LETTERS TO THE - EDITOR

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Attack from Within

To the editor: The Biden administration allowed over 11 million non-citizens to illegally cross the border into the United States. This enabled the smuggling of deadly drugs including fentanyl, which results in the deaths of over 50,000 of our young people each year. (For comparison, we suffered the loss of about 50,000 enlisted personnel in 20 years of war in South Vietnam). They enabled a massive increase in human trafficking, too.

I do not know the motivation of the people who failed to enforce our immigration laws, who welded open the gates of the border wall, who funded the massive migrant camps in Central America, and who ordered the border patrol to stand down and spend their time processing illegal aliens instead of preventing them from entering our country.

The dastardly scoundrels hid their misdeeds behind a screen of charity, preying on the enormous generosity and goodwill of the American people to flood the country with violent criminal convicts, criminal gangs, sex traffickers, drug smugglers, and unproductive people, who hid among the millions of unfortunate people who made the understandable, but misguided and criminal decision, to jump ahead of legal immigrants to take advantage of this illegal operation to improve their economic opportunities, or to take advantage of our generous social welfare programs.

While damaging our country with bad immigration policies, they also sullied the reputations of great old charitable organizations like the Red Cross, the Jewish Family Council, and Catholic Charities.

They broke our trust in the FBI, the CIA, the Department of National Intelligence, the judicial system, the Department of Justice, FEMA, USAID, the Department of Education, the National Institute of Health, the Department of Defense, our military leadership, and many others.

The miscreants seriously damaged our economy by spending a huge amount of money on wasteful and inefficient projects. They damaged our manufacturing base by signing unfair trade agreements, and choking farmers and manufacturers with a flood of onerous regulations. They damaged our automobile manufacturers by strongly favoring electric vehicles over internal combustion vehicles. They conducted a virtual war on our critical energy infrastructure. Their bad Covid policies forced small businesses to close, forced vital military, medical, and law enforcement personnel out of their jobs, and stunted the educational progress of millions of students.

They ruined the integrity of the election system with voting machines that cannot be audited, mail-in ballots that can be easily obtained without ID, uncontrolled ballot drop boxes, unreasonable restrictions on observers at ballot counting facilities, ranked choice voting, and corrupt election financing schemes.

They seriously damaged the public’s trust in the medical system, including local health departments, local hospitals, nursing homes, and personal physicians, who cooperated with the federal government pushing paper masks and “social distancing” for protection against the Covid virus, who placed Covid-infected patients in nursing homes (endangering the most vulnerable people), and who prevented us from obtaining treatments like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

They leveraged the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs to damage our national unity by forcing women to compete with men in sports, to share bathrooms with men, and to be imprisoned with men. They destroyed our timetested, merit-based system for employment, promotions, and college entrance selections. They forced certain types of pornographic books into public school libraries and public children’s libraries.

The American people have weathered a ruthless attack from within. While victory is never certain, or permanent, we have won a major battle. We are resolute in our efforts to fix what has been damaged, and to lead the world to peace and prosperity.

May God, who has protected our great nation from attacks from evil forces many times in the past, continue to hold us in His Hand.

Bruce Bohr Marathon

CSA Week

To the editor: During these cold days, I often find myself dreaming of fresh summertime vegetables like cucumbers, watermelons and sweet peppers. I think about food in ways different than the average person might – I’m a small-scale vegetable farmer, so dreaming of biting into a carrot with some dirt still on it is not a rare occurrence for me.

Even though winter is still here, this week is not just another week in February – it is CSA Week! CSA is an abbreviation for “community supported agriculture.” A traditional CSA program works like this: consumers purchase a “share” of a farm’s products for the year upfront, typically paying the farmer in the winter or spring months before the farming season begins. CSA members then receive a weekly (or bi-weekly) box of farm products throughout the harvest season. For example, my CSA members sign up for a 16-week season that starts in July and ends in October. Each week their boxes include between six and eight veggies, a good amount for a oneor two-person household that’s looking to eat more vegetables.

There are many benefits to participating in a CSA partnership with a farm. Some of my favorite reasons to try CSA include getting to know more about small-scale agriculture, eating foods you might not otherwise try on your own, learning more about the benefits of seasonal eating and connecting to a local business. Oftentimes CSA members find a new favorite food or enjoy trying out new recipes each week. It’s also so valuable to know the people growing what you’re eating.

At a time in history when our food system is in flux, with grocery store prices rising and small farms being run out of business due to a range of disheartening factors, it is so critical to support local producers. Wisconsin is lucky to have a large number of farms that offer a wide variety of products – veggies, fruit, milk, cheese, meat, honey, baked goods, maple syrup and so many more delicious items may be being produced closer to you than you think! All you need is a little time to search for them, which could also be easier than you realize.

One tool I highly recommend folks using to find a CSA farm, farmers market or farm-related organization is the Farm Fresh Atlas, which can be found online at https://farmfreshatlas. org. The website has a search option that you can put in ‘CSA’ or another keyword to help find what you’re looking for. From there, the website will pull up a map and list of producers to help direct you.

There is something truly special about connecting deeper with your food. It could be through a CSA program or just heading to a nearby farmers market more often. Let’s all take a bit of time to discover what our neighbor producers have to offer this year. Local relationships are good for all of us – and we all have to eat!

Hannah Alden Dorchester