10 black shoppers in a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store this past weekend.
Bilbo was an equal-opportunity hater
Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo, a Democrat from Mississippi, would most likely have given a thumbs up to the 18-year-old who gunned down 10 black shoppers in a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store this past weekend.
The recent invitation by the Sparta Citizens for Real Progress to join in an effort to form a “Christ-centered school” is a reminder of how often religion is at the bottom of public controversies.
Here is a little civic lesson to keep in mind as we hurtle toward the mid-term elections in November, and here in Wisconsin, a governor and senate race.
I have been thinking about guns a lot lately. When I was growing up in Green County, Wis. (yes, that was around the time of the Civil War), there were few if any deer.
Remember when local school board elections were quiet events mostly with candidates who occasionally had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the race? Remember when we fought about teacher pay, bus routes and maybe, very occasionally, the books in the library?
In September 1963, I was muddling my way through my junior year in high school while in Elroy, Phillip Egan was cranking out the 24th issue of the Elroy Leader Tribune.
Once upon a time, when things were sort of normal, I would write an April Fools’ story each year. It was great fun.
I have been wracking my aging brain, trying to recall when was the last time we had a N-O-W School Board forum.
“Good grief, you get a lot of email,” grumbles my husband, who often must wade through it. I excuse it by pointing out that as a member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, our email address is not only public but likely is passed around. In order to whittle down some of the detritus I opened a Yahoo account for my personal stuff. It is barely used at all, not enough in a week to even fill a teacup.
It was all the talk back in 1974. Of course, there were only radio, tv and newspapers back then. But that did not stop the breathless conversation over the upcoming Battle of the Sexes.
Ah, at last we know what inspired that lunatic, Vladimir Putin, to invade its peaceful neighbor and send the whole world reeling toward a world war.
Zachary Cooper was already an accomplished scholar when he made a major contribution to our local history. With a bachelor’s degree in European history and a master’s degree in American history from UW-Madison, along with a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, Cooper took time from his instructor’s job at the UW-Madison to research and write a pamphlet on black settlements in Wisconsin for the Wisconsin State Historical Society.