You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
Sorry, no, John and Gordy this morning.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
You've got Angela Lang and Matt Rothschild with you this morning instead of John and Gordy.
But we've been having fun on this show on WMDX 92.7.
And you can join the conversation anytime you like.
Call or text 608-879-8255.
It looks pretty clear out this morning, and it's going to be 44 and sunny by 3 o'clock tomorrow, 40.
Christmas 37, not 49, like we were told a couple days ago.
So we may have a few bits of snow for a semi-white or gray Christmas, but we'll just have to see how much melts in the next 48 hours.
Right now, I'm thrilled to have on the show with us a special guest, Dane County Circuit Court Judge, Everett Mitchell.
Welcome to the program, Judge.
Good morning.
Good to be with you, Matt.
Good to be with you, Angela.
Well, it's great to have you and you know, I was at the all Kings rally in October here in Madison at the square Walking around with friends protesting with Tens of thousands of people and all of a sudden a voice came on that captivated the whole crowd The best speech of the day was by none other than circuit court judge Everett Mitchell.
We're gonna hear one minute of it judge if you can bear with
us
That was Fight for Justice.
That was Judge Everett Mitchell in October at the No Kings Rally here in downtown Madison.
If you love that speech, you can show your appreciation by calling right now at 608-879-8255 or send us a text.
Judge Mitchell, why was it important for you to
uh, not only attend that rally, but to speak to that rally.
And you said at the very beginning, I may get in trouble on Monday when I go back to work, but I'm going to be here.
Judges show up too.
Why was it so important for you to be there?
And thanks again for the tremendous speech.
I think, uh, you know, my colleague Hannah Dugan has been, uh, her, her case has been on the news, national news because of the action that she had, uh, demonstrated within our court and somewhat outside of her court.
And it really showed that.
you know, while judges believe that they are a third branch of the government that is in certain ways immune from the attacks of any kind of administration, it showed that that's not the case.
And the blending of the roles really requires us to not just use our voices for what happens within our courtroom or as we look at statues, but really to look at our judicial code and say, hey man, we have to be there to protect not only the freedom,
of people, but also the constitutionality that people need.
They need an impartial jurist that puts a check to the legislative as well as the executive branches.
And we have to use our voices to be able to do so.
And that was important to me to be a part of that conversation.
It was important for me to demonstrate that all people need to be a part of these conversations to fight for what is right on behalf of everyday people.
And it's not political for me.
Partisan for me it is everyday people are struggling and how do we make sure that?
No kings ever get established regardless of the party and that everyday people are given an opportunity and a chance to be strong to be Powerful to be heard to be recognized regardless of their status in this world.
So I'm just I'm just a judge.
I'm just a black man I'm just a dad just you know pastor and I needed to be there like everybody else
Judge Mitchell you mentioned Hannah Dugan
What was your reaction to her prosecution and to the verdict?
My heart sank because Judge Duggan is probably one of the... And I say this not to be patriarchal in a man's voice, but she is one of the most humble, kind, conscientious, thoughtful, smart, creative human beings that I have ever met.
We were elected in the same year.
And to see...
you know her in many ways used as a tool a political tool to incite fear and to do into a judiciary that is got to be made to believe that have to be in compliance with you know any kind of administration.
I mean shakes to core my being and so I wish people got a chance to just not know her but she has been treated like a spectacle or a ragdoll to be pulled in and out of people's you know streams and interviews as though she is not doing
a job that she felt compelled to be able to do.
And I think that it's just been heartbreaking for me to see her go through that and to see the legal system in many ways turn itself into what black men often experience from the legal justice system really, right?
This idea that it's not fair, it's already prescribed, it's already using the vast resources against
And to people who don't think that this should be afraid, I was like, if a kind, thoughtful white woman can be, and the justice system can be used against her, I don't think anybody's safe.
And that's what I was going to ask is how do you feel, because you're outspoken.
You're also a black man doing what some people call radical.
things.
I think it's basic common decency in humanity.
Do you worry about yourself or other judges?
I mean, I've always worried about myself.
And so you have to be strategic about how you use your voice.
You have to be very strategic about places where you speak and how you speak and what you say and what you do.
Because I've
I've had a lot of people attack me on who you stand with, who you support, why you do that.
So none of that should impact your ability to be a judge, but the judicial code doesn't, it really does say we have to be out in the community.
Our judicial
code
demands that we're out in the community.
And so a lot of times the work that I do is really work about
being involved in the community and really exercising that element of just a code and just staying away from direct partisan stuff.
But anything else that deals with justice, fairness, equality, hope, love, I mean, we're supposed to be there.
We are the representatives
of
that constitutional framework.
And so to not be there, it's a legal void.
And a lot of judges and lawyers is just introverts.
and they feel more comfortable with their books and, you know, and being in their offices and writing decisions than they do being in front of a crowd of people.
And I'm introvert too, but I just have these extrovert gifts.
And so I like to be able to be out with people because at the end of the day, it's when you're with the people that you recognize that you can only truly do justice.
And we appreciate those gifts, Judge Mitchell.
I'm wondering,
What the policy is at the circuit court, if ICE here in Madison comes in your hallway or wants to come in your courtroom and you got a defendant there, what power do you have to tell them, look, this is a courtroom.
I'm in charge of this courtroom, get out.
Can you do that?
Yeah, you have power in your courtroom.
I think that's undeniable.
So they can't come into our courtroom just like anybody else can't just come into your courtroom and to exercise their duty, I think.
You know, they treated Jess Duggan a little differently because they tried to say what she extended it beyond a courtroom, right?
So she was in hallways and engaging, you know, so.
They use that to try to say she's obstructing, but now we have the power in our courtrooms to say, no, we're not going to treat.
And I don't use the word defendants.
I always, you know, they either participants or it's Mr, Mrs, whatever pronouns they choose to use, because I use those terms like defendants to me is like a hold over from some old racist, uh, patriarchal times that.
diminish human beings in order to elevate the individuals who have power over them.
So I try to still maintain people's humanity, even especially if they have not been convicted of a crime yet in my courtroom.
What is the prospect that Judge Adelman, who's presiding over Judge Dugan's case, might throw the case out still or throw the verdict out?
Is that still a possibility, do you think?
There's always a possibility.
So I mean, I was
surprised he's a very liberal judge.
I was surprised he didn't bite on some of the motions from Judge Dugan's lawyers to To throw the thing out before it went to trial Were you surprised by that?
No,
no, I mean a lot of motions before trial and as a judge you want to be very careful about the you know
dismissing before you have an opportunity to really hear the evidence.
It's very difficult to, uh, some motions to grant because you really don't know.
You don't know what's going to be offered as proof.
You don't know what's going to really be submitted.
And so if you do something as ahead of time, you really are setting yourself up for an appeal because you really didn't give a chance to put people on the oath and see what the state can actually prove in this process.
No,
I know
some, I know some of the, um,
jurors have come out and said that, you know, they didn't feel good about the verdict, but they were sticking to what they were told in court.
But jurors have the power or the authority to say, you know, we don't want to convict no matter what you told us, judge, or no matter what the facts of the case are.
I wonder whether I wasn't in the courtroom.
I don't know if the defense attorneys gave that kind of a spiel to
the
jurors, but I would have hoped that some of the jurors would have said that.
I'm
almost certain that everybody, you know, every defense team will highlight, you know, that the state did not prove it's burdened, you know.
And so, I mean, but depending on the jury instructions, the jury can be bound by the limitation of those instructions.
And so, while it's not as a sexy as law and order crime victim unit, sometimes the real life jury stuff is not.
you know, especially in the obstructing charge is probably not as highly controversial in terms of your instructions as we might think.
You know, I want to switch gears now and talk about something that you were in the news about last week, which was there's this press conference with you and Dane County Executive Melissa Agard talking about a new juvenile justice program that's just being launched.
Give us a little introduction to that and then we'll come back after the break.
Why?
What is this program about?
Yeah, so the it's really we're launching the otter program which stands otter ATTA which stands for assessment treatment transition and aftercare So it is really a program designed to bring a lot of our young people back to Dane County and to offer them those four areas of assessment treatment Transition and then aftercare program in Dane County generally these will be young people who would
meet the statutory definitions to be up at Lincoln Hills, but we're choosing to create this program to keep them close to their families, to community-based resources, educational pathways, and so that's the program that we just launched last week.
And Melissa Agart said the program was developed at the request of Judge Everett Mitchell He's our guest right now on the John and Gordy show I'm Matt Rothschild with my co-host Angela Lang and we'll talk a little bit more about that program right here on 92.7 WMDX when we come back you can join the conversation 608-879-8255 We'll be right
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Welcome back to the John and Gordy in the morning show.
I'm Matt Rothschild subbing in for John and Gordy along with Angela Lang.
And one of the leaders here in Madtown is none other than Judge Everett Mitchell.
And he has been for the last six years
working on this idea to try to reform juvenile justice here in Dane County.
Judge Mitchell, why don't you talk a little bit more about that?
I know you mentioned Lincoln Hills.
Lincoln Hills is a disastrous place by all accounts.
I haven't been there.
You've been there.
What was it like when you visited there?
I gave Angela an opportunity to read a book that I'm putting together called The Art of Justice.
And one of the things that really has shaped my philosophy as a judge was that first visit to Lincoln Hills when I was elected back in 2016.
And just to see how the young people were being treated at that time related to their mental health, even just the idea like they weren't even getting the haircuts.
or they had a dog room and make, you know, cutting some of the black boy's hair.
And then just the sound of that, the ways in which they were in for solitary confinement, or they call it a residential housing at the time, made me realize like, we got to do better.
Like this is, how can you expect these young people to come back into the community?
Largely, most of them from a walkie area.
and be able to come back into the community and actually contribute when this is the treatment that they are being served with at the time.
Now they made some changes, obviously, because of the lawsuit, but it still feels incomplete to me when it comes to how we want these young people to actually address the underlying trauma and recognize a lot of these young people are victims themselves.
And I think in this era, this holdover era of the super-predadum idea,
we have allowed for that consciousness to still you know seep into the very mindsets of people that don't realize like these are babies like these are children and they they don't wake up just learning to steal cars or selling drugs while people like there is something that is being taught to them so that they are engaging in these kind of behaviors so creating something right that was in the back of my mind was like we have to create a different model because this is not sustainable and for people who think that
Well, what about, you know, was it race?
I said, well, just look at the latest thing that happened in racing.
When they young boy was just beat and pummeled by five grown men.
And they were on camera.
And they still beat this boy.
And I mean, I cried with the mother to see like, these are children that we put.
in places that are supposed to help them and they create more trauma, more pain.
So we have to have a different way.
We have to at least try to keep our babies close and not give people permission for us to pay and then they still beat our children mercifully.
So you mentioned, okay, so you brought up the book.
I wasn't going to because I know if it was a secret or anything, but I read the pages that you sent and...
While I was overwhelmingly inspired by your views of it, I'll admit I was very angry Angry in the fact of this was the first time I read a judge a black man talking about the humanity of these children and I was so Angry that I felt like it was you for the first time to name these things.
Can you kind of talk about?
out why this was like long overdue and while I'm grateful that you are the one kind of spearheading and talking and uplifting these issues, I'm curious kind of like your thought pattern of what it means to finally get some attention on these matters and knowing that you're the one to have to do it after years long issues at places like Lincoln Hills.
I think the thing that you hit on the nail is like, how is it that I'm one that's articulating this, right?
How is it that I'm at the place where we've been having this stuff for a long time?
Why am I the one?
Primarily it's the way that the system is run.
So generally judges have only in the rotation for a very short period of time when it comes to children and child welfare.
In Milwaukee, I think they rotate out every year.
or maybe after most two years.
So before any judge has a competency in the area of child welfare or juvenile delinquency, they are already in another rotation.
And then a new person comes in.
And the people who behold the system or who actually run the system know that.
They know they can wait out to judge.
I have just been lucky in the sense that my rotation has
I've been in it for almost 10 years.
So because of that 10 years, that's a decade of just looking and paying attention and modifying and adjusting the system.
So now I have such awareness of what's supposed to happen that I can now say, oh, no, no, this I'm the buffer between what
what you're trying to do and what the best interests of these children really are.
And that makes a huge difference.
That knowledge base makes a huge difference.
And so I'm probably one of the few that has in our state that really has had the privilege of serving families for such a long period of time and giving them an opportunity to really redefine the process that we have for them.
Matt seems like he's itching to get in.
Yeah, I am.
A lot of judges aren't buffers.
Uh, like you are, um, and am I hearing you right?
You have a book coming out.
Is it available yet?
What's up with that?
No, I'm putting the finishing touches on the now.
So it's not, but yeah, uh, I had to write it because it was part of the, as Angela said, you know, I'm seeing all this stuff and majority of people would never get a chance to see what happens behind the veil.
Well, when that book comes out, we'll have you on again.
I hope to have you on before then too.
Judge Everett Mitchell, uh, great.
public servant here in Madison, Wisconsin.
You're listening to John and Gordy in the morning show.
I'm Matt Rothschild along with my guest host, Angela Lang.
We'll be right back.
We've got CJ wants to join the conversation.
Good morning, Matt Rothschild here.
Angela Lang and I are subbing in for John and Gordy.
We'll be on this afternoon from two to five all across the Civic Media Radio Network.
And they'll be here tomorrow morning at their usual spot behind this microphone.
Boy, what an inspiration that Everett Mitchell was.
This
is why I love that man dearly.
Yes, Block and I endorsed him for Supreme Court in the primary in 2023.
And I still have his yard sign.
We created yard signs.
I still have his yard sign taped to my door.
Because he is one of the people that I think actually sees the real humanity in folks.
And I think it's so powerful in the position that he's in.
You know, he was telling me about his, like, no-king speech, and he was like, I don't know.
Like, some people thought it might be risky.
But he is so moved by his own level of humanity and compassion for others that I really do think that he's a gem in this state.
And, you know, I've heard he's heard me say this before would love to see him at some point being the first black elected state Supreme Court justice.
Yeah, that would be a wonderful site for sure.
And in that speech at the No Kings rally, I mean, so many people were so inspired by that speech and told me afterwards how great it was.
And you could.
even in that snippet that Dom played for us a few minutes ago, just how appreciative the crowd was and into what the crowd was.
So that was great.
The weather today, it's about 35 and pretty clear here in Madison, supposed to peak out at 44 and sunny by three o'clock this afternoon.
Tomorrow's gonna be 39 or 40, 37 on Christmas.
some melting, maybe all the snow will melt.
Who knows?
You can join the conversation.
I'm sorry, what'd you say, Angela?
I was like, that'd be nice.
Get all the snow gone and then we could just start over.
Yeah,
I mean, we had we had late December and early December.
So maybe we'll get early December now in late December and then we can have a real Madison January.
The call the number to call here 608-879-8255.
That's
8879 8255.
And we have a caller who calls often.
CJ is a conservative, but I'd like to hear what CJ has to say sometime and just try to have a conversation with CJ for a couple minutes.
CJ, what's on your mind?
Thanks for taking my call, Matt and Angela.
Merry Christmas to you both.
And to you, I hear you're a snowbird.
I hear you're down in Florida.
I am a snow bird.
I'm calling you from Florida,
Matt.
Whereabouts
in
Florida
are you, CJ?
Actually between Naples and Fort Myers,
but I need a spring.
Oh, that's a pretty place.
Well, I'm very blessed, yes.
What's the weather there right now?
Right now it's uh I'd say like 69 just about breaking 70 sunrise beautiful.
You're killing me absolutely killing me
here.
I know I'm you know uh yes it uh every day I appreciate it I'm blessed every day to get up and spend time with my lovely so
But thank you for taking my call, Matt.
I look forward to having lunch with you again sometime.
Yeah,
we had lunch together in Middleton anytime,
man.
Because it was a very civil conversation and yeah, but I appreciate taking my call.
Judge Mitchell, you know, listening to him.
Regardless of how we got there, it scares me because to hear him talk about Judge Dugan,
who
we saw in video what she did, she took a convicted criminal and snuck him out the side door from federal agents.
She should be held accountable.
And his support of her scares me because that's the definition of an activist judge.
And that's what we're facing now.
People want, I would say I would accuse a lot of people on the left that don't want actual statute enforcement.
They want modification on what they believe.
And Judge Dugan did that.
Okay,
CJ.
And
her personal opinions got into it.
Appreciate the call, CJ.
I just want an opportunity to respond.
I want to hear what Angela has to say about your comment, too.
But I appreciate you calling and look forward to hearing your voice again.
And yeah, we'll have that lunch in Middleton again when you're back from Florida, which I'm envious of.
Look.
you know, activist judges, you know, the U.S.
Supreme Court is the biggest example of an activist judge, of activist judges that I can imagine, where they're just overturning things left and right and granting Donald Trump, you know, blanket immunity for anything he wants to do, which isn't part of our constitutional system.
On Judge Dugan, look, she saw what ICE was doing in her community.
She saw ICE in the hallways right outside
her door.
She had someone in her courtroom that she was presiding over who she wanted to give a fair shake to.
That's what judges are supposed to do.
If they wanted to get her on this technicality, you know, the facts that came out in the court case, I don't know, the jury said the facts led them to that verdict.
I believe in juries, but I wish they had come to a different determination because as Judge Everett Mitchell was saying, she was used as a pawn by the Trump administration to
demonstrate that they can reach into every corner of our society and grab people who aren't just saluting and saying how high they should jump to cooperate with ICE in every maniacal thing that the Trump administration is doing as they're crushing our civil liberties here in this country.
So I wish the jury had come out with a different verdict on that.
I wish Judge Adelman had dismissed the case.
But Angela, what do you think?
Yeah, no, I appreciate CJ for the call and always calling in and kind of like pushing the conversation, right?
Like we could talk in our echo chambers, but it's always good to have differing opinions.
I think for me, it's like when talking about an activist judge, especially right now, like what is the role of judges?
The role of judges are to uphold the rule of law, which our current president and his administration continuously not only violate, but like try to shred in
and destroy, right?
And I do agree with Judge Mitchell's assessment that like Hannah's kind of been made as the scapegoat, or Judge Dugan has been made as the scapegoat.
And I remember when this first incident like first kind of started, some friends and I were joking around of, you know, as with every industry, there are some
varying ranges of judges of really good ones and ones that are a little problematic.
And from what I know of Judge Dugan is that she's one of like the most innocent, sweet, almost kind of like soft spoken very much.
Like she sends out an email for Constitution Day, right?
Like happy Constitution Day.
She's she's one of those.
And so I find it interesting like why they chose
her specifically like with this narrative like this if it didn't happen to her I was going to definitely happen to someone else um and just almost from like a PR standpoint right it's like you have this woman who is so beholding to uploading or upholding the law that she is the one being scapegoated right she's not one of those uh judges that is inflammatory and is you know grandstanding all the time um she's one of the more quiet ones so I find that very interesting but
I think going back to the activist judge comment is like, what is the role of judges right now?
Which is why I think the US Supreme Court is widely unpopular because they don't think that the role of the Supreme Court is actually upholding the laws and policies of this government.
Again, activist judges, it's like, what is their role?
What are they supposed to be doing?
And even if we don't like it, is it upholding the rule of law and constitution, I think is the question.
Yeah, we got a text from Larry from Deerfield who really appreciated the interview we had with Judge Everett Mitchell.
Always nice to hear from Larry from Deerfield as well.
We have Charles on the line, and you can join the conversation too by calling 608-879-
8255.
That's 879-8255 to call or text.
Charles, what's on your mind?
Hey, good morning.
Good morning, guys.
For me, it's the hypocrisy for CJ to call and talk about how well she broke the law.
If I'm correct, the guy was at the courthouse because he was in trouble, right?
He did something wrong.
So he
He went in the front door.
When he finished the court hearing, as long as they didn't arrest him for the domestic abuse, I think that's what he was there for.
He was coming out that same front door.
So why couldn't ICE agents just sat there quietly waiting in the hallway until his court hearing was done?
It was a ploy.
And then my question for C.J.S.
is what does he think about
Donald Trump never being held accountable for his crimes.
He's a 34-count felon that should probably be locked up right now What what is this thought process on the criminals that he pardoned?
For January 6th.
Those are all criminals.
What if you think about the the leader the ex-leader from Honduras who was who was a cocaine guy that he pardoned or the guy rose for fentanyl
It's the hypocrisy that bothers me from the right when we see the things that have been done wrong.
The judge in New York, Cannon, that was a plot.
She dismissed it.
She allowed the case against Trump to drag on and drag on.
And then she did what she was paid to do.
And that was get rid of the cases so he would not be held accountable.
Charles from Milwaukee, thanks so much for that call.
Great points.
I mean, the hypocrisy is just so blatant here.
Which is
not about crime.
It's not about crime.
If it was, Donald Trump would be locked up.
And Judge Dugan, if her intention was to shield this person in her courtroom, she didn't do a good job of it.
I mean, they nabbed him.
Five minutes later, I'm right there in the hallway.
So it's not like she,
sequestered him and put a cloak on him and told him to go into her car or something.
So the
whole
thing was so petty.
And it did seem like a real setup.
And they just were trying to make an example of her.
And it's frustrating, very frustrating to me that Judge Edelman, who is a very smart man and a very good judge,
has let this go this far.
I hope he finds a way when the defense offers him a way to dismiss the case that he can arrive at that conclusion.
And I just wish the jury had not obsessed over the tiny little facts that they were presented and the instructions that they were given and rather did something that's called jury nullification.
I don't care what you told me in the courtroom.
I'm not going to go along with this.
This is an injustice and I can't abide by giving ICE, you know, a victory here in this petty vindictive little case against a decent judge down in Milwaukee here, who's a member in great standing of our community.
I wish that the jury, and I imagine there's some jurors who are thinking that right now today, that they could have said, look,
I know this is what the prosecutors say.
I know this is what the judge said.
I know this is what the facts is they were presented to me.
I don't know, technically, if she did something wrong or not, but guess what?
I'm not going along with this terrible way to prosecute a decent judge who served the community so well.
So that's my answer, I guess, to CJ, but I appreciate the call, CJ.
And we will be back in just a second because every time I'm on the show,
Anytime I get to be on Civic Media, I share some poetry and I share some bird talk.
So we'll be coming back with bird talk and poetry here on 92.7 WMDX.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
She's Angela Lange and we appreciate appreciate being with you this morning.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Hey, Matt Rothschild with you.
Yeah, it's bird talk time.
And that was Shawn Michael Dargan doing that Paul Simon thing.
It was a little assignment.
I gave him, I like what he did with it though.
So thank you.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
You're listening to the John and Gordy in the morning show.
I've been co-anchoring this morning with my friend Angela Lang over at Block and Block stands for Black Leaders Organizing for Communities.
Angela.
On Saturday, I did something I've only done once before, and that was to participate in the Christmas bird count that the
Southern
Wisconsin Bird Alliance and Audubon Society chapters around the country do every Christmas.
And I wasn't the brave one who went outside, though, and walked around in the fields to look for birds.
I just sat in my house and looked at the bird feeders.
And I was lucky, though, because
We live on top of a ravine just south of Madison and there's a stream that's Fed by wells that runs all all by springs that runs in the winter and about eight years ago on Christmas Day It was about ten below zero and there was a Wilson snipe there a Wilson snipe is like a this huge fat sandpiper with long legs in a super long bill And I hadn't seen it for you know
Seven or eight years and they're on the Christmas bird day count on the last Saturday on the 20th of December I'm sitting at my desk.
I'm a binoculars next to my desk.
I'm looking out the window down to the creek and there's another Wilson snipe
We got we
got the sound down, right?
Yes, you do.
Oh, it's so perfect.
Here it is Yeah, oftentimes
you'll hear this before you'll see it and you'll also be surprised because it flushes out if you're walking down toward the stream and it's in the stream it'll take off and it takes off like a pheasant takes off from a cornfield I mean it just
bursts
out and so it's a cool bird not many are seeing this time of year but I was lucky to have one and then the other lucky thing that happened during the bird count for me was
I was complaining all day to Jean, my wife, that I hadn't seen the Carolina Rands that have been there every day for the last months.
at my house and I wanted to report him because not everyone has Carolina Rens in Dane County.
So I was literally typing out my list to send to Brenna over the Southern Wisconsin bird alliance that I hadn't seen the Carolina Rens and then I went one more look outside and there they were.
So it was
a
very triumphant day for me with the...
Christmas bird count.
So I hope people will have participated and enjoyed participating in the bird count as I did.
It's a lot of fun.
I might do it again next year in one of these years.
I'm not going to do the lazy man's approach.
to the bird count, I will actually go out in some territory and see what I can find.
And maybe I'll join you, too, because you got me that book for Christmas.
And maybe I'll have to join you.
And by the way, funny story, quick funny story.
My roommate, he was like, what do you got there?
And I was holding the book when I got home.
And he's like, oh, what do you got there?
And I got a bird book.
And then I put it down.
And then a half an hour later, he was reading the bird book that you got me.
And I was like, you got to be kidding me.
I'm telling you, I'm an evangelist.
You are.
I was going to say, I feel like I see a podcast episode or something in our future with the three of us, where Matt teaches us about birding and you bring your book.
And we bring on state representative Darren Madison, who is also a birder.
I feel like that's a whole episode in and of itself.
Oh, yeah.
We got to get that going.
Experience levels.
Yeah, we'll do that.
I'm looking forward to that.
Mark from Prairie to Sac says, he switched over that hot pepper suet that I've been telling people to use.
Squirrels don't like it.
The birds do.
So that's enough of the bird talk.
I could do it all day.
I want to do a poem here.
This is a classic.
This is called Christmas Bells from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in the midst of the Civil War, actually written around Christmas 1863.
I'm just going to read a couple verses.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat, of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
But in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth, I said, for hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
Then peeled the bells more loud and deep, God isn't dead, nor doth he sleep.
The wrong shall fail.
The right prevail.
With peace on earth, good will to men.
Well, I sure hope the wrong shall fail.
And the left and the right prevail with goodwill to all.
Merry Christmas.
Happy holidays.
It's been great spending some time with you over the last few weeks while John and Gordy have been doing double duty.
It's been great doing the show again with you, Angela, which I really appreciate.
Always.
Thank you.
I mean, I always appreciate every time you text me and said, Hey, I got this time open as long as I'm available.
I'm always there.
God,
you answer the bell almost all the time, yeah.
Got to thank our guest, Sam Liebert, of all voting as local, Wisconsin, Lisa Bernard of the Humane Society, Dean County, and Judge Everett Mitchell, who is a real treasure for our community here in Madison.
I want to thank all the callers and textors.
I wanna thank you, Dom.
It's always great working with you, Dom.
I gotta say, you know, we've had a couple of shows.
We've had, man, we probably had 10 or 15 shows together at this point, so we're going strong.
There's a groove.
There's a groove.
Yeah, I always appreciate the opportunity that John Gordy offered me, that Catherine Lake offers me, that Sage Weil offers me, to use my voice to the extent that I still have one here on Civic Media, and I'm wishing everybody a real happy holiday.
Merry Christmas.
Happy Hanukkah.
I had potato latkes with my son a couple days ago.
They were tasty.
And so I've got to make some steak for the boys on Christmas Day.
And
I
hope you, if you're listening, have a great Christmas meal and share that holiday cheer with friends, which we're going to be doing as well.
And I'm sure you are too, Angela.
And indeed, happy holidays and super excited to just start the new year too.
Yeah, turn the page, start anew.
Have a fun one, everyone.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
