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We have a great show still ahead after the 10 30 news.
We'll be talking to J R Radcliffe from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about all things sports.
Baseball is coming.
It's I would say it's here.
Pictures and catchers reporting means baseball is here and that means warmer weather and that means I get to go to games and that makes me happy.
But that'll be after the 10 30 breaks of don't go anywhere for that.
And then of course we're going to be having a handy tip from Greg.
But right now I want to bring to the stage my next guest.
She is the founder and executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities, aka Block.
But more importantly, she's my friend.
Angela Lang is back on the show.
Good morning, Angela.
How are you today?
There you go.
Well, I'm even more happy that you get to spend before before your weekend.
You're here with me hanging out.
noticed your shirt.
I like your shirt.
Oh, thank you very much.
I bought this in Memphis.
like it.
So you were here a couple weeks ago, and one of the things we discussed, and we couldn't get it into it deeper, was the amendment proposal that will be happening in fall regarding DEI hiring practices and the outlawing there in Wisconsin.
We touched on it briefly.
We then spoke to State Senator Dora Drake about this, but I want to get a fresh perspective, start from scratch here.
This will be on the ballot this fall for folks in Wisconsin to vote upon.
When you saw this going through, what was your immediate thought on an amendment that seeks to quote, outlaw hiring practices that favor or discriminate?
We shouldn't be discriminating against people.
That's why we have things like affirmative action.
And, you know, it's a
thing that we've talked about but as I've been talking about this it's the devil's in the details right and you look at who is putting forth this um and let's just say these are not friends of diversity these are not friends of things like affirmative action these are you know white men that basically are saying it is illegal to discriminate against a white man you can unpack all of that um but I also think
it's sending a dangerous message that is trying to reverse any gains that we've had in the last several decades around diversity and not just diversity, but like equity as well.
And somehow these white men are framing themselves as the victims when really they're just mediocre and can't get hired.
I would also say they're framing it as a matter of what you said.
They're framing it as, well, this is just the right thing to do.
And you know, whether we're talking about voter ID,
It enjoys a high percentage of support, both sides of the aisle, because it's always framed as, well, we're going to do this thing to make it better.
How do you see the framing of this being the same old, same old?
And how do you go up against this when you're talking to people and really giving them the devil with, which is within the details?
I mean, I think.
One of the things that we have to do is what exactly we're doing now it is February and we're talking about this.
This is not an issue for some communities that you can kind of just go into who may or may not be paying attention to elections may or may not know that this is on a ballot and then may see it and say oh okay well this sounds good but like a lot of our referendums and ballot initiatives.
in Wisconsin, they're always worded very, very confusing.
Like they're meant to confuse people.
And so
you may think that you're voting one way, but really you don't understand or didn't realize that they worded it just to kind of trick you, unfortunately.
And so I think we need to start having these conversations.
Now we're having conversations on the doors.
It's coming up in a lot of different ways.
We're living kind of in this cultural moment.
um especially with the Super Bowl and the Grammys and you know Black History Month like all of these things and it feels like we're in this moment that like white folks are really really scared of like losing power and instead of saying hey maybe with split design systems where we can all thrive they're seeing it as this kind of us versus them the pie isn't big enough if you are taking if you are getting something I must be um
getting something, being left behind.
I must be, you know, failing in some sort of way when really we should just be asking for a bigger pie, right?
I would also like to say that, and I could say this here with you, we've had so many times in so many generations of years where like white men have been running things.
And then the advancements- Some would say
we've been running them for a long time.
Forever, forever.
And these challenges that are happening now are not the fault of diversity.
It's maybe the-
really crappy people that are in office and these white men that are kind of stoking this culture war of us versus them.
And we've seen it on the Trump administration's Twitter account and some of these like propaganda images of this nuclear family and it is clear this dog whistle that they're trying to send and then it's trickling down to states like Wisconsin in this ballot referendum.
Well, and that's something that we briefly touched upon.
And I talked to state Senator Dora Drake about this is that whether we talk about BLM CRT, whatever you want to talk about, now it's DEI.
They always seem to tell on themselves that they don't know what it's about based on the rhetoric within their social media posts.
And my thought is that, and this happened from Tom Tiffany, who is currently running for governor.
He is the, he is the presumptive nominee unless someone jumps in and
takes a challenge for him.
When he posts something like, race-based hiring is not good for Wisconsin, when you say something like that, you tell me, and I'm a white male in his upper 40s who lives in Wisconsin, when you say that, you're telling me, you don't know what DEI does and what DEI seeks to do.
And then finally, getting rid of these practices.
how it affects, wait for it, everyone.
And I, it's very clear, right, that this is all targeted and we can get into other topics, but like all of this is, is connecting for me.
Because one of the first things I got involved with in college, we have like a speaker who was like anti affirmative action.
And when I'm doing that research, I was like, wait, one of the number one beneficiaries of like,
Affirmative action are like white women, right?
But we're not talking about that.
We're not talking about how DEI directly helps, you know veterans and other communities they're being very specific to target black and brown people and You know, I think again, this is on a national level and we're seeing how it is being interpreted and also Hey, if this is the theme and the orders from the Trump administration, what can we do to also amplify this locally?
And this is what's happening.
We're seeing people take
you know, books out of schools
that
And then now suddenly those same people don't know that Puerto Rico is part of the United States, right?
Like all of these educational tools, whether it's CRT, diversity, all this, it's a slow chip away at the gains that we had of general equity, not just in Wisconsin, but all across this country.
If you're just joining us on Civic Media, mid mornings, we are talking to Angela Lange.
She is first and foremost my friend, but she's also the, she's also the founder and executive director of Block Black Leaders Organizing Communities, as well as a contributor to the Recombobulation Era.
You can find her work at the Recombobulation Area by going to Civic Media as well.
and I think you know you know whether we spoke about it briefly yesterday about you know removal of the panels in Philadelphia showing the history of slavery in that area specifically that they're all being posed as this well we're trying to re front we're trying to make a history great again and make it less crazy and less less
bad for people, but when we say bad for people, we're saying we want to erase this history from being remembered so that folks who, not even nefarious folks, but just people who are not comfortable talking about it, because it's a tough topic, then they're alleviated from any sort of responsibility of knowing, but it still doesn't mean it didn't happen.
And this I feel like is just another piece of that puzzle.
I think all of this is quite frankly just trying to center white people's feelings, right?
People don't like to have the uncomfortable conversations about the impacts of slavery and how enslaved folks have not gotten any type of reparation.
There is a certain level to which I understand, right?
I think people have to unpack it, but I think there's a certain level of white guilt that makes people feel uncomfortable.
That wasn't me.
That wasn't my ancestors.
Why are you mad at me?
When that is really kind of the wrong kind of take for it,
And instead of understanding, and I grew up in a world where we say, history repeats itself.
That's why we have to talk about these things in the history books.
That's why we unpack them.
And whitewashing and sanitizing history doesn't erase it.
It just makes people more comfortable to ignore it.
Yeah.
really quick shout out for, there's chapters all over the country.
If you are a white person interested in finding out more, standing up for racial justice, surge, it's a group, it's for white people to talk about these things around white people, to be uncomfortable, to be angry, to feel your feelings, but to get the information I believe we need to understand our history, to let go of that, what would be called white guilt.
But standing up for racial justice surge, there are chapters everywhere.
Find out one if you want to be a part of it to learn more, to teach more.
But I think that's a great resource for folks who are having these questions, white folks who are having these questions and problems and these, you know, these, they're having uneasy moments with themselves.
you're right.
It's about having those conversations.
And the conversation started right back up again on Sunday night, Monday morning, after the halftime show where, you know, what I felt was a very, very great performance from bad bunny.
It was wonderful.
I
did, I understood maybe 5% of what he said.
And that's on me for not knowing Spanish, not because he's Puerto Rican slash an American citizen, but the, the, the.
the brazenness with which people go at it and say the things they do, and then they get upset where we go, that's really racist.
They go, how dare you?
I just love America.
That's the problem
I never understand that.
I just love America.
Then you also love the diversity in the fabric of immigrants and what this country was built upon, which is, you know, enslaved labor, the indigenous community.
Like if you really, truly love America, you would love all of its history and you'd understand the diversity of it.
I saw this on social media, so I can't take credit for it, but somebody was like, do white folks have an issue with the opera?
And I've never gone to the opera, but you know, Italian, German, French, people love it.
People get dressed up.
They get dressed up in the ball gowns to hear people speak and sing beautifully in a foreign language.
And we're not having conversations about how that's un-American by even having these concerts in the United States.
And so I think that's just another element that this is intentional.
People can say what they want.
Oh, I just love America or blah, blah, blah.
You are not keeping the same energy across the board for all immigrants.
Are we mad when Canadians speak French?
I don't think so.
We are being very targeted or folks are being very targeted in who they're trying to exclude from this country in these conversations.
I think it's interesting.
You brought that up.
I heard that as well.
And I think, you know, I saw a post that says, are you upset about, you know, St.
Patrick Day's parades?
They're celebrating Irish culture.
And I think that brings up a larger point that at one point there was a group of white folks who weren't whites.
And
they
sold out, I will say this, they sold out for comfort and acceptance and the ability to be part of society, but yet they are allowed to have their parades.
They are allowed to do their show, their culture, and they should, we absolutely should.
That's a big, that's a conversation I could talk to you about for a decade, but we get right back to here, the double standard.
And this is good, but this isn't.
And this is, and when it comes down to is this is what threatens my well, personal well-being and comfort.
And that can't be part, again,
The facts do not care about your feelings.
When we come back after the break, we're going to talk more with Angela Lang from Block.
We're going to be talking about the comments from Jelly Roll at the Grammys regarding being politically disengaged and how that connects to all this conversation.
But if you want to be part of it, give us a call 855-752-4842-855-755.
Cindy, on the phone, I see you.
I'll take you on the other side.
Don't go anywhere.
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Call her text, but it's great to have you here this morning.
My guest is Angela Lang.
She is the co executive.
director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities.
I was corrected during the break because you are co-director along with a longtime colleague, Keisha.
I don't know her.
I've never met her, but congratulations to her.
And as you said, it was a much overdue promotion.
So, Angela
is here today.
We are talking about the DEI...
about a constitutional amendment that is going to be up for vote this fall.
What it means for all people, not just folks who are affected by DEI hiring practices, but also the, the search for trying to figure out, I guess, how do we love America and show our true colors and be proud of ourselves without folks walking in and saying, you can't, you can't be that proud.
Don't be that proud.
Be proud the way we tell you to be proud.
And, and we were discussing bad bunny and the halftime show.
And before we get into where I want to go with regard to Jelly Roll and the Grammys, Cindy has been on the line for a little bit.
She has been very patient.
Cindy, good morning.
In Appleton, how you doing?
Good, thanks.
Well, first let me start off by saying we are all immigrants on stolen land.
And Angela, I was down at the events last Sunday with Aham Omar at the Islamic Society.
I was very heart warmed to see the attendance of especially white faces in the crowd.
So I'm hoping that's a good sign.
It was a great event for folks that may not have caught it.
There was a faith community unity event that was hosted by the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance and they brought Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and there were several speakers, myself included, talking about how we stand with Minneapolis but also in this moment we stand with each other.
And so it was very diverse in speakers and really great crowd.
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Great.
I love that.
I love that.
Thank you so much, Cindy, for calling and we appreciate you.
One of the things I wanted to talk to you about when I saw it immediately was the fact that at the Grammys last week, Jelly Roll, very popular singer, rapper, performer, kind of one of those guys who seems to be the light in the room because he's so excited and loves life, made a very interesting comment at a press conference after the fact.
that he stays politically disengaged for good reason because quote he is a quote dumb redneck and that he because of his history of being in jail being addicted to drugs those are the reasons why he believes no one wants to hear his his story or opinions he did say that he will be speaking out soon i have a feeling i'll bet money it's in the form of a song that will say we just need to get together and love each other we're all one doesn't matter where you come from and what you vote for but that's beside the point my point to you though angela is
I know how I feel, but I wanna know how you feel when someone who has such a rich history comes out and says, well, those are the reasons why you shouldn't listen to me.
I also
right is right and wrong is wrong right like when we may have different interpretations of what that looks like but when you see these images um whether it's coming out of Gaza or Minneapolis and people literally being shot in the face and we can go back to Trayvon Martin like all of these things you don't need to be an expert in to speak out and when I saw that um I can't say I was really surprised because I think I'm like that what a privileged thing to say
And I watched the Grammys for the first time in years, because I had beef with them when Kendrick lost to Macklemore many years ago for a rap album.
I've since forgiven the
Grammys.
But Macklemore also said, I don't deserve this.
He immediately was like, this is weird.
And I think there's something to be said there about this idea of privilege.
But when I watched it, I saw Jelly Roll win whatever award he won.
And he's giving his speech.
And he's very excited, and as everybody should be.
Not my cup of tea, I'm not a religious person, but he was going on and on about Jesus and religion, which is good for him.
And I think a lot of folks were like, if you can be very outspoken in your beliefs around this, you clearly have a platform.
You can't say, oh, no one wants to listen to me.
I'm a dumb redneck.
Then why are you preaching about some of the other values that you have?
And I think it's just a very privileged standpoint.
I would love to be in a position where I don't have to speak out about these things that are happening to me and my community.
Well, I mean, also when you look at it to like, first of all, calling yourself a dumb redneck, I'm not going to tell you what to live your life.
But the history of people in that area, the Appalachians have a history of fighting tyranny, fighting oppression.
So saying I'm a dumb redneck is this disservice to your kin, my friend.
Also, your religious value should dictate how you treat other people.
Also, drug policies.
affect people you know, affect people like you, if you weren't famous.
So the fact that you're saying you're disengaged because of those reasons, that's found it irresponsible.
But on the other side of the coin, you've got someone like Sidney Sweeney saying, I'm not going to be political.
No one cares.
You have a platform.
If you have politics, you have, look, you might not, I might not agree with you, but you should stand up and say something.
When you stand back and go, I'm this, therefore I can't, then you are alleviating yourself for responsibility and doing exactly what you said, Angela, just there is exercising your privilege.
Like
Drug
I think it's something you said too, and we'll wrap it up with this, is the fact that, yeah, you don't have to know every single piece of policy, be deep nuanced, awank on things.
But the things that affect you, you can have a passion for and fight for from a personal standpoint, which makes the story more legitimate and the fight more, of course, stronger.
And I await what his message is going to be, again, I think it's just going to be a song saying, we need to get along.
We do need to get along.
I agree with that, but we need to do more.
Exactly.
Angela Lang is the co-executive director and founder of Black Leaders Organizing Communities Block.
Their website will be in our show notes.
Angela, thank you so much for being here.
Enjoy.
What is now the beginning of your weekend?
Yes.
Thanks so much for having me.
No problem.
I'll talk to you very soon, my friend.
When we come back, sports talk with JR Radcliffe from the Journal Sentinel here on Civic Media Mids Mornings.
Don't go anywhere.
Stay tuned.
Stay informed.
Stay closed.
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, a person who thinks the Olympic theme song should be my entrance music anywhere and everywhere I go in this world.
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Someone else we love is our next guest, our final guest for the day, and that is Mr. JR Radcliffe from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
He is a sports reporter, our sports guru.
Good morning, JR.
How are you today?
Yeah, well, it's it.
Well, that's the problem.
JR is that it starts there.
I just get the music.
Then I'm like, you know what would really go great with this?
One of those George III long flowy capes.
And
then I demand that.
And then I then I demand a crown, of course, then a scepter, the doi.
But then it really gets off the rails when I demand monies for people to carry the the the cloak cape behind me so it doesn't touch the ground.
It just it spirals away.
So I don't think it's a good idea.
So you're going to have to wear one of those like skin tight suits or like just have skis on.
Um, I can see the danger here.
This is where things probably get off the rails a little bit.
So I see, I see how you're looking out for that slippery slope.
No pun intended.
Wow.
Okay.
Speaking of the Olympics and that wonderful, what we call in the business a segue, we're talking about the Olympics.
We are into the, uh, the first week of it.
There's been, there's been.
Well, I wanted Lindsay Vaughn's accident is nothing to I'm not making light at all, but that was a big news story But one thing that's really been taking off and this makes me happy as I'm a huge defender of this sport I said sport curling is getting a moment in the spotlight as if to say not your dad's curling anymore
Minnesota, I believe, the Corys, both the first named Corey.
They took silver in the mixed doubles competition.
That was pretty cool.
Up against Sweden in the championship game, they had a nice little run.
And that was one of the stories of the Olympics, but Wisconsin got its day in the sun yesterday.
Yeah, this today is say Thursday Wednesday Jordan Stolls from Kewaskam.
He's 21 years old.
It's gonna be we came into the Olympics thinking he would be one of the stars of the Olympics And so far so good.
He ran he competed in the 1000 meters.
He blew away the Olympic record He crushed the field.
He absolutely did everything
That that people were hoping to see there he comes into this so gold medalist one of the four gold medals that America has won at least as we're talking here Thursday, I guess I don't know for sure what's happened this morning I might have missed one this morning, but Jordan Stoles could win as many as four like he's he's got more individual events He will be favored to win those individual events.
The fourth one is a little more chaotic It's not you know that that one will be tougher to get he could he could do it though
You know, that just, that has not, an American athlete has not done that in one Olympics since Eric Haydn, another Wisconsinite back in 1980 when he won five gold medals in speed skating.
So like we're talking about really heady, legendary stuff from this kid who's only 21 years old, greater Milwaukee area, depending on how far you're, you want to circle the Milwaukee, Key Wascom is on the fringe, but it's there.
Canada, if you want to be, if you want
The danger is if we go to Canada, we end up circling Chicago and then Chicago starts to claim the space.
So we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna keep it, keep it tight.
Um, you know, we almost had to.
Milwaukeeans win a medal within an hour on Wednesday because Marcus Marcus Miller from Brookfield Was in a doubles luge competition and the Americans came out of nowhere to be first place after the first run They ended up taking six.
There was a second run.
It's in the time disparity between like first and last place in doubles loses like
the snap of a finger.
So, uh, it, it was tenuous, I guess you could say, but, uh, I thought that was going to be incredible.
Like, oh man, so much, so much Milwaukee in the Olympics right now.
We didn't get the two medals, but Jordan Stoles is off to a really good start.
Where we're at right now, uh, with, uh, that's almost up Wisconsin.
Uh, United States has four gold medals, uh, six silver, three bronzes.
So a total of 13.
We are currently in, I don't know how this works.
But Norway is number one with 13 and Italy has 14.
I don't get how the Olympics work, but go on.
Do
There are many different ways to rank the table.
It's stupid.
Norway dominates those like silent sport events, the biathlon, the cross country skiing.
There are a lot of different disciplines in that.
So Norway always ends up doing really well.
There's too much Norway.
They have a very good advantage here.
They're also very good in speed skating.
you know, Italy's done really well for the, the host nation always gets kind of a little bit of a bump, but Italy is like really outperformed.
It's been kind of fun to watch because, because obviously the locals are super into it.
I want to go back to curling for a moment because I talked about this yesterday with Pete Schwabba that, uh, I feel like there's an understanding now what goes into curling.
It looks cool.
It's fun.
There's the, you know, these very, this story that was in the paper that I saw, like people looking really cool in their curling outfits, curling clothing, curling garb.
But it really bothered me that Jimmy Kimmel on his show was talking about curling and he referred to it as the least athletic sport ever.
And as he's saying that, he's showing video footage of them playing where they're using their shoulders and arms and their legs, their whole body strength, but their shoulders and arms in a way that if any one of us even attempted to do it once, the next day we'd probably wake up going, I can't go to work.
I can't operate right now.
And I just...
feel like there's such when it comes to the winter Olympics is this what you feel like the sports that are in there people kind of say that's how big of a deal they're laying down on sled and they're going fast that big deal they're curling now big deal like what do you think about when you hear people kind of down the winter Olympics versus what is a obviously more popular summer Olympics.
A lot of these sports are sports and nobody pays attention to for three and a half out of four years.
And, uh, and I can understand why people are like, this is just weird.
It is weird.
Like there's a loose relay event today where at the bottom, you have to like hit this sign that triggers a really loud noise to let's, you know, that your teammate now is supposed to take off at the top.
Like some of this stuff is, is kind of like, did they just draw this on the, on the back of a napkin or like make up, make it up in their backyard?
And.
It's, it's cool.
The athletes obviously do commit themselves to these sports and they are obviously very, very athletic.
Many of them having to really fight and claw for like financing and sponsorships
and things like
keep
I would say that if you look at old footage of curling, you see guys smoking cigarettes legitimately while curling.
So like I get, again, that sentiment, like with many sports, I would say golf and bowling or a couple of sports like this over time.
You want an edge.
You want to actually be like a very physically capable athlete.
That's what you see.
The guys who are curling, like you said, those are not the curlers from four Olympic cycles ago or whatever.
Like
So is it the least athletic sport ever?
No, I mean, you know, golf is kind of not that super athletic, but like the greatest in the world.
You know, it seems like you can do it when you watch it on TV, but.
It's, it's the disparity between the greatest in the world.
Like they're so, so good.
I would say that's the, uh, the case with curling too.
It looks like something you could do until you're actually out there doing it.
And you realize, oh man, I'm super, super duper over matched.
And why did my quads hurt?
Because I'm walking on ice all the time, you know, things, things, things of that nature.
Well, and I think that, you know, that opens it up to the broader conversation of like, when you think of something like football, basketball or baseball, when it comes to being great in those sports, it's a matter of honestly millimeters.
millimeter to get that ball in the basket, millimeter to hit that ball, millimeter to throw the football into the receiver's hands.
And that takes craft, practice, determination, a bit of DNA that allows you to do that.
And on top of that, you know, a dogged desire to be the best in the world.
And I think when you think of when I think of curling or any of those sports, you like golf, my God, yeah, you might not be you might not be like
ripped or going to the gym or whatever, but the ability to hit a tiny ball with a stick.
But also while doing that saying, I'm going to hit it in a way where I wanted to make, I wanted to hit this spot within a few inches or feet to say they're not athletic is beyond.
I don't want to say offensive, but I'm like, okay, fine, then you do it.
Go ahead.
at the mercy of the announcers in winter sports can i you know i watch curling i do not follow curling
Do I know what's happening?
Like, did they, did they put that shot where they wanted it?
I have no idea.
All I know is one side has that hammer stone and then I can decide who scored points.
And it's very difficult for me to follow the logic of like how this is developing, if it's going, how they want, if their accuracy is any good.
Uh, I need the announcers to tell me that that's largely true.
You know, when you watch somebody do like a flip through the air and figure skating and you're like, that's so incredible.
How do they do that?
And the announcer said, Oh no, it's a disaster.
The worst, the worst.
possible thing has befallen the skating program and like, well, I, I'll take your word for it.
Cause I sure don't know.
So it's easy to disparage things when you just, you can't follow a lot of these sports.
You can tell when, you know, guys are racing down the hill and you follow the clock.
Oh, they're, they're a second faster without that clock.
I would, was that a good skating run?
I had no idea.
No idea.
So, um, I could see why this happens.
I think the athletes are probably used to it.
You
know, they've heard this
And honestly, they probably don't care.
They're the Olympics, that gold medal.
It's still gold.
Whether or not you want it, you know, running, running track at the summer Olympics or whether or not you got, got down the hill fastest on your snowboard, still, still a gold medal shines the same.
Yep.
You want to see, with regard to the worst in the sport, you want to see the worst in the sport?
Watch me try to attempt a backflip while ice skating.
Watch me attempt ice skating.
Let's start there.
That's the worst thing that happened to their sport.
But we are talking to JR Radcliffe from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
He is our sports guru.
And I know we have like a 35 days, 36 days before spring, but spring is here.
Pitchers and catchers reporting.
What's going on?
I mean, we got the newer guys coming in.
Let's talk brewers the little information we have.
There's, there's not much.
It's, it's good news in the sense that they are not injured or at least that's the report.
There's no early reports of injury.
That is not the case in a lot of camps.
Some pretty big superstars like Francisco Lindore, Jackson holiday, Corbin Carroll, they all have the same injury.
They have a broken hammy bone and their wrist and they're going to need surgery to repair that.
So not all, I don't know if any of those guys will be available right away on opening day.
Maybe, maybe they will, but they're going to miss a ton of time and
Need a lot of ramp up.
And so right now they're taking it easy with some of their pitchers, Brandon Woodruff, Quinn Priester, who had some ailments at the end of the year last year.
They're taking it easy with those guys, but there's no obvious, you know, early contender for, Oh, that guy's going to miss all of spring or that guy's going to be out.
Now those guys are probably coming.
We'll probably get those reports soon.
Right now it's, it's good vibes.
The Brewers have a good Julian pitchers.
They have no infielders.
I feel like that's a problem, but it maybe it's not.
Maybe it's their strength.
They didn't really have a ton of infielders last year, either, and they won 97 games.
It worked out.
It required Caleb Durbin coming out of the woodwork, and then they traded him.
So I don't know what they're going to do this year, but it's going to be really hard if everybody's healthy to figure out who makes this roster.
There's pitching rotation in this bullpen, and who's going to play third base.
So those will be the big storylines as we get going here.
Legitimately, who's going to play third base might be the biggest storyline of spring.
I, a friend of mine who is, you know, he, he does some reporting themselves as a podcast and he used to walk around going, how did they do this?
Why did they do this to us with third base?
What are they?
And I feel like we do this every year.
I feel like every team does this.
The team makes decisions that because we're not in the room, confound us.
Therefore we sit there and talk about the death and destruction of our favorite baseball club when I will bring up and I will admit this time last year, you and me.
and Paul noon.
And we're talking about a middling expect from the brewers.
And they ended up doing what they did a day and go as far as we'd like, but Hey, that's the game, but I will say this.
I will say nothing because I don't know anything about what's happening in those decision-making
processes,
but I'm looking forward to talking more about that in the coming weeks.
Cause baseball is a common and I love it.
JR Radcliffe is a writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel check out his stuff.
And, uh, it was great to talk to you, my friend.
Yep.
See you later, man.
All right, man.
Well, when we come back, a handy tip from Greg here on Close Out The Show.
Don't go anywhere.
You're
listening to Civic Media Midmornings here on Civic Media.
My name is Greg.
Stay tuned.
Stay close.
Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media.
Mid mornings here on the Civic Media radio network.
My name is Greg Bach, your host, your buddy, your pal.
Happy to have you along here with us today.
If you ever want to get in contact with us, you can always email me, Greg.Bach at civicmedia.us, Greg.Bach at Civic Media US, whether you want to send us a handy tip, whether you want to send us a story.
I guess we'd love to hear from you.
Do that Greg.Bach at Civic Media.
dot us tomorrow.
We have a very, very good show for you.
We have Wisconsin Congressman of the second district, Mr. Mark Pokan here talking about his thoughts on why the Wisconsin state Supreme Court needs to work faster to approve or decide upon the Wisconsin congressional maps redistricting case, as well as his thoughts on ice in Minnesota, as well as the mega act.
a lot of great talk, a lot of great things we talked about with Mr. Pokan tomorrow in the first hour.
And then in the second hour, he returns.
We've not seen him in a while.
Dan Schaefer, who is the political editor of civic media, also the founder of the recombobulation area will be here discussing all things politics, probably talking about some news coming out of Madison regarding some bills and compromises before the legislative session ends for this year.
Remember, remember, it's a short work year, eight, nine whole weeks of work.
9 month vacation, 10 month vacation.
Go for it.
Good job if you can get it.
But Dan Schaefer will be here talking with us and we're going to have a really great time.
So I hope you can be here and be part of the conversation.
Now we're going to conclude the program with something I call a handy tip from Greg.
The angels showed up early for that one.
Thank you, Dom.
I appreciate you.
So I was reading this article in UPI from a reporter we've talked about many times, Ben Hooper.
And I'm going to use this story to tell you why I believe you should go after your dreams, because a serial Guinness World Record Breaker has broken yet another record.
David Rush, he recently recaptured a record by balancing a ladder on his chin for 19 minutes and 11 seconds.
He has now broken yet another record.
of balancing a chair on his chin for one hour and 20 minutes.
That is recapturing one of his previously held titles.
That is Mr. David Rush, who apparently holds a ton of Guinness World Records.
I'm using that to say this here.
It's never too late.
It's never too ridiculous to try to achieve your dreams.
I know that's trying to be funny.
I'm not kidding you at all.
If this gentleman feels like he can do these things to get these world records, to get attention and do what he needs to do,
I absolutely believe and I support your wanting to do whatever it is you want to do with your life.
Whether you want to go back to school, you want to take a new job, you want to maybe move out of the state or try something new.
I think if there's a man out there who's balancing a chair on his chin for almost an hour and a half and getting kudos coverage as well as a world record from a very prestigious organization, that's no reason for you not to try something new.
It doesn't have to be a big thing either.
Try something small.
You can do it.
Don't let your age, don't let your height, don't let anything get in your way.
Go for your dreams, achieve them.
And I'm telling you right now, you can be there for it.
Dom, that goes for you too, buddy.
Yep, I'm trying to, I want to travel more.
So that's, you know, that's, that, that is what I got from then.
I do really want to travel more.
I haven't, I haven't been able to ever.
So I think going out of the country would be something I really want to do, achieve my dream.
I'll tell you.
I'll tell you a small story that maybe help you with that decision, move you along the way.
My mom used to always tell me, you can always travel, Greg.
You can always, always travel.
You can travel down the road when you have more money, more stability.
I understood where she was coming from, but also, you know, being told like, don't do it now, do it later.
And then a couple of years ago, she had a, she had a moment where she said, I wish we would have done it sooner and I wish we would have taken more vacations as family.
I always thought there'd be more time and there still is, but I think now is the time.
Go for it.
If you can do it, do it.
Try it.
Don't let anything stand in your way, especially yourself.
Don't let yourself stand in the way of you because you're amazing.
And that's been a handy tip from Greg.
There it is.
All right.
As we said, as I said today, here tomorrow, we will be welcoming Congressman Mark Pokan to the show to talk about the case involving the congressional maps, as well as other topics going on here in Wisconsin.
It's going to be a great conversation.
We had really good time recording that one with him, as well as Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area.
Also, our political editor will be stopping by to talk all things Wisconsin politics, probably discussing the election too, because we got an election coming up this fall.
I know first time hearing about it, but I really, really appreciate you all being a part of that.
And it's really been a pleasure being with you this week, having a lot, a lot of fun.
So please tell a friend today, I'll make it, I'll make an ask of you.
Ask for you, ask of you.
Tell one person about us, civic media, what we're doing here, what we're trying to achieve.
I'd love for you people to know about us.
Come to the programs, bring their ideas, their thoughts.
It all makes it better.
You make us better and we appreciate you sharing your time with us.
But yeah, couldn't love it more.
Now, I want to say some thank yous really quick.
I want to say thank you to Dom up in Madison, producing the show.
I want to thank
Tucker, our senior producer for everything he does.
I also want to thank our traffic department, our engineering department, all of those individuals make this show happen without them.
I'm talking into a microphone that does not work.
I also want to thank everybody who called, texted, left comments on the live streams.
If I couldn't get to your comments or take your calls, I deeply apologize for moving really fast today, but
Call back another time and I would love, love, love to have a chat with you.
Without you, there absolutely is no us.
Don't go anywhere, folks, because after us will be the Tom Hartman program from 11 and two, then great programming.
Again, you can download the Civic Media app and get that stuff wherever you are in the world.
Thank you so much for watching, everyone.
Have yourself a great day.
We'll talk to you tomorrow.
Remember, stay tuned, stay informed and stay close.
Have a good
day.
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