Help me people! I am cruising the newspaper Web sites just before I write my blog entry to make sure I have not missed the latest mass murder or the latest invasion of a Third-World nation and there on the Sports Section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl's mug. I know he owns the Milwaukee Bucks, so he has some validation to be on the sports page, yet...and yet, I never see him on any other section of any paper. How about the National section talking about our killed soldiers? - nope! How's about the business section talking about a generation who has never heard of a full-time job or has never realized people used to not work on weekends every weekend of their life? - nope!
Is it just because the Bucks are a lousy basketball team that Kohl seems to catch my attention? Is he a Republican or a Democrat? Don't answer that, I know he is officially a Democrat. But, I mean...what is he really? He reminds me of that eccentric uncle that always comes to the holiday family gathering and gives the nieces and nephews presents like leather bound books they never open until they are 40. Every time someone walks in the Kohl Center in Madison they should think, "O'l uncle Herb built and paid for this here fancy palace."
I admire that a federal law maker actually has a job on the side. I am thinking to myself, most of them there millionaires in Washington don't got no job. They ain't never had no kind'a job no ways. So at least you know how to make a payroll uncle Herb. But, who does he represent? Not me. I can't even afford to go to any event at his Kohl Center in Madison. I sure can't afford a professional basket ball ticket for his Bucks in Milwaukee. Besides, the last time I watched pro basket ball a tall kid from New York then L.A. named Lew Alcindor was dominating the court. But I digress.
Herb Kohl comes close to being the quintessential and consummate Republicrat type Demolican. I don't think Wisconsin's republican party has even put up a candidate to run against him in years. The last challenger I remember was some poor old dude who wanted to legalize pot. He got about six votes.
Elected officials like Kohl are post card portraits of why people are so cynical about our government. Kohl embodies the two-party paradigm. When the going is good he buys a basket ball team. When the going is tough, he has a town hall meeting with some languishing farmers. But one thing is certain about O'l Uncle Herb, thousands of soldiers have died on his watch while he looks over his potential next college ball players. I wounder if he spends so much time dwelling over our dead Wisconsin soldiers - his real constituents. The citizens remain cynical and disenfranchised.
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Sgt. 1st Class Dan H. Gabrielson, 40, of Frederic. He spent 22 years in the Army Reserve. Gabrielson was a specialist in repairing construction equipment for the Army Reserve's 652nd Engineer Company based out of Ellsworth. He worked as a mechanic and machinist in the unit's motor pool and was in charge of keeping the bridge building equipment working under very difficult conditions. Sgt. Gabrielson was the third Wisconsin serviceman to die in Iraq and the first reservist from the state killed there. Gabrielson had taken over the role of platoon sergeant for his unit and was studying to become a warrant officer. He was promoted from staff sergeant to Sergeant 1st class after his bridge building unit was sent to Iraq. Sergent Gabrielson was killed on July 9, 2003, in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a convoy near Baqouba, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad.
3,334 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
71 Wisconsin Soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
No comments:
Post a Comment