LETTER: Vote against those who take cover under gerrymandering

To Ozaukee Press:

Last week: I lost my cool. I sent the angriest email I’ve ever written to anyone to my Wisconsin assemblyman. Gov. Evers lost his cool too. He labeled the Republican majority in the Legislature with an expletive after they kneecapped him—again. Add another school shooting, and I was even more angry and frustrated.

This week: I watched a movie based on two real people. “The Best of Enemies” is available at our wonderful libraries. It is about a KKK devotee and a determined black female community activist in Durham, N.C., in 1971.

 This movie is great. It shows how two opponents found their way through hatred, on both sides, to a point of empathy and ultimately, love. I don’t think any of us like racial divide or the political divide that results in hostility.

Gerrymandering is what has led to our current political rancor. Who needs to compromise or negotiate when you can arrogantly guarantee that once again, after this census, no one but a Republican could win in biased-drawn districts for another 10 years?

Republican Sen. Duey Stroebel is currently strangling to death fair voting-map legislation by holding it in committee.

We have more in common than we think: affordable health care and pharmaceuticals, livable wages, fair taxation, sensible gun regulation, clean air and water, good education, support for farmers. No matter what your issue, it won’t be addressed until this absolute power by Republicans is broken.

The practice of gerrymandering will be on Wisconsin’s 2020 ballots in the form of Republican Party candidates. Disenfranchising with a rigged system is wrong and creates anger and resentment. Let’s send a strong message about democracy in the coming elections.   

 Nancy Camden
 Mequon