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Monthly Archives: April 2010

Press Release

Historical Society of Walworth and Big Foot Prairie Dinner Meeting, April 22

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Please see a press release from the Historical Society of Walworth and Big Foot Prairie —

Jerry Apps, award-winning author, will present a program titled “One-Room Country Schools – History and Recollections From Wisconsin” at the dinner meeting of the Historical Society of Walworth and Big Foot Prairie and the Delavan Historical Society on Thursday, April 22.

The meeting is at The Village Supper Club, 1725 South Shore Dr., Delavan Township. The event starts at 6 p.m. for socializing, followed by dinner at 6:30.

Apps, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written more than 25 books dealing mainly with rural history and country life. He also is former publication editor for UW-Extension, an acquisitions editor for McGraw-Hill Book Company and editor of a national professional journal.

He was born and raised on a Wisconsin farm and graduated from a one-room country school in Waushara County, Wis. His early work experience was as a county Extension agent for Green Lake and Brown counties, followed by a publications editor for the state 4-H office. Continuing with his education, he received a Ph.D. in education and rural sociology at the UW-Madison and went on to chair the Department of Continuing and Vocational Education in the 1970s.

Apps’ works include Barns of Wisconsin, Ringlingville USA, One-Room Country Schools, Teaching from the Heart, Every Farm Tells a Story and more recently Old Farm: A History. The last one has won numerous awards.

In addition to writing books, Apps has had more than 800 articles published, appeared on PBS, The History Channel and National Public Radio and has spoken several times in Walworth County.

The meal of beef and baked chicken will be served family style and complemented by a salad, relishes, mashed potatoes, fresh bread, beverage (coffee, tea, or milk) and dessert. The cost is $20 per person.

The public is invited to the meeting. To make a reservation, send a check (made out to Historical Society of Walworth and Big Foot Prairie) to the society at P.O. Box 336, Walworth, WI 53184. Reservations must be received by April 14.

For information, call society president Nancy Lehman at 262-275-2426.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 4-6-10

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Good morning, Whitewater

Today’s forecast calls for a day of thunderstorms, with a high temperature of sixty-four.

It’s election day across Wisconsin. Whitewater will have city council and judicial races on the ballot.

The Indian Mounds Park Committee meets this afternoon, at 5 p.m. The agenda for the meeting is available online.

At Lakeview School tonight, there will be a meeting of the PTA at 6:30 p.m.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls an event in Wisconsin history from 1903, that sounds like a more recent one:

1903 – Legislature Considers Banning Sale of Cigarettes

On this date the Wisconsin Legislature considered a bill to ban sale or manufacture of cigarettes in the state. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Other states considered and passed cigarette bans. Utah, for example, enacted a ban on cigarettes in 1921, and it remained on the books until it was repealed 1923.

Public Meetings

Historical Society of Walworth and Big Foot Prairie

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Dinner meeting of the Historical Society of Walworth and Big Foot Prairie and Delavan Historical Society, Thursday, April 22, 6 p.m. at The Village Supper Club, 1725 South Shore Dr., Delavan Township. Program “One-Room Country Schools – History and Recollections From Wisconsin” by award-winning Wisconsin writer Jerry Apps. $20 per person. For reservations and information, call Nancy Lehman at 262-275-2426.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 4-5-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast calls for an increasingly cloudy day, with a high of sixty-nine degrees.

The City of Whitewater will have a Parks & Recreation Board meeting today at 5 p.m. The Irvin Young Library will begin a book sale today, running through this week.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1860,

Wisconsin Congressman Challenged to Duel

On this date, with the threat of civil war hanging in the air, John F. Potter, a Wisconsin representative in Congress, was challenged to a duel by Virginia representative Roger Pryor. Potter, a Northern Republican, had become a target of Southerners during heated debates over slavery. After one exchange, Pryor challenged Potter to a duel and Potter, as the one challenged, specified that bowie knives be used at a distance of four feet. Pryor refused and Potter became famous in the anti-slavery movement. Two years later, when Republicans convened in Chicago, Potter was given a seven foot blade as a tribute; the knife hung with pride during all the sessions of the convention. Before his death, Potter remembered the duel and proclaimed, “I felt it was a national matter – not any private quarrel – and I was willing to make sacrifices.” [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners, by Fred L. Holmes]


John Fox Potter

Holiday

Happy Easter

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But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Matthew 28:5-8

Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty

Town of Whitewater Resident Challenges Wisconsin Campaign Finance Laws, Wins Federal Injunction

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If a citizen and resident wants to mail postcards about an upcoming referendum in his town, must he register (as Wisconsin law requires) before doing so? If he doesn’t register, will he be prosecuted, as others have been in the past?

Here’s a press release about the federal lawsuit against several defendants from the James Madison Center for Free Speech:

James Madison Center for Free Speech
1 South 6th Street
Terre Haute, IN 47807
www.jamesmadisoncenter.org

PRESS RELEASE March 28, 2010 Contact: James Bopp, Jr. Phone: 812-232-2434; Fax 812-235-3685 jboppjr@aol.com

Whitewater Resident Challenges Wisconsin Campaign Finance Laws

A lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Wisconsin challenging the same portions of that state’s campaign finance laws that a federal judge ruled unconstitutional in similar circumstances in 2009. The suit surrounds a another local referendum in the town of Whitewater that will be voted on April 6. The plaintiff, Charles G. Hatchett, a resident of Whitewater, wants to send postcards and flyers urging his fellow residents to vote against the referendum.

Under Wisconsin law, Mr. Hatchett cannot participate in these activities without first registering and including a disclaimer on his materials. Mr. Hatchett filed suit arguing that these laws violate his First Amendment right to free speech.

James Bopp, Jr., an attorney representing Mr. [Hatchett] states: “these overreaching campaign finance laws remain in force even after a federal judge has ruled that they are unconstitutional in situations like this. Individuals in Wisconsin still can’t send a post card concerning a referendum in their own town without registering and filing reports with the state.”

The case is titled Hatchett v. Eich. Mr. Hatchett has asked for a temporary restraining order that would allow him to immediately undertake his activities without complying with the challenged laws.

A copy of the Complaint and Motion for Preliminary Injunction will be available at the James Madison Center’s website www.jamesmadisoncenter.org.

James Bopp, Jr. has a national campaign finance and election law practice with Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom. He is General Counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech.

Here’s a copy of the federal complaint: Hatchett v. Eich, et al.

Here’s a copy of the court’s temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction: Decision and Order.

From the Decision and Order:

…the renewed motion seems unnecessary in light of the defendants’ concession that the laws are unconstitutional as applied to Mr. Hatchett and that they will not be enforced. However, Mr. Hatchett insists that he wants legal relief to ensure that he will not be prosecuted. Under the unique circumstances presented here, injunctive relief can be entered to ensure that the laws are not enforced. The standards for injunctive relief are satisfied. Judge Stadtmueller’s ruling in Swaffer illustrates that Hatchett is likely to succeed on the merits. 610 F. Supp. 2d at 969-70 (finding §§ 11.23 and 11.30, Wis. Stats., unconstitutional as applied to plaintiff’s use of postcards and yardsigns in opposition to referendum regarding liquor sales in Whitewater).

NOW, THEREFORE, BASED ON THE FOREGOING, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:

1. Hatchett’s motion for a preliminary injunction [D. 8] is GRANTED; and
2. The defendants are ENJOINED from enforcing the provisions of §§ 11.23 and 11.30, Wis. Stats., against Hatchett in relation to his advocacy regarding the April 6 referendum in the Town of Whitewater.

Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 31st day of March, 2010.

SO ORDERED,
s/ Rudolph T. Randa
HON. RUDOLPH T. RANDA U.S. District Judge

For more on the Swaffer case, also involving the Town of Whitewater, see Free Speech for the Town of Whitewater.

School District

On Science Night at Whitewater High School

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On Tuesday evening, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., there was a science exhibit night at Whitewater’s high school, at which hundreds of people watched dozens of science experiments and demonstrations. For the student volunteers, and the teachers who staffed the event, the story of the evening might have been the wide number of exhibits. Anyone walking though the area found stations for optical illusions, rocket launching, insect collections, a Rube Goldberg contraption, animal tracks, hydrodynamics, electrical circuits, hovercraft, and the ever-fascinating combination of pop and Mentos. There were other stations beyond these; my list is a partial one. Those who created and demonstrated these exhibits have every reason to be proud of their work.

These many exhibits did not sit unremarked; hundreds came to see them. The attendance, I think, is an equally important story of the evening. Walking from room to room, among so many people, one saw Whitewater as she is, at her very best. No small number of insiders, beyond the few chattering magpies of the city: Whitewater’s many, a better group than all of our governing officials combined.

The attendees were of all ages, and representative of the city’s population, I’d guess. Their interest in science, in discovery of the natural world, was characteristic of an American community. We are an inquisitive people, given to experimentation and hands-on examination of the world around us. We’re not a place for Cambridge Platonists, a clique of dons speculating on the meaning of it all. We’re fortunate that we’re not; we fall short, and fail ourselves, whenever we undertake the mannered, airy musings of less productive elites.

Our science and achievements — the envy of all the world — have not come from a few fancy people (or those who’d like to think that they’re fancy, and like you to think so, too).

Our achievements come from the hands of ordinary and common people, who do extraordinary things, free of pretension. From among the crowd Tuesday evening, Whitewater, and America, will find what they need for our future. They’ll need no guiding hand of supposed dignitaries; no self-important vanguard will direct them. Talent and accomplishment will spring from the crowd, simply and humbly discovering great things.

Science Night was both an interesting and pleasant evening, and a match for any other.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 4-1-10

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Good morning,

It’s another mild day for Whitewater, with a predicated high of seventy-eight degrees, and breezy conditions.

It’s VIP Day at Lakeview School. Today is also the end of the academic quarter, with one quarter yet to go in this school year.

On this day in 1945, the United States began the invasion of Okinawa. The New York TImes reported on the landing:

Guam, Monday, April 2 — The United States Tenth Army landed yesterday morning on Okinawa, main island of the Ryukyus, 362 miles from the Japanese home islands. This morning found the invaders three miles inland and holding two airfields, with the defenders retreating all along the eight-mile landing line.

The veteran doughboys and marines met amazingly light resistance from the minute they landed yesterday at 8:30 A.M. They pushed up the steep slopes from the landing beaches with ease, although the shore was dominated by enemy guns on high ground.

Marines took the Yontan airfield at the northern end of the beachhead while Army troops captured the Katena airdrome in the southern area.

Action in Okinawa was to last for nearly three months, until defeat of the Japanese on the island in June.

US Flag raised over Shuri castle on Okinawa. Braving Japanese sniper fire, US Marine Lieutenant Colonel R.P. Ross, Jr. places on American flag on a parapet of Shuri castle on May 29, 1945.