Dear Ms. LaBarre,

I was recently at the mining hearing in West Allis where we both had a chance to speak. Isn’t democracy great that we can both drive down from the north (albeit I had a few more hours on the road from Madeline Island than you did from Hayward) to have our voices heard.

I was happy for you that you got to be first up in the queue, just in time for all the news cameras. I listened to you talk very eloquently for why you think we need mines in northern Wisconsin. You seem like an good citizen of the state. In fact, I am sure if I lived in Hayward and needed some plumbing done, I might very well call upon your company to help. I love Hayward, have enjoyed your community for years on my way through from the island.

However, I was not so privileged to have the news cameras by the time I was allowed to speak 7 hours later. And you were long gone so you did not hear my testimony. In fact, you missed much of the testimony of those of who stand to be directly affected by these mines. So I wanted to take the time to explain to you a few things so perhaps we as neighbors could come together in understanding of why there will be no mines in northern Wisconsin.

Now before you get upset, just listen for a few minutes. I was there when Sandy Pasch kindly and gently explained that this bill removes protection from the water. Your response was that you just disagreed with her.

Shirl, with all due respect, to me that sounded like an alcoholic, when confronted about her drinking, denying a problem exists. That kind of response is why people do interventions on others that they love. Because they are hurting themselves and each other by being in such enormous denial of the dangers that drinking is causing.

In this case, that you “disagree” will not change all the facts: there are no non-polluting iron ore mines; that the St. Louis River, because of MN mines, has 100 miles of dead zone where nothing grows, including the wild rice that people like Bad River depend on to live. That the water is contaminated by iron ore mines, and that the proposed mine in the Penokees will ruin the entire area’s watershed. What that means is, Bad River’s wild rice will die, and the fish will become inedible, which means the fishing industry in Lake Superior will eventually die as it is in the Gulf of Mexico right now because of the oil spill. (Do you like oysters? Well the Gulf spill killed most of the oysters in the Gulf, among the other fish down there.)

What it means for me and my family and friends on Madeline Island, who get our water from the Penokee Watershed, is that my well will become contaminated and eventually I will not be able to drink from it. Our economy on the island will whither and die. You think Hayward’s economy is poor? Come to the island where we have about 6 weeks a year for a tourist season before there is no other way to make money except working for the town, the ferry line or the local coffee shop.

A mine will mean our tourism will be extinguished because the entire south shore of the island faces directly at where the proposed mines will be. This means we will be subjected to blasting of 2 – 4 on the ritcher scale 4-5 days a week, a 24 hour a day glow on the horizon and quite likely Cline will build a coal burning power plant to power the mine. Would YOU rent a home on the shores of Madeline if you would be subjected to blasting all day long on the scale of a large earthquake?This means air pollution from the possible coal burning plant, on top of the what the mine will produce, will cloud our air and make it dangerously unhealthy to breathe. This means my home value will plummet even greater than it has, and there will be nothing for me anymore here except a house I can’t sell, water I can’t drink and air that is dangerous to breathe and no way to make a living. It also means that my grandchildren will never be able to enjoy the clean water I now have in my well, or the beautiful water in Lake Superior, or the unparalleled quiet we value here.

For you to tell me I am an “environmental extremist” is not only wrong, but terribly unfair. What if it were your home values, your water, your air and your neighbors being threatened, and I told you you just had to live with. What if you had this very real threat and I told a committee that I just “disagree” with the very real threat to your lives and the safety of your children? How would you feel?

And please explain to me how any number of jobs can justify destroying the Bad River Indians? Do you realize what life will be like for them if this mine goes in? It’s ten miles from their homes, and all the pollution will flow directly into their water, their lives. Are you willing to buy land there right now, before the mines goes in? Would YOU be willing to live that close to the mine? Imagine the unbearable noise from the blasting…can you imagine how little your home will be worth sitting at the foot of a 4 mile open pit iron ore mine? And what will they eat when they can no longer harvest the wild rice and eat the fish?

How can you, with any good conscious, tell me that you “disagree” and you are going to be actively working for this mine, when it will destroy the rest of us? I know you disagree, but your disagreement of the truth does not make it go away.

No jobs justify the genocide of Bad River Indians, or the destruction of my town’s entire economy. If you still disagree with this, then you show your true colors clearly. And for me, someone who ignores these horrific possibilities in favor of your own personal profit is either greedy, uneducated or evil. You did not strike me as that kind of person, but what else am I to think, if I plead the truth and you tell me I am wrong? Sorry to be so frank but if you were in our shoes, you might not disagree.

So please. I tell you, first, there will be no mines for these reasons, and because we who live on the watershed and on the shores of Lake Superior have said the same things: this land and water are not ours, we are the stewards and protectors of it. And we are gaining momentum and power, and we will stand strong to not allow these mines to come because they will destroy this region forever.

We will lay down our iives for this, because, without the water and air, we have no lives up here. The mines will kill us. Sorry, your disagreement will not change the truth. And I cannot afford your disagreement.Will you be willing to die to get the mines in? Will you be willing to lay down your life?

I didn’t think so.

Second, why not join us. We have many ideas for economic development for our region that you and Hayward could share in that won’t kill your neighbors. But don’t look to our state government to help us right now. They are doing everything they can to deny economic growth so they can claim the mines are the answers. We were all set to bring wind power in, but they decided it was too dangerous.

Imagine that.

Kind Regards

Barbara With

As someone who has had a family cabin in Cable, WI for many years before I was born, I say Thank You Barbara With and Shame on you Shril LaBarre!

PS to Ms. LaBarre:

An application no longer requires a risk assessment of accidental health and environmental hazards.

~An application no longer requires a demonstration that runoff from the mining site will be managed so as to prevent soil erosion to the extent practicable, flooding, damage to ag land or livestock, damage to wild animals, pollution of ground or surface waters, damage to public health, and threats to public safety. (Compliance with construction site erosion control presumes compliance with this requirement)

~This bill removes important protections for streams or lake beds.
Current law provides that activities expected to cause landslides or substantial deposition in stream or lake beds that cannot be feasibly prevented, or the destruction or filling in of a lake bed constitute grounds for denial of a permit. This bill removes these as bases for denial of the permit.

~Eliminates all application of water quality standards to artificial wetlands, including artificial wetlands with significant functional values.

Jus sayin!

Asked why he wasn’t in Wisconsin to do the job he was hand-picked to do, Kroll said, “I film two TV shows.”

Spike Dolomite Ward, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, has a powerful story that Ms. Kleefisch and others can learn from.

I want to apologize to President Obama. But first, some background.

I found out three weeks ago I have cancer. I’m 49 years old, have been married for almost 20 years and have two kids. My husband has his own small computer business, and I run a small nonprofit in the San Fernando Valley. I am also an artist. Money is tight, and we don’t spend it frivolously. We’re just ordinary, middle-class people, making an honest living, raising great kids and participating in our community, the kids’ schools and church.

We’re good people, and we work hard. But we haven’t been able to afford health insurance for more than two years. And now I have third-stage breast cancer and am facing months of expensive treatment.

To understand how such a thing could happen to a family like ours, I need to take you back nine years to when my husband got laid off from the entertainment company where he’d worked for 10 years. Until then, we had been insured through his work, with a first-rate plan. After he got laid off, we got to keep that health insurance for 18 months through COBRA, by paying $1,300 a month, which was a huge burden on an unemployed father and his family.

By the time the COBRA ran out, my husband had decided to go into business for himself, so we had to purchase our own insurance. That was fine for a while. Every year his business grew. But insurance premiums were steadily rising too. More than once, we switched carriers for a lower rate, only to have them raise rates significantly after a few months.

With the recession, both of our businesses took a huge hit — my husband’s income was cut in half, and the foundations that had supported my small nonprofit were going through their own tough times. We had to start using a home equity line of credit to pay for our health insurance premiums (which by that point cost as much as our monthly mortgage). When the bank capped our home equity line, we were forced to cash in my husband’s IRA. The time finally came when we had to make a choice between paying our mortgage or paying for health insurance. We chose to keep our house. We made a nerve-racking gamble, and we lost.

Not having insurance amplifies cancer stress. After the diagnosis, instead of focusing all of my energy on getting well, I was panicked about how we were going to pay for everything. I felt guilty and embarrassed about not being insured. When I went to the diagnostic center to pick up my first reports, I was sent to the financial department, where a woman sat me down to talk about resources for “cash patients” (a polite way of saying “uninsured”).

“I’m not a deadbeat,” I blurted out. “I’m a good person. I have two kids and a house!” The clerk was sympathetic, telling me how even though she worked in the healthcare field, she could barely afford insurance herself.

Although there have been a few people who judged us harshly, most people have been understanding about how this could happen to us. That’s given me the courage to “out” myself and my family in hopes that it will educate people who are still lucky enough to have health insurance and view people like my family as irresponsible. We’re not. What I want people to understand is that, if this could happen to us, it could happen to anybody.

It is shameful in America when ANYONE who gets diagnosed with Cancer’s first thought is “How am I going to pay for it?” Think about that.

Fortunately for me, I’ve been saved by the federal government’s Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, something I had never heard of before needing it. It’s part of President Obama’s healthcare plan, one of the things that has already kicked in, and it guarantees access to insurance for U.S. citizens with preexisting conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. The application was short, the premiums are affordable, and I have found the people who work in the administration office to be quite compassionate (nothing like the people I have dealt with over the years at other insurance companies.) It’s not perfect, of course, and it still leaves many people in need out in the cold. But it’s a start, and for me it’s been a lifesaver — perhaps literally.

Which brings me to my apology. I was pretty mad at Obama before I learned about this new insurance plan. I had changed my registration from Democrat to Independent, and I had blacked out the top of the “h” on my Obama bumper sticker, so that it read, “Got nope” instead of “got hope.” I felt like he had let down the struggling middle class. My son and I had campaigned for him, but since he took office, we felt he had let us down.

So this is my public apology. I’m sorry I didn’t do enough of my own research to find out what promises the president has made good on. I’m sorry I didn’t realize that he really has stood up for me and my family, and for so many others like us. I’m getting a new bumper sticker to cover the one that says “Got nope.” It will say “ObamaCares.”

So here is an educated professional voter who was dead set adamantly against the affordable care act, yet she had no idea what was really in it. Think about that also.

Here is to hoping that Ms. Kleefisch and Ms. Ward live many more years as “Cancer Survivors” and that Ms. Kleefisch understands the error of her ways.