Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support.
Probably brought to you by Crockett Säftig for this Monday, October 13th, 2025.
Have your host James with you right now, and we are joined by some of our great friends
from the League of Women Voters of the Wisconsin Rapids area.
Like to let the audience put a voice to the name, so we'll go down the line here and let
you both introduce yourselves.
I'm Clara Kabishuk, and I've been a member of League for a number of years, and I'm the
first vice president.
Clara, thank you for being here.
Hi, I'm Bridget Muslim, and I'm with the League all only about five or so years, six years,
but I'm currently our local president, and I'm proud to be here.
Thank you.
And thank you for being here, Bridget.
I appreciate it.
Not right up the gate, I have to tell you both how much I appreciate you, and your fellow
team members, if you will, and the great work that you're doing on our communities, and
promoting democracy, helping democracy live.
And I know that if I didn't say this, my mother would be very angry at me.
So I got to get it, and I appreciate you guys very much, and appreciate the time.
I want to dive into a couple of things with you, and one thing in particular that really
stood out to me, that I really love the idea and the essence behind this.
There's a pledge going around that you have started.
Can we, well, we'll get into that in a moment.
I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself, I'm excited about the pledge.
I didn't want to touch on a little bit of what League Women Voters is.
I imagine at this point in the game, most people understand and know what the organization is,
but for those that may not, Clara, could you kind of, like,
synopsize it a little bit for us?
Well, our biggest thrust is getting more people to vote, and to let them know what the
rules are, avoiding, and to give them comfort when they go to a voting booth,
so that they feel they know how to vote, and who to vote for, and make good judgments.
And that's partly a matter of being well-educated, and following some of the news broadcasts and things,
and looking up different sources of information rather than just one source of information.
Yeah, well said. I appreciate that, Clara. Thank you for that.
Now we can dive into the pledge a little bit, because I think this is a really unique and
wonderful idea, and one of the things that I note about it, and I think that this is very
noteworthy with the League itself, as well, is something that we really hold very highly around
here at WFHR, and this is a bipartisan topic. This is a thing that everybody can get behind,
and everybody can get into, and appreciate. And that's where this pledge, for me, at least starts,
is something that I think that no matter who you vote for or what side of the aisle you're on,
this is something that we can all get behind. Can we let everybody know what this pledge is?
Okay, first of all, the pledge really believes that you're saying, I want to be part of our democracy.
I want to be part and do my job for the country. So the League decided that we need to do something
more than just telling people where to vote, how to vote. We need to encourage them to become
a grassroots-engager. And for that, they decided that we're going to have what we call the
United and Rise 8.5. Why 8.5? They're saying that you need about 8.5 million people, that's from
those who are eligible to vote in the country, that they should become engaged. They have to express
the desire to go ahead and defend the democracy. So to do the pledge, all we're asking used to go
on our website, LWVWRA.wordpress.com. If that's too complicated, just go ahead and
go on Google and Google League of Women Voters or Wisconsin Rapids areas and you get it.
Yeah, and Bridget's absolutely right. I texted it out this morning and it popped right
up right away. First thing down there. Yeah. When you go on the first, right on when you go on the
first page of our website, you see a little video called United Rise 8.5. That explains that's
from the National League that explains what United and Rise 8.5 is all about. Then, but if you don't
want to go ahead and put that work in, you can just click on the link right below it on that first
page is a link that takes you directly to the form which lets you do the pledge. What is the
pledge all about? It just asks you that you are going to support the democracy. You do not have
to be a League member. Of course, we'd love for you to be a League member, but you do not have to
be. And then you fill out your contact information. They need to have that in order to have the
data to see are they meeting their goal of 8.5? And that's data that they already have from voting,
you know, registering to vote. Exactly. Now, if you do not want any information from the League and
you all know when you sign up for something you do, then go ahead and unclick that little box on
the right hand side and then you're off the hook. But we would encourage you to learn about the
League. Do we have an idea of where this started, where the idea of this came from? Yes, the national
League decided in late April that our democracy is really being threatened. And so they felt that
there was like, you know, real issue. And we needed to get engaged. So they wanted to go back
to their grassroots, which is the foundation of the League. And they said everyone needs to
become involved. And so then they decided to organize that unite and rise 8.5. And they divided
it into segments. So every three months they have a new focus. They don't give up the others,
but they do have a main focus. And the first one was talking about that power shift. And that's
indeed saying, let's everybody do what we're supposed to do, big grassroots engages. So that's
it. And now this next one, which goes to the end of the month that talks about holding government
accountable. Very, very good. And I, you know, I think that something like this, if it was going on
in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and any other time I would think just as much and just as highly of it.
But it's no secret in 2025 how important something like this is, why we're doing it in 2025. And
I think that like a lot of people that I talk to and I have friends from both sides of the aisle,
I make a point to read articles and research from both sides. I myself am very bipartisan and very
down the line. And I appreciate being able to have a democracy that I can do that with. I
appreciate being in a country that I can do that with. Politics has always been a big part of my
family and growing up in Chicago. You just can't get around it. You know, it's like that in Italian
sausage. It's everywhere. And growing up, I, for me, politics was never divisive. It was never
really like I grew up with many different people of different sides and everything. And I don't,
if it did get talked about because you didn't really talk much politics back in the day,
there was a time in our country where it was actually considered kind of rude to tell somebody
who you voted for or something like that. I miss that. I appreciate that. I think that that's
an important part of democracy. I don't think that you need to wear your, whoever you're voting for
or your, your team, if you will, like it's a team. It's not a team. I think that part of the issue
that we have gotten into is kind of lumping things together and how easy that is to do.
You know, I, I root for this team. So now I'm just going to associate that with like,
we're like, I'm rooting for a sports team when they could not be more opposite. They are very,
very unique and different things. I think that part of the way we get back to that is the sharing
of information and the, in the understanding of information and you, you and your organization,
both of you and the, many people you work with and, and, and the legal women voters organizations
around the country are very good about this. A very good about getting details and facts out there
and making sure that when people are voting that they understand the three branches of government,
that they understand the difference of Senate and Congress and some of these things that not
everybody does. I very, very much appreciate that. And I think that is how we get to a better place
as a country and get less divisive by sharing more information. I so agree with you,
and it's so really refreshing to hear it. And you know, the league is also very active right now
trying to get civic education in all the schools. You know, it's not a law that you have to
necessarily teach all of this and it's kind of scary. Yeah, yeah, very wonderful to know that the
league works with that. Yes, we have people who have run for office. We have people who are currently
in office who do not understand the three branches of government. That's insane. That's just
insane. That's just my opinion. It's just me talking, but that's insanity to me. I think that
with something like that being taught in schools, there is no harm in it. There's no negative to
something like that. It's similar to me to teaching like the Heimlich maneuver in school. Like,
what's the downside? Where's the negative in that? If maybe they never use it, but that's great.
That's a good thing, but at least they have the information there. We don't know
one of the beauties of our democracy is you don't have to vote. And I think that that's a very
important part of it. Whether people vote or not, them knowing those things is important. They
may not have to vote, but I think it's vitally important that you understand how government works
and the different layers to it. That's a really nice, I think that's a really important thing.
Well, I think the three different areas, the executive, the judicial, and the legislative,
were set up by the original farmers of the Constitution to protect our society from the control
of one group taking over. And this does tend to happen. Sometimes people are very dominant,
very controlling, and very determined. And this isn't what needs to happen. We need to work
together. I have a neighbor who told me about your side and our side. And I thought, well,
I'm not on any particular side. I'm just trying to do what I think is better for Americans. And
it's interesting, both Bridget and I come from a European background. And my parents were first
were immigrants. And so I had a different upbringing than a lot of Americans because my father
said to me one day, he said, if you don't fight for what you believe in, you lose it.
Yeah, it's a very, it's a very strong quote. It's a very true one. It's very true. I think that
is unique backgrounds of yours. Add to that add to the benefit of our local legal women voters.
And that insight that you're able to bring the not everybody has is very useful.
I think along it goes with that, which I really made to me sort of an eye opening thing when we,
when I looked at the quote with the league says, when they're saying, the legal woman voters believe
strongly being nonpartisan does not equal neutrality or silence. That really hit me. Yeah, yeah,
that's exactly what you were saying. You have to be engaged. Yeah, yeah.
This, this country is beautiful. And it offers a lot of things and a lot of things for free.
I don't believe that democracy is free. I think that being informed, but being out there,
I do think that voting is important, but I'm not going to tell everybody you have to or
something like that. But I think I'm getting as close to as I can this thing is saying I have to,
because you have to, because it's what makes our country go round. It's a big part of things.
It's also important, I think, to keep in mind that it's not everything. And the divisiveness that
has gone on for so long needs to go away. It does. I totally agree. It's important. It's important
to be informed. I don't think it's important enough to separate families or some of these things
that we've seen in the last 10 years and stuff. It's too much. It's too much. And I just have to
mention that I think it's important to mention. There was another thing I wanted to mention and
talk about with you is the annual fundraising drive that's going on. This is another important one
and for important reasons. Can we dive into that a little bit and what that is? We have one
individual that's her task. She takes it on. She's the fundraising drive. She sends out a letter
to the previous donors and to all members and asking for funds and she explains in the letter
that the funds will be used to. For example, we did a youth program for the local high schools,
okay? So we put together a kid where the kids do their own voter registration. We have nothing
to do with it. We just gave them all the tools. Put it together. It took it to the high schools.
We personally took it to Lincoln High School in Jakusa and we got to talk to some of the students
there. And then they can go ahead and put it into place every year. They can make some changes.
We make it so that they can give them a little diplomas for doing it and all those different things.
Those who are the student trainers for the other students and that kind of a thing. And that's
what some of the money gets used for. Then we also try to send out information, the publication and
things, about voting. We put together a huge chart which is really, really nice. It details where
at every location in Wood County where you have to, I mean, where you can vote. You don't have to
vote like you said, but where you can vote. But you have to go there if you live there. So that's
one of the restrictions. You can't just go wherever you want to go, okay? So you've got to follow
those rules. Then what kind of, you know, to publish that. And the year before last, we also
appeared for a translator when we had one of the, there was some, when the judicial,
there was something going on regarding the judicial elections. And there were some questions raised
what that meant. And we were approached. We were approached by the monks. If we could help them,
they could not quite understand some of this stuff when the debates went on. So we got a translator
from one of those debates. And we paid for that. So the funds gets used for locally informing
our community about voting. We also provide Hispanic literature. And I know that there were some of
the county clerks were really happy to get those materials available because they have to do less
explaining that way and can still inform the Hispanic population. When I started out as a young
person, I wasn't really all that concerned about politics. I took it very lightly. And
but things changed as I got a little bit older and realized how important the political decisions
are on our lives. And I think it's important that we work with the young people and convince them
that they need to be alert. My grandchildren are two of the girls belong to the New Berlin
school district or have graduated from there. And they're very active in the environment. And I'm
really pleased because my husband also was an environmentalist when he was working. We still are.
And I think that you've got to influence young people and make them realize that things are
important. And if we don't keep our eyes open and our ears open to listen to what is going on,
that things will happen that we're not going to be very happy with. And we will suffer consequences
for that. Well said, Claire. That's why I think youth education is one of our highlights. We work
on it. And because we kind of told the young kids, look at it. You start to learn how to drive.
You don't like to drive on roads which have a lot of potholes. So if you care about this,
you need to be engaged. So our focus is first locally then stayed and then nationally. And even that
unite and rise 8.5 campaign, even so it was, you know, a nationally campaign. We really are
asked to focus it on our own needs, which means Wisconsin rapids area league does different things
than for example, Dane County. We don't have the same interest or the same needs.
It's a smart way to do it. Especially when it comes to this topic, there's no one size fits all.
So it's a really unique and another great thing to add to why we appreciate this organization so
much support this organization so much and love having you guys on the air with us. We do
want to encourage you. If you are, if you would like to make a donation, be a part of the fundraiser.
You can email you can message Nancy quick or I'm sorry, you can send her a letter Nancy quick
1321 Rosewood Avenue Wisconsin rapids and that is on their Facebook page. If you needed again,
everybody you can go there and find this is the first post on there. And as we were talking about
earlier, if you would like to find out more or be a part of things, certainly if you want to add
to the pledge and you want to get online lined up on that, you can go to lwv.org. That's lwv.org.
That popped up right away. If you just throw it into your search engine or whatever,
legal women voters, Wisconsin rapids area pops right up. I tried it twice so far today and both
times it popped up right away. So that's probably the best way to get in touch with you both.
Yes, it is. And there's also an email address you can say which is contact us. You can use that.
Okay. Yeah. So and then someone will, you know, we'll get back to you and we have received
information on that and we have, you know, contacted people with that. Appreciate both of the both
of you being here today putting up with my silly questions and certainly informing our community
that much more. Thank you both. Thank you for having us. We really, really appreciate it.
Well, you did too good. You're going to have to come back. That's the catch. You know,
you're going to have to come back. Thank you very much for the time you took. Thank you.
And thank you everybody for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
