Maybe we need purple ink on Election Day

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor: In response to your “Doubly disturbing” editorial last week, you did have one statement correct. “A free and fair election is the key to democracy.” Election 2020 was not a free and fair election. The numbers don’t add up. Something smells really bad. In all of the contested states, there are hundreds of people signing affidavits stating they witnessed corruption in the elections. Everything from ballots magically appearing in the middle of the night, postal workers being told to back date ballets, election monitors not able to witness the counting of ballots and no voter verification on mail in ballots. Is it a coincidence that all of this happened in liberal Democratic states? I think not! Of course the liberal press will not report on any of this because of their intense hatred for Donald Trump. The Democrats and press have been on him relentlessly since before he got elected in 2016. I did not vote for him in 2016 (and most certainly not for Hillary Clinton), but I believe he did a good job for the country and I did vote for him in 2020. He kept all of his campaign promises that he could even with all the Democratic interference unlike many other presidents before him. Is he a poster child for president, maybe not, but he does stand up for America and looks after our best interest. I was sick and tired of former president Obama apologizing to the world for everything that America ever did and giving handouts to the terrorist countries such as Iran.

We are a good, hard working society and have helped out more people than any other country in the world ever did.

As a veteran, I know there are other military members out there who may have been to Iraq or Afghanistan to work with their elections. The free elections were a big deal in those countries and closely watched. Those people never had a chance to have their voices heard before because of the corrupt governments they were under. People stood in line for hours to cast their votes and then dipped their finger into a purple ink to prove that they voted and voted only once. This helped reduce fraudulent voting because the ink lasted for a few days. Maybe we need to buy a bunch of purple ink for our future elections.

With the Democrats pushing mail-in voting, pushing out the voting deadlines before and after Election Day, does anyone believe that there was no fraud involved? If you do, you need to get out from under that rock and open your eyes to see what is going on. We are no better that a third world country right now with our election process of “Mail in Voting.” I did not put in 28 years in the military including a year in Afghanistan to have the liberals tear down my country.

Dale Dahlke Edgar

To the Editor: On Sunday, Dec. 6, the Stratford school board held a special meeting to consider ending the quarantine of nine varsity boys basketball players. In the end they took no action. I want to publicly express my appreciation for them to meet on short notice on a Sunday night. I could use this space to bemoan their inaction, but I prefer to look forward. I want to challenge not only Stratford’s school board, but every board this newspaper reaches to bring one idea to your next meeting that moves schools towards normalcy.

I see most board members relying on county, state, or federal guidelines but ignoring any other data when it comes to making decisions. Remember, those guidelines are just that, they are not law. They should be part of the conversation, not an excuse to simply shrug our shoulders and claim nothing can be done.

Have you considered data that shows schools are not where this virus is being spread? Wisconsinites 20 and under have zero deaths from COVID-19. How about UW-Madison’s study showing a case rate of .000314 cases per player day for Wisconsin’s high school athletes, with zero hospitalizations? Why are we bouncing healthy students in and out of quarantine? Do masking, spacing, sanitation, and other mitigation protocols matter?

I asked my son to get some of his classmates to shoot quick video messages for our school board about how these policies are affecting them. He said “OK”, paused, and said “Forget it. They won’t do it. There’s no point. Nobody cares. They don’t care. We do everything they ask and none of it matters.” That’s the message from hundreds of kids in our county. Do you hear them now?

Travis and Nikki Skroch Stratford

Support law that would price carbon

To the Editor: I was delighted to read in the Wall Street Journal that big business is advocating legislation to address climate change. Companies like Amazon, Ford Motor Company, Citigroup, and several others (a total of 40) are calling on Congress to work with President-elect Biden to tackle the problem of climate change. Scientific data on man-caused carbon emissions has led CEOs of these companies to recommend action for the good of their companies, the nation’s economy and the overall environment of our planet. Over 97 percent of all climate scientists agree, based on peer-reviewed scientifi c evidence, that man-made global warming is not only occurring but accelerating. Increases of carbon emissions are causing an increase in the number and intensity of hurricanes and tornadoes, and increases in other damaging and life-threatening storms. Additionally, severe drought in some areas is fueling wildfires, while other areas are frequently being inundated by rain events. Climatologists predict that these massive rain events should occur only once every 500 years. The Northern Wisconsin area has had two of these extremely rare events within the last 10 years.

The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, HR763, has been introduced in the House to address climate change using simple, practical, and economically-efficient means. Simply said, this act will place a fee on fossil fuels at the source. The higher prices for gas, propane, and natural gas will promote increases in conservation. Furthermore, when the fee correctly prices the carbon fuel for the damage it causes our environment, it will place green energy sources on an equal playing field and spur innovation (and more jobs) in these industries. It is estimated that in 12 years, a 40 percent reduction of CO2 will be achieved.

The fees generated by this program will be returned to each household on a monthly basis in the form of a dividend that is independent of carbon fuel usage. The government keeps none of the money except for administrative fees which are estimated to be around 3 percent.

If climate change is an issue for you, as it is for business leaders, please call and tell them that you support HR763, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

M. J. Pesko Rice Lake