You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Todd Albaugh along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer.
It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock on the Civic Media Radio Network on this Tuesday, November 4th, 2025.
It is a great day.
to be a Wisconsinite.
Welcome, everybody, to our number two, I think, at the World Headquarters in downtown Madison.
Zomers is the Kansas, the outside is the Sam Davidson camera.
Bye, golly, that's working.
Let's take a look at that.
Look at that.
Beautiful people out there in downtown Madison enjoying a fall day.
A couple of
turn.
Started to change here in downtown Madison.
Yeah.
Get out and enjoy the weather, folks, because weather is going to change by this weekend.
Little light snow flurries here and there across Wisconsin by the weekend.
So get out there and enjoy that.
A little challenging.
Zomers look challenging where our great engineering team is on top of it of our signals not coming across We're aware of it.
We appreciate you.
Let us know you can dial itself.
It's a great opportunity Let's make lemons out of lemonade or lemonade out of lemons
But would that be something you can make lemons out of lemonade?
You can it's a perfect time to download the civic media app you could do it for free on your Apple or
your Android device, simply go to your app store, type in civics, C-I-V-I-C media.
It'll pop up a cute little C-M logo.
You can click on that and you can listen to us for free on any of the first 10 stations, including W-A-U-K, a beautiful walkie-shot Milwaukee, and W-M-D-X here in Madison.
So that's going on.
So check us out there.
We appreciate you.
And also appreciate Matt Flynn for being here and Brittany Carloni in...
our number one.
Uh, I get a lot of crap for this.
Uh, people say, oh, why do you print things out?
You're wasting trees.
Well, number one, I'm dyslexic and I read better off of paper than I do on a screen.
But also when your internet goes down, look, you can still do a show if you have things on paper by golly.
You don't have to rely on the broken internet for your information bombers.
How about that?
Absolutely.
I'm an analog.
I live in an original world.
So we've got things to talk about as it turns out.
Here is something that I think a lot of people aren't paying enough attention to in these difficult times, certainly first and foremost.
human beings welfare is the most important, right?
And SNAP benefits are being cut off right now.
We discussed that in hour number two, but an underreported and under talked about situation as well.
And I appreciate our great general manager here at WMGX in Madison, Catherine Lake for bringing this to our attention.
How about our pets, right?
Cause a lot of people
They don't there's like, Hey, I don't have money to buy pet food and human food.
I got to make a choice.
And a lot of people are having a really difficult time with that.
So we're going to talk a little bit about how you can help those who are trying.
There's an emergency pet food drive here in Dane County.
Going to talk a little bit about that and about other, uh, other situations like that as well.
All right, it's 10 minutes past the hour three o'clock.
Let's see if this works.
Time once again for a Wisconsin Fun Fact.
Let's go.
That's
right.
Time for another Wisconsin Fun Fact on November 4th.
1998.
I was alive for this one.
I remember this one.
On November 4th, 1998, Governor Tommy Thompson defeated Dane County Democrat Ed Garvey to win an historic fourth term as governor.
Reminder, U.S.
presidents are limited to two terms, period.
It's a good reminder.
You understand it's an important fact, but also a good reminder, US presidential terms limited to two.
a
The law, the Constitution.
We've got a couple of those.
Right.
I remember when Tommy Thompson, a president in fourth term back in 1998.
Wow.
Makes me feel old somers.
Yeah, it's a probably before I was
really December
yeah, that's right
I Should we talk about pets or should we do the thing?
What's I'm interested about the pets yet.
All right.
Very good.
Somers.
Let's decide we're gonna talk about pets.
Here we go.
Dane County Humane Society
DCHS is asking for the community's help to collect pet food and cat litter for an emergency pet food drive to support families in need.
The organization's been hearing from families who are heartbroken at the thought of surrendering their pets because they can't afford to care for them with SNAP benefits on hold.
Quote, it's a challenging time.
but no one should ever have to choose between feeding themselves and feeding their pet, says Lisa Bernard, DCHS's department of communications supervisor.
Quote, we want to keep people and their pets together, but we can't do it alone.
We need the community's help.
Are we still on the air?
Oh, we're back.
Everything went blank on my screen.
Okay.
Could somebody surrender me I would like to be taken to a shelter today The Dane County Humane Society will accept donations of unopened cat cat and dog food both wet and dry
and cat litter from Wednesday, November 5th, that's tomorrow, through Friday, November 7th, between 10 a.m.
and 6 p.m.
at their barn on the Dane County Humane Society's main campus.
Monetary donations can be made online to help them purchase food and litter for local families that need help.
You can go to GiveShelter.org.
giveshelter.org.
We'll put that in the show notes and get it up there as well.
Also, oh, very good.
That's great.
Listener Scott here in Madison on WMDX says the zoo is having a food drive as well.
Bring your pet.
That's great.
That's fantastic.
And I think, you know, as we talk about this on the human side, with food pantries and the like, whether it's in Milwaukee or Madison, or we highlighted the one in Richland Center, there are humane shelters all over societies, all over the state of Wisconsin.
In Richland Center, Richland County is the O'Cooch Humane Society.
O'Cooch is an old Native American term in the Driflus region out there.
And there's a food, there's just like on the human side, on the pet side, there is a humane society or shelter in your neck of the woods.
So again, if you feel so led, and this is what I love about this kind of, this kind of stuff.
When we read the news, when we talk about the news, it can feel very disempowering, if that's a word, because you think, well, what can I do about all this?
It's very depressing and very overwhelming.
But.
What we can do is we can help our friends and neighbors.
And I think that is very empowering.
So whether we're dropping off, you know, some cans of soup or giving a monetary donation to a food pantry in our communities or whether we're giving dropping off dog food or cat litter or a monetary donation to our humane societies and pet shelters across the state of Wisconsin, it makes you feel better.
And I've told this story on the air, but I think it's worth retelling the shortened version of it.
When I was growing up as a kid, my sister and I, my mom, my mom was a single mother for much of our growing up years.
And we didn't have a lot.
But she would always say during the holidays, choose one toy that you don't play with anymore or that you don't want.
And we're gonna take it and donate it to the toys for tots.
then the U.S.
Marines come around and collect these from the different collection points and give them to kids that would otherwise not have any kind of a toy for Christmas.
And even though we didn't have a lot, you felt better because you gave something to someone else.
You made somebody else feel better.
And so I just encourage all of us, if you want to feel better, if the news is bringing you down, first of all, join the club.
I'm with you, but you'll feel better.
Here's something I do usually during the holidays.
It's not much, but it's something I go to Barnes and Noble here in Madison.
And when you check out, they say, would you like to donate a book to a kid?
And you can choose.
There's, I usually choose a Dr. Seuss one or something like that.
And then they put it and they give these books to kids, holiday books.
And I mean, who doesn't like being read to as a kid or looking at the pictures or whatever.
And it's important.
And it's important.
and you feel better about it after you've helped out.
So, whether you live in Madison, as we said, the Dane County Humane Society, Dane County, or wherever you live across the state of Wisconsin, I'm gonna paraphrase Barack Obama for a minute, don't boo, do.
Right?
Get out here.
I
yeah.
Don't, you know, his line was don't boo, vote, which I agree with as well.
But don't just get angry.
I mean, it's a human reaction, right?
To get upset and get angry, but don't just get angry.
Go out and do something.
At all of us, it doesn't matter if we have a lot of money or very little money.
We can even have no money, but maybe have one day a week free or an evening.
And you say, you know what?
I can go and work for three hours at a thrift store, or I could work for two hours at the food pantry sorting things or greeting people.
So all of us whether we have Means money of things or whether we have very little or nothing we can all get involved and Help out our fellow Wisconsinite.
I think we'll feel better for it.
It's ours.
It's coming up on 18 minutes past the hour of three o'clock time once again for what's worse.
Let's go
Type once again for what's worse, nothing of way, no prize, money involved, but is your chance to have your voice heard on all 10 sports news, talk stations across Wisconsin, at least on the Civic Media app right now.
Again, check us out on the Civic Media app.
You can find us there right now.
All right.
Uh, timely, timely because, uh, Thanksgiving is coming up, right?
Later on this month, can't believe it, but it's true.
But also, uh, deer camp.
We have gun deer season opening across the state of Wisconsin, which for a lot of folks is a holiday.
We always used to say, well, we've worked for old boss Dale Schultz.
The holidays began in the Schultz house on opening weekend of gun deer season.
And so when you get ready for deer camp, deer camp, breakfast, opening, opening a Saturday, opening weekend breakfast is a huge thing.
A lot of people are frying up bacon and sausage.
So.
Timely, timely indeed, today's category.
Turkey bacon or turkey sausage?
Turkey bacon or turkey sausage?
What's worse?
Eight, five, are the phones working, Zomers?
Eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
Try to give us a call.
You never know.
It might work.
You might get somebody else.
Tommy Thompson used to say, in Wisconsin, you could call the wrong number and still talk for half an hour.
And he's right.
855-752-4842.
Give us a try, text us on the Civic Media app, or talk amongst yourselves.
I'll give you a topic.
Turkey bacon or turkey sausage?
What's worse?
Come on back.
It's the Todd Hommel Show for a Tuesday on the Civic Media radio network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get
started.
And by the way, there's no fault of anyone's and I'm not angry.
I'm not, you know me.
And this is, I'm not just saying I'm not, I'm not somebody throws a fit stuff.
Things happen.
Life happens.
Right.
I just find it, you know, but you gotta make, you gotta, you gotta just have fun with it.
Uh, it reminds me of a Star Trek film where you're like the enterprise, the, uh, the main engines are down and operating on, on thrusters.
Uh, so for those that watched, I'm getting, because I'm getting, people are texting me.
People that I know that watch.
YouTube went down this one.
Yes, we know.
Thank you for telling us.
But we're we having to operate a reserve power right now.
So there is no more video today.
But you can listen to us, hopefully over the air.
But look, let's be positive here.
This is a great opportunity to favor people that haven't found it.
Now, my friend Kurt has found the civic media dot com.
You can listen.
It works.
You can listen to the same tech as the app.
Right.
So you can listen to civic media, civic media dot US.
Oh, I don't know what he says.
He's listening to civicmedia.com.
Maybe there's something he probably just kind of mixed up.
I don't know.
But yeah, civicmedia.us.
That's a great place to listen to it.
And here I'm going to give you a tip.
Let's give people a little good news here.
All right.
Coming up is another great text to win holiday contest coming up.
And you can win fabulous cash and prizes, more details to come, but the only way that you can participate is by texting in on the Civic Media app, right?
So now, today is a great opportunity to take advantage of this time to download the Civic Media app, have it on your phone, you can listen to us on that device, the first 10 stations, and you'll be all set to go for the text to win contest coming up here very
you're ready for all that you're prepared
the contests that we gotta be positive on these when things these life happens You know first world problems as they say all right the once worse today turkey bacon or turkey sausage
Turkey bacon or turkey sausage 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 go out to Troy listening on the MDX amount horrib Troy turkey bacon or turkey sausage.
What's
worse?
I Don't know probably turkey bacon.
I'm turkey Bay any particular reason why?
No, actually, I haven't had turkey bacon a long time
My wife just bought me chicken sausage.
Chicken sausage?
Yeah, from Costco.
They're Jones.
Are they
pretty good?
Pork.
Yeah, they're not bad.
They're drier than the pork.
Right.
That's the main difference.
They're not too bad.
If you fry them in some bacon grease, Troy, they taste a lot better.
I'll have to try that.
Is there anything that doesn't taste good when it's fried in bacon grease?
No, absolutely nothing.
I agree with that 100%.
Absolutely.
Everything, I'm not sure what the English is there.
I appreciate you Troy.
Thank you very much.
Have a great day out there.
Beautiful.
Mount Horrib.
What's worse?
Turkey bacon or turkey sausage 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Judy listening in East Troy on the UK out of walkie shop the walkie says hello Turkey bacon is good.
turkey bacon is no good.
Oh, jeez.
I gotta get new glasses Turkey bacon is no good, but smart chicken
What is it?
What does it say?
And Dooley sausage and Dooley sausage is delicious.
So chicken sausage.
Is that it?
don't know something about it.
It's really good.
Do they give the chicken a Test IQ isn't a high IQ chicken,
We're having fun now.
What's worse?
Turkey bacon or turkey sausage?
8-5-5-7-5-2, 4-8-4-2, 8-5-5-7-5-2, 4-8-4-2.
Really?
Now, I know other people that are kind of like, I don't want extra turkey.
I think the key is, is it a moist turkey, you know?
It must be.
You don't want a dry turkey.
Dry turkey?
No good.
One of the best turkeys we ever made for Thanksgiving was a brined turkey.
The problem is, is you don't have the, you can't use the turkey drippings for the gravy then, because it's way too salty.
You got to make like side gravy or something.
Too salty for you, maybe.
For you, you'd be just fine.
But the turkey itself was stunningly moist.
I mean, just juicy, dripping, dripping turkey.
a
and it's very good.
I'm
against the
The turkey and chicken whatever the chicken
Really?
Velveteen your chicken.
I've never heard of this.
either.
And I watch a lot of cooking shows.
Well, now I've learned something new.
Forget about what's worse.
I'm going to start a new show, a new set called Cooking with Zomers.
rice.
Where did you learn about this?
got to
So that's what they do in a Chinese restaurant
they velvet the chicken.
All right Well from what's worse to velveting your chicken we covered all here on the all-ball show come on back with more what's worse and Check us out in the meantime.
Here's a little Pam Yankee and the Midwest farm report
I'll ask her if she velvets her chicken.
After this, in the cynic media, ready to know.
Pursuing truth, wherever it may lead, and having fun doing it.
A string wire and a can.
We're coming to you across the state of Wisconsin.
35 past the hour of three o'clock.
I believe we're still in the air, Summer, is that right?
Very good.
The day internet, I've been told now it's not Spectrum, it's AT&T or something, I don't know.
don't know.
Allegedly, we don't know, so there is no, we don't want to, oh no, we're going to get sued.
We don't want that, we don't know what the problem is, but there's been, and we appreciate them and all the hard working people that are working to keep us on the air, but for those that might normally, I've been getting texts, and God love my friends and family for texting and saying what happened to the show, but
We're not on the usual YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter today because we're on reserve power, as they say.
And we may or may not be going out across the broadcast channels, but I can tell you for certain.
And this is a great time, again, to promote the Civic Media app that is working.
And simply go to your App Store, your Android, or iPhone.
and your app store, and type in civics, c-i-v-i-c media, it'll pop up, and then you can download it, and it'll pop right up on your screen there, and the first 10 stations are the ones that were on.
Here, I'm doing this live, look, I even held it up to the camera, I forgot we weren't on the camera.
So here, I just hit W-A-U-K, and then you hit play.
And let's see if the show is playing.
And the first 10 stations are the ones that were on.
Here, I'm doing this live.
I'm listening to myself on delay.
Now that was fantastic.
it works.
See, a first, making lemonade out of lemons.
We did a first that we listened to our own show via the app on the air live.
Right.
So we
that's working.
Anyway, uh, we're right in the middle of what's worse today, turkey bacon or turkey sausage, turkey bacon or turkey sausage, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, or you can text us on the old civic media app.
Oh, this is fantastic.
Carolyn, one of our great listeners in Heartland, Wisconsin on WAUK.
She says, I can hear you on the app in Heartland.
Very good.
See how there's somebody working on the Civic Media app.
We appreciate that Carol and listening to us up there in beautiful Heartland, Wisconsin Zombers turkey Sausage or turkey
listening on
really?
am saying
Yeah.
I'm pretty much with you on that.
I think turkey bacon is.
They also make turkey bacon by it by going to a lumber yard and taking sawdust and pressing it and they fry that and they call that turkey bacon
So I'm allegedly
I'm allegedly so I'm with you.
I think that turkey bacon is worse I'm more of a saw a turkey saw well, I mean obviously I want pork sausage, but turkey son Mike and some prairie on the civic media app a listing on WMDX out of Madison Mike and some prairie says both are yuck
dry chicken sausage is pretty good.
That's like the third vote we've gotten for chicken sausage.
I've had it before.
I've never tried that.
I'll have to try that.
I'm not sure I've ever had that.
You know what?
I was surprisingly good.
My friend Nelson out in Los Angeles, he made me an impossible burger out there.
Those?
And it was better than I thought it would be.
Those that don't know a plant-based burger.
die as they put it in, but it looked like it.
Give me some beef.
Curt in Madison, Turkey burnt bacon.
Where's the fat?
Alright, we'll be back tomorrow.
We think with another edition of what's worse a hotel edition So that'll be fun like also this show tomorrow Trig V Olson from the Lincoln Project and Pat Crite low a mornings with Pat Crite low every morning from six until until eight No nine pardon me And here's a normally we just get on the air we talk about goofy stuff.
No, we don't we talk about serious things too, but Trig V Olson writes this great substack
And you should check it out if you haven't his substack for last week on AI artificial intelligence and Trigby's been working on some research on this and doing some things for the Lincoln Institute for Democracy and and and other things and he's really become quite the knowledgeable guy on AI and he makes a great point on Over over the course of time inventions that man slash woman have come up with
can either be used for good or it can be used for bad.
And it's too late to just stop AI, right?
And so, well, we'll talk about the article more tomorrow.
But join us tomorrow, a special discussion on AI, artificial intelligence with Trig V. Olson and Pat Kratlow.
So looking forward to that.
This is good.
Well, before I get to this article, I want to read to you here on paper as it turns out.
I think we should at least mention, we talked about it just a little bit with Matt Flynn earlier, the passing of former vice president Dick Cheney, controversial figure, certainly.
And I think Matt made a good point, you know, I'm not here to bash the dead or speak ill of the dead necessarily.
I think that our friend from Lincoln Project, speaking of Lincoln Project, one of the founders, Stuart Stevens, wrote this book that I've talked about before in this program, called It Was All a Lie.
And he is a former Republican like myself He worked at much much higher levels than I did worked on everything from Mitt Romney's campaign to With the Reagan administration and the Bush administration and Stuart Stevens points out I mean what the opening line basically is is I'm partly at fault here that I'm part of the lie or was part of the lie until he left the Republican Party
And I think there's certainly argument to be made over Dick Cheney's career in the Nixon and Ford administrations as a member of Congress.
And then he went and ran Hal Burton, one of the big oil companies.
And then George W. Bush, when he got the nomination for president, he selected Cheney, who had worked as secretary of defense for his dad, George H. W. Bush.
and a very successful campaign along with General Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell in the first Gulf War, where that's the one where they liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein.
It was an international coalition put together by George H.W.
Bush and Howard Baker and lauded for its restraint that with that huge international coalition, they could have gone in and taken out Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.
in in the nineties.
But George H. W. Bush and no, no, no, that's not our mission, along with Cheney and Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell.
And they stopped at the at the line and just simply liberated Kuwait.
And so you had all that backdrop to Cheney.
And then in 2000, George W. Bush, it selects Dick Cheney to lead the selection committee to find Bush's vice president.
And Cheney looked around and he said, uh, I think the best person is me.
That's not exactly what happened.
But, but Cheney ends up being the vice presidential nominee and of course the rest is history goes on to be, uh, what's considered to be one of the most powerful vice presidents in our nation's history, certainly controversial, uh, during the second Gulf War and the whole weapons of mass destruction thing, which turned out.
And depending upon the narrative, you believe either that the Bush administration was misled by CIA officials or that they knew that that's that's up for debate.
Um, and then you fast forward past the Bush administration and you get into the Trump administration and Liz Cheney, one of, uh, one of Dick Cheney's daughters.
And also there was some controversy about, well,
It was interesting, as a gay guy, one of Dick and Lynn Cheney's daughters happens to be gay.
And he very publicly ended up in supporting and embracing her against his own party.
And then his other daughter, Liz Cheney, ended up being a member of Congress from Wyoming.
And by the way, Lynn and Dick Cheney went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I believe Liz Cheney was born in Madison.
And so there's a Wisconsin connection there.
And so then Liz Cheney ends up being on the January 6th bipartisan commission, the other Republican being Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger.
And Liz Cheney speaks out very vocally against the Trump administration.
Thanks, Somers.
He kept me honest.
He has Liz Cheney was born here in Madison.
And then, of course, Trump and the Republican Party came after Liz Cheney, and she was the third highest-ranking member of the Republican caucus in Congress.
And she got kicked out from that job, and then she was primaried and taken out of Congress, and Trump targeted her.
And Dick Cheney later, by the way, in a terrible heart, got a transplant, I think, like, 15, 12, 15 years ago.
And...
Dick Cheney came out very vocally and not only endorsed his daughter and He also called Donald Trump the most dangerous enemy of America and One of the final things that Dick Cheney did was endorse full-throated endorsement for then vice president Kamala Harris So It's the old question right, you know, how do you judge a person?
on what they were or what they became.
Regardless, he is certainly a historical figure and thinking of his family today.
Regardless of these politicians, everybody, I don't care what side of aisle you're on politically, everybody has kids, a wife, a husband, a spouse, family.
So certainly thinking of the Cheney family today and the debate will continue amongst a lot of people about Dick Cheney's significance and effect on America.
The way I look at it is that people can grow and you just, you shouldn't forget when people have done things of this magnitude, but it appears like he truly was coming around.
And whereas before, if I were to somehow run into Dick Cheney, probably wouldn't talk to him, but now it'd be like, okay, I would shake his hand.
I would talk with him.
I think that's a good point because I heard others say this that
Dick Cheney never left the Republican Party the Republican Party left Dick Cheney because met much of the many of the things that he believed and I'm not here to tell you that I believed the same things all of them that Dick Cheney believed but he at least held true to his principles and I think that's why he came out so vehemently against Donald Trump right to Matt Flynn's point earlier Whatever you thought about Dick Cheney.
He believed in supported NATO
Whatever you thought about Dick Cheney, he believed in and supported Ukraine and freedom around the world and democracy.
Whatever you thought about Dick Cheney, he was firmly against Russia and Vladimir Putin.
Whatever you thought about Dick Cheney, he was a true fiscal conservative.
And all those things I just mentioned are not part of the current MAGA Trump party.
And so Cheney didn't just change as his former party just left him.
So anyway, uh, as we say, it will be, uh, it'll be debated for years to come.
When we come back, I read this, uh, a couple of years ago, actually going to revisit it from the Columbus dispatch entitled divided.
We are falling.
Can Americans stop screeching?
Start sacrificing for greater good.
Come on back.
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.
87 it's the time of all show across the state of Wisconsin on the civic media ready to work eight minutes now before the hour of four o'clock at the top of the hour ABC CPS news weather a great sports reporter Mike Clemens will be in Badger we didn't even talk about the Badger basketball team last night Zomers the Badgers took on the fighting camels of Campbell and the fighting camels brought it within five
with like eight minutes to go, and then UW won by like 30 at the end.
So Badgers, that'll be fine.
I think so.
Yeah, absolutely.
So Mike Collins will be in sports, Maggie Dawn from four to six, Pete Schwabba from six until eight during the commercial break because there's no video today.
Lots of internet things happening.
I appreciate everybody is working behind the scenes, by the way.
Summer said to me goes, so is this what it was like doing radio in the old days?
Because because we said I think we're right for the this that we've been doing this show It'll be it'll be three years in another week Or two ten days ten days.
Thank you This is the first show where we haven't been on camera It's been both over-the-air broadcast and camera and as odd as that felt for me when we started because when I started in 87 Of course, there was no internet so there is no camera.
It's what felt very weird
When I got back into radio, going on three years ago, to do a show in front of a camera.
Well, now I feel weird not having a
But it's all good.
It's good to go back and live the old
Just try it out.
There.
We'll get has he got a cart machine?
Probably cart by me by by that the don't know radio We instead we all we didn't have computers.
We started and well not for broadcasting and and so our commercials were on it looked like for those of you might know an eight track tape or cassette and big big eight track players are our commercials were on those and they'd be in a usually a three cart rack
And then you push green for go and red to stop.
And then usually you'd stack up your carts, your commercials before you go on the air.
Now they're just all on computer.
Yeah.
Uh, let me give you a little of this.
Speaking of time long ago, not that long ago, this is from November 12th of 2021 from the Columbus dispatch.
A quote starts it from Colin Powell.
Quote, we have to start thinking of America as a family.
We have to stop screeching at each other, stop hurting each other, and instead start caring for, sacrificing for, and sharing with each other.
We have to stop constantly criticizing, which is the way of the milk attend, and instead get back to the can-do attitude that made America.
We have to keep trying and risking failing in order to solve
the country's problems."
The late Colin Powell, a decorated four-star general America's first black secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote those words as a part of his 1995 bestseller, My American Journey.
His reflection was prompted by a Sam Donaldson interview with a black soldier during Desert Storm.
I am not afraid because I'm with my family.
The young man in the interview responded when Donaldson asked him about his battle.
His comrades in arms asked him to repeat it because Donaldson, then an ABC correspondent, didn't hear him.
More than 25 years since the book's release, individual rights of freedoms are eclipsing the collectives on multiple fronts.
We have the notion of American individualism down.
It is the American family that Powell writes about.
the harmonist American family that remains in peril.
It is needed now more than ever.
Please do not misunderstand us.
The notion of American individualism is not bad.
Self-reliance and independence are important, but we have to remember that we are not in this by ourselves.
A family may not always agree, and occasional dust-up is good for the soul, but we must remember that we are relatives, comrades in arms.
We cannot live up to the America's creed quote a government of the people by the people for the people who's just powers and derived from the consent of the government Perfect union one an inseparable established upon those principles of freedom equality justice the humanity if we are resigned to be divided The screeches loud and the hurt will inflict on each other is intense
It is hard to imagine the arguments that would erupt if we, the entirety of the American family, attempted to break bread this Thanksgiving.
Oh, the knives.
Few of them for butter would come out.
Sadly, discourse has become the not-so-secret ingredient that makes the American family pumpkin pie so spicy.
It might be silky, but few amongst us can scratch a stomach taking more than a few bites.
Political news is often treated like a blood sport that sees Americans rooting against Americans and often their own best interests.
It is like a battle between the Browns and Steelers, except Sports Center is not involved and the thousands of people in their lives are on the line.
Political scientist Ethan Hirsch calls the phenomena political hobbyism, treating politics like entertainment.
It is not just factions fighting across the political aisle anymore.
Some fights are physical, fights are broken out in state houses across the nation.
The fundamental American principles are in jeopardy.
Our nation is dysfunctional family that somehow still manages to function, but for how long?
We must strive for the unity Powell describes.
It is a unity we have not lost entirely, but the glare from the political scoreboard makes it increasingly more challenging to see.
America defines the can-do attitude.
We can bring harmony to the American family.
We can do so and advance this nation together, if only we try.
That, from the op-ed section of the Columbus Dispatch, November 12, 2021, hauntingly still very pertinent.
Great job solvers, holding things together.
Many thanks to our engineering department for keeping us on the air.
Matt Flynn for being a great guest as well as Brittany Coloni from Wisconsin Watch.
We'll try again tomorrow.
Thanks for hanging with us.
Whatever you're fighting for, whatever you believe in, do not give up.
Maggie
Dawn is next.
Thank you.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
