Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Wait! What? You Expect Me To Govern




By Jeff Simpson

Excellent piece from James Causey in today's JSonline:

Mr. Causey feels that the violence epidemic in Milwaukee is one that Scott Walker needs to address.


More than 200 people have been shot int he city of Milwaukee so far this year, and Gov. Scott Walker has been ​too quiet on the issue.

Some may say that the Milwaukee shooting epidemic is not an issue for Walker
​;​
 instead
​,​
 it should be something that local leaders need to figure out. I disagree.


When more than 33 children have been shot in the biggest city in your state, and hundreds of adults have suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds, the governor should be in Milwaukee working with local officials to come up with solutions.

Mary Burke has also brought this up:

In May, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke said that legislators have shown more interest in voter suppression than in addressing gun violence in Milwaukee. Walker called Burke's statement "hogwash," but I ask, have you seen anything from Madison proving that Burke's claim is false?
Walker showing he is a brilliant campaigner and once you scratch the surface, there is no there there.   Scott Walker even told us that he would love to help MIlwaukee out but then other cities would want his help and attention also.  






Then like all excellent columns, Mr. Causey offers up some solutions. 

We need more leadership at the table and I'm not talking about another press conference or a community meeting. We need bold ideas that go beyond gun buybacks. We need to seriously think about enforcing the curfew laws for young people; expand programs ​such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, focus on jobs and early childhood education and more investment in people and not prisons.

While I would argue that there is zero leadership at the table now, we do need more.  It appears as though we can not wait for Scott Walker to take the lead, unless of course, the areas of violence in Milwaukee would like to start a community fundraising effort to collect donations for Friends of Scott Walker.  

I would also add to Mr. Causey's list, we need to start holding private/voucher schools accountable.   How much of a difference could the $2,000,000 of public money that Lifeskills Academy stole from the taxpayers of Wisconsin have made in the inner city?  How about if the kids in the inner cities were actually going to schools where the teacher student ratio was manageable and the walls were not crumbling down and outdated?   

Like all problems, this is fixable, unless there is no interest by the "leaders" of our state to do so.   That would mean the Governor of our state would have to do what he was elected for - actually governing.   

Unfortunately for the people of Wisconsin, he never had any intentions of doing that! 

 

 

 



2 comments:

  1. Lord help us if he focuses like a laser beam on guns and violence in Milwaukee as he did with jobs. He has to be kidding when he says if we help Milwaukee then other cities will line up for help. Guess what governor; states include many cities within their borders that qualify for help and oversight by the state. This governor loves to talk but he's not about to help cities out unless he somehow benefits from it.

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  2. The Scott Walkers is concerned only with Scott Walker.

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