Rachel Tilseth: Ron Johnson’s anti-wolf meeting was dirty politics

Capital Times Wednesday August 30, 2017
Dear Editor: Wisconsinites have been subjected to a great deal of political rhetoric regarding the wolf. All this rhetoric is about instilling hate and fear in order to gain support for delisting of the wolf as endangered. It’s best to let scientific fact and public input be the guiding factors in determining the fate of Wisconsin’s wild wolf. But first you’ve got to get past the lack of factual information and politicians’ fearmongering.

Wisconsin voters must remember the saying that there’s no such thing as an honest politician. That saying rings true no matter what political side of the fence you sit on. Politicians are good at agitating on either side of an issue, which in this case is the heated debate of whether to delist the wolf.

I wouldn’t waste any time worrying about the wolf. It’s unscrupulous politicians that we all should be concerned about. Recently, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., held a meeting in Spooner on short notice, inviting only folks that were for wolf delisting, and failing to inform the rest of his constituents about the meeting. His aides ran the Aug. 16 meeting, which was held to drum up support for Senate Bill 1514, the HELP for Wildlife Act, which Johnson is co-sponsoring. This bill calls for delisting the wolf, and has a rider attached to prevent any judicial review of the decision.

Holding a meeting that denied access to all of the public is just dirty politics. This meeting in no way represented the will of the people. Instead it represented the will of politicians with unscrupulous agendas. 
Rachel Tilseth 

Menomonie 

Featured image by Ian McAllister
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