Well, not in Wisconsin.

Under current Wisconsin law adult children don’t have the right to seek justice if their single parent dies as a result of medical negligence. It’s the same story for the parents of single adult children.

So if an 18-year-old high school senior, single (as most of them are) and living at home, were to die due to a doctor’s negligence – the parents would be unable to seek justice for her death.

If you think something is wrong with that, you’re not the only one.

Most families faced with this unfortunate situation react with anger and disbelief. It is inconceivable to them that a death caused by medical negligence can go unpunished.

This is why the Wisconsin Association for Justice has been standing side by side with families from across the state fighting for the Family Justice Bill. The legislation would ensure all families have the right to seek justice when a loved one dies as a result of a doctor’s negligence. It’s a bill that helps real people facing real problems.

Sounds sensible enough right?

Thankfully, a majority of the State Senate agreed and voted in favor of the Family Justice Bill. Now it’s fate is in the hands of the State Assembly. This legislation should cross party lines because it recognizes the important relationship parents and children share regardless of age or marital status.

Everyone deserves to be treated equally in Wisconsin. Families should have the right to access the courts and seek justice when a loved one dies. The Family Justice Bill ensures that the courthouse doors are open to deserving individuals who want seek justice and accountability when a loved one dies as a result of medical negligence.
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This guest column is written by Christine Bremer Muggli who the President of the Wisconsin Association for Justice, Wisconsin’s largest statewide voluntary attorney organization defending the civil justice system.

I am a Deputy Sheriff and a proud wearer of the Police Officer badge. As I sit in the trenches day after day, I must deal with the uncertainty of what has become of my vocation, a burning passion, and my life.

As a member of law enforcement, like the military to a certain extent, we follow a chain of command. Here in Milwaukee County we look to you as our leader.

Day after day, I hear you being maligned by my co-workers, members of the press, and other members of the government, to name a few. I hear stories of corruption, self service, ego driven decisions, and double standards. I witness morale crumbling to the ground and I can see it in the eyes of my fellow officers that they are losing the faith. The flame is dwindling.

When I chose to be police officer, I was proud. Boy was I proud! I was proud that I chose a life of servitude for my fellow citizens. I looked up to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Law Enforcement Code of Conduct, and I beamed with pride thinking of the many ways in which I would honor those principles and make the community a better place to live. I dreamt of earning a reputation as a fair, honest, disciplined and ethical individual who, even when I made mistakes, stood for everything that it’s right in this great country of ours.

These days, however, I find myself being embarrassed and deflated. I continually encounter walls placed there in an effort to make my job more difficult. I expected that, but I did not expect those walls to come from within my own Department. I’m no longer allowed to use discretion and all my powers to do the right thing have been slowly stripped away from me. I find myself being worried and sometimes scared of taking part, for fear of choosing a direction which will penalize me in the eyes of my superiors. I feel as though I am no longer a Police Officer. I now feel like a pawn in some sort of cruel political game that I do not understand. I find myself in the middle of stubborn fights between my leader and my brotherhood, and there seem to be no end in sight. I don’t even know who is right or wrong anymore. That ceased to matter a long time ago.

Dear Sir, I plead to you, enough with the games, contradictions, and reprehensible essays. Enough with the name calling, persecution, and partiality. We have an important job to do, and every day we seem to move farther away from accomplishing that job the way it was intended. I wish to be treated like you would like to be treated, I have earned that. I realize that there will always be a small percentage of us who will never live up to the standards, and who will always cut corners and find blame on everyone but themselves when things go wrong. I also believe that that group does not a majority make and I am insulted when I am talked to as part of that group. If in the process of exposing those who do not deserve to wear the badge, you alienate and disempowered those of us who do, then you have failed us all.

Dear Sheriff, and I address you by your title with all respect due your position, what can we do, together, so that once more I can be proud to represent the law and wear the badge that I chose to honor when a took my oath? I do not care about promotions, recognition, or awards. All the recognition I need I get from my fellow citizens when I have helped them in their hour of need. I get it from my family when they see me beam with pride as I leave for work every day. I get it from my peers when they recognize a job well done.

Sheriff, I need a leader. I need someone who will give me some direction and supply me with the tools I need to do the job efficiently and well. I need my leader to lead, by his behavior as well as words. I need a leader who remembers what it was to be a young Police Officer devoid of any cynicism and unethical thoughts. I need you, to remember the time when the only thing that mattered was the community’s well being and the well being of your people so that we could complete our task successfully. I need to know that you will deal with me swiftly when I don’t live up to my standards but will stand by me when I’ve being wronged.

I need you, Dear Sheriff, to come out from behind the mask from whence you’ve been hiding and develop into the leader that you showed us many years ago when you first joined our organization. I believe you can do that, I believe that deep down your ultimate goal is the betterment of the community, just like me. I need a leader.

With Regards,
A Deputy
“Attitude is Everything”

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Typically Watchdog Milwaukee is directly critical of Sheriff Clarke for the way he handles his job. For now, we’ll refrain from elaborating (that’s what the archives are for). The deputy who wrote this piece clearly isn’t to the point where he’s written Clarke off but we believe the decision as to whether that will happen or not is up to none other than the Sheriff. All the same, the Deputy does not want his name shared as he has seen what has happened to other Deputies that have dared to criticize Clarke. Since Clarke is capricious and has shown a pattern of vindictiveness, we do not share the names of officers who could lose their jobs or face demotions and disciplinary action for voicing their opinions. Before commenting on this story, reader are asked to read the updates to the comment policy available at the top of this page.

Let’s check in on some of the recent high profile searches for the truth. Barry Bonds is currently headlining the news and the truth about his possible use of steroids seems to be elusive at best. Our last two American President’s legacies will include major doses of “truths” involving either the existence of weapons of mass destruction or non-existence of relations with that woman. Oh, and let’s not forget, that your retirement account at Enron is not in danger.

In the end most of us rely on our court system to sort out the truth and dispense appropriate justice. The sad thing is that even the great American justice system is not immune from the lies. With the constant claims that frivolous lawsuits are jamming up the court system, you would think that our court system would be clogged with fraudulent claims of injury by insurance scam artists, but you would be wrong.

Ever wonder what kind of cases our court system spends most of its time handling? In a review of 2006 Wisconsin Court Filings divorce (21,072), foreclosures of mortgages (16,489), money judgments (14,245) and paternity cases (13,865) were the leaders. I doubt many of us would consider divorce a “frivolous” lawsuit, more likely that a few were the result of frivolous marriages.

To be fair there were 4,560 filings related to personal injury in automobile cases. The vast majority of these cases, however, involved legitimate claims of injury placed into suit because of an insurance carrier’s refusal to offer a fair settlement prior to litigation. And the supposed “devil of all lawsuits,” the dreaded medical malpractice case, resulted in only 13 trials in Wisconsin in 2006. Not exactly the epidemic of frivolous lawsuits some would have you believe.

So why is it you are constantly hearing about greedy trial lawyers and frivolous lawsuits wrecking our civil justice system? Enter nice sounding organizations like the (fill in the name of the state here) for Lawsuit Reform, that tell the public the sky is falling and it is the fault of lawyers who represent injured consumers against powerful corporate interests. These same groups, by the way, are funded by large corporate interests (like insurance companies.) Coincidence?

Whether you talk to trial lawyers like me, who represent injured consumers, the defense lawyers who represent insurance companies, or the trial judges who occupy the courtrooms throughout the State of Wisconsin, you will hear the same story: lawsuits are not jamming our court system and the sky is not falling. I suggest that, just as common sense will guide you to the truth about Barry Bonds, you might think twice about whether those crying over holding corporations accountable might just be the wolf in sheep’s clothing. And if you need just a little more convincing, consider that it was Enron’s own Ken Lay who formed Texans for Lawsuit Reform – and we all know that he was looking out for the little guy.

This column was written by Rob Jaskulski who is the President of the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers, the state’s largest voluntary organization defending the civil justice system.

I’ve never been one to be very political. Opinionated yes, but I don’t attribute myself to either major party.

I’ve been a Milwaukee County employee for some time now and read about the first pension scandal and thought to myself ” jeez, that was nice, why can’t I get that?” But the fact is that most county employees do not qualify for the big back drop.

Around that same time I found out I missed the Rule of 75 by some time also, Boy, there’s a novel idea, when your length of time worked plus your age equals 75 you get to retire. I’d retire EARLY — earlier than most that is for sure. Again, I didn’t qualify for that benefit.

Now I read about buybacks!? What? How long does one have to work for the county to get a subscription to the “Counties Hidden Perks” newsletter? Although, yet again, I wouldn’t qualify for a Buy Back but I’D SURE LIKE TO KNOW WHICH FUTURE SCANDAL I DO QUALIFY FOR.

Oh, I understand the pension thing is going to cost a bundle and it’s going to be a thorn for a long time. There will be lawsuits and debate over how to correct the problem, one which the board SHOULD have known about and STOPPED. Emphasis on STOPPED!! But, in a politics as usual, the finger pointing and the blame game has already begun.

Tis a sad day in Milwaukee County government, makes me wonder if ANYONE cares about ethics?

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Publishers Note: I don’t agree with several things in this post but respect the right of this deputy to say his piece. For starters, the rule of 75, now 85 as I understand it, allows employees to retire early if they meet the criteria AND they will receive reduced benefits unless the stay with the county for 40 years.

The flippant comment about “hidden perks” should be followed up by an expertise in additional areas. Clearly DeputyInsider is an expert in law enforcement but not personnel. In fact, County Government has many departments because it serves many needs. For any one person, elected or otherwise, to fully comprehend all areas would be impossible. The only person who would have access to all of the information he wants about any given part of County government is the County Executive and that would be Scott Walker.

It is also worth mentioning that deputies do not qualify to receive the backdrop because they shot down the original offer from the county because it wasn’t lucrative enough for their liking but neither they, nor the board, understood the ramifications of the plan when it was passed. Deputies can blame their former union President, Geoff Bilda, for killing their chance at that benefit. They ousted him in their next election.

Case 1: off duty deputy solicits an undercover MPD officer for sex, gets arrested. This is a misdemeanor violation of the law.

Case 2: Deputies confiscate a ‘ton’ of drugs from a car on the freeway (Clarke makes a great press conference out of it) Same officers illegally enter and search a home related to the drug bust (their sergeant knows about it). Officers then write less than honest reports about incident.
This is a clear cut violation of Civil Rights and it tainted the whole case. Officers were not allowed to testify in court and the bad guys got off.

Case 3: Deputy does not notify supervisor about a packet of paperwork that needs verification of terms from a court that is closed for the weekend. (Note, it is not departmental policy to notify the supervisor.) However, the deputy did notify the next shift during debriefing (which IS policy). Paperwork is about an inmates release date and only the court can verify the terms…court opens Monday. No policies were violated.

Case 4- A Deputy calls in sick three times in one year. Although CONTRACTUAL agreement states a deputy is allowed 3 sick occurrences, Clarke has taken it upon himself to CHANGE the contract to making the 2nd sick day a write up and the third an internal affairs case. While this is not a violation of the deputy contract, it is now Clarke’s new policy

Now the fun part, the interactive portion of my story.. you get to pick the discipline each case received. Remember two of these people violated the LAW, one violated a new policy that violates the deputies contract with the county and the fourth didn’t actually violate any policy.

Discipline issued to the four cases:

A- a three (3) day suspension (stays in personnel file)
B- a one (1-5) day(s) suspension (stays in personnel file)
C- a seven (10) day suspension and transfer to the jail (although not for discipline because Clarke says the jail isn’t for disciplining deputies!?) and stays in personnel file
D- a six (6) month probation period/ written reprimand and transfer to the jail( see above comment) to include removal of the reprimand after the 6 month probation period.

Scroll down a bit for the answers.

Here was the discipline that Clarke handed out.
Case 1-C
case 2-D
case 3 A
case 4-B

Is there logic here? Deputies are sworn to uphold the law and yet under Clarke, if you violate state law and disregard the civil rights of the citizens you’re going to get a hand slapping. However, if you violate a precious departmental policy and “Hell hath no fury like a David Clarke scorned.”

The saddest part about this whole story is that internal affairs doesn’t even have to have proof you did anything wrong… that’s right… all they need is a suspicion. Numerous cases have been given discipline WITHOUT proving guilt. Isn’t that the craziest thing you’ve heard coming from a law enforcement agency?

Publishers Note: It is not the policy of Watchdog Milwaukee to permit anonymous postings. However, when there is clearly a likelihood that there will be personal ramifications, we will protect the identity of our contributing writers. Since Sheriff David Clarke has shown a clear pattern of vindictive behavior against those who do not subscribe to his political philosophies and motivations, we are sure that Clarke would take action against any deputy or member of a deputy’s family should their identity be compromised. That being said, several sources have come forward to us now and in the past to request we expose some of these problems within the department. Since the corporate media has chosen to give Clarke a pass on his egregious behavior and thereby failed in their duties as a watchdog, we are taking the opportunity to do what they should have done in the first place — bring to light a story which has long been kept from the public. The man who inspired Watchdog Milwaukee, legendary news man Edward R. Murrow, would have wanted nothing less.

The following is a true account of what recently happened to an undocumented worker in Milwaukee. His name has been changed to protect him from further complications:

“Chuy” is in his late 20’s. He has lived in Milwaukee for nearly eight years. He worked as a janitor for a private cleaning company in downtown Milwaukee. For seven years he vacuumed floors, scrubbed toilets, dusted, mopped, cleaned urinals, emptied the trash and paid his union dues. This is hard, physically demanding work. He cleaned two large floors full of multiple office suites every night. To keep up with the workload and finish in seven hours he frequently cut short his 30 minute lunch break. He started long after the building’s office workers had gone home for the night. By the time he finished his work, clocked out and drove home it was nearly 2:00 a.m.

Most of the tenants on his floors didn’t know his name. A few would occasionally nod or say a quick hello, but Chuy was largely invisible at work. It didn’t matter to him. He was here to work hard and make money to support his family.

Chuy was picked up by United States immigration authorities on May 7th.

He worked in the same downtown office building for almost the entire 7 years he has been a janitor. He has his own regularly assigned floors in the building, but on the afternoon of May 7th he filled-in for a co-worker on a different set of floors. Having worked in the building for years, Chuy never thought there would be any problem, yet, unfortunately, an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms) agent with nothing better to do decided to ask him questions as he was vacuuming the floor. With the ever-increasing incidents of gun violence in the city one would think the agent had more than enough other things to do than worry about than who was cleaning the urinals in the BATF bathroom.

The agent is a Latino who speaks fluent Spanish. He asked first if Chuy had identification. “Of course,” Chuy replied and produced his driver’s license. The agent then asked if “he was legal to work in this country.” Chuy answering honestly said, “No. but I’ve been trying to get my papers.” The agent told him not to worry, to keep working.

He lied to him.

As soon as the agent finished the conversation with Chuy he told his manager about the situation. The agent and the manager returned together to where Chuy was working and continued to question him. After a few minutes of this they summoned the cleaning supervisor and went into an office to probe further, continuing all the while to let Chuy think nothing would happen to him.

They then called the local United States immigration office and informed them of Chuy’s location and situation and asked them to come and get him. Two immigration agents arrived at 5:30pm and took him away in handcuffs, driving him all the way to an Immigration Detention Center in Dodge County where he was held overnight.

Chuy’s family was consumed with worry and fear. His union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, put his wife in touch with an immigration lawyer who offered to help her through the process of securing Chuy’s release and preparing for a deportation hearing. Chuy’s wife was told by an immigration official that she would have to pay a $5,000 bond to get him out and she had to go to Chicago to do it. At great financial hardship to her family, she managed to get the money together and posted the bond. Chuy will have to return to Chicago for a deportation hearing. No date has been set.

His employer fired him from his cleaning job; they couldn’t take a chance on having an undocumented worker on the company payroll.

Chuy has a wife and a small child. He owns his own home, he pays taxes, he works hard, and he is contributing to our society but now his life is completely shattered. He told me he believes he will be sent back to Mexico. He has no ID as the agents confiscated his driver’s license, making it difficult for him to find any other work in the meantime. Most likely, he will be separated from his family for a lengthy period of time and will find it very difficult to return to the US and find work. He will probably also face fines, legal bills and other expenses related to his deportation.

Chuy told me he would like nothing more than to become a citizen of the United States. He would pay whatever fees, fines or costs associated with doing this. He speaks a fair amount of English and is eager to learn more. He has already filled out mountains of paperwork and would fill out more forms if only it would lead to citizenship. Unfortunately, there simply is no real process for him to become a citizen. The backlog of applications is overwhelming. Prior to his arrest he would most likely have waited many years before having his citizenship application even considered. Now, he has virtually no chance of ever becoming a United States citizen.

Yet, Chuy owns a home and has a mortgage that needs to be paid. He must also pay his utility bills and feed and clothe his child. Chuy worries that the bank may foreclose on his home if he cannot pay his mortgage. How does another home foreclosure help the rest of us in Milwaukee? How does the elimination of a productive worker and taxpayer from a local payroll help our community? This is cruel, sad and absurd.

Let’s try and remember when we discuss things like “border fences”, “legal” and “illegal” that we are talking about people. Many of these people work hard, pay taxes and are productive members of society. They are people with families to support, people with lives. People like Chuy.

by Rick Kisséll

I spent this past Election Day (4/3/07) at the Westlawn housing project on 60th and Silver Spring, going door-to-door with MPS School Board candidate Wendell Harris. I chose to work with Harris because my own neighborhood on the south side didn’t have a district race for School Board, and I wanted to help multiple candidates simultaneously. However, when I connected with Wendell, I learned that he didn’t have any literature to distribute for any of the other candidates– not even for Bama Grice-Brown, the citywide candidate for School Board. So, we stopped by the nearest poll, and I grabbed a large stack of sample ballots, which I marked with red ink the candidates I was supporting. Many Westlawn residents didn’t know that it was Election Day, and when I offered them a sample ballot, they were universally glad to get it.

My assumption is that, even in elections that are officially “nonpartisan”, there are de facto slates, especially for candidates for the Milwaukee School Board, which has been openly divided into factions for years. Beyond that, many of the supposedly nonpartisan judicial races feature fairly obvious right/left ideological divisions, such as the Supreme Court race between Linda Clifford and Annette Ziegler and Asst. District Attorney Chris Liegel‘s challenge to Judge Bill Pocan.

So, why is there apparently no coordination between these campaigns? At least at the School Board level, I would have expected some attempts at coordination between the various candidates endorsed by the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association: shared lit drops, etc. But according to Bama Grice-Brown, there wasn’t any. Why?

Ditto for the Supreme Court and circuit court races. Am I wrong in assuming that if you voted for Linda Clifford (despite her typically Democrat campaign: top-down and unwilling to challenge the Right’s “soft-on-crime” rhetoric), you’d probably also vote to retain Judge Pocan, and for the pro-MPS slate for the School Board?

To me, it also seems obvious that the logical group to organize such coordination would be organized labor, which has a long history of endorsing candidates in both partisan and “nonpartisan” elections. However, the largest teachers’ unions (WEAC and the MTEA) have never been affiliated to the AFL-CIO, and the unions have their own problem: fewer and fewer of their members and staff actually live in the City of Milwaukee any more. That is especially true for union officers and staff. Take a look at the movement of union offices over the past few decades: typically, they move from the city to the suburbs, often as far out as Waukesha County.

Perhaps the state AFL-CIO and WEAC could take the lead in creating a body to coordinate such efforts in Supreme Court races, with the Milwaukee County Labor Council and the MTEA setting up a parallel body for “nonpartisan” offices in Milwaukee County. In Milwaukee County, the MCLC and MTEA should reach out to groups like the NAACP to ensure that the endorsement process includes Milwaukee residents of all races in proportion to their presence in the city or county. (Another approach would be to modify the candidate endorsement processes of the MCLC and MTEA to make sure that the endorsements of candidates in the city and county of Milwaukee have the support of a majority of union members who reside in the city or county.)

However it’s structured, I’d like to see it result in the mass distribution of full-size sample ballots about a week before “nonpartisan” elections, with the arrows next to the progressive candidates’ names marked in red ink, with a clear and brief explanation on the back explaining the reasons why candidates were endorsed — the central issues and the candidates’ stands on those issues. That means a return to the days when organized labor had its own program and platform.

Rick Kissell, guest columnist for WatchdogMilwaukee, is a longtime progressive activist in Milwaukee. This essay has been published here with permission.

Leave it to a congressman who spends most of his time in Washington and the rest of it camped in Milwaukee's suburbs to support a bill that hamstrings law enforcement efforts to track "crime guns." Leave it then to the same politician to accuse Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett of being a "sissy."

We all know that politicians like to talk out of both sides of their mouths, but Sensenbrenner's remarks show a how truly blind he is to any reality except the reality that the NRA tells him exists. An NRA that refuses to allow accountability, or controls in the sale and manufacture of firearms. Our society regulates drinking water far more heavily than handguns and I hope most of us agree that handguns are far more dangerous. The only thing as dangerous as handguns is the Strangelove-esque worldview of the NRA. A bunker mentality that is more threatening than the governments that the organization is defending us from. I wonder how the NRA feels about the government wiretapping that their candidates support? Maybe they can shoot their phones.

Violence is a problem in Milwaukee. Mayor Barrett and Congressman Sensenbrenner I'm sure agree with each other in that debate. What is so puzzling is that a man who represents – I use that term very loosely – this region would be so flip about calling it "the murder capital of the US." If Sensenbrenner actually believes that statement then you would think that he would want to do everything in his power to reverse that trend. That would be logical. But when a politician supports single issue interest groups, logical thinking is generally the first thing that goes out the window. Especially when Sensenbrenner's support of the gun lobby trumps his support of his own constituents.

The Attorney General’s statement is “tentative” meaning subject to change, which means that the special meeting scheduled for Monday would be nothing more than a takeover akin to the likes seen in nations with whacked-out dictatorships.

As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, even Lautenschalger’s office “…cautioned that her letter does not definitively answer whether the timing of the election now is legal.”

So this means that as of today, Holloway’s foes have nada! Because now we have a timing issue that must be cleared up.

The coup d’état can be challenged by Holloway’s lawyer, and all that the 10 supervisors seeking to oust Holloway have accomplished is to burden Milwaukee County with needless spending on legal fees.

That’s right! Money that should be allocated towards helping Milwaukee County get out of its fiscal red ink will be going to fill the wallets of trial lawyers.

And why will we taxpayers be spending this money? Because 10 supervisors believe Holloway is distracted from his duties due to his efforts to defend himself from questions regarding his business dealings with the now defunct Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee.

Let’s revisit this point. Holloway faces no criminal charges. Holloway is merely responding to ethical issues raised about his ties with the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee. He is challenging some of the issues raised by the ethics board.

So, because some issues raise an eyebrow of suspicion, 10 board members have decided that due process is a luxury Holloway can practice as a supervisor, not as board chairman. Well, this logic stinks.

It stinks, because these 10 supervisors have sent a disturbing message to our society. And that message being, that just because one faces questions (without formally being charged), is reason enough to remove one from office. This is a terrible message to send into our community.

These supervisors have judged Holloway, and have ruled that he has no right to due process as board chairman. In addition, they have set a tone in the community for the private and public sector to follow. Anyone in the process of defending oneself from unjust accusations is guilty, and should therefore be removed from office, or any position they hold in the private or public sector.

Judging without cause?

This pirate-like mutiny at the county board, reminiscent of peg-legged, parrot-toting, red-bearded scoundrels, is making a mockery of the very principles and judicial values that we, as Americans should stand for and defend. How dare they refuse an American the right to defend himself from accusations?

Indeed, the question is not whether Holloway can perform his duties as chairman that we should concern ourselves with, but rather, why the county board has not acted to hold the county executive accountable for the fiscal chaos now gripping our county government.

Deficit spending is out of control, and the Milwaukee Public Museum is costing taxpayers millions of dollars, and all that these 10 of the 19 members of the county board can muster is a campaign to have a man removed from office, because of questions regarding his business ties to a defunct agency.

Are they saying that Holloway’s troubles have contributed to the county’s current fiscal calamity? Is Holloway’s chairmanship a direct cause for the deficits of the Parks department, Family Care and the Milwaukee Public Museum disaster?

Who’s calling for an investigation of Milwaukee County’s financial health? Why isn’t anyone calling for Walker to explain why the fiscal chaos at the county is now drawing the attention of the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Chairman Holloway is a great diversion from these very real and disturbing financial questions.

Robert Miranda is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. E-mail: rmiranda@wi.rr.com . Miranda’s opinions are his own and do not reflect the opinions or views of either the Editor or Publisher of Watchdog Milwaukee — but he sure writes a firey column, doesn’t he? (A trait we admire.)

-Steve Hawley, Guest Columnist

The struggle to change and grow as human beings is a commonly shared experience for many people. Not all of us choose willingly to undertake this journey. Sometimes we plod along the same path of habits, attitudes and beliefs for our whole lives. Others make the conscious decision to engage in the process of change. For some, change and growth is thrust upon them, ready or not.

Tina Campbell was a young woman who found herself caught up in this process as she took on a challenging struggle to improve her life. Along the way, she grew as a young woman, a mother and, eventually, as a leader. Sadly, this struggle cost Tina her life.

Tina was murdered June 25 in Madison, WI. She was 27-years-old.

Tina worked as a janitor for CleanPower in Madison. A single mom, she took the job three years ago as a means to help support herself and her then-infant son, Marcus. Her employer only offered part-time shifts, paying $7.50 an hour without health insurance benefits, making it difficult for her to support herself, much less begin to get ahead, especially in Madison where rents are typically high. During the three years she worked for CleanPower, she was never offered a raise. Tina wasn’t satisfied with her employment situation, but she stayed at CleanPower, unsure of exactly how to improve things there but needing the job to support her son.

A few years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. After considering her options, Tina realized she would need surgery. Because she was without insurance, the state’s health care was required to pay the bill for the surgery and treatment. She recovered, but her future health was uncertain. She was afraid the cancer might return, and programs such as BadgerCare, the state’s main program for the uninsured, does not cover all expenses. Her son, however, was her primary concern. She wondered what would happen to him if she was incapacitated or if she died.

When she first encountered Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1 in the spring of 2004, she was unfamiliar with unions. Her initial skepticism was quickly overcome when she realized that fighting to organize a union offered her and her CleanPower co-workers their only real chance of improving their jobs and transforming their lives. It also offered her a glimmer of hope for her son’s future.

She learned more about the process of forming a union and began talking to her co-workers, many of whom were struggling in similar life experiences. It was not easy. Tina didn’t know many of her co-workers well, and some of them were difficult to reach, burdened by their own lives and responsibilities, and afraid of losing their jobs if they dared get involved in the organizing campaign. But Tina kept at it, encouraged by the SEIU organizers she met, Arnoldo Fabela and Erika Rosas, who would grow to become one of Tina’s closest friends.

The management of CleanPower eventually became aware of the conversations and meetings taking place among the janitors, and they reacted with predictable hostility. Tina’s immediate supervisors began to monitor her closely at the building where she worked in downtown Madison. Her cleaning work was carefully scrutinized. Any infraction, no matter how small was seized upon by her supervisors. She was approached more than once by a supervisor who expressed his dissatisfaction with her union activities and attempted to intimidate her into giving up the struggle, actions which violated labor laws. Charges were filed against the company, but the damage was immediate — many of Tina’s co-workers refused to talk to her, and getting them to come to informational meetings to learn about the union became more difficult.

Undaunted, Tina soldiered on. The harassment at work increased. She was threatened with transfer to another building. On numerous occasions she spotted managers or other CleanPower agents monitoring her comings and goings as well as her conversations at work. She believed that on several occasions she was followed to and from work by a CleanPower area manager.

Throughout this process, Tina was changing. When she began her work with SEIU she was a friendly but somewhat shy woman, who was uncomfortable speaking in front of groups of people and seemed to have low self-esteem. As the CleanPower organizing campaign progressed, however, she became more comfortable in her role at the forefront of the movement.

On December 10, 2004, International Human Rights Day, a rally in support of the janitors campaign was held on the steps of the state capitol building in Madison. More than 100 people turned out in the cold to show their solidarity with the janitors, including numerous activists, union members, local politicians, community supporters and a sizeable media presence.

Tina, with no small amount of trepidation, bravely walked up to the microphone and addressed the crowd. With her son Marcus was by her side, she told the audience about her recent health problems and her concern for her and her son’s future. She spoke of her difficulties in overcoming both her own fear and that of her co-workers in going forward in the campaign, and of the reprisals they had suffered at the hands of CleanPower management. At times, it was difficult for her to speak. She paused to choke back her emotions and her words were delivered quickly, sometimes nervously. Although the speech was unpolished, it was sincere and courageous and quite possibly one of the hardest things she had ever done in her life. But it would get harder.

Tina was involved in a relationship with an older man, Marcus’ father, who was her off-again, on-again boyfriend since she was 14. He was 42 when they began seeing each other and they had moved into an apartment together after Marcus was born. Throughout the course of their relationship, he exercised an element of domination and control over Tina’s life, taking advantage of her low self-esteem, often feeding it. But when Tina became involved with the union campaign, things began to change. Her growing self-confidence did not go unnoticed by her boyfriend, who became threatened by her improved self-esteem and jealous of the attention she had received in the press and Madison community.

Busy with the union campaign and emboldened by the changes she recognized in herself, she tried to break off the relationship. Eventually she moved out and got her own apartment. She confided in Erika that the relationship was violent at times. She was afraid for herself, and, most of all, for Marcus’s safety. Still, she would not give up the struggle to organize CleanPower. There were more meetings and more rallies, and as the campaign became increasingly public, management backed off on their workplace harassment.

On June 15, 2005, Tina, along with one of her co-workers, Russell McDaniels, attended a Justice for Janitors rally in downtown Milwaukee. Nearly 100 people heard Tina talk about her hopes for the future and her desperate wish to have a union at CleanPower.

“It’s difficult enough being a single mother,” she said in another emotional speech. “We have tried to get a union, and because we’ve tried, CleanPower has harassed and intimidated me. All we want is a union like you have here.”

After the rally she returned to Madison and to her work at CleanPower. Sometime on Saturday evening, June 25, her boyfriend showed up at her apartment. A violent struggle ensued. Luckily, Marcus was not there to witness the incident. Before leaving, her boyfriend shot and killed her. He turned himself in several hours later.

Anger and confusion followed the news of her death. A life was lost, violently and senselessly cut short, leaving a little boy without a mother and a father in jail accused of murder. An important leader in the janitors’ struggle was gone. While she lost her life during this struggle, her work was certainly not in vain.

Tina Campbell left an indelible mark in the world. Though her life was ended prematurely, her final year showed so much promise, took her places she never dreamed possible and introduced her to the hope of change and a better future. She gave her life for that possibility.

The CleanPower battle is not unique. Across the country, thousands of workers are engaged in similar battles to unionize their workplaces and change their lives. The struggle has never been easy; it is not going to get easier. Many will lose their jobs; a few may even give their lives for the struggle. Many will find their lives transformed for the better. Once we have mourned for Tina we must recognize that the CleanPower fight is not over. When we are tired of the struggle, distracted by our own concerns and perhaps ready to quit, we need to look to her life for inspiration to carry us forward as union leaders, workers, and activists.

Dave Somerscales is the Wisconsin representative for SEIU Local 1, met Tina Campbell in spring of 2004, when the CleanPower campaign was in its initial stages.

Imagine Milwaukee becoming part of one of the nation’s most important economic corridors. Some might shrug in disbelief, but a very exciting opportunity to connect Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Chicago lies in the KRM.

The Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter train is planned as a 33-mile extension of Chicago’s Metra Union Pacific North line that ends to Kenosha. The service would operate over upgraded, existing freight lines and end at Milwaukee’s Amtrak station after cruising through Kenosha, Somers, Racine, Caledonia, Oak Creek, South Milwaukee and Cudahy-St. Francis.

According to a study done by SE Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC), over 360,000 jobs are projected within three miles of Wisconsin stations. A further analysis by the nonprofit group Transit Now shows that up to 80 percent of KRM could be paid for with federal funds, with $7 million already set aside to begin preliminary work on the line, which could be running as soon as 2008.

SEWPRC found that the KRM was technically and financially feasible back in 1998, and Chicago’s Metra has been looking to extend north. But the local debate on KRM has been well out of the spotlight. Why has it taken until 2005 to begin talking about getting the KRM moving?

“It has taken a long time, but, up until now, we were not ready to go forward,” said Transit Now’s Rosemary Potter in a recent interview. Potter, who heads Transit Now, represented Bayview, Cudahy and St. Francis in the state Assembly from 1990-98. “I think that the strong public momentum behind this project is giving the elected leaders more confidence to advance KRM."

Potter points out that the commuter line would not only improve access to the 360,000 jobs projected by SEWRPC and create new jobs, but could help riders enhance and improve their personal equity.

She explained that “the poorest 5th of the U.S. spend 42 percent of their annual income on the purchase, operation and maintenance of their cars. The typical American household spends an average of $6,312 out of pocket per year on transportation. The vast majority of that expense — $6,200 — went towards buying, fueling and maintaining their personal cars and trucks. Individuals pay for 84 percent of the total personal and public expenditure for transportation in the U.S — more than five times as much as the government.”

The savings is just one of the reasons Potter finds strong public support for KRM. Research in other communities shows that with a viable transit alternative such as commuter rail, the income families spend on a depreciating auto could be spent on building equity and wealth by investing in a home or on higher education.

Who would pay for the KRM line extension? The commuter rail line fits several federal programs, according to the Transit Now analysis. Up to 60 percent of the total capital costs are expected to come from the Federal New Starts program. Additional federal funding can come from CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality) grants, federal earmarks and other grant programs. Currently, $7 million in federal funds is set aside for the KRM commuter rail project.

The Transit Now report states that this $7 million will be more than enough for preliminary engineering, the next step in the project, expected to cost $4 million. Any federal funds must be matched with a non-Federal share. The non-Federal share is a minimum of 20% of the project’s total capital costs. The non-Federal funds can come from one or a combination of state, local and private funds.

To learn more about KRM please visit http://www.transitnow.org/ . Or, keep watch on WatchdogMilwaukee for David White’s updates on environmental impact (rail vs. auto), urban revitalization through rail and current KRM progress.