Come on, Milwaukee. Keep your favorite locally owned companies in business during these tough economic times. Make a promise to buy local this holiday season at www.expressmilwaukee.com and you could win great prizes from local businesses. The Shepherd Express’ computerswill randomly pick winners throughout Decemberand we won’t even checkyour receipts to make sure that you’ve made good on your promise. Justsign up and shop at local retailers.
Youcan also check out the Exchange Alternative Gift Fair and Our MilwaukeeBuy Local Fair on Saturday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the UrbanEcology Center, 1500 E. Park Place. You can purchase cool gifts andmake donations to local charities that do good work throughout the year.
Hero of the Week: Brother Dave Schwab
Onewelcome phenomenon of the holiday season is the outpouring of aid andcompassion to the less fortunate in our community. There are thoseamong us, however, who make it a year-round mission to aid the needy,such as Brother Dave Schwab, who administers the Community Meal Programat St. Ben’s Parish. The program, which takes place 5:15 p.m. to 6:30p.m. Sunday through Friday, provides more than 100,000 meals a year at924 W. State St. Brother Dave began managing the program in 2004, andis quick to give credit to other members of the St. Ben’s community whoshow up night after night to ensure that less fortunate Milwaukeeansdon’t go home hungry. Those who would like to donate theirtime or money beyond the holiday season are encouraged to contact St.Ben’s at 271-0135 or visit their Web site at www.stbensmilwaukee.org.
Jerk of the Week: Alderman Jim Bohl
Unfortunately,Milwaukee has an alderman in Jim Bohl who doesn’t try to solveMilwaukee’s problems, but instead uses any issue he can to stir up hisconstituents with fear and hatred. At times he actually makes rightwingradio’s Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes sound moderate. Bohl’s mostrecent effort is to attack judges and the district attorney’s officefor not locking up more teens. If you listen to Bohl, young teens arerampaging through our communities, leaving death and destruction intheir wake.
To his credit, though, Bohl did accurately state that he’s“not a criminal justice expert.” So with that admission he should leavethings in the hands of the experts. Milwaukee County District AttorneyJohn Chisholm has several excellent federally funded programssuch asone involving community prosecutorsthat directly affect the issue thatBohl is blowing out of proportion. If Bohl would spend less timepushing the Bush/Cheney strategy of fear and hate-mongering and moretime trying to solve problems, Milwaukee would be a much better andsafer place for all of us.
Blog of the Week: Brew City Brawler
http://brewcitybrawler.typepad.com/
Sykes, Sick Days and “Human Nature”
Isanyone more responsible for dumbing down the debate about the sick-daymandate than Charlie Sykes?
Take, for instance, his periodic needlingthat, “I’ve got nine sick days now.” The Brawler would be shocked ifCharlie’s contract didn’t call for at least 10 sick days during anygiven year. Shoot, Gene Mueller took five sick days in less than twoweeks. Still, Charlie simply cannot resist the temptation to act like atool.
Which takes us to the fundamental way in which he dumbs down thedebate about the sick-day mandate: by repeating ad nauseam thatMilwaukee workers will automatically take all nine sick days. Onyesterday’s show he made sure to include a caller who said he mighttake all nine if he worked in Milwaukee; a guy who said he would takesick days to screw off if he could; and a business owner who saysgiving all her workers sick days would cost her $20,000.
Allof which is interesting. But as they say, anecdotes ain’t data. And thedata shows that half of all employees don’t take a sick day in a singleyear. In all, employees take an average of 1.8 sick days a yearhardlya crippling cost. But it’s difficult for Charlie to whip people into afrenzy about something without distorting the truth.
Charlieasserts that it would be “human nature” for someone to abuse thesick-day policy and take nine a year. Charlie could assert that, Idon’t know, screwing around on the mother of your children is humannature as well. But I don’t think most people would buy that. Norshould they buy his arguments against the sick-day mandate.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK “It’smuch harder to be a liberal than a conservative. Why? Because it iseasier to give someone the finger than a helping hand.” The latePulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Downtown Books, by Jon Bailey
"Three musty stories of crooked shelves, back rooms and creaky floors. Downtown Books is one of those special bookstores that Milwaukee is lucky to have."
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