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Welcome, welcome, welcome to Civic Media Mid-Mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal, and I am currently not holding a
pen in my hand, which is terrible.
There we
go.
Good morning, everyone.
Happy Friday.
We are here.
The weekend is almost here.
I hope you're having a wonderful day, a wonderful morning.
Thank you for sharing time with us.
If you want to be part of the conversation, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five.
Civic leave a comment on that live stream.
We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter.
I got a special guest today.
Mr. Dom Lee is our producer all the way up in Madison.
Good morning, Dominic.
How are you this?
Blustery, let's see, the civic media mid-morning weather balloon is up in the air.
It is 34 degrees right now.
How are you doing up there?
yet.
We don't say those
Yeah, that's true.
That's very
Great.
I'm glad to have you here today.
And we are going to have a fantastic show for you this morning.
After the 9 30 news, we are going to be welcoming back to the show.
Gail Cornelius, Gail Cornelius, who's the regional director for world relief in Wisconsin.
They have been doing a lot with faith leaders, with community members on how to help people.
basically give voices to those who are standing up to the ice occupation in Minneapolis.
There's growing concern there, and they are working on solutions using their faith-based group to work with communities to help get closer and closer to...
I don't know, just getting to a better place up there in Minneapolis.
Then we will be speaking after the 10 o'clock news, Naomi Kritzer is a Kritzer is a science fiction and fantasy writer from St.
Paul, Minnesota.
And for the last decade, she's been locally, she's been infamous, it says here for her election guide, which provides openly opinionated deep dive information on candidates running down the ballot races in Minneapolis, St.
Paul and Naomi's next book.
obstetrics, there it is.
I said it before, it was so easy before.
It's coming out in June.
She's also been writing articles on how to, how people can get involved and help with ICE.
The post basically for those who are living within and outside the ICE occupation, giving resources on what people can do, whether you're living in the city or out, but that's Naomi Kritzer after the 10 o'clock news.
Then we've got another edition of take it or leave it.
Today we're talking Super Bowl.
Are we going to talk Olympics?
I don't know.
Are we going to talk puppy bowls?
I don't know.
It's a sports horrific Friday.
Let me tell you.
And if you know Greg Bach, you know one thing.
I love sports.
All right.
Dom's laughing.
All right.
That wasn't
yeah, yeah.
It's, it's team scruff and team fluff.
I believe it is.
I think you're right.
I think it is.
I think I'm right.
I don't know.
Okay.
All right.
We'll talk more about that in the, in the 10, at 10 30, then at the end of the show, we'll have a handy tip from Greg today.
Uh, just, you know, a tip for you for the weekend.
That's all I'm going to talk about for right there.
It's just a tip for me to you for the weekend.
But we got lots to talk about including a story out of the Wisconsin examiner Henry Redmond has the byline.
This was released this morning Twin Cities ice presents extends into Wisconsin now.
I know this is nothing new I know that ice has been present in Wisconsin for a while now that whether they are as we spoke about with Jim yesterday Hannah Dugan was arrested for obstructing what they said was an ice
arrest.
They have been also going through smaller towns in northern northwestern Wisconsin.
And this is what they're continuing to do.
It says here hours after the White House borders are Tom Holman announced that they will be drawing down 700 immigrant agents out of Minnesota.
That still leaves 2000.
By the way, it's not not all of them, not even half of them, not even
It's not nearly enough in my opinion, but 700 immigration agents are coming out of Minnesota.
They crossed the St.
Croix River to conduct a number of raids in the twin cities, Xurban communities of Hudson and Baldwin, Wisconsin.
Those operations included the arrest of immigrants at the St.
Croix County Courthouse, which is right up their alley, which is exactly where they were at when Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested.
But they also went into Baldwin and arrested folks in a Mexican restaurant.
In the prior weeks, federal immigration agents have regularly crossed the river, arresting people, working at small manufacturing operations and gas stations, ranging from as far as Eau Claire.
I know folks up in that area have been messaging in.
They say the ice is in their neighborhoods.
This is nothing new, but I'm saying this out loud now because this is something we, we all need to be keenly aware of.
We need to not forget.
They're maybe coming out of Minneapolis, out of the Twin Cities, Minnesota area, but they are certainly not done doing what they want to do.
And that brings them here into Wisconsin.
And I'm hoping that.
When we speak to Gail as well as Naomi we have some tools we can use to help folks Stay safe stay protected, and I think one of the most important things too as whether you are Regardless of who you are regardless of your citizenry regardless of your status regardless of anything you're a human here on this earth you're a human here on this the soil here in this nation you are
protected by certain rights by the Constitution.
And it's important to know those rights.
And we spoke to Emilio De Torre, who is the executive director of Milwaukee Turners.
They have great resources on what you need to know to protect your rights.
What you can and cannot say, what you can and cannot do.
And I think this is important to reiterate that fact that we have rights in the face of these sorts of occupations, these sorts of
actions where they are just walking into restaurants and wholesale gathering up people and taking them away.
I wasn't aware, Dominic, I wasn't aware, did you know this, that some of the most hardened, worst criminals in the world work at a Mexican restaurant in Baldwin?
That's where all the criminality is, my friend.
Yeah.
We...
You know, I feel, sometimes this feels like a broken record, but you got to, you know, there are only one way to remember the lyrics is by listening to the thing over and over again.
And that's the fact that we were told in 2024 that this was going to be a project, a mission to round up the worst of the worst, the criminals, the drug dealers.
You know, you played it like that.
You painted that picture and a lot of folks were on board with that.
A lot of folks who may have not even liked
Donald Trump are like, yeah, like if they're, if they're here illegally and they're criminals and they're causing problems, yes, let's do that.
But we also thought there would one be due process and two, it wouldn't just be rounding up folks period on a, on a quota of 3,000 per day.
When many of these folks do not have criminal records, US citizens have been rounded up and
They're not even not all of them are being deported.
They're being arrested They're being interrogated and then they're just being thrown back on the streets.
So they're not really even They're not even really getting rid of a lot of people.
They're just arresting folks.
That's the quota is the arrest They're not even deporting that many people because they find out.
Oh, we've we've arrested the wrong person We have no standing here.
Just get rid of it and then they're left
on the aftermath, and this is here in Wisconsin.
It's been here for a while, but it's continuing.
And in communities like Hudson and Baldwin, I don't have the population of either of those communities on the top of my head right now, but I can't imagine they're large.
And I can imagine that it is a hotbed of crime, especially if they're arresting people at gas stations, Mexican restaurants, and the courthouse.
Another side of that argument too is these folks who are at the courthouse,
are doing it right quote unquote which is what they were always told to do do it right do it legal do it the correct way take the correct path all right protected citizens citizens who are seeking are seeking green cards all those things that's what they're doing they're doing exactly what you told them to do
And the goalposts are being moved so hard that they are now being arrested and they're being arrested in our communities.
yeah,
So I just, I saw this today and we had been talking about this how, you know,
How do the things in Minneapolis, how do the things in the twin cities of Minnesota affect us?
Well, they affect us deeply, not just cause they're our next door neighbors, but we've got folks here that we love and want to see protected and, you know, have every right to be here unharmed, but that is what they're doing.
As they are leaving Minnesota, they're not done.
The mission isn't done.
They're not going home.
They're not retiring from their jobs.
They are simply going to somewhere else.
And that somewhere else is here in this state.
It also needs to be said that
If you have a moment, just Google ice agents, bonus payments, not being paid, things like that.
You'll see that these people who signed up for a job that they thought was going to be lucrative, which is never the reason why you should take a job like this.
They're also now being given the fuzzy end of a lollipop.
They're not being paid.
They're not given bonuses.
I'm not saying we throw them a ceremony or start to go fund me, but I'm saying now is the harm that's happening from this action, from this thing is now touching a lot of individuals from folks who are just trying to live their lives to people who thought they were going to be protecting this country's, you know, borders.
It is a rotten operation and we are seeing it.
rot from within outwards.
But I just wanted to bring that up again.
We cannot forget that this is not an isolated incident.
This is not something that's happening elsewhere.
It's happening in our own backyard.
And we need to be vigilant about what we can do and say what our rights are as citizens and as non-citizens.
Because if you're a non-citizen here, you are still, you are still availed of rights by the Constitution of the United States.
I know I'm just going on and on, but it's just very, very, very.
That's why I'm very much looking forward to our conversations with Gail as well as Naomi, because we'll be talking about this in greater detail as the morning goes on.
I think I know where you stand, folks.
I think I know where you believe, but honestly, if you disagree with me, tell me, call, text, leave a message on the live stream.
We're on Facebook, YouTube, the platform, we still call Twitter.
Tell me why you think this is a good thing.
Tell me.
And on top of that, not just your opinion on why you think it's great, but give me details, give me evidence that shows that what they are doing is actually protecting this country and not just creating a sense of fear in good communities with good people.
We got off the topic of,
National Guard troops and cities.
That sort of is quelled to a certain extent, but this is the new one.
We can't forget either one of those.
This is an election year.
We go to the polls, Wisconsinites.
We go to the polls, other places that are hearing me, but Wisconsin here, we're electing a governor, state senators, state assembly members.
We're electing Congress members if they're in your district and running.
We are, this is an important year to select voices who want to protect the people of this state, people of this country.
And I got a fun fact.
I got a really, really cool treat for you.
Those protections are going to be for everybody regardless of who you voted for.
Regardless of who you voted for.
When we protect the sovereignty, when we protect the rights,
That affects everybody.
Even if you didn't vote for the person in office, they're taking care of you either anyways, because that's the job of those elected officials who want to stand up for our democracy.
Yeah.
Sydney from Appleton, I see you on the phone.
I'm going to take you on the other side of the break because I want to give you time to talk.
So just be patient with me, my friend.
I think I already know what you're going to say, but I want to hear it anyways.
We're going to take a small moment and grab some snacks, grab some water.
It's important to stay hydrated, especially in these chilly temperatures.
If it's dry out, you don't want that skin cracking.
Don't want that's good.
Good skin routines.
That's what we're about here.
But we're going to talk more about this on the other side.
Please call text 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.
Leave a comment on the live stream.
We're on Facebook, YouTube, the platform.
We still call Twitter and do not forget we're having fun here today.
I appreciate your time.
This is civic media mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
Thomas in Madison.
Don't go anywhere.
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Welcome.
Welcome back to civic media.
Mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
You are here.
I am here.
I appreciate you sharing time.
Dominic Lee is up there in Madison and you can get in touch with us by calling or texting 855-752-484-2855-755.
Civic leave a comment on that live stream.
We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform we still call Twitter.
Still ahead, we're going to be talking to Gail Cornelius, who is the regional director of world relief in Wisconsin, talking about what they're doing to help further effort of getting, of getting ICE agents out of city streets, including a letter that was signed by many of their, of their members.
And then we'll be speaking to Naomi Kritzer, who is a writer from Minnesota, from Minneapolis about how she is helping those in and out of the city understand what's going on and what they can do to help.
We were talking just earlier as we started the program for you today about an article in the Wisconsin examiner by Henry Redmond discussing how ICE agents have some of them have moved out of Minnesota and into Wisconsin doing raids in Baldwin and Hudson to two cities in towns with a combined total.
What was it?
It was about like 18,000 total between the
by raiding courthouses, Mexican restaurants, and gas stations.
It's not new, they've been in Wisconsin, that's nothing, I'm not saying they're here finally, and we gotta do, this has been an ongoing presence, but I was not surprised because I expected, if they're being moved out, as Tom Holman has said, they're gonna go somewhere, and going across the river is just as easy for them, because they can get what they need to get done, done.
So, we're talking about how to preserve our rights, how to preserve our...
relationships with through protecting our friends.
Cindy from Appleton is on the line right now.
Go ahead, Cindy.
How are you today?
Well, no, I'm a little upset because I had missed what you said earlier because I was pumping gas, but I knew they'd be coming here eventually, but I just don't know why the Congress and the Senate doesn't start getting the backbone and putting the kibosh on the stupidity.
I mean, this is nothing but stupidity.
And it's just an attempt
to terrorize people so that on polling days, on the polling days, or the election days at the polling booths, when there's ice there, people are not going to come.
This is what this is all about.
And anybody that doesn't believe this is nuts.
I mean, Cindy, I don't disagree with you.
I think that they, I would not be surprised in that, in the heart of heart of some of these individuals who are not, you know, standing up and, and, and, and a lot of them, there are Democrats in that list too of people who prefer a strongly worded letter that to action.
But the point for me is that.
They would much rather hold on to their power, as you mentioned, and that is by any means necessary, so therefore they don't care who they hurt, because as long as they have power and as long as they hold on to the wagon that is pushing this, they're going to be protected.
I will, I will continue to say this until it's no longer applicable.
There will come a day for all those folks who support this, where you will not be supportive enough.
You will not be a fan enough.
You will not be mega enough for this movement because you might say, cause we are already, already seeing people who are saying things like, I didn't want this, what's happening in Minnesota.
That's not good.
And that can be seen.
as heresy within that group.
So Cindy, to me, all it is is these folks, rather than growing a spine, they think power is easier to maintain rather than standing up and doing something.
But I, and I think it's reprehensible.
And on top of that, Cindy, and I said it yesterday, and I'll keep saying it when new leadership comes through the door, whether it's 2026, 2028,
30 or 32 as hopefully as that influence starts to wane and we see folks getting more and more.
We see folks running against what this stood for.
It's important for those people, regardless of party, because I do feel we will see Republicans finally standing up.
It'll take them long enough and Democrats as well.
Then they need to be held their feet to the fire.
They need to be the ones who suggest things like
you know, getting people in front of Congress to testify, filing charges, actually punishing those folks who did, and I'm not talking about anything violent.
I'm talking about due process.
I'm talking about what did they do and how does the law prescribe a punishment, prison time, whatever that may be, but we cannot just let this go.
We cannot just say, well, let's just as a country move on.
Let's just, let's just get together.
And this is what they did to Nixon.
They pardon Nixon because the country needs to move on.
No, we need to actually punish people who are trying to work actively against what we, what we stand for in America.
That's basically the gist of it for me.
And if we see folks who run on an anti mega platform, say we need to do something and do nothing, that's bad too.
That's really, really bad.
So.
2026 is a very important year.
It's election year.
You got a lot of choices to make.
People are running for positions.
They're trying to get jobs.
Keep them or be the new person.
Make sure that you have your questions ready.
Make sure that you get straight answers because that's what you deserve because they want to represent you.
So that just as the end of my, my little tirade, Dom, is that Jean from Eau Claire on the line?
Oh, yes it is.
Jean.
All right.
You get, Jean, you got, you got about one minute left.
So you go, go ahead.
Where
are you, dear?
There you are, dear.
Yep.
Here I am.
We need accountability and we need to hold their feet to the fire.
This can
never
happen again.
Thank you.
Bye.
Jeannie with, uh, Jean with a, with a, with a record setting phone call, making it very simple.
She said exact, she said in like six words, what took me literally a half an hour to get through.
So.
I get excited when I hear from you.
I get excited to hear from folks who are on board to help make this a better place for all people, period.
And I know there's a lot of darkness out there.
I know there's a lot to not be excited about, but when I hear people calling and texting, it makes me happy because it makes me feel like I am not alone as well.
Really quick.
John from Oshkosh says most John from Oshkosh listening on WIS says most of the MAGA remaining will lurk on the shadows to his shame to admit they voted for this those that are still vocal are just provocateurs and or blatant racist John said we said folks John said what he said.
All right.
When we come back, we're speaking to Gail Cornelius friend of the show back here to talk about what they're doing to help
further the cause of getting ice out of the streets of this country.
She is from World Relief in Wisconsin.
Don't go anywhere.
Questions, comments, concerns, call.
You text 855-752-4842.
855-755-CIVIC.
We'll get a comment on the live stream.
It's mid mornings on Civic Media.
My coffee is kicked in.
Dom's in Madison.
We're going to have fun.
Stay tuned and stay close.
Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media.
Mid mornings here on the Civic Media radio network.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal, your confidant in all things fashion questions.
I don't say you look bad in anything.
Everything makes your eyes pop and makes you look younger.
That's what I say to you on this Friday morning.
You're here with us on the civic media radio network.
If you want to get in touch with us, you can do that by calling texting 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.
Leave a comment on that live stream.
We are streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform that we still call Twitter still ahead.
After the 10 o'clock news, we have Naomi Kritzer, who is a science fiction writer, a citizen of Minnesota lives in Minneapolis and I'm sorry, St.
Paul, Minnesota.
I don't, I'm not getting that fight.
She lives in St.
Paul.
Minnesota and she writes, she writes about the local government.
She also has a post out there for folks who want to help in and outside of the cities.
During this time while ice is in their streets.
So we're talking to Naomi after 10 o'clock news 10 35 is another edition of take it or leave it today.
We're talking all things Super bowls Olympic and maybe some puppy bowl as well.
I don't know It's whatever Tucker has provided for us today.
It's gonna be a fun time It's our fun program called take it leave and then a handy tip from Greg
rounding out the show, getting you ready for the weekend.
But as always, as I said, get in touch, give a call, give a text, get the Civic Media app on your device, phone, tablet, you can call, text, leave a voice message.
And I don't know if you know this, Dom, but they can leave voice messages for us, even if they don't like it.
I've got lots of voice messages from people who don't like me.
And they are, let's say, creative
in how
they tell me that.
But
we're not gonna
waste any more time on that.
We're gonna have to keep the conversation going.
We opened up the show talking about
ice moving their way into Wisconsin further.
They've already been here.
They didn't just come here this week, but they were spotted in Baldwin and Hudson doing raids in, in very dangerous places, laden with criminals like gas stations, Mexican restaurants and courthouses.
Oh boy.
We're talking a lot about this today.
And to talk more about the, what folks are doing to help with this situation, I'm welcoming back to the show, the regional director for world relief.
in Wisconsin, Gail Cornelay's friend of the show officially back
again.
Welcome.
Welcome.
Good morning, Gail.
How are you today on this blustery sort of deceptively warm morning?
I don't know where you are, but it's 34 degrees here.
That's crazy.
So
yeah, it feels warm.
So yeah, thanks so much for having me back.
Happy to be here.
Now, you were on a couple weeks ago and we appreciate it.
We appreciate the talk so much.
We wanted to have you back because there's been stuff going on with the organization in response to what's happening in Minnesota and around the country.
But before we get into that, Gail, give us an overview of what world relief in Wisconsin does and the wider picture with the organization around the world.
Sure.
So World Relief is a global organization.
We're a Christian humanitarian organization.
And here in the US, we work primarily with refugee resettlement.
So we work in partnership with the federal government to be the folks on the ground that when the government approves refugees to resettle in the US, we are the ones that have the privilege of receiving them and helping them to start rebuilding their lives here.
And so in Wisconsin, we
have several areas where we do that, mainly out of the Fox Valley and Chippewa Valley.
So on either side of the state.
And as you can imagine right now with the families that we've been walking alongside, particularly in Chippewa Valley and Eau Claire, it's a pretty tense moment, I would say.
And in that article, it did mention that there was ice presence in Eau Claire as well.
And, you know, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole of,
of hypocrisy, if you want to say that.
What I do want to ask before we get into what the group has done recently with regards to like a leadership call to the president, which is in this process that you do, this is not easy.
We talked about this last time.
Becoming a refugee, working your way towards getting placed, getting your way towards a path of citizenship.
This isn't a simple plan.
This isn't something you just walk into an American goal.
All right, where am I going today?
It's a process that people have to go through as if to say they're doing it the right way, correct?
Correct.
So refugees are some of the most highly vetted.
immigrants in our country.
The process is extensive.
They go through multiple security checks with many of our national security agencies.
And often it's a very long process.
So
we have
families that have been waiting for decades to be resettled here.
And through that process, they're re-vetted and re-screened through the entire time that they're meeting, even until they arrive and they have even more screening once they arrive.
And so it is a highly
controlled, highly vetted process, which is why I think it was so surprising for us as an organization to hear about this new operation, which I know we'll talk a bit about, but Operation Paris, which is an operation that focuses on refugees specifically, post-admission refugee re-verification and integrity.
strengthening, I'm sorry, is the full name of the operation.
They love an
acronym, Gail.
So it has been something that has taken us back a bit as an organization to know that we are working with folks that have already been through a tremendous amount of vetting and screening.
And to have this operation announced has come, yeah, again, as a surprise, and I think is a real
challenge for refugees that again have followed every step in the process, have done all the paperwork, have done everything, as you say, what people call the right way as it were.
I guess the question I would have for you before we get into your organization's response to this is, you know, I'm sure, I am betting dollars to donuts.
You've gotten no official answer and or reasoning for what they're doing, but amongst yourselves or what you're hearing,
Why is this, is it because they just so fervently want to deport people, they have these quotas, they have to look at every single subset of individuals here in the country, like, all right, well, we started with what we thought were illegal immigrants or undocumented citizens, but now we're running out of those or we're not doing it.
So now let's go, is it just a thing of they're just directing their target at whatever group they can find?
Is that what we're looking at right now?
I think that answer is far above my pay grade.
So I don't have a lot of clarity on that.
But what I will say is I think it's just a challenging time to be an immigrant of any sort in this country.
Unless you're from
South Africa,
just saying.
We have these processes in place that are designed to be the legal pathways for folks to come to the US.
And to see even that legal pathway sort of attacked in this way is something that I don't know that we were really ready for.
I
imagine.
Now, your group, your leadership has signed a letter, essentially.
Can you tell us more about this letter and the impetus of it and what it seeks to do as well as who has signed?
Sure, absolutely.
So as you'll remember from our last conversation, World Relief is a Christian organization.
We do all of our work in partnership with the church.
And so we really called to the church at this time and remind folks that there is a Christian calling for loving your neighbor.
the stranger and for so long the church has been such a large part of refugee resettlement and being the folks that help refugees.
restart their lives here in the US.
And so this letter is designed as a call to remind folks of that.
So specifically directed at Tom Holman, but of course leaders of the administration to say there are Christian leaders in this country that are saying this is wrong right now.
That is saying we have supported refugee resettlement.
Our church community wants this to happen because this is our biblical calling and
So they are speaking out against this particular tactic.
And we've been really pleased so far to see over 10,000 signatures nationwide.
And more people are signing on every day to this Christian statement on refugee resettlement.
If you're just joining us on Civic Media, mid-morning, we are speaking to Gail Cornelius, who is the Regional Director for World Relief here in Wisconsin, a group that works with refugees getting them.
Holmes placed getting them on the pathway to you know, whether it's citizenship But just making them feel part of a community feeling safe and I don't know if he's on the letter itself But I feel like one of the major political major religious leaders Pope Leo came out and said that this is not this is not good like he didn't speak speak specifically about refugees But he spoke specifically about the fact that what is happening to these folks isn't essentially
a bad path and it's not of Christian values.
I mean, when the Pope is coming out and saying this ain't good, what do you guys, how are you guys talking about that kind of thing?
I mean, I feel like that's a pretty big deal when the pontiff says, no, you're wrong, Mr. President.
You're wrong, America.
This is not the path.
Right.
And I think that's what we're hoping to see more broadly is that Christians will take that to heart.
And certainly we work very closely with the evangelical church.
And so we've seen many leaders in the evangelical church also speak up in this way and say, this is part of our calling.
And so it is a good reminder to us to go back to the Bible and to read those stories and
to say,
yes, there are stories of refugees and immigrants all over the Bible.
And so this is part of our Christian story here as well.
The question I have for you, and this is more, I'm asking Gail the person, not the representative of World Relief, but you work with this organization, you are a Christian-based organization, you are talking to Christians all the time.
What conversations are you having folks one-on-one in coffee shops or in your houses where you are having to say,
No, the thing that, the thing we're being told right now is a bill of goods.
This is not a line, like, you know, that, that I don't know, I don't know how to, I don't know how to phrase it correctly, but you know, people who think this is for the good, you have to sit down and go, this is not what we should believe.
This is not what we believe.
This is not in line with our, our, our book, our instruction manual from above.
And basically, I don't want to say changing minds, but just having tough conversations with folks who may think this is the right
thing.
There's a lot of tough conversations happening right now.
And I think the way as a person that I approach it is really on the human level.
I have the distinct privilege of actually knowing refugee families and getting some time with them and walk alongside them and hear their stories.
And a lot of folks don't get to do that.
They understand, you know,
They may understand who refugees are or hear about it as sort of this idea in our community.
But they might not actually know the people.
And so for me, that's really what I focus on.
That's what keeps me going, because again, it's not an easy place to be right now.
And when it feels like every day are those hard conversations, thinking about the people that we actually serve is what keeps things real.
I think one of the most difficult...
points I've been trying to get across and trying to make clear is that, well, I know if a person wakes up one day and says, you know what?
This is wrong.
This is not right.
This is, for whatever reason, they feel that they have lost their way.
It also shouldn't have to take knowing someone directly involved to do that.
If it is, then fine.
Cool deal.
excellent, but we need to also understand empathy as a way that doesn't come from direct experience to say like I don't need to know someone to know this is wrong or do I want to be able to help and to feel sorry for and to take action.
And I think that's something that comes from maybe those tough conversations.
You work with those folks in those communities, but a lot of people do not.
So they think, well, it's not my world.
So why do I care?
Well, you should care because they're humans, but we're going to keep the conversation going with Gail Cornelius.
She is the regional director for world relief.
in Wisconsin.
They work with rush refugees talking about a letter about a letter that being sent to our national leaders on the, the fair treatment of human beings as based by Christian values and Christian teachings.
More come civic media mid mornings.
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Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media, mid mornings here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host, your buddy, your pal, your believer in all things spring to come because I don't care what the groundhog said.
I don't care at all.
We're here today on a Friday morning.
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Thank you for sharing it with us.
If you want to be part of the conversation, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, civic leave a comment on the live stream.
We are streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter still ahead.
Naomi Critzer is a science fiction writer who lives in St.
Paul, Minnesota, and has been helping get the word out to folks in and outside the community on what they can do to help during this ice occupation in their streets.
Then, um, we got, uh, let's see, take it or leave it with a senior producer, Tucker.
It's going to be sports.
We're talking about the super bowl and, uh, then a, uh, a handy tip from Greg to round it all out for the weekend.
So we're glad you're here with us.
Speaking of calls before we get back to our conversation with Gail Cornelius, she is the regional director for world relief here in Wisconsin.
Betsy has been very, very patient.
Betsy and Jefferson, what's going on this morning?
My friend, welcome.
Hi.
Hi.
Oh, that's the one with Tosa.
My apologies.
Oh, don't worry.
Before I talk about the military and cities being deployed, I did want to mention that my son, Attacat with News, lives in Los Angeles.
He came to see his mommy and Tosa for one night before he went to Minneapolis, where he was standing where I told him to stand and taking a picture, which is what credentialed journalists do.
He was bare sprayed from about two feet away in the face with a canister.
Fortunately, someone else who was there dragged him into a restaurant for a big contamination.
He said he would have died in the snow bank, if not.
So I'm sorry to hear
that.
I have two.
Fortunately, they did that.
Yeah.
Or unfortunately, that's against law to do that.
journalists.
But it is also against the United States Constitution to deploy United States troops against our own tensions, unless there is an insurrection, which there is not in any of our United States cities.
And as a military veteran of 10 years, I know that and everyone else should know that we are not trained for that.
We are not trained.
The military
that's in legal order.
If they defy it, they'll probably be court-martialed and thrown out.
So they'll probably just go along with it unless you're told to take an action against it.
Thank you so much for calling in Betsy.
I appreciate you getting in touch with us today and sharing your thoughts.
I'm sorry to hear about that, hear that about your child.
Well, trying to just do the work of reporting the news, but yeah, we got to keep these conversations going.
We got to keep the help going.
We got to keep the support going and Gail, that's what your organization does specifically.
And with everything going on now specifically with Minneapolis, and we spoke about them making their way into Wisconsin, what is world relief in Wisconsin doing as far as processes to help those who are already here who want
to come here.
How are your plans changed or stayed the same?
Yeah, that's a great question and I think
right now when we hear stories like that from Betsy and I'm sure Naomi will will be sharing more about her experiences in Minneapolis too.
It's hard as an individual to think what what can I do or even in Wisconsin specifically you know we think about well you know that's in Minnesota which isn't that far away but it does still feel like well it's still not here yet and so for us we we don't want to be kind of stuck in that or or paralyzed by thinking it's too big of a
for us to take action on.
So instead, what we're doing again is really focusing on the human-to-human interaction on the people.
We know if our refugee families are impacted by detention or are in this Operation Paris that they've talked about, that there's going to be key things that they need to have together to prepare themselves.
So we're really focused on equipping volunteers, other community partners,
team to help families get all of their emergency plans together, to make sure that they have all of their key documents together, that they have planning in place for what would happen if somebody in their family was detained.
And to do that, it takes a lot of trusted relationship building.
And so that's where it comes in with equipping churches and community partners and volunteers.
And that's really what our work is focused on now.
We're also standing up volunteer teams that would walk alongside
refugee families if they had experienced detention.
So doing things like you will hear stories out of Minnesota where people are delivering groceries to families homes or helping to ensure that they get medical needs met or helping to set up laptops for kids that won't go to school right now because of the environment there.
And so we're really working on mobilizing those teams to be prepared
when or if this does occur in Wisconsin more broadly as well.
Gail, so we want to get involved.
How can they do that?
How can they support world relief in Wisconsin?
We will have the letter in the show notes.
We will have the, you will have your organization's website in the show notes as well.
But what can people do to reach out to help you?
Absolutely.
So we asked for a few things.
First, advocacy.
So call your elected officials.
In this time, if you have not yet called your elected officials, make sure that you're doing that, letting them know how you feel about what's happening.
If you do think this is wrong, sharing that with them and letting them know how to change direction.
And there are instructions for that.
We'd also ask if you want to sign on to the Christian letter for refugee resettlement that you do that there.
We are also, of course, taking donations to help support this work in this time.
So you can give to our Stay Together campaign, which is a campaign to support some of this emergency planning work and mobilization of volunteers to walk alongside these families if they are impacted in this time.
Our website is worldrelief.org backslashwisconsin.
So if you go there, you'll see all of the information there as well.
If you're able to volunteer too, we always love extra sets of hands.
happy to take that as well.
And last thing I'll say is, you know, pray we need it right now.
All right.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Gail Cornelius.
You are the, she is the regional director for world relief in Wisconsin.
Uh, wonderful to talk to you again, my friend.
All of that of your organization, all that will be in the show notes today.
If you want to check it out, go to civicmedia.us slash shows.
Look for civic media mid morning.
Click on that.
You can do all you need to do.
Gail, have a wonderful weekend.
Thank you so much.
All right.
Don't go anywhere.
When we come back, Naomi Critzer on
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