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Good morning.
Welcome back to Mornings with Pat Tritlow.
I'm not Pat Tritlow.
Pat's on vacation this week.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
I'm co-hosting this show this week with Angela Lange, who is the executive director of Block, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities.
And I'm the old executive director at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
You may have known me from my days way back at the Progressive Magazine.
In any event, whether you know me or not, I'm happy you're joining our conversation or listening in, and you can participate by calling 855-752.
four eight four two that's eight five five seven five civic all across the civic media radio network right here in wisconsin fortunately the fog seems to have lifted in madison and i hope it's lifted where you are too so you have safe driving uh right now we have a friend of mine uh who used to be on the board of the wisconsin democracy campaign abby sweats who's now the executive director of fair wisconsin abby thanks for joining the program
Excited to be here.
Thank you for the invitation.
Well, tell us about Fair Wisconsin and what it's been like to jump in as executive director in these harrowing times.
Yeah, it's been a journey.
So Fair Wisconsin is our state's only statewide LGBTQ plus political advocacy and civil rights organization.
Our mission is to build a Wisconsin that is safe and inclusive and welcoming for our entire community.
where we can all live authentically and thrive.
I am the Executive Director of Fair Wisconsin.
I have been here since July 1 of 2024, so I'm still new.
You got to give me a full year so that I experience all the variations of what we do, because we do a lot.
We do so much from
electoral work, get out the vote work, endorsement work, persuasion work, all the way to once people get elected, making sure they are doing the right thing or stopping them from doing the wrong thing for our community, as well as, and this is really the crux of our work, is public education, making sure that the general public really understands the wants, the needs, the identities that make up the LGBTQ plus community, as opposed to letting other people define us.
How have you responded to the very hostile anti-trans atmosphere that we're living in now that's coming down from on high from Trump and from Musk and from the far-right Republicans?
It's a really important question, right?
Because it is it is the atmosphere we are all living in, but it is impacting all of us differently and specifically all the different parts of our LGBTQ plus community a little differently.
But it's all the more important that we make sure we understand that banding together as both the community within ours and across communities is is how we survive this, right?
So what do we a little over 100 days into this administration and
Seems
like forever already, huh?
Right, right.
100%.
I just think it's really important for everyone to understand just because the trans community within our community and the entire LGBTQ plus community, of course, it's so salient for us, but I'm hoping the general public is seeing it too that the onslaught against LGBTQ plus rights and specifically trans rights is very real.
And there is
There is so much this federal administration cannot do But let's be real they are 100% trying to govern by administrative overreach, right?
So I do not See them being able to change as much as they think they can But the the bully pulpit they have that also frankly influences other levels of government because we've seen
anti-transbills come back in the Wisconsin legislature with even more force than before.
They will not become law, but it's been a really gross time to deal with them.
That is also very real, that power.
And so I think we have to remember that this administration, this federal administration, is using that platform in a calculated, hateful, frankly chaotic way, is sort of how I keep thinking about it too.
And
And so much of it is through executive orders, which again, are not law, but really create an atmosphere of pre-compliance.
And that's why I think it's so important that the general public understand what's going on, specifically in attacks to the trans community, because pre-compliance puts this community at such risk.
And it is unneeded risk because it is pre, right?
And it is all the more important that our
everyone in all our communities really understand that.
I also, if it's okay, I just want to make sure everyone sees the intersections here, right?
And again, your programming on this radio station is very good about this, but the attacks on the trans community within the LGBTQ community are all in connection with the attacks on our immigrant communities, with the attacks on our Black and Brown communities, with
with the attacks on our federal workers, partly because our LGBTQ plus community is within all of those communities.
So and because part of government overreach is that attempt at division.
and that targeting.
And so it's just all the more important that we really educate the public and make sure that we all understand that we are within those communities and we also need to be in solidarity across those communities.
So keeping with the educational component, you talked about how like the fear in the community is very real.
And I've said this probably on coalition calls that we've been a part of is that even on a statewide level,
The governor has been really good about speaking out and vetoing any terrible policies that come out of the legislature.
But one of the things that they are able to do is that while
they will get voted down or they'll be, you know, seen on a federal level as unconstitutional, the harm that it does in the interim and the messaging it sends, right?
And so just because something gets vetoed by the governor, you're still putting out these really terrible messages and these signals to, you know, trans kids and, you know, other folks in the community.
So can you talk a little bit about how like
there may be some allies that are like, the bill was stopped or we were able to defeat that.
How can allies show up, especially in this time of fear?
But also, when inner personally, we've seen attacks be very difficult and sometimes that Thanksgiving holiday or whatever holidays are very awkward.
Do you have any suggestions, recognize the emotional labor of it?
How can allies take on some of that emotional labor to
have these interpersonal conversations because while some of these policies may be defeated, the effect of it is still harmful and it is still there.
How can folks support that?
I love this question.
It's also like 17 questions in one.
So let me let me let me attempt to I think I need to talk a little bit about the fear so people understand why it is so real.
A little bit about that impact of yes, yes, of course, we're going to get a veto.
Thank goodness.
but that harm still happens and then who I would love to give some advice so first the fear I just want to say the fear is understandable right there is a lot that is uncertain at the least right like that's the low level of the fear when it comes specifically to the national landscape but then I mean I am
I am scared too, right?
And I'm not trans.
I'm part of the LGBTQ plus community.
I think it's so important that trans voices are 100% centered and lifted in this moment.
But as you pointed out, in terms of allies, we also need to make sure that all of the emotional labor and frankly, all of the targeting and threat to safety is not placed on our trans community.
So it is really time.
for the rest of us to make sure that we are stepping up.
I am so tired of the most marginalized people in our communities, and this is all different kinds of communities, perpetually being put in the position of having to defend their own existence.
It is the time for the rest of us to do that, right?
So there's that.
But in terms of fear, again, I think one of the things to keep in mind, maybe as a solace or as a source of strength, is that the LGBTQ plus community has faced hostility.
often from the government, often from the federal government, and we are still here.
And it is a moment to organize and mobilize and educate and make sure that we cultivate these allies who can help us with all those things.
And it is a moment to take care of ourselves as a community and as individuals.
And that is going to look different for everyone.
Because we all come to this moment from different levels of comfort with uncertainty and frankly different levels of privilege and safety and so whatever anyone in our community needs to do and this goes to other marginalized communities through You have to make sure you're doing what is needed to take care of yourselves.
So if what is Possible for you is to get in the fight.
I'm professionally in the fight Wonderful.
Join us with fair, Wisconsin.
If that's not and you
being an authentic LGBTQ plus person is not that and is really caring for yourself and your community first right now.
Good, do it.
We need to, right?
So there's that.
In terms of impact of things like ugly legislation being brought up in Wisconsin, even though we know it will be vetoed, I think the first thing to know is there is literally research.
from academics and from the Trevor Project, which is an LGBTQ plus suicide hotline, very important for people to know about youth hotline.
There is research that shows in states with anti-trans legislation that has been passed and that has been proposed, we know mental health suffers of our trans and non-binary and LGBTQ youth.
So that is important to understand.
It is also incredibly important to understand that the mental health challenges of our community, which I think are pretty well known now, are not a predetermined outcome.
They're a societally sanctioned outcome, and that means that we as a society can also stop that.
So that is actually, to me, an empowering moment, almost a hopeful thing if we could really understand.
the need of our community, then we can do something to meet that need, right?
Okay, the last part of your question was advice, right?
So I'll do my best.
I think there's part of it that is advice on how to be a better ally to support our LGBTQ plus community and also how to have difficult conversations with other people who at the least don't understand and the more extreme completely disagree with our identity.
And those are
related but slightly different things.
And I probably have like 30 seconds now, so I'll try.
Maybe I'll hit one.
Part of it for LGBTQ plus allies is understanding that this is an across communities moment.
So I think I kind of already mentioned that.
And also that it's a within communities moment.
LGBTQ plus that you can tell by the acronym is a lot of identities in one.
And our trans siblings are the most impacted right now and are the most in need of solidarity.
And I understand that transgender identity is something that not everybody truly understands partly because people say that they have never met a trans person, the majority of Americans say this.
I think it's very important to understand you probably have, you just don't know.
And that's something you need to realize.
But also, I don't think you need to understand every detail in nuance about someone else's identity to understand that they know who they are, and we need to respect that.
and they know what they need, and we need to try and meet those needs.
And that includes being willing to listen and to show up as neighbors when people say they need us.
And I think that's the floor, right, is trying to achieve that understanding.
And it also connects to what you can do to have conversations with people who disagree or don't understand, right?
Because it's that understanding piece, it's that appeal to the,
the part of someone else's identity that might rhyme with yours, it's not going to be the same, right?
But there might be a base understanding of the knowledge that you have felt a place where you didn't belong in your past, right?
Well, a lot of trans community members feel they don't belong in this country right now.
Yeah, I want to pick that
up.
I want to pick that up on on the backside of this break.
Abby sweats, executive director of fair Wisconsin.
You're listening to mornings with Pat Cridlow on the civic media radio network.
We'll be right back.
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Welcome back to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
I'm Matt Rothschild, sub-hosting for Pat.
This week along with Angela Lange and we're fortunate to have as a guest for the rest of this half-hour Abby Swetz who's the executive director of Fair Wisconsin and right before the break Abby you said that some trans folks don't feel like they belong in this country and actually Angela and I were discussing this in a previous hour today a trans scholar of fascism and authoritarianism wrote something that Ruth Bengea
posted on our Lucid substack that the historian, the trans historian was saying, I'm out of here.
I'm leaving this country.
It's not safe for me.
And she advised any other trans person with the means to do so to leave the country.
How do you react to that?
I started this out this time here saying the fear is understandable, right?
So I want to see that first second.
obviously such an individualist and I do not feel like in a position to give anyone advice.
I do think that this is such a strong indication of why it is up to the rest of us to make this country as safe as humanly possible.
And I understand, obviously, I'm not president.
I don't get to change what that president likes to say from his bully pulpit.
and attempt to do from executive orders and Congress is not exactly very helpful to our community either, but what I will say is to me my initial reaction is, okay, what can the rest of us do?
The rest of the LGBTQ plus community, the rest of the general public.
And it connects back to Angela's question, right?
So like, how do you have a discussion with someone who disagrees?
Who's someone who doesn't understand?
And I think it's so hard because you have to meet people where they're at and it is frankly not in a place you want to meet them, right?
But you have to attempt to meet them at that place and then obviously like hold true to our values.
So I know I mentioned this a little bit before the break, but like trying to appeal to other people's understanding at a base level.
I'm not saying everybody's going to understand the experience of someone who is trans and especially important that our trans voices are so centered and strong in this movement and that we don't rely on them to perpetually defend themselves, right?
So again, the rest of us need to step up.
How can you have a conversation with someone about, I don't see, many people don't feel like they belong.
I bet you have felt, for example, a time where you didn't feel like you belonged.
We've all been in middle school, right?
That doesn't mean that you know what it is like to be trans.
It
does mean that you have
like a one-percent feeling where you can go back and say, oh, okay, right.
And it, it, it rhymes with someone's far grander experience.
And I'm not equating, right?
But I am thinking of, if someone very vehemently disagrees with me about the importance of trans belonging and trans rights in this country, how can I meet that person whether at
that's one way.
So I think that's really important because there is so much fear and it is up to the rest of us to attempt to support in such a difficult time and using what levers we have and I don't have the lever of stopping executive orders.
I do have the lever of public education and that is why Fair Wisconsin weans in so hard to that part of our mission of making sure that people understand us as humans and
and not as issues, because other people trying to find us is that, and that is not who we are.
I wanted to follow up on something you said earlier about pre-compliance, because it echoes what Timothy Snyder said, which you, you know, you shouldn't acquiesce in advance.
What kind of pre-compliance, there you go, on tour.
too.
Yeah, a lot of us are.
We're all
it, huh?
Underlining that book again.
What is the pre-compliance that you've seen that is so alarming?
Yes, okay.
So an example would be there was an executive order specifically targeting trans participation in sports.
That is a topic that is often used as like a first step, right?
A first step of trying to whittle away at trans rights and create
identity is a little bit of a weapon because it is something that so many people don't understand and because it is something that polling shows people are not where I wish they were.
And again, it's where it comes back to that belonging argument when you're trying to have a conversation.
Because belonging on a team is pretty darn important for youth.
And we know that helps with mental health.
OK, so pre-compliance.
Part of the executive order was saying we need to define
teams by biological sex and not gender identity and so on.
And many, many sports associations in states, including WIAA, said, OK, we are changing our policy, which was originally a policy that was pretty difficult to navigate, but did allow for trans students to participate on the team of gender identity to change that in compliance with the Trump executive order.
That was before it became anything more important than an executive order.
Executive orders can't make law, right?
And then we saw immediately the legislature take up a bill that would do the same thing, right?
And that was one of the many hearings we were at in March.
So I understand that, you know, the legislature taking up a bill is not the same as pre-compliance, but it is, again, like a message that people are paying attention to and then taking upon themselves to
to try and put into law.
And I think that's really problematic.
Abby, how can people support fair Wisconsin?
Great question.
So fairwisconsin.com is our website.
We strongly encourage for you to do two things.
Number one is sign up for our action alerts.
If you subscribe to our emails, you will find out when there is stuff happening.
Like the need to show up at the legislature and support our trans kids, which we did a lot of.
The other thing is, of course, donating.
I would be a horrible executive director if I didn't say, please donate.
We are always in need.
And this kind of work is so important right now.
and more so than usual, and it is also work that is not in any way funded nationally as it should be.
So any kind of grassroots support would be lovely.
Well, thanks, Abby Swett.
Thank you for your work.
Yeah, tremendous work.
Thank you.
Abby Swett is the amazing executive director at Fair Wisconsin.
That's fairwisconsin.com.
And please help them out.
They're right on the front lines right now.
And we'll be back with more mornings with Pat Cridelow, Matt Rothschild, and Angela Lange, actually, right after the break.
Welcome back to the Pat Crichtlow show.
Mornings with Pat Crichtlow on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
I'm not Pat Crichtlow.
Pat's out this week.
So I've been sitting in for him and so has Angela Lange, my co-host.
We have a lot of fun doing the show together.
Trying to cover a lot of ground.
There's certainly a lot of ground to cover.
You can join the show by calling or texting 855-752-4842.
That's 855-75 Civic.
Would love to hear from you.
And I'm delighted now to have on the show, Civic Media's own weather forecaster, the prize-winning Brittany Merlot.
Hi, Brittany.
Hey.
Good morning.
How are you doing?
Good morning.
Doing fine.
Why don't you brag a little bit?
You won this prize at the Milwaukee Press Club, right?
What was it for?
Oh, so I won it at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Awards, and I've got a couple of them actually.
Nice.
Three first place and five in total.
Wow.
haul.
I know.
I needed help carrying them all.
It was crazy.
I've never won an award before, so these are all my first.
Oh my gosh.
Yes, and I'm so, so, so excited and thankful and grateful.
But yeah, so I took first in Best Spot News coverage.
It was on a...
Cranberry economy and the freeze and kind
of
things that these growers go through and what
it's like in the
marshes And how the weather affects them really And so that was one of them and then I got best feature for EAA that still was air Oshkosh, you know air venture
I talked to a bunch of pilots and how it is flying into a little airport, which becomes the busiest one in the world that week.
And just how severe weather affects them too, because those planes can flip in strong winds.
We've had warnings heading towards that area during that week.
So they've got a lot to deal with.
So that was another story that I touched upon.
And then the other one was best newscast.
And what was that one
for?
Yes, yes, and it had you know kind of about rib mountain and granite peak how we've got this big ski hill in central, Wisconsin and our skiable days are dwindling and The lease is up So what are they going to do and they're kind of restructuring the planning of that mountain and making it a little bit more summer friendly We'll put it that way because maybe the snow won't be here much longer Yeah,
I think a lot of those slopes like even one in Mount Horibus having trouble because the number of days that it's open are so diminished
Yes.
I mean, it's
really
all lake effect snow now.
Our systems are just so much more minimal and they're not bringing as much snow with them these times.
So yeah, the minimal snowfall is just really hurting a lot of places.
Well, congratulations as Angela was saying.
That's tremendous.
Thank
you so much.
Nice to get the recognition you deserve.
It is.
It is.
It's
good stuff.
So tell us about the weather right now.
I know Angela and I are a little concerned about the possibility of
Severe storms coming
up.
Yes.
So what we've got going on today, I mean, it's going to be warm still.
We've got dense fog out towards the eastern areas.
A few showers or storms could pop up today, but nothing strong or severe.
And we need the rain.
So we want this rain tomorrow that's headed our way, but we really don't want it in the form of these strong to severe storms.
And that's what we're getting.
We're going to get a huge push tomorrow.
of muggy conditions.
Our dew points are going to go to the mid 60s.
It's going to feel humid, summery.
Temperatures will be in the 80s statewide and some places, especially south and central areas, are going to hit 90 degrees tomorrow.
That could be record breaking.
I mean, the highest temperature Madison ever saw on the day tomorrow was like 86 degrees in 2012.
So if they're going to hit 90, shattering records.
So it's just gonna be this kind of environment that you're gonna feel is ready for strong to severe storms.
And that's exactly what's gonna happen.
This front kind of pushes through and it sparks up storms pretty much from about three to four o'clock in the afternoon.
I think those will be in the Western areas first, maybe towards the St.
Croix Valley, Eau Claire, kind of extending down towards the Dells.
Now we're not sure how far this line and this convection is going to extend.
We are an enhanced risk from the storm prediction center.
So they're really bullseyeing the entire state of Wisconsin.
They just extended into portions of Northern Illinois as well.
But so that's what I mean.
They don't know how long this line is going to build in.
But what it is definitely going to do is hit Wisconsin and Northwest Wisconsin definitely later afternoon.
So three to four o'clock, that'll move through five o'clock into central areas, probably six to seven p.m.
pushing in towards Green Bay, Milwaukee area.
And we do have the risk for them to be severe, which the biggest risk is going to be the very large hail.
We can see hail up to the size of ping pong balls, maybe pushing tennis ball size hail as well.
Oh, that would be
nasty.
Yeah, hails.
Oh, I mean, stay away from windows, even your house windows.
Those can break and shatter your windshield as well.
We had that down south and southern Wisconsin, you know, a couple of months ago with some severe storms.
So it does happen here.
And when it happens, it moves in fast.
So.
Stay away from doors, I'm sorry, stay away from windows and then of course we do have that chance for high winds and tornadoes, especially early.
And if the cells and the storm cells kind of by itself, it could definitely be much stronger and pack that tornado that could be longer lived.
But yeah, the ingredients are there.
Can't rule them out, unfortunately.
And of course, today, just prepare where you're gonna take shelter if you are in a tornado warning, what you would do.
Make sure you have the stuff you need over there, like a flashlight, stuff like that.
But don't panic, just be aware.
Again, this is tomorrow from about four to eight o'clock.
It'll be rolling across the state from the west to the east.
And totally statewide, so everyone who's listening to this.
Make some plans, have some alternatives.
If you've got places to go, I'm going to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign annual meeting at about five o'clock on the east side of Madison.
I hope it's all right there.
And I hope for them that the event goes okay and isn't marred by bad weather.
Shout out to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign where I worked for eight and a half years before going into retirement.
Though I got hold back out of retirement by Civic Media, so here I am.
So whatcha gonna do?
But yeah, I want people to be careful tomorrow.
The humidity, I can't stand, Brittany.
I gotta say, I've loved this gradual spring.
It's been nice and cool and gradual.
But now, yesterday afternoon, started to feel the humidity come in.
Now it feels like summer already.
you know, some of our trillium are already retreating, our bluebells are going away because it's so hot so fast.
And the bird migration.
I might return down the air conditioning too.
Yeah, that's one thing you got the furnace on and then the air conditioning comes on.
You know, that's crazy.
I know utilities love it, but consumers don't love it.
Yeah,
and you said the birds are migrating, too.
Do you use that birdcast?
No, talk about that.
I saw a report on Facebook about birdcast and the number of birds that were flying at night.
But why don't you tell people about
that?
Yeah, so just Google up birdcast.
It's like this tracker, basically, of all the birds in flight.
And there's 26.6 million birds in flight right now.
I just looked.
it blows my mind how many there are and you can kind of see where they're coming from like the Texas area to the south and they're coming right up through the Midwest and into western parts of Wisconsin this morning so it's nifty if you like to do that kind of stuff.
And does that get confusing?
Do you get confused whether that's birds or other weather rain or do birds look like rain on that radar?
I have no idea.
This radar on the bird cast is specifically just for the birds but the birds have shown up on my weather radar before and they have been confusing.
The sunrise also does some weird goofy stuff to our radar sometimes and so do insects.
I mean the amazing thing about the bird migration is you have millions of birds that are coming from
The southern part of the United States, they'd come from Central America and South America, and they've got to get to their nesting grounds in northern Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, southern Canada.
And I always wondered, so they got to come through here.
They got to come, you know, everyone in Wisconsin right now can see a Baltimore Oriole or a Rosebreasted Grosebeaker and Indigo Bunting probably, because they're all coming through and the warblers are coming through too.
And I was once in Costa Rica, which is a great place to go bird watching.
in the winter time where some of our pretty birds go in the winter.
And I asked the bird guide, you know, if I'm a Baltimore Oriole in Costa Rica in the winter, why in the world would I risk flying all the way to Wisconsin for the summer?
And he's responded, actually, the reason is you've got more food in Wisconsin and Minnesota and Southern Canada than we have down here in Costa Rica in the summertime.
So the birds that are able to make that migration...
are able to reproduce more than the birds, the lazy birds that stay in Costa Rica, which is what I would do if I was a bird.
But so, you know, it's Darwinian, so the success of reproduction because of the food supply up where we are, I mean, we can complain about mosquitoes from...
you know, till the cows come home, but the mosquitoes are great for the birds, and the other insects are great for the birds, but that was a riddle that I couldn't figure out until I asked this guy, but I'm grateful.
You know, I live for the Baltimore Orioles and the Warblers and the Grossbeaks.
I put out oranges and grape jelly in the orange, and so I've got Baltimore Orioles on my porch every day here in May, and it is an echo.
My parents used to do the same thing, so it's...
I'm remembering my parents because they put out oranges on their deck outside their bedroom.
When I was a little kid, I've been a crazy bird watcher since I was three.
And so I would go into their room in the middle of the day and look out and see the Baltimore Orioles there.
So it's quite a personal connection I have, but a lot of folks who've just gotten into birding in the last.
Five or ten years love the Baltimore Orioles too and just putting out oranges or love the hummingbirds I know the hummingbirds especially up north in Wisconsin.
There are a lot of them, but even in Dane County and Milwaukee County You can put out a hummingbird feeder and get a hummingbirds the females came first the males have now arrived at least here in Dane County And so yeah, it's just a great time to be a bird watcher and I'm glad you're able to see him on those those
Radars on Facebook, some of my fellow birdwatchers will say, hey, tonight's a great night.
And what I usually do is I look at the weather forecast for the wind.
If the wind is coming from the south, it's going to be a good morning.
If the wind is coming from the south at night, it's going to be a good morning here in Wisconsin because they're coming up from southern Illinois or Kentucky or.
Texas or wherever they've been.
Okay, so I was
wondering that.
So they follow that wind pattern.
That's
what they're doing.
Okay.
I was like, wait a minute.
I'm going to
figure this out.
Yeah.
A clear night with a southern wind is great.
And cause they like, they follow the stars too somewhat.
But yeah, the, they need the, they need the tailwind.
These are tiny little birds and Neil, I need the tailwind.
Ooh, they get that
little push.
Oh,
that's cute.
I'm just a man off.
Love it.
I mean one of the
extra wins.
Yeah, one of the tragedies in this migration though is the birds hitting windows and I've got a poem coming up after the break about that from of all people Margaret Atwood, but my brother in Evanston goes to Northwestern University the buildings right on the lake and with other
volunteer scientists they they pick up it's kind of morbid they pick up the birds that have crashed into the windows and sometimes there are hundreds of them really beautiful birds who have died because the windows are lit up and they crash into the middle of the night or they don't somehow see the the buildings there and there are things that building owners can do to prevent these kind of crashes and homeowners too I mean we put up
decals on the windows so that the bird we don't have a lot of bird crashes because it's a terrible thing when a bird crashes into the window and you see a beautiful bird that's just dead there and so you can prevent help prevent that but yeah part of the migration with these tall buildings right along the lake because a lot of birds migrate up the lakeshore crash into these buildings but you know for our Wisconsin citizens who live along Lake Michigan all the way up that's a great
You know, they really congregate there.
For instance, in Milwaukee at Lake Park, an incredible place to see migrating birds.
Grafton all the way up, it's great.
Green Bay is a great spot.
And then on Lake Superior, one year I went to the Chiquamagon Ashland Migratory Festival, which is coming up soon.
I think it's coming up next week.
And they put on a tremendous...
tour for people.
You've got to sign up for bird tours and some of the best bird watchers up there like Ryan Brady of the DNR.
We give you a bird tour and you can help identify all the little birds that are coming through.
So that's that's what we've got going in this great time for migration.
Brittany, again, thank you for being our guests today on Mornings with Pat Crite Low and congratulations again on that haul of tremendous
awards you got.
You know I enjoy your forecast.
I enjoy the writing of your forecast.
It's so vivid.
It really is an example of how people should do that kind of work.
The verbs, the verbs really lighten up the language and you have real active verbs in your broadcast.
That's an old editor talking.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
I am an old editor and I'm here with Angela Lang.
We are the co-hosts this week of Mornings with Pat Freitlow and we'll be right back with that poem I talked about.
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, welcome back to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
I've been co-hosting the Pat Crichtlow show
Today with Angela Lang.
We did it yesterday.
We're gonna do it again tomorrow.
We did it on Monday.
It's becoming quite a week and I've been enjoying it.
I hope you have too.
Thanks Angela.
Right before the break I mentioned these birds that would crash into windows especially at Northwestern.
They're on the on Lake Superior and the Chicago suburbs but birds do crash into our windows at our house.
And I came upon this poem by Margaret Atwood, of course, famous for Handmaid's Tale, but she's been an incredible novelist and writer for decades.
I have a big fat book of hers at home called Paper Boat.
New and Selected Poems.
She's a poet also.
A lot of people don't know that.
1961 to 2023.
That's 62 years by my math.
She's been writing poetry.
And I just picked up, I have the book by my bed and I pick it up and look at it every day or two.
And I opened to this poem yesterday and it's called Feather.
One by handfuls, the feathers fell.
Wind shear, sun bleach, owl war, some killer with a shotgun.
Who can tell?
But I found them here on the quasi lawn.
I don't know whose torn skin.
calligraphy of wrecked wings, remains of a god that melted too near the moon.
A high flyer once, as we all were, every life is a failure at the last hour, the hour of dried blood, but nothing we like to think is wasted.
So I picked up one plume from the slaughter, sharpened and split the quill, hunted for ink, and drew this poem with you, dead bird, with your spent flight, with your fading panic.
with your eye spiraling down with your knife.
Wow, that is a poem called Feather by Margaret Atwood.
And I just love it.
And I just discovered it yesterday.
And I love discovering new good poems from poets whose work I like.
And I commend to you, if you like a poet, order a whole book of that poet's writings, because then you can find other treasures in there.
I started out doing that with
who was my first love in poetry when I was in college.
And I still have a book of selected poems by him hanging around the house that I look at.
So anyway, that was that beautiful poem about the bird migration, the fatal bird migration from Margaret Atwood.
I also like to bring a bird sound to you.
And so here is the sound which will be echoing through the Northwoods, the sound of the oven bird.
That's the oven bird and the monomic devices teacher teacher teacher is how people try to remember that I did hear that when I was at the Chiquamagon bird festival two years ago There were oven birds singing all over the place and I was finally able to see on an oven bird is a little thrush-like bird with a green back and a striped belly and a little Striped head with a orangish
kind of middle between two white stripes, a really cute little bird.
I saw it once outside my folks kitchen door during a migration when I was a kid and I fell in love with it then.
Why is it called the oven bird?
This is a question that I had pondered for a while and never knew the answer to.
An engineer, Sam, asked it break while they're called the oven bird.
And here's the answer, which I just learned.
It's an oven bird because it makes a nest in the shape of kind of like a pizza oven or a Dutch oven.
So the nest is that semicircle that it crawls in the opening of just like you shove a pizza in that oven.
And so it's called an oven bird, a beautiful, beautiful bird.
I hope to see one this year.
I haven't seen one.
I haven't even heard one.
Thought I heard a whipper will the other night in the middle of the night, but sometimes.
the difference between really hearing something and dreaming that you're hearing something.
It was a hard difference to figure out.
And so I woke up and I asked Jean, I thought I heard a whipper.
Well, did you hear one?
Yeah, did you hear that?
She didn't hear it.
So I might have made the whole thing up.
That's part of dream life that it's hard to figure out.
And so I do have happy bird dreams sometimes.
There
go.
Good.
thinking I'm in Florida somewhere seeing a spoonbill or seeing some beautiful bird I hadn't seen in a long time.
But yes, I do want to get out in the woods.
I do want to see an oven bird.
I do want to hear a red-eyed virial, which I might bring to you tomorrow, Sam, and we'll maybe go out with a red-eyed virial, which is also a bird that nests in the north woods.
I remember when I was a teenager, I went up there and I heard this bird.
And this was before Merlin and all those fancy abs you can download and tell you what bird that is.
And there was this bird with a beautiful song up high in the trees, wasn't moving.
Usually the warblers are bouncing around so you can find them if they bounce.
This thing was just sitting somewhere behind all the leaves.
All the leaves were out.
It was summer.
And it was the only bird that was singing.
And it was a red-eyed virial.
So I'll bring that to you tomorrow.
It has a very pretty song.
Today, I hope to go home and see...
What's coming through the last of the warblers, Angela, are coming through right now, including a Canada warbler, which is a beautiful bird, which has a yellow belly and a black necklace on the yellow.
So it's really pretty.
Haven't seen one for a while.
And then there's a warbler that I've never seen before, even though I've been birding for 63 years.
It's called a Connecticut warbler.
It's on the ground, usually in bushes and barely comes out for.
people to see.
And anyway, I've never seen it.
I once went out birdwatching with someone who said, you know, that's a Connecticut warbler for sure.
And then I got my binoculars on it and it wasn't a Connecticut warbler.
So I was out of luck.
But hey, I really enjoyed the morning with you today, Angela.
We've covered some really heavy stuff and a
And and also some of the stuff just really brought home at the ground level to I mean, what's happening to people right here in Wisconsin.
whether you're transgender or not, whether you're at Head Start or not, just how it's affecting people here.
Everything that Donald Trump is doing, everything that that movement is doing, we're going to get through it.
But it's not easy and it's not easy, especially for those people who are serving the neediest year in our state.
You've been listening to Mornings with Pat Tritlow.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
I've been joined by Angela Lange.
Thanks so much, Angela.
Thank you, Sam.
Thanks, Greg Bach.
Thanks to our guests, Laura Dresser, Jen Bailey, Abby Swetz, Brittany Merlot.
See you tomorrow.
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