New Kid's View
Family lured Jerrianne and her husband to South Milwaukee in 2002 from Southern California where she worked as, first, a journalist, then, as a court information officer. She now stays busy with media-relations consulting, playing with her three grandchildren (part of the lure), writing, discovering her new environs, and hoping her garden will produce before the first fall frost.
Freedom Isn't Free
The kids looked awfully cute, just as they do every Fourth of July – all decked out in their red, white and blue best, their bikes and trikes and wagons and strollers resplendent with streamers and bangles and balloons and flags.
They paraded, twirled batons and posed in their stars-and-stripes finery and their Betsy Ross, Uncle Sam and Mark Twain costumes. Judges awarded prizes. People applauded and cheered.
Next came the races. First, a sprint. Then a one-legged hop, the wheelbarrow, and the crab crawl races, followed by the shoe scramble and the penny scramble.
Live music played in the pavilion. People lined up for free ice cream and Cracker Jacks provided by South Milwaukee Lions and distributed by South Milwaukee Street Department staff. South Milwaukee firefighters manned a much-appreciated water station.
A lot of families made a day of it, bringing picnics, grills, coolers, spreading blankets and setting up lawn chairs and folding tables in the shade of trees and canopies to shelter from the sun.
This all took place in Grant Park, a great public area that might be considered South Milwaukee's modern-day version of a 1776-era town commons.
The only thing out of place yesterday was the brown paper bags. Political-signature gatherers distributed them as campaign material. They bore the words, "I have to brown bag it so I can pay Wisconsin taxes." Small print along one edge said, "Paid for by friends of Scott Walker."
Here was a great community gathering celebrating the nation's birth that got soiled by partisan political campaigning.
Well, it is a free country.
Especially galling, though, was that the campaigning was for a politician who policies have done so much damage to Milwaukee County parks, including Grant Park.
While many who attended yesterday's festivities might agree with Scott Walker and his ideology. Many don't. Inserting his political sloganeering into a neutral, non-political community celebration was divisive.
Here's my message to Mr. Walker and his "Friends":
Second, the taxes referred to on your bags are not "Wisconsin taxes." They're our taxes. We pay them for state-provided benefits and services, including a fantastic facility like Grant Park and a great celebration on the Fourth of July.
Third, that you would choose Grant Park, which is there for the common good of all South Milwaukeeans--and other Wisconsinites and even out-of-staters -- who frequent the park, is a poke in the eye to the city, county and state workers and all of us who cherish this gem of a public park in the Milwaukee County park system.
Fourth, your "Friends" no doubt partook of yesterday's "freebees," their children might have participated in some of the events, and they were protected by sheriff's deputies and South Milwaukee police officers and firefighters. While they didn't have to shell anything out of their pockets for any of that yesterday, in truth, none of it was really free.
Fifth, your "Friends'" brown bags ended up littering the park grounds and parking lot where Independence Day revelers played and parked their cars, left to be cleaned up by the few park employees that have survived your unrelenting budget cuts.
Those few remaining workers also had to clean up the piles of trash left by some – including, no doubt, some of your "Friends" – who enjoyed the city-provided fireworks last night but chose not to use the garbage cans -- also provided by tax dollars.
Grant Park is there for everyone, Mr. Walker. Even people who don't walk or bike on its trails, golf or ski on its golf course, enjoy its beach, picnic in its pavilions and other areas, toss Frisbees or fly kites in its open spaces, walk their dogs on its paths, take their kids to play in its playground areas, relax in the shade during lunch breaks, or enjoy the festivities on Independence Day or at the Pullin' O' the Green for St. Paddy's Day derive great benefits from the park and its open green spaces. The park greatly enhances the city's quality of life and increases the value of our homes.
South Milwaukee does a great job year after year – even in lean times like the dreadful recession we’ve just experienced – to provide a great way for all of us to celebrate this momentous holiday that symbolizes the great freedoms our country affords all of its citizens.
Putting on this celebration costs money, Mr. Walker. it's a celebration of our freedoms we all chip in to help pay for.
The bottom line is that although you and your "Friends" campaign on an anti-tax platform, there's no such thing as a free lunch, brown bag or otherwise. Much associated with being able to exercise and maintain our freedoms isn't free either.
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