Letters to the - Editor

Letters to the Editor

Earth Day serves as reminder:

Stabilizing our climate brings us together. We have the opportunity to end our shooting wars, to put down our weapons and pick up the struggle to stabilize our climate. War has been obsolete for quite some time and it is just old men, for the most part, who rattled their sabres and attack each other.

The way to come together is to take on bigger struggles. Our economic machine is so obsolete that shutting it down and re-tooling a new model that enhances life is the obvious choice.

We create our economy, and we can reshape it into a life of affirming garden. The mass extinction will end in the same retooling, and the difference will be an effort that gives anyone wanting to work a job worth doing and taking pride in.

Drawing down our greenhouse gases from the absurd peak we have reached is a way to collaborate with those we held as adversaries, because the struggle to reverse our catastrophic destabilizing of our climate shows the real enemy.

The real enemy is ourselves. Making change in ourselves together as one human organism will allow everyone to win as our struggle matures. We are moving toward adulthood and leaving the juvenile stage because stabilizing our climate brings us together.

Voting in the August primary elections and then in the November election gives us a chance to support representatives that will take on this struggle and help to stabilize our climate.

Every action matters.

Christopher LaForge Port Wing

Tiffany’s agendas on display:

Dear Editor: Congressman Tiffany voted to give Russian President Putin a victory in Ukraine by voting against providing aid to Ukraine. Fortunately the aid package passed with an overwhelming vote of 311 - 112. While he fell into step with 111 other Republican members of Congress, I think he is out of step with the majority of his constituents in the 7th District. I do not believe any American wants to abandon our allies in a way that appeases and empowers a ruthless, brutal dictator like Putin. Denying aid to Ukraine would virtually give Putin permission to continue to ravage, rape and murder Ukrainians and to launch incursions into the Baltic nations that have recently freed themselves from Russia’s grip.

This vote aligns Tiffany with Trump’s declaration he would, “let Russia do whatever the hell they want to.” We have seen Tiffany cow-tow to Trump before and we know Trump admires Putin, but supporting Trump and Putin at the expense of an ally and the endangerment of Eastern Europe is not OK, it is dangerous and shameful at best.

Bryce Luchterhand Unity Recently in Green Bay, at a rally, Trump told supporters that immigrants are animals. And the crowd cheered. He has told us many times that immigrants are poisoning the blood of Americans. He says these things to dehumanize immigrants and to scapegoat immigrants for the failures of government. Were those men on that bridge in Baltimore that night animals? Were they stealing American jobs? Committing crimes and acts of terror?

On the evening of April 8th, I joined in on a telephone townhall meeting hosted by Rep. Tiffany. What I heard was a continuation of the demonization of immigrants by Tiffany. He repeatedly told us that they are criminals, bringing Fentanyl in, terrorists are streaming in unchecked at the border, and are stealing jobs.

To instill fear, Tiffany sited a couple of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants (Tiffany uses the term illegal aliens, because of course, aliens aren’t human) that garnered national attention. As horrific as these crimes are, and they are, these are outliers. The fact of the matter is that undocumented immigrants are least likely to commit a crime, followed by documented immigrants. The most likely to commit crimes in America is the American citizen.

The fear mongering continued. Tiffany repeatedly told us that terrorists are coming across the border unchecked. Not a single terror attack on American soil can be attributed to an undocumented immigrant. The men that perpetrated the attacks on 9/11 were far right extremists that came to this country legally to learn to fly the airplanes that they hijacked. The Oklahoma City bomber was a far right extremist from farm country Michigan. If McVeigh had not been caught and were alive today, he would be in prison with his fellow terrorists, the Oath Keepers, for the terror attack on the U.S. Capital on January 6, 2020.

For a little hate mongering, Tiffany turns to fentanyl. After all, who doesn’t hate drug runners? When challenged by a caller about his claims about fentanyl, Tiffany’s tone turned noticeably angry as he lamented, (paraphrased) “if you don’t believe me then tell it to the victims and to the survivors and to the families and to the cops that see it every day...” and on he went. What he doesn’t tell you is that the vast majority of fentanyl coming across the border, comes in trucks, not immigrants seeking asylum. The bi-partisan bill put forth by Senator Langford, and endorsed by Senator Graham saying it was a great deal, would have dumped millions of dollars into personnel and equipment to inspect trucks at the border. This bill was killed by Trump so he could use the border as his primary campaign issue.

And now to add just a little anger to the mix,Tiffany made the ridiculous statement that the immigrants are stealing jobs. Lol. Farmers, here and around the country, have two choices. They can hire migrants or invest heavily into robots to milk, push, sort and feed cattle. The last four contractors to come to my farm all came with at least one migrant. The hoof trimmer told me, “He doesn’t speak English, but he’s a good worker.” Abbyland Foods, the largest employer in the community, relies heavily on migrant workers. Community leaders allowed this expansion to happen. We were told that this will increase revenues and bring jobs. Well, OK then.

But don’t worry folks, Tiffany has a solution! It’s Biden’s fault! Tiffany and the entire Republican Congressional House of Representatives passed the H.R.2 bill long ago and sent it to the Senate where it was promptly declared DOA. Tiffany repeatedly told us that Biden can fix this if he wanted to. Sorry pal, but that’s not how government works. The president is the last person to sign a bill into law. Tiffany’s job is to put forth a bill that can actually make it to his desk. The bi-partisan bill put forth by Langford, that the president said he would sign, included concessions by Democrats that they no longer have the incentive to make again. It’s an election year. Republicans had the Democrats over a barrel. Democrats could not be seen as against immigration reform. Republicans blew it. The border crisis wasn’t really a crisis after all.

Finally Tiffany told us that it’s actually the immigrants fault. That it’s somehow their fault that they had heard about this great far-away country and if you could just get there, then go. I guess they haven’t heard, but Republicans don’t want you here. But they do want to Make America Great Again, just don’t tell those poor people south of the border.

Tiffany uses fear, hate and anger to manipulate easily swayed voters and to motivate them to the polls because he simply cannot rely on his accomplishments. The 118th Congress has been one of the least productive Congress ever and Tiffany has little to nothing to show for his time in office. Maybe the Langford bill didn’t go far enough for Tiffany, but it could have been the first step taken since Reagan.

Tiffany doesn’t respect migrants as humans and he doesn’t respect you.

Ron Gutenberger Colby