LETTERS TO THE
E DITOR Help ‘Save Our Stages’
To the editor: We greatly appreciate you calling attention to “Save Our Stages” (S.O.S) and the RESTART Acts, both of which have bipartisan support on Capitol Hill but have, as yet, failed to move forward as Congress considers further COVID relief packages.
Cultural organizations and venues such as LuCille Tack Center for the Arts and Wausau’s Grand Theater were among the first to close their doors back in March and will be among the very last to re-open at full capacity due to safety concerns posed by large gatherings.
While the live event industry is experiencing upwards of 90 percent revenue loss, it also takes a toll on our local economy. Venues such as the Tack and the Grand are economic multipliers, community builders, and beloved institutions. A Chicago study estimated that $1 spent at a small venue resulted in $12 of economic activities for neighboring restaurants, hotels, and gas stations. Venues drive revenue to other businesses in cities and towns across America.
In addition, the permanent closure of these organizations would impact the entire music economy and ecosystem in America – artists, talent agents, stagehands, security, catering, artist managers, tour bus industry, production, radio/ social media/TV/print advertising, record companies – and would be devastating for music and entertainment lovers.
An estimated 10,000 community members of every age pass through the Tack over the course of a normal year, attending performances of all kinds, exhibits and school and community functions. It is truly a gathering space for our greater community and essential to adding diversity and quality of life to our area! We agree it is imperative to preserve options for live entertainment in Central Wisconsin.
Please visit www.saveourstages.com and sign the petition to help make it so. Remember – your leisure time opportunities depend on it!
Thank you, TP Printing, for all you do to cover and support the arts in our communities!
Diane Veale executive director LuCille Tack Center for the Arts
Sept. 22 blood drive will include extra precautions
To the editor: Hello again. Normally at this time of year, I would be writing to announce an American Red Cross Blood Drive to be held at the school. However, because of conditions as they stand, the location for the drive will again be at Abbotsford City Hall. The Lions will be sponsoring this drive on Tuesday, Sept. 22, from 12 to 6 p.m.
As before, there will be additional safety measures in place for the safety of all.
_ Temperature checks will be taken for all staff, volunteers, and donors before entering the blood drive. Anyone with a temperature greater than 99.5 F will not be able to donate/work at the drive.
_ Staff and volunteers will wear gloves throughout entire drive, changing often.
_ All staff, volunteers and donors will be required to wear face masks or coverings at the blood drive in alignment with CDC public guidelines. If a donor does not have a mask, the Red Cross will provide one. If a donor does not want to wear a mask, they will be asked to postpone their donation for a later date.
_ Increased education materials: Information on COVID-19, and a stop sign at the entrance to avert ineligible donors. COVID-19 antibody testing is being done as well.
_ Enhanced disinfecting: hand sanitizer at check-in, health history, and refreshment areas. Blood donors will be asked to use hand sanitizer before and during the donation process. Donor beds will be sanitized between every donor. Routinely disinfecting common surfaces at drive.
_ Social distancing: Set up to allow six feet distance between donor areas. Only blood donors will be permitted at blood drives. No guests, children or teens unless teen is donating blood. After checkin, donors will be asked to wait in a designated area. We will not be allowed to provide our usual “home-baked” goodies. Refreshment items must be pre-packaged only.
Please consider joining us as we all do our part for those in need!
Appointments are recommended. We can take walk-ins only if the appointment slot is not filled or we have a no-show.
For an appointment call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit redcrossblood. org.
Hope to see you there!
Karen LaPine Abbotsford Lions blood drive coordinator
Trump doesn’t really care about ‘law and order’
To the editor: President Trump would like to be known as the “law and order candidate,” but consider just a few instances from his presidency.
Trump has repeatedly advocated violence against protestors and immigrants. He asked police to not be “too nice” when they arrest people. He has offered to pay legal fees if his supporters are sued for beating up protestors at his rallies. He declared, “I’d like to punch him in the face!” as one protestor was removed. He actually asked if rocks could be considered a firearm that would justify lethal force. He asked an aide if U.S. agents could shoot migrants below the waist. Trump offered support for white nationalists involved in a rally in Charlottesville, Va., that left one woman dead, remarking about “some very fine people on both sides,” and he retweeted a video of a Trump supporter shouting, “White power!”
During the four years of the Trump administration, public awareness of police violence has increased and Americans have taken to the streets to protest what they see as racial injustice and inequity too often condoned by their government. Trump’s reaction has been to send in more heavily armed police and to blame Joe Biden. Biden has gone on TV admonishing the violence saying, “Looting is not protesting. Burning buildings is not protesting. Arsonists and looters should be arrested.”
President Trump has asked his supporters to violate federal law and commit a felony by attempting to vote twice, once by mail and once in person. He did this despite warnings from election officials from across the nation.
Trump is grasping for something to campaign on and believes his ineffectual and often inflammatory actions regarding protestors can be molded in a fashion that would make him appear as a “law and order” guru. He hopes we ignore his eight associates that have either worked on his campaign or in his administration that have been arrested or convicted of crimes ranging from conspiracy against the United States, child pornography, tax fraud, lying to the FBI, and defrauding investors. His personal attorney and the Postmaster General are also under investigation.
Calling Trump the “Law and Order candidate” is a real stretch when we are witnessing what will go down as one of the most corrupt and violence prone administrations in our nation’s history.
Maxine Luchterhand
Unity
You might be a Democrat
To the editor: With all the political talk, I’ve been thinking about what it really means to be a Democrat. So, here is what I have come up with from watching what is happening in our country.
If you support replacing our U.S. Constitution and the freedoms it gives us for a stronger central government (i.e. socialism) so that all may have an equal sharing of miseries, you just might be a Democrat.
Of course, you would also be in favor of punishing success with higher taxation. Then, too, you would believe that the Marxist group, Black Lives Matter, is a group of courageous and caring patriots who find it necessary to burn, loot, and vandalize to get their point across.
Meanwhile, you would rally around defunding our brave law officers and taking away law-abiding people’s guns to make them safer.
Morally, you would support killing babies in the womb, or, if the baby survives the abortion, let her or him die after birth. The nuclear family would also have to be redefined as well as the addition of hundreds of new genders. Then it only follows that God must be removed from our nation, along with our history and any physical reminders of our nation’s past.
At the border, you would favor the removal of all barriers, including ICE, so that all would be welcome to enter the United States. Then also you would cheer on the establishment of sanctuary cities to harbor terrorists and other criminals.
Of course, those getting into the United States by whatever means must automatically receive citizenship and the privilege to vote along with access to all welfare programs. As a matter of fact, you just might believe in “free” health care for everyone and are willing to wait patiently to get treated.
Finally, if you believe that nothing is more important (such as lives, jobs, businesses, property) than destroying President Trump by any means (such as lying, using government agencies such as the FBI, withholding medicines to treat COVID-19, etc.), then you just might be a Democrat.
Do all you can to learn about your candidates and what they stand for before voting. Many of them have records. One good nonpartisan source for information is the website votesmart.org. Look at where the candidate support is coming from. Then, see you at the polls!
Sandra Luedeke Greenwood
