We’re All Workers (Hour 2)

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am sitting in for Jane Matt Nair, who is currently on vacation, having fun, vacating, relaxing and doing it deservedly.

She'll be back before you know it.

But we are here today.

I am sitting in the chair for the show.

We're here from 9am to 11am and we have a huge, huge packed show before we get to that.

Calvin Butenhof on the board.

Calvin, how are you doing?

How was your Labor Day weekend?

It was pretty good.

It was...

void of labor.

How about you, Greg?

Uh, I wasn't laboring for a paycheck, but definitely working for the weekend because we were doing all sorts of stuff with family.

It was a big packed weekend with, you know, just a family in town celebrating my mother-in-law's 80th birthday, seeing some of my family as well.

So it was a good weekend by the time we got to yesterday afternoon, it was absolutely just.

on the couch, trying not to fall asleep because I didn't want to fall asleep too early.

But yeah, we had a great weekend.

I'm glad you did as well.

We hope you, you had a great weekend too.

Hope it was full of fun for Valady and frivolousness.

Cause you know, the weekends for that, if you want to join us, if you want to call in, you want to be part of the conversation, you can do that by call or text at the same number, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic or leave a comment on the live stream.

We are currently on Facebook.

YouTube and the site that we in this house still call Twitter at 935.

We've got Todd Alba, who is the host of the Todd Alba show.

He will be joining us today.

We're going to be talking about we discussed it earlier on Friday.

We're going to talk about it more today.

We're going to talk about JD Vance's trip to lacrosse last week, some of the things he said about Milwaukee and just how

That area of Wisconsin as well as many areas in Wisconsin are going to be hit hard by the big bill for billionaires.

We're going to talk about really the true cost of it all on how it's going to hit the health care as well as just, you know, our farmers.

So at 935, Todd Alba will be here for that.

And then at 1006, we have Professor John Shelton.

He is the chair of democracy and justice studies at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.

He's also the president of the AFT Wisconsin.

And we're going to be talking about Labor Day, the unions, but most importantly, we're going to be talking about a letter that AFT sent to the candidates for the 2026 governor's race to kind of see where they stand with unions, how they will stand with unions, and we will find out more.

And we'll discuss some other things as well, including how we bridge that divide through the work of the unions, talk about the history of

the labor movement here in Wisconsin, a very rich deep history.

But you want to show you want to show back you want to show up there for a 1006 with Professor John Shelton 1035 Calvin, this is going to be fun.

We've got civic media is very own Terry Barr.

She is absolutely Jane refers to her as the genie of just about everything.

She'll be joining us to talk about her latest edition of slice of Wisconsin where she highlights a fun thing going on in Wisconsin going to have an audio component as well.

So you can join at 10 35 or you stick around.

It's gonna be a wonderful, wonderful pack show.

I just wanted to let everybody know this came through.

It's been reported through ABC that President Trump is scheduled to make an official announcement from the Oval Office at 1pm central time today.

The details have not been immediately disclosed, but just to let you know that there will be an announcement from President Trump from the Oval Office at 1pm today.

So I'm sure that we'll have more information as the day goes on.

But it will, yeah, that just came through the wires and we wanted to let you know.

So Calvin, a lot of things happening this weekend, a lot of news happening, but I wanted to take this time.

There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel written by Rick Barrett titled, Abbotsford's immigrants have been welcomed for decades, but now some are afraid.

And if you don't know about Abbotsford,

It's a small town in Wisconsin, north central.

It's very small, about 2,300 in the population.

Very, you know, very stereotypical Wisconsin, small town, small town, charm, lovely people.

And the reason for that headline and the reason why I wanted to talk about it is there was a

resolution that came up amongst the Clark County Board of Supervisors Abbotsford actually is in both Clark and Marathon County, but the Clark County Board of Supervisors were considering a resolution that would encourage the Sheriff's Department and other local agencies to assist when called upon by federal federal agencies to help with immigration and deportation, basically helping ICE.

We've seen this all over the country, but the

Clark County Board took up a resolution they talked about it and Luckily, I will say this two things It was a non-binding resolution which didn't which means that it wouldn't have said that this had to have happened This was more of a resolution to encourage sheriffs to participate.

So it just would have been a

Vote of confidence, if you will.

That's a very poor phrase, but it's really what it was.

A vote of confidence from the Clark County Board to say, yes, you should do this.

It was voted on on the 21st.

And after critics objected, this is coming from the article from Mr. Barrett.

I will put this in the show notes.

The board voted 20 to eight to send it to the law enforcement committee for review and feedback.

Essentially, they didn't pass it.

They sent it back to the committee to do further review and further research and come back with more information.

But this is basically a pause.

And as Tony Vazquez, a Spanish language interpreter from Wausau, he says, quote, I think putting this on pause was good because folks, this is Wisconsin, small town.

And it says here that even though it was non-binding, it would have encouraged racial profiling and mistrust in law enforcement.

And in cities like Abbotsford, it's a huge action that would have massive, massive detriments on the community because Abbotsford, right here in Wisconsin, our state, small town 2300.

Immigration has been a part of that community for over a hundred years, since the late 1800s, when the railroads were being built through Wisconsin, Abbotsford actually put the call out to say, hey, come here, come live here.

In 1911, the Abbotsford Clarion Ledger newspaper promoted the area to immigrants in an article, and it was promoting it to people of European descent as that who was coming here at the time to say, come here, you are always going to be welcome.

Over time, the attitude of welcoming towards immigrants kept up, but the names and faces changed.

It went from people of European backgrounds to people of Latino backgrounds, and they have been coming there for a very long time, and they have been working in that community.

And I want to know, are you from this area?

Are you from around this area?

Do you live in a community like this?

Because you know where we're going with this, folks.

This is a small town.

These people whether you know born in Abbotsford or coming there as immigrants Contribute to their economy and this isn't like New York LA or even Milwaukee where and and this you know If people are taken the cities can survive because there are so many and it's not right But it's just the fact when you have a city with five hundred thousand a million two five seven million people when individuals are taken

there isn't such a damage to the economy.

And this is what it would be.

It would damage to the Abbotsford economy.

Abiland Food is a business there in Abbotsford and they have more than a thousand employees and they employ people who are immigrants.

And they know so much that the economy of that community and the business itself depends on their labor because in

2017, the company shut down one of its plans for a day and slowed production so employees could attend a day without Latinos, immigrants and refugees rally in Milwaukee.

That's how much they know that these individuals are important to their community in Abbotsford, 2300, not New York, not LA, not Chicago.

And we talked about, you know, the, the.

The idea that, oh, well, we're going to go to these big cities that are full of crime and get rid of all these individuals who are committing crime.

We're going to get rid of all the immigrants because they're all criminals and the criminals are going to go away.

And we all said, we said, yes, get rid of the criminals, Calvin.

We said, get rid of the criminals.

If they're here illegally and the air criminals, get rid of them.

But that's not what we're talking about here.

We're not talking about a big city.

We're not talking about a big bustling metro area.

We're talking about Abbotsford, Wisconsin, 2,275 residents.

38% of them identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino.

That's according to the U.S.

Census data.

60% of the school district students are Latino.

The churches have been a place where immigrants have found support because the rumors of ICE raids are surfacing and the vote from the Clark County Board only stoked those fears.

Again, this is an article.

Coming from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel written by Rick Barrett, entitled Abbotsford Immigrations, have been welcomed for decades, but now some are afraid.

These are individuals who are contributing.

They're paying taxes.

They are part of the community.

And now they have to be afraid because this isn't LA or New York or Milwaukee or Madison or Green Bay.

This is a tiny town.

And if ice comes to this town and starts deporting, by the way, folks who are going through the process to stay here legally or at least get stays, this is going to devastate this community.

And I just want to know for those who are on the train of get rid of them all because they're all criminals.

How does this, does this sit fine with you?

I don't see, you know, I would love to hear from you too.

Make that make sense to me.

They're going through the process.

They contribute money.

They contribute taxes.

Their kids are here in the neighborhoods.

They're part of our families.

They're part of Wisconsin.

They're Wisconsinites, in my opinion.

And that's all there is to it.

And we're not talking about drug trade.

We're not talking about trafficking.

We're talking about people who come in here for a better life to raise their kids.

Work hard.

They're not asking for much.

I mean, they just want to be part of the community.

And Abbotsford has opened their doors and they've been doing it for over a hundred years.

And now we're at a place where instead of saying, uh, we've got a county board that into their credit, listen to the community.

We've seen the videos of people who we've seen the videos of county boards, city councils who just don't listen, who just talk over people who just look at their phones, but credit to the Clark County board.

They sent it back for review.

And I want to know what you think of this because frankly, this is what we've been talking about for a while.

You want to start with these big cities, of course, because they're big cities.

They're quote, crime dens and criminal havens.

And, and it's easy to vilify them because they're, they're big cities.

And that's what we've been doing for so long.

Big cities are full of the quote, wrong people, but this is Abbots for Wisconsin.

When they start going after these small towns,

These small cities they're going to crush their economies.

They're going to hurt the people there.

They're gonna hurt us instead of Helping this is not how we do things.

This is not how we should do things.

This is actually how we do things is exactly how we're doing things and we're doing it and they're doing it with impunity and I hope to hear from you because I want to know I would really love to know your thoughts on this.

I would love to know your take on

ice and sheriffs and police going into our small towns and rounding up people who are just trying to create a better life, who are going through the process, who are being deported.

Is that Wisconsin?

Is that us?

I don't think so.

855-752-4842.

855-755 Civic is the number.

You can leave a comment on the live stream as well.

When we come back, we're going to continue the conversation.

Also talk about

Uh, I guess they're not only going to be arresting people at courthouses or at their homes, but if you're working in the middle of a job, like say putting out, you know, doing a very dangerous job, they might just arrest you as well.

So don't go far.

We're going to get some hydration, get a snack.

This is Matt and Aaron air on the civic media radio network.

Stay close.

Stay tuned.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air and air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who was out vacating.

She'll be back.

But I'm here today doing the show hoping you're doing well.

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Be part of the conversation talking about.

new fears in Abbotsford, Wisconsin, 2,300 people in that little community because the Clark County Board of Supervisors were voting on a possible resolution to encourage the sheriff's office to cooperate with federal agencies in their deportation efforts around the country, not just big cities, folks, not just the scary blue liberal bastions, but

Places like atmosphere where regular folks are paying their taxes, doing their work, living their lives, Wisconsinites through and through.

And this, of course, has stoked new fears.

These are people part of the community.

They are loved.

They're valued.

They're contributors.

And if you want to just get real, you know, I don't know, I don't want to say, you know, take away all the emotion.

It's really about.

the fact that they're also participating in the economy.

They're also buying, they're also, it says here, you wouldn't have, this is someone named, this is someone who spoke about the people there.

You wouldn't have the tax revenue from all those people working and paying taxes.

They're buying groceries, clothing, and patronizing other merchants.

They're renting homes, buying homes, and starting businesses.

Whether you look at it from your heart or from your head or from your wallet, these are individuals who are contributing to the economy of Wisconsin, the economy of this United States.

Immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes.

State, local, federal.

They, whether they aren't documented or they're here through legal measures, they are paying into their taxes.

They are part of our economy.

They're part of our community.

And this to me just seems like, well, we vilify and we look at the big cities and say, well, we need to get rid of all the crime, but this is not the big city.

This is Abbotsford, Wisconsin, north central Wisconsin.

Troy from Mount Horrib is on the phone.

You've been waiting.

Thank you so much, Troy.

Good morning.

Happy belated Labor Day and what say you on this?

Good morning and happy belated Labor Day to you all also I don't understand the hatred for the brown people that are just trying to make a way for themselves and Make a better life.

Yeah, you know, it's and and I'm glad I don't know personally I'm glad I don't understand that

because

it means you have

compassion Troy

Yes, exactly.

And empathy, which is a sin according to Elon.

Yeah, that's something that man said.

Empathy is a sin.

Yeah.

No, you're absolutely right.

And I want to make clear that individuals in Abyssal, there are people in that community who are working through the process to stay here legally or at the very least not be deported because they want to go through the process.

And Trey, as you and I have heard through the years, it's always been a cry from certain individuals who say, well, why can't they do it the right way?

Why can't they come here legally?

Well, guess what?

When they do...

They still get arrested.

There was a story out of Los Angeles.

A man has been waiting over a month trying to figure out why his wife, who has a green card, was deported.

They're doing it legally and they're still being thrown out, Troy.

I don't know.

Like you said, you have empathy and compassion.

It sounds like logic rationale, so it doesn't make sense to either one of us.

Yeah, people getting their green cards are doing it the right way and they're having their hearing.

terminated and they're being arrested on the spot.

It's just ridiculous.

Yep and frankly and thank you so much Troy for calling.

I always love hearing from you and as I said before happy belated Labor Day.

Yeah I mean that's just what it is and frankly the phone lines are not lighting up with folks who think this is a good idea because they cannot defend the fact that this is all built on a lie.

We were told these were criminals that were going to be deported.

These were people who were

You know, bad dudes as the president once called them, but that's not what's happening.

These are just regular folks who are trying to make a life and it's indefensible.

Cause I'm not hearing from anyone saying, good, get rid of them.

They're, they're all criminals regardless because it's not, you know, the story over the weekend about Guatemalan children who had to have a, who had to have a deportation state because they were going through the foster system, trying to get order state orders.

confirmed.

So they wouldn't be deported.

It doesn't matter.

They're probably, they, they, these, the law, the courts, the process does not matter to them.

And before we get out of here and we go grab some hydration and a snack.

And when we do come back in 935, are we talking to Todd Alba about JD Vance's?

visit to lacrosse last week.

Firefighters question leaders role in Washington immigration raid in Wisconsin examiners reporting this Alex Brown with the byline.

I'll just read this really quick.

Federal immigration authorities last week rated an active wildfire response in Washington state arresting two firefighters and sidelining crew for hours.

You heard me correct.

They rated an active wildfire response.

The wildfire veterans say the operation was nearly unprecedented, a breach in longstanding protocol that federal agents do not disrupt emergency responders to check immigration status.

This is not about criminals anymore.

It never was about criminals.

Let's face it.

It was never was.

That was always a lie.

But they don't care that they're lying.

They don't care that they're doing it out in the open.

They don't care that we see what they're doing because they do it with impunity because they just got the largest increase in big bill for billionaires.

So they get to do what they want.

They are stopping wildfire responses to arrest crew members because they are suspected of being here illegally as immigrants.

Hopefully you'll find out more about this, but don't go far.

Get yourself a water stay hydrated because when we come back.

After the news, Todd Alba, host of the Todd Alba show here on Civic Media from 2pm to 4pm.

We'll be here talking about JD Vance in La Crosse.

Don't go far.

Stay close.

Stay tuned.

You're listening to Matt Naranair on the Civic Media radio network.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently vacating resting relaxing deservedly and she misses you.

She just told me so she'll be back in a few days, but for now you've got me sweet Cal be on the boards and oh my gosh.

Look who's here.

We are matching almost twins.

These were like fraternal shirt twins.

Exactly.

Mr. Todd Alba, host of the Todd Alba show, which is on Civic Media Monday through Fridays, 2pm to 4pm.

You can listen to it live on the radio or get it on the Civic Media app.

You know, it's great ways to listen to us to him every day, Monday through Friday.

Todd Hall, what are you doing?

How was your Labor Day weekend?

Thank you so very much for asking.

Let me just tell you this.

The one thing I did outside of the house this weekend is I popped up to Wisconsin Dells because my sister and brother-in-law and mom and I, we mostly them because they have the camper.

Christmas mountain and they're camping over the holiday.

It was great And I I went right down through the heart of Lake Delta, Wisconsin Dells I looked over one of the big water parks and it was it was like sardines in the can and I thought who in the world would be in that mess and I look over and writing a large flamingo Blow-up type of device and one of the big pools

Our very own, I hate to disclose where she's at.

Jane McNair was there in the pool in the Dells and her lovely husband, Paul.

It was one of those cabalans you could rent out on the lounge.

And I heard it wave and just say, lovely darling, keep it up.

And they looked like they were having a great time.

So I hope that Jane and Paul continue their Dell's vacation.

And I know they're having a lot

of fun.

I just love this idea of Jane sightings in the wild.

So

before you want to know the truth, here's the deal.

And we're going to talk about this on a slightly more serious note on the show today, because you got good old RFK Jr.

coming before Congress after he's basically gutted the leadership at the CDC.

I got my shingrix, my shingles, and my pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine shot all together on Friday at my annual physical.

Now, the good news is I'm physically okay, mentally so so.

But I got these vaccines, and it was my second shingrix, my shingles vaccine.

I'm telling you, I was down for the county.

Most of Saturday, I was like sweating and chills.

But now I'm feeling relatively normal, but they just kind of push through it.

You got to get your vaccines, folks.

But that's what I did.

I recovered from my shingrix vaccine.

That was most of my Labor Day weekend, Greg.

How about you?

Very busy hanging out with family was my mother-in-law's 80th birthday celebration.

We were having a good time, you know, doing our thing.

But by the time we got to yesterday, as I said, when the show started,

started, I was done by like three 30.

I'm like, is it too early for bed?

Is it too early for bed right now?

Cause I feel like I could go to bed right now.

So yeah, it was, it was a very fun weekend.

And of course, and we're going to talk to professor John Shelton in the second hour at 1006 about this, but you know, you love Labor Day.

You love that day off thinking union member because that's what they're here.

They, they fought to get that.

So, um,

Talking early before you got here, we're talking about the story on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel regarding Abbotsford and the Clark County Board of Supervisors voting to not encourage the sheriff's office to cooperate with federal agents on immigration rates throughout the community, which would absolutely devastate that town of 2,300.

We were taking your calls and texts and Jack from Merrimack has been holding very long, very patiently.

Jack, what say you on the topic?

Thank you so much for calling in this morning.

Well, yeah, I just had a little observation in Not just in Washington, DC, but all over the country got armed agents and they claimed to be authorized by government But they got uniforms, you know what you could get those uniforms at many costume shops.

They're masked.

Yeah, they're either unwilling or unable to fill out a government ID They don't have judicial warrants.

No probable cause more than skin color or tattoos

no due process and they arrest whomever they wish abduct them sometimes forcibly from homes, workplaces, churches, lately schools and even courtrooms where they are following the law to update their legal status and they send them off to other countries where they've never been or hold them in communicato for a lengthy period and just incidentally by the way accidentally of course currently over 70 of those who let

been abducted were American citizens.

And that doesn't even count the armed troops in the streets.

So who are the criminals?

Yeah, you think everybody feels safer?

Just a few years ago, this would have been called kidnapping.

Well, yeah, thank you so much for calling, Jack.

We appreciate that.

And I mean, everything you were saying, I'm thinking about all these situations I've seen stories on and not just going to like, as I said earlier, before we went to got the news, they they rated

They raided firefighters in the middle of a wildfire response.

While they were working, they arrested two people.

And Todd, I mean, I know that we're going to talk about JD Vance because God knows, God knows we want to.

God knows we need to.

He came to La Crosse and he had so many things to say.

It was amazing.

He has so many great words from Milwaukee.

But I mean, it just comes down to it was sold to us, Todd, as we're going to get rid of the criminals.

And most of us were like, sure you are.

But now it's not even a matter of trying to stick up for the lie.

It doesn't even matter if they're lying.

They don't care because there's no stopping them.

They're going to do what they want because they have the power.

The big bill for billionaires gave them a ton of money.

They got the president.

They have people.

It's the fact that they said

Oh, we're gonna, we're gonna make America safe again, too.

It's like, no, you're just gonna get rid of brown people because you don't like brown people.

Just say that.

We know that's what you mean.

I

think most reasonable Wisconsinites would say, Hey, you know, if there's one or two people in our state

who committed a bank robbery or committed a heinous sexual assault or, of course, a murder.

And they got let out on probation and they did it again.

And they happened to be undocumented.

Well, then sure, we don't want those one or two people around.

They're troublemakers or bad folks.

But to Jack's point,

As most reasonable people if you think through it that that's not the people that the Trump administration is is going after and jacks 100% Right that many of not most of these people who are being quote-unquote rounded up and detained end up being here under legal status either citizens or permanent residents or

Other legal visa types of things and some came here legally applied for extensions, but because of I still call INS or ice as underfunded the

the time it takes to get that approval for extension takes so long that their current legal status expires.

So then they become quote unquote, as the Trump mog of folks like to say illegal.

And it's not that folks are coming across the border, although some did, of course, but many of these people did not.

They came here the quote unquote right way.

Yes.

And and their their their status expired.

So.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, it was really interesting, I think, to get to round it back to this JD Vans visit.

By the way, I cannot confirm this, although I've heard through various stories.

A lot of people are saying.

A lot of people are saying folks president was a lot of people are saying the vice president was disappointed because the folks in Wisconsin, RPW did not take him to his favorite spot in Wisconsin around the lacrosse area.

Ashley furniture, which he requested, but did not work out.

So that he's very disappointed.

about that, although he was slightly inspired when he drove through La Crosse's campus and saw some old stupas being put out by fraternity on the curb.

But other than that, he was speaking about, oh, President Trump wants to be asked to come to Milwaukee to take care of crime and that sort of thing.

And what I thought was interesting was reporting, I think it was Matt Smith at WIS, up front over the weekend.

put into his politics as well, that good old former state senator and now Congressman Scottie Fitzgerald, Republican, when asked by reporters over the weekend, said, no, no, no, I think Milwaukee's different.

I think we're fine.

We don't need the Trump administration to bring an armed military folks to get rid of crime in the walk.

But Chicago, Chicago, yes.

So I just, you know, continue to ask your viewers, listeners, as I think is always a good thing to do.

How would you feel?

if our military personnel came into your town.

whether it's where we were at Lovely Butterluck or Hayward or Green Bay or the Cross or Milwaukee or Madison or Richland Center.

How would you feel?

Because most people say, well, we don't need it here.

Well, put yourself in the places where it is happening.

And I think that's a good way to look at things.

I could not agree more.

If you're just joining us right now, Matt and Aaron, we are talking to Todd Alba, the lovely and wonderful, talented and great.

Give him more compliments.

He hates it.

He is the host of the Todd Alba show, which is on weekdays two to four PM.

here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

And we're talking about JD Vance and La Crosse last week, speaking to a group of individuals.

The individuals and JD Vance were not in Milwaukee.

They were in La Crosse, but he had amazing thoughts about Milwaukee.

Calvin, we have a bit of a clip there we can play real fast to the point of what you were just talking about, Todd.

Is Milwaukee a super safe city right now?

No.

It's had some crime problems.

It's a beautiful city.

There are a lot of beautiful, incredible, hardworking people who live there, but let's be honest, Milwaukee has had some crime problems.

So have other parts of our community.

Chicago, and then we're not too far from Chicago.

Chicago has had a lot of crime problems.

Why is it that you have mayors and governors who are angrier about Donald Trump offering to help them than they are about the fact that their own residents are being carjacked and murdered in the streets?

It doesn't make an ounce of

sense.

Offering, Todd.

Offering.

Offering.

I have

not read my dictionary quite some time.

I was not aware that the Webster and or Miriam Webster and or Oxford or Steve's dictionary has redefined the word offering as an uninvited league marching into a town with troops and weapons to round up criminals or just stand around.

Really, and honestly, in all seriousness, I have family who live in DC, and I was told this weekend that ICE agents are standing around train stations asking for identification, asking people where they are going, and basically gumming up the works of transportation in that city, just because they have to make their presence both known and justified, and to do that, they have to just bother people.

Yeah, it's it's disturbing I have friends live in DC work in the DC area as well and it was interesting and I know you know this is that where the Trump administration is putting us Marshall's ISO and so forth are not in the highest crime areas of the district it's a lot of this is for show as you say to gum up the works Here's the one thing I'll say that I hope the Democrats take into consideration

I think to simply poo poo it and just say, oh, you know, everything's fine in Milwaukee.

I love Milwaukee.

It's our show from there.

Oh, you're based out of the area of the state.

There's a story in the hill over the weekend, the hill.com, 10 cities with the highest crime rate.

And Milwaukee, I believe, is fifth in that.

And it lists it out there.

There was another story, I think, at WF8 or wherever the CBS or the television station is in the Fox Valley that talked about this as well over the weekend.

So.

We all know that every city has problems, doesn't matter large or small.

I think the point is, is to statistically say, sure, yeah, I mean, you can say we have problems, but we've got this.

And I think the thing for Democrats is not to ignore the issues, but say to focus on we take care of our own.

We don't want the feds coming in because historically, as a former Republican, Republicans have been against having outside, you know, the feds come in and take control, the state come in and take local control.

They want to make things local.

So use that juxtaposition, I would say, and not ignore the challenges that our state has, but say, we got this.

Exactly.

We're going to keep the conversation going with Todd Alba.

If you want to be part of that conversation, 855-752-4842, 855-757, leave a comment on the live stream.

want to hear from you on this regarding JD vans immigration, crime, all the things we're talking about with my friend, Todd, all but we'll be back in a little bit.

Get yourself some water in a stack.

Stay hydrated.

Stay close.

You're amazing.

Listening to Matt and air on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Welcome back to matinee on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for the lovely Jane matinee who is currently somewhere, but I'm not telling you where that's right.

She misses you.

She'll be back before you know it, but I'm sitting in the big chair for a little while here hosting the show and I have the wonderful, lovely, talented, kind, generous, compassionate, verbose Todd Alba on the show.

He is the host of the Todd Alba show.

weekdays from two to four p.m.

Here on the civic media radio and he's looking at his phone currently trying not

This is this is never before done.

I believe on that there because our news director shawley pipman.

Yeah, just called me out.

I have her on speakerphone And and now we've got her on you're on the air shawley with on Jane on Matt there and there.

This is fantastic.

How are you?

You heard

it here folks it breaking news shawley pitman calls Todd

Alba There's a big trump presser at one

yes from

me

from the oval he's uh he's and and so there may be a special report happening at one o'clock it may be a part of a showy and i'm trying to urge people to bring in Pete Schwab a host of nightlight because i'm no dan rather you understand i'm no david murer uh but i'm thinking if trump is in the oval office and jd vans is on one side and mike johnson's on the other and trump has his arms around their shoulders with sunglasses on and a

bucket hat.

I want to know, I want to know for Pete Schwab, does this qualify as Weekend of Burnies?

I would just like to know that.

That was a very long walk to a punch line there, Todd.

It was a very long walk.

Well,

you know.

But yes, I was actually going to bring that up towards the end of the segment.

But yes, President Trump, they have announced through the White House.

I don't care what you say now.

But at 1 PM central, President Trump will be making an announcement from the White House from the Oval Office.

So stay close to civic media for more information as we know more.

We'll tell you more.

And I'm sure we will have discussions about this event happening post event, if you will.

So

we'll be there at one if something really is truly newsy

or

two o'clock to discuss if it's a nothing burger.

I mean, it's coming from the oval.

So I usually have nothing like oval is not.

It's it feels like a something burger.

It could be a something taco.

I don't know.

But we don't know.

Maybe Trump has discovered that the so-called quote unquote gold fixtures in the new Oval Office are nothing more than plastic from Home Depot spray painted.

That's actually true.

He's just going to read.

He's just going to read the Epstein list name by name for like four hours.

He's going to

say, actually,

yeah.

Yeah, you know, it's like, I got it right here, folks.

And we're going through it name by name.

Uh, before we went to the, before we went to the commercial, uh, we were talking about the, you know, just the, the, the ice raids that the, the, I don't know, the lies being told to justify the deportation of folks who aren't fitting the bill of what we were told would be deported.

You know, these are folks who are living their lives paying, paying taxes by the way, paying billions of dollars in taxes.

to their to their communities, to their state, to their country.

And they don't even and they're going through these processes because they want to be here in a legal status.

They want to go through the steps.

And could you imagine like two things I want to propose to you, Todd, first of all, could you imagine if in instead of all that money for ice, we would have given like 60% of that funding increase to immigration and the courts to

speed up the process, get more judges, get more lawyers.

We've said it before, we're not trying to make it easy.

It shouldn't just be you walk in the door and hear, you're an American.

I understand that there has to be processes about, but it shouldn't be so hard that you put your time and money into this all and you can still be deported.

It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't hold value for those who are trying to do it and doesn't hold value for us as Americans who

Want those dollars want those people want that?

Contribution to our economy and just our general culture as Americans it doesn't make sense It just just once again tell us you don't like brown people be honest and say it like that and then whatever It's like you're gonna do what you want because that's what you've been doing for months anyways

I think he was playing parts of this cop.

I played the whole thing on my show from the, it was like a 1979 Republican presidential primary, but for the 1980 election when George H. W. Bush was primary and Ronald Wilson Reagan.

And the question came up from a person in the forum about immigration.

And George HW Bush said, hey, I have brown people in my family.

And I think we have to find a way to bring them here, to make them legal, to find pathways to legality.

Reagan said, I'll up you one.

I think we should have fewer fences.

Not

even a wall, fewer fences.

And have a way for people to come here, Mexico at the time, to pay taxes to your point, to go back and forth and be part of our economy, which helps both countries.

That was the reply.

public composition of Ronald Reagan.

And it shows you that MAGA is not really Republican nor conservative.

It's a party of Trump.

And so many people across the state have kids on volleyball and hockey and football and soccer teams and in band together.

And they have no idea that their kids best friends are dreamers and are not quote unquote documented.

And the question again, I ask people is, would you like your kids best friend who happens to be Latino to be rounded up and taken away?

Would you like the kid who is the star athlete on your local sports team to be taken away?

I know this is a simplistic way to look at it,

but

it gets to the point.

Yeah,

absolutely.

these are these folks are integrated as part of our community and many times we don't know it.

They're good folks who are contributing to our communities who are part of it and we need to find ways reasonable ways to bring them into our community.

Todd Alba is on from 2 to 4 p.m.

Stay close to the Civic Media Radio Network because we have an announcement coming from the Trump administration at 1 p.m.

which I'm sure Todd you'll be talking about.

Afterwards, and on your show, if it's not a nothing burger.

But anyway, stay close because when we return, we have Professor John Shelton talking about the labor movement and how it's going to work with the 2026 governor's race here in Wisconsin.

Todd, thank you so much for being here.

Appreciate you, buddy.

Thanks, guys.

Have a great day.

Don't go far.

Get some snacks.

Get some water.

Come back.

You're listening to Matt Nair on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and Aaron air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently vacating deservedly and she texted me just now and says She misses absolutely all of you if you'd like to be part of the conversation you can call her text It's the same number 855-752-4842 855-75 civic you can also leave a comment on the live stream Which we are on Facebook YouTube and the platform we in this house still

call twitter once again a reminder that president trump will be making an announcement from the oval office at 1 p.m central stick here with civic media i'm sure we'll have covers and i'm sure we'll be talking about whatever he has to say because it's coming from the oval probably going to be important so yes once again 1 p.m

President Trump will be addressing the nation from the Oval Office.

Stay close for civic media for more information as we know more.

We will share more.

But for right now, I have a fantastic guest here for you today.

He is the professor, chair of democracy and justice studies at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.

He's also the president of AFT Wisconsin.

He's also an author.

He's a labor movement specialist, a union activist, a guy who I have

Very excited to have on the show.

I've heard so much about Professor John Shelton.

Thank you so much, sir, for being on the show today.

We really appreciate your time.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for having me, Greg.

And saying all that stuff makes me feel like I should take a nap.

Do it.

I've read your CV.

You deserve a rest.

Okay.

But a happy belated Labor Day to you.

And we're very excited to have you on when I was approached to have you on there.

Like, do you want to have John Shelton on to talk about labor and union?

Like, yes.

We need to talk more about this.

And I want to start somewhere right here in Wisconsin.

Of course, we can't get away from it.

It seems like we're always in a state of perpetual election, but we have a big election here for governor next year.

And your group wrote a letter to the candidates for that race.

And I wanted you to talk more about that and what the letter had to say to them.

Yeah, well, so first of all, I spoke two different places yesterday here in Green Bay for Labor Day.

And one of my themes was basically that politicians won't save us.

So let's kind of start with that.

I mean, we have to organize ourselves.

But obviously, politics matter a lot.

And so I guess this was over a month ago now.

Governor Evers was kind of on the fence about running for a third term, right?

And we weren't sure whether he was gonna do it or not.

I read a column that Chris Larson, Senator Chris Larson from Milwaukee wrote for the Manapa Brewing Company at the substack there,

which is

very well, which is very highly read in the state.

And, you know, we just kind of started texting after and I spent like way too much time because I was in Woodman's when we were texting, right?

So if you all know Woodman's.

I spent like four hours in Woodman's because that's probably the text Chris, and I finally got done.

I was like, all right, let's talk.

And we decided over a phone call that what we should do is draft an open letter that no matter who ran in this election, there needed to be certain things that they did, whether it was Evers or somebody else.

And so

we brought in a number of other folks who are interested in this project, a lot of other labor union leaders.

Chris got some colleagues in the legislature.

And the letter which folks can find out there and they actually can still sign on to basically said what we want from a candidate, anybody, whether it's Evers or somebody else in this election, is somebody who is going to be committed to certain things, obvious things like empowering labor unions, racial justice, reducing mass incarceration.

Having a clean environment all those things but to me I think what what what I was really proud of stuff in terms of the letter is it said Whoever the the next governor is needs to be somebody who's going to fight with

Progressive groups my interest in this really comes from the labor movement, but obviously other progressive groups are involved as well you know citizen action signed on to this for example and You know that that letter I think has become more even even more important as we now have an open primary right because I'm you know I'm not talking to a lot of candidates and we've already got a You know several great candidates who have declared and there will be a lot more that will be announced very soon and

And that's what we're looking for as a union is to see who's going to show up and fight with us for the things that we need to make this state, frankly, the state that all working people deserve.

So that was the impetus for the letter.

Again, it's still out there.

Folks can still sign on to it.

And we're seeing this as obviously not the final word in terms of what we expect out of candidates in this election, but kind of a starting point for that conversation and really a lodestone.

And you were speaking about.

When you when when we just started here, you were talking about the events you went to yesterday.

What are the things you're hearing from folks out of those events from, you know, from various unions from various walks of life, various parts of Wisconsin?

What is what are the key things you hear?

And what are the things that connect more than anything else as far as, you know, differing lives with shared experiences?

Yeah, so, you know, Green Bay, like a lot of places has a has a, you know, labor event put on by the here at the Green Bay Labor Council.

It's not a parade as it is in a lot of other places, which was the sort of initial impetus for Labor Day actually was workers parades in the late 19th century claiming public space.

But we definitely claim public space, right?

It's a big Labor Day picnic and lots of locally elected officials are there, union folks are there.

And then the second thing I did was later in the day, there was a protest workers over billionaires that was organized.

by a number of different groups, but Indivisible was a part of organizing that, and I spoke there too.

And I think people are fired up to slay per day, right?

I mean, you look at everything that's happened over the summer, and at the federal level, of course, that's Trump and the Trump administration literally sort of gloating about taking away food from people.

and taking away health care from vulnerable folks.

And of course, locking up our immigrant brothers and sisters in the most cruel way possible and occupying American cities.

And I don't know what that announcement is going to be about, but it could very well be an announcement that Trump is mobilizing the National Guard in Chicago.

And of course, we don't love Chicago during football season, but we stand with Chicago

if that

happens.

And so, you know, I think people are feeling a real sense of like, what do we do about this?

And so the things I kind of talked about and really in both obviously slightly different, you know, tones for each event.

But, you know, the thing I really emphasized is that we're not the first people in American history to have to fight for the things that we value.

We have

We have a very long history of workers and other groups organizing through militant action to fight for their rights.

And this moment is no different.

And it helps nourish us when we know that we have those groups who have come before us.

And what I challenged everybody to do was to think about what they can do every day.

To fight authoritarianism and it's gonna look different for every person and you know I really do believe that you know for folks who are in unions We're very central on this fight people have to build their unions But you know that that people were very receptive to that message.

They want they want to be doing something, you know, they want

They want to take action every day to fight for our democracy and to fight against authoritarianism.

If you're just joining us on Matt Marinair, we're speaking to Professor John Shelton.

He is a professor at UW Green Bay as well as an author as well as the president of Wisconsin or the president of.

AFT Wisconsin.

And we're talking about the labor movement.

We're talking about we're talking about labor fests around the state, as well as an open letter that his group wrote to the candidates running for the 2026 governor's race next year in Wisconsin.

And something you brought up that was interesting.

I have a friend of mine up in Green Bay, actually, she's a union organizer named Kristen Leidy.

And she is fantastic.

And she was on our show yesterday for our prerecord for our special Labor Day and episode.

And one of the things that she talked about, and I think this is very true, is that Wisconsin and America have a very rich history with the labor movement.

But over the past decades, it's been allowed to be squashed, rewritten, retold, or just forgotten, not taught at all.

And really in the past few years, we've seen a resurgence in the history of why it's important.

what it's done for us as a community from whether you're talking about state, local, or federal, and why it's important to not only remember, but to pass this information to the next generation of young people who may see unions as, well, why do I need a union?

I feel like there's more of a resurgence in, at least in popularity, but also just that understanding of what the unions have done for us as just, you know, of Americans.

Yeah, well, that's that's absolutely the case, you know, and I bet a lot of your listeners don't realize that we actually have a state law that mandates that students learn about labor history in high school

Didn't know that just found that out

got a got passed I believe in 2009 under governor Doyle and then everybody kind of just kept kind of under the radar when Walker was was governor because we didn't want it to be repealed but

We do have that law.

And actually at UW Green Bay, I have a labor class that is part of the training curriculum for people becoming social studies teachers because we know that is a state law.

So folks who are coming out as educators from our program at UW Green Bay, they do know a little bit of labor history because they're likely taking my class.

But I think

the way you mentioned it, young people asking why we need a union.

Actually, unions have never been more popular among young people.

So I believe they, I haven't seen the most recent numbers, but there's new polling that comes out every year around Labor Day, actually.

And last year, polling came out that showed that for people under the age of 30, labor unions have about a 90% public approval rating.

And actually going on and actually striking has a 87% public approval rating.

So young people get this, but the history is really important because

It's important for us to be able to help young people understand that a union is not something that's this unattainable thing.

There are ways for you to organize and understanding the past is really important.

And as people are building unions now, also understanding places where labor might have gone wrong is also really important because it's not an unalloyed success story.

more elements of racism and sexism in the labor movement that we need to be attentive to.

And so learning about that stuff has never been more important.

But I think the most important thing is learning about the sense of possibility.

And again, I'm an academic, but as I've mostly spent my life doing union leadership, the academic stuff is not really as important as the storytelling.

Like what stories can we

build fine from the past, where we can build that sort of historical solidarity with people and show that we're part of a much bigger movement.

And, you know, those are the things that I think labor history are really, really good for.

I

think that's very important.

What you just said about, you know, basically essentially warts and all, it's like, there's nothing, there's nothing, no, no one's perfect, no organization's perfect, no movement's perfect.

And it's about

reckoning the bad with the overall good and saying like that happened.

We work hard to never to make sure it doesn't happen or we have mechanisms in place to mitigate those problems.

But I think that's a very important part because like for me growing up, I wouldn't say we didn't like my father was a union trucker.

Growing up, but he didn't really like being in the union.

He didn't hate it.

He didn't despise them He didn't he paid his dues, but he was just was like, I don't know why I'm part I don't need it and I think it what now knowing what he never understood is he didn't need it because it wasn't needed for him He just was doing this thing, but they would have been there for him He just never had to use the opportunity for a union rep.

So I think telling that story as you were saying

How important they are and and also how easily it how they're easily attained is very much a part of the conversation as well And we're gonna keep the conversation going with Professor John Shelton who is the president of the Wisconsin AFT or AFT Wisconsin Excuse me, and when we come back I want to talk about something that's very important, especially in Wisconsin, which is about you know as we mentioned earlier finding out

the things we have in common and how we can work together, regardless of whether you're from the city or whether you're from the rural area.

But we're going to keep that conversation going with Professor John Shelton.

If you want to be part of the conversation, 855-752-484-2855-755.

Civic, leave a comment on the live stream.

We'd love to hear from you, but go get some snacks.

Go get hydrated.

You're listening to Matt Nair on there on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Stay tuned and stay close.

Good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently vacating and she will be back before you know it, but I'm here in the big chair and we're happy that you are joining us today.

If you want to call or text, it's 855-752-4842-855-75 civic or leave a comment on the live stream.

You can do that by watching us on Facebook, YouTube or the place we still call Twitter.

I got a text from Julie in Wausau listening on WXCO.

She's talking about what the.

Speaking on the discussion we had earlier on the immigration raids, I'm disgusted by the way that ICE is hunting down immigrants.

These are the people in our community who are milking our cows, packaging our meat, picking our vegetables, working in restaurants, cleaning hotel rooms, taking care of our elderly.

They pay taxes and contribute to social security and Medicare.

Thank you very much, Julie, for chiming on that one.

Yep, yep, exactly.

They're part of the community.

They're part of our community, regardless of what people like to say or believe.

That's a conversation that's going to keep on going.

The conversation that's going right now is with Professor John Shelton.

He is a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

He is also the president of AFT Wisconsin.

He is an author.

He is a man of great, great a claim and he has done a lot.

He's going to take a nap after this interview because he has deserved it, but he's talking to us about, talking to us about labor fest, which I'm a labor day, the union movement in Wisconsin and throughout the country and something

Sir, that when I spoke to my friend, Kristen Lighty, who is an organizer up in Green Bay about is, you know, when we think of the unions, we think of, you know, the union job, you know, representing the workers.

But when you first started talking about the goals that you sought through a candidate for the 2026 election, it's not just about unions, it's about

Social justice it's about equality.

It's about all these other things and that's to me.

I think part of the union Discussion that we don't really cover a lot is how much the unions care about those issues as well as you know the rights of workers It's about equality equity for the people in this country beyond the unions.

It's for everybody

Yeah, I mean, you know, there's this there's this kind of classic Way of looking at labor unions, right, which is like that that unions can either

Support what are so-called bread and butter issues or other issues right and that somehow it's like problematic if you know unions you know look beyond issues that are you know not sort of directly related to the the concerns of immediate immediate like pocketbook concerns of workers.

But the reality is that unions are always stronger when they have a broader community to rely on and to work with and to build the kind of world where everybody is included.

Because one of the things that the right tries to do, and this has obviously been magnified a lot with the authoritarian in the White House and really the party of authoritarianism, is they want to divide us.

The thing that

allows them to be successful.

And you've seen it, right?

They've successfully divided the working people of this country is to divide people around cultural issues, around race, around gender, around gender identity and sexual orientation.

And what the labor movement does when it's at its best is it says, we reject that.

We will not allow you to do that and we will have solidarity with each other.

And, you know, the text that you got or email you got about immigrants, right?

It's not just that they're doing all those things, paying taxes, et cetera.

They're fellow workers, right?

And so whether you're working at a university or you're, you know, running a radio show or you're, you know, the producer of this radio show, like Calvin, sorry, I'll just call him out.

Or, you know, or anybody else or, you know, or you're milking cows on a dairy farm, like.

for all workers, right?

And that's what binds us together.

And when you can fight for things like racial justice and gender equity and to include our trans brothers, sisters, and other siblings in what we do, that actually strengthens the labor movement, right?

It's not a distraction.

It's what we are.

And so how can we possibly have a conversation about building the state that we deserve and that all of our members deserve and that our students deserve and that our clients deserve, right?

How can we do that if we're not committed to those things?

And in the last few minutes that we have, I wanted to take that just a little step further, too, is that the divide also can be geographical.

And I'm not talking about Los Angeles versus small-town America.

I'm talking about.

You know, someone who lives in Milwaukee versus someone who lives in Hayward, Wisconsin, farmers, and how the unions can affect them and help them because it's not just about the workers and the factories.

As you said, we're all workers.

And making them understand that we're here for you as well and that this attempt to divide, it shouldn't work because we're all in this together.

Yeah, no, absolutely and but again like look at look at how Trump has done this, right?

I mean like I believe it was the It was the vice president, right?

Who who basically said maybe we'll go into Milwaukee, right?

Yeah, and and that's and that's by design, right?

They're going after democratic cities and in places I was just talking to somebody about why Chicago and and I actually just realized the answer right Chicago, Milwaukee.

These are big

blue, urban enclaves in the middle of cities or in states where you have, you know, urban rural divides, right?

And so what Trump is trying to do is to purposely, whether he's doing it intentionally or not, is to drive that wedge between people.

And the reality is, you know, when we let authoritarians and billionaires try to dictate our lives, and by the way, they won't stop until they have everything, right?

They don't just let most of it, they want all of it.

You know, that affects that farmer, you know, when you have agricultural companies, you know, having CAFOs and tainting the water and making it difficult for small dairy farmers to operate.

And I think that is a mistake we've made a little bit in the labor movement is not being attentive enough to that.

And I think we need to be, we need to be thinking about how this, you know, building a big tent where we can all talk about each other's issues, but they're really unified around the idea that you have billionaires trying to basically take our livelihoods and

As far as I can remember, we fought a revolution over the idea that people with a concentration of power could dictate our lives.

Well, the revolution keeps on fighting.

And I really thank you for your time, sir.

I really appreciate you being here.

I could talk to you about this for hours.

But for now, I will let you go.

Please come back any time and bring the good news and bring the good work.

Professor John Shelton has been our guest.

He is the AFT Wisconsin president, also a professor at University of Wisconsin Green Bay.

Sir, thank you so much.

Happy belated Labor Day.

We'll talk to you hopefully sooner than later.

Thank you for your time.

Absolutely.

Happy Labor Day, brother.

And happy Labor Day to everybody else out there.

All right.

When we come back from the news, Terri Barr is here to talk about her slice of Wisconsin.

So don't go far.

Stay close.

Stay hydrated.

You are amazing.

Let know and tell you differently.

You are listening to Matt and Aaron here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good,

good morning.

Welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box, sitting in for Jane Matt and air who is currently somewhere, but not here, but she misses you and she wants you to drink water.

If you want to get in touch with us, our number, uh, call her text.

It's the same 855-752-484-2855-75 civic.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

If you so choose, we are on Facebook.

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We still call Twitter, but at the end of the show, we will be doing this shouldn't be a thing today.

It is the one fries with that edition at 10 52.

So don't go anywhere.

That's how we rounded out the show.

Lots of great stuff happening throughout the day.

Just a reminder at one PM central.

So one PM our time, President Trump will be making an announcement from the Oval Office.

We do not know what it's about.

Information has not been released, but as we know more,

We will share more, but stay here because I am sure we will have coverage and I'm sure we'll be talking about it, but you can always count in civic media for the up to news updates.

1pm.

President Trump making an announcement from the Oval Office.

Todd Alba on from two to four is who we talked about earlier, the Maggie Dawn from four to six.

She needs to be talking to Angela Lang, who was here last week as our co-host.

And they're going to be talking about labor fest.

They're going to be talking about the Senate elect.

for Iowa's Senate District Number One, who flipped the district last week.

So that's going to be a great show.

And then of course, Pete Schwabbo with Night Light from six to eight.

He is going to be talking to Ty Williams, who is Wisconsin.

I'm sorry, Milwaukee film programmer.

And that's going to be a great show.

But even after Pete's done, there is amazing, amazing programming with the civic media.

You can listen to Rational Revolution.

You can listen to Native Roots Radio.

Get the civic media.

app in your life and you can do that.

Listen to us, keep us close, keep it tuned in because we got great programming, great content, great things to talk about.

And one of the great things I get to do in this job is talk to my next guest.

As Jane puts it, the genie who does pretty much everything at Civic Media, Terry Barr is here.

Terry, how are you?

I am good.

It's hard to live up to that introduction though, Greg.

You brought, I mean, it's you who do all of the things.

So I feel like if anything, it's not enough.

You are so kind.

God Emperor Terry.

I hope you had a good one.

Yeah, I did.

It was, yesterday was a relaxing one.

As I mentioned earlier, we had a big weekend with family, my mother-in-law's 80th birthday.

We celebrated this past weekend because everyone was in town.

Lots going on, lots of visiting, lots of eating.

And so by 3.30 yesterday, I was just laying on the couch saying, is it too early to go to bed?

Cause I'm tired enough.

So

it wore me.

How was your labor day weekend, Terry?

What were you up to?

It was pretty quiet.

You know, sometimes it's nice to not have things planned, isn't it?

That's a definitely an adult thing.

Like when you just look around going, we don't have anything to do right now.

Yeah.

Do

you guys want

to

watch replays of Simon and Simon?

Absolutely, we do.

All right.

Cause that's what we do on the weekends.

But yeah,

exactly.

I, as

an adult, I completely appreciate the, the nothing going on days where you can say like, we can do as little or as much as possible, but that's just great.

So that's wonderful.

I'm glad you had a great, great weekend of relaxing.

You have brought with us another installment of your fantastic program, your, your.

your trade marketed thing.

I don't know how to, you know, you do, it's called slice of Wisconsin where you highlight a

part of Wisconsin

business people, that kind of thing.

And you brought us something.

And I did not listen to the audio cause I wanted it to be as fresh in my mind for everybody else.

So is there any setup or do you want to go right to the audio, Terry?

No, no, let me tell you a little bit about this one.

I'm talking about a museum.

in Wisconsin, and it's the Roar West Art Museum.

It's located in Manitowoc, and it's celebrating 75 years this year.

But that isn't all.

You know, that's a big milestone for a museum, which is great.

It's owned by the city, so the city takes this very seriously, and it's going to be open this weekend for a big festival.

It's called Sputnik.

Fest.

I don't know if you've ever heard of big Greg.

I mean, I've heard of

Sputnik, but I didn't never heard of Sputnik Fest.

Well, here's the fascinating thing that makes this a slice of Wisconsin.

When anything happens, we always say, oh, it's probably has a tie to Wisconsin.

Yes.

Well, way back in the 60s, Sputnik number four blew up.

And a big chunk of it landed in the street right in front of the museum in Manitowoc.

I can't make this up.

This is very real.

But now they've decided to put a great festival around it.

And Greg Vadney is with the museum.

He talked to me about what this means, not just to the museum, but the community.

And it'll probably surprise you a little bit too.

Let's listen to what he says.

Go ahead, play that, Calvin.

And for us as an art museum and historic mansion, it's a great equalizer because not everyone, and I would venture to guess most people don't think that an art museum housed in a Victorian mansion is a place where they belong.

It's snooty.

It's like you have to have a beret when you walk in, right?

Sputnik and Sputnikfest says no, we're placed for everybody and we don't take ourselves too seriously and come on in.

And it's a great way of swinging open those doors and telling everyone that they belong here.

So for the museum it's valuable, for our history it's valuable, and really for our community history that we have this thing that we can cling to that happened here and happened nowhere else on earth.

I love the idea that people would think they're like to go to Sputnik Fest.

They're like, I didn't bring a beret.

Do you have one for me to wear?

Right, right.

Well, now he said people will be dressing up as all kinds of outer space creatures.

So I think the beret is off the table for Sputnik Fest.

I

wanted

to see a

Sputnik lookalike contest.

Oh, wouldn't that be fun?

They do.

I think they have on the schedule a dog dress-up contest.

So those are always fine.

But to think this chunk of Sputnik fell, crash-landed on the street in front of the museum of all places.

And now how they want to turn this into a regular festival.

I think it's just so much fun.

What a great way to learn about a piece.

of history.

They've got the piece in the museum.

And they say, you know, this whole museum idea, people from around the world have heard that they have this piece in it in the museum from Sputnik.

And when I was talking with Badney, he said, it seems like more people in other parts of the world know about this than we do in Wisconsin.

So that just makes it really interesting.

And if you want to check it out and be part of all the fun, Sputnik Fest is happening this Saturday.

But again, I think it's a great little slice of Wisconsin.

I completely agree.

If you're just joining us on Matt and Aaron, we're talking to Terry Barr, the genie who does pretty much everything here at Civic Media.

And you can always go to civicmedia.us slash news.

for all the stuff that Terry is working on, but I agree.

I think that there's a lot, I mean, I think that's, I think part of the reason, Terry, that this, that this, what you do with Slice Wisconsin is so great is because it's true.

There's so much that people know about us that we don't know about ourselves.

Those Wisconsin tie-ins, those little pieces of history that, you know, the, wait a minute, Liberace's from Wisconsin, you know, like those kinds of things.

And honestly, I just love it when people use really fun reasons for a festival or a

thing.

I mean, nothing against the piece of Sputnik.

I love that.

But it's also just thinking like, hey, how can we turn this into a community-based party where we bring people in, have a good time?

Let's be let's be honest Terry now as good a time as any to celebrate and have fun There's a lot going on in the world and to be able to kick back for a Saturday and say hey, let's go look at a piece of Space that fell into into our into our backyard.

I think that's great.

I think that's great

I do too and and if you've never been to Manitowoc, it's a love

city and a chance to check out this as he put it, a museum that is in a mansion and is owned by the city.

I mean, just go and have some fun for a Saturday afternoon.

Why

not?

Absolutely.

And in fact, I can say this too.

I was speaking earlier about what's coming up later on in the evening on civic media.

during nightlight with Pete Schwabba tonight, six to eight, you can listen to it.

He will be speaking to Greg Vadney in the WGBW studio.

So if you want to learn more about it, tune in.

You can do that by getting the Civic Media app.

You can listen to it, get it on your device.

You can listen to that show then and, and, and, and enjoy that.

I mean, cause I, God, I would, I would love to do, I would love to, I want to see.

Terry, let's be honest.

If

you know me, you know me.

I just want to see the dog costume contest.

I know.

I just see little Sputniks on four paws just with little things sticking out.

Who's the cutest Sputnik?

I mean, absolutely.

Yes, I will ask for photos if I don't get to go by, and I will make sure you get to see them.

Excellent,

excellent.

Is there anything else going on?

Slices of Wisconsin, Wisconsin that you got your eye on.

I know you also join, you join Peach Show every Friday for Bar, what's the, it's Bar Room Friday?

It's Bar Band Friday.

Bar

Band