Political Heat

Wisconsin's racial disparities exist in part due to ignorance. The incident involving a student wearing blackface at a local high school sporting event  over the weekend showcases the need for students to be taught black history in more depth, not just in the suburbs of Madison, but throughout the state of Wisconsin. The student, who did not wear blackface upon arriving at a Sun Prairie High School but applied it on during the girls basketball game on Saturday, was immediately chided by his fellow peers, and told to remove it by them. That's wonderful news that deserves to be recognized — that the kids spoke up against a racist action . What's disturbing, however, is that the action happened in the first place. According to the Sun Prairie School District, which sent a letter to parents on Monday about the incident over the weekend, had the administrators noticed the student engaging in direct racist activities, they would have halted it at once. "The stud...

Municipalities cannot just ignore gun laws from state and federal governments  Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers called a special legislative session this fall to address the issue of gun laws in the state. Instead of taking the issue seriously, Republicans in the legislature opened, and then closed the session out within seconds. Their decision to do so was irresponsible. Gun laws have been loosened tremendously over the past decade, thanks to Evers's predecessor, former Gov. Scott Walker. Many Republican lawmakers who are in office today also helped to promote or write the changes to gun laws back then. What was meant to be a deterrence to violence, however, actually had the opposite effect: murder and crime rates went up , and Wisconsinites didn't become safer under the changes, as was promised by that governor and GOP legislators at the time. Opponents to new proposals from the Democratic governor worry that the ideas he and other Democrats are putting forward would hamp...

A proposal to introduce the ballot initiative in Wisconsin should come with some added safeguards.  Three Democrats in the state legislature are proposing an amendment to Wisconsin's Constitution that would allow voters the opportunity to write their own laws. The measure will likely die in the Republican-controlled Assembly and Senate. But it brings about a valid question: should the voter initiative be brought to Wisconsin? The proposal by Reps. David Crowley and Gary Hebl , as well as Sen. Dave Hansen , would create a multi-step process in order to produce a voter-led ballot initiative. First, for any proposed law, a citizens' group would have to get signatures equaling 5 percent of the total number of ballots cast in the previous Secretary of State election — which is no easy task, amounting to hundreds of thousands of signatures based off the last statewide race. Next, after signatures are verified for the question being considered, it would be put to the voter...