Marilyn Leys

Denting Goliaths (eBook, ePUB)

Citizens Unite Against Regional Low Level Flights

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

When cartographers recounted Wisconsin's Past and Present in a series of maps, the only civilian opposition mentioned in The Military in Wisconsin was organized in part by Citizens United Against Low Level Flights after the Air National Guard proposed establishing new routes over southwest Wisconsin and eastern Iowa to train jet fighter pilots in low-level, high-speed flying.

Diverse groups and individuals participated in the Guard's Environmental Impact Study by writing letters citing specific problems that had already been caused by slow, low-flying transport planes or loud military jets that would cause problems in the future. Most opponents were long-time residents; a few were pacifists. Opponents included area farmers whose dairy cows and other animals spent much of their time grazing in small pastures. Five hundred Amish in southwest Wisconsin signed a letter to the military objecting to the fear that low-flying jet planes might cause their horses and danger to the passengers in the buggies the horses were pulling.

On the night after the worst snowstorm of that winter, the first organized public meeting drew hundreds of residents; it also drew aides to both of Wisconsin's U.S. Senators and our congressman. At other public meetings for more than a year, and appearances at local festivals during the record-breaking heat of the summer, many showed up, but hardly anyone agreed with the Guard's proposal. In areas where jets might fl y low, government officials and wildlife and political organizations passed more than 100 resolutions of opposition, only sometimes at the urging of CUALLF.

Though otherwise supportive of the military, Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl had been somewhat wary of this proposal even before it was made public. What would it take to make their opposition more certain, and would this opposition cause the Guard to withdraw the proposal?

---

Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, D ausgeliefert werden.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: AuthorHouse
• Seitenzahl: 266
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. Mai 2015
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781504912228
• Artikelnr.: 54708662

Autorenporträt

A pair of visits to a Wisconsin State Historical Site, ten years apart, presented Marilyn Leys with two different stories about the parents of the young man who commissioned Villa Louis. The second docent was the one who talked about Jane Fisher's previously unmentioned first husband, who had been the most powerful fur trader in the frontier town of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in the period just after the War of 1812. Another fact learned late was that Jane Fisher Rolette was the first woman in Wisconsin Territory to file a petition for divorce. Leys had been looking for a project to pursue in order to qualify for a sabbatical leave from Milwaukee Public Schools. Working toward a JBA from the School of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison had taught her how to speed-read through paper documents and interview the best experts about their areas of expertise. Teaching writing -- both journalism and creative writing -- and editing her students' work had taught her how to critique her own. She had already published freelance stories in the Milwaukee Journal. Research for the novel involved visiting sites, sorting through more than 15 boxes of family papers stored in Madison and St. Louis, and reading other papers from southwest Wisconsin courthouses. Interviews included a priest/history professor at Marquette University and the most knowledgeable local historian in Prairie du Chien. There were books too, since the two husbands were central figures and the first husband was so important that the second in command to John Jacob Astor was the godfather of the Rolette children. After the first draft of the novel was complete, Leys and her husband moved from Milwaukee to a farm in northeast Crawford County. After 20 years there, they moved to the only city in the county, Prairie du Chien, where the author has learned firsthand what it's like to live beside -- and keep an eye on -- the Mississippi River.