Here are this week’s letters to the editor of the Herald Times Reporter. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.
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Remembering Manitowoc’s shipbuilders
I write this on May 28. On that day in 1944, one of the 28 submarines built at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company was launched. It was the USS Lagarto. My father, Lester Dehne, from the town of Newton, was one of the many welders on the 28 subs that were ordered by President Roosevelt for the war.
My dad told me all his welds had to be checked by three inspectors. A band played often at lunchtime for the workers. Each time a sub was launched, a whistle would blow and the whole city would know. At the end of the war, he stayed to continue his work in the shipyards. When he retired after 40 years, he ran his overalls up the flagpole at his house on Centerville Road in Newton for all to see.
With pride and in memory of my dad and all the welders and the work they did in Manitowoc.
Shirley Dehne Wolf
Kaukauna (formerly of Manitowoc)
Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access, part two
In a previous letter (“Pace of broadband expansion ‘extremely slow’,” May 10), I opined on the shortcomings of this organization and promised some of my thoughts on solutions.
Addressing the broadband access issues in rural and underserved areas requires that the state go beyond the existing approach and adopt more aggressive, inclusive and coordinated strategies. Here are several potential solutions to address the broadband gap:
Create a dedicated independent broadband authority for overall oversight and management;
Incentivize municipal and co-op networks for local, not corporate, affordable solutions based on local needs;
Target state funding for rural areas to create a funding pool for sustainable solutions;
Reduce regulatory barriers and streamline permitting with reforms to reduce red tape;
Use limited federal funding more aggressively and match them with state funds; and
Set clear, measurable and appropriate targets for broadband access, ensuring that every household in the state has access to a minimum of 1,000/1,000 Mbps by 2030.
To a retired computer engineer, providing internet services to the entire state looks like an IT network problem. As not primarily a social or economic problem, it cannot be successfully addressed by well-intentioned, narrowly focused bureaucrats, overspecialized academics, conflicted private enterprise entities, and partisan politicians. The current lack of focus can explain the lack of success.
In short, an Information Technology problem is unlikely to be resolved by those currently charged with this task.
Michael F. Pitsch
Francis Creek
Promoting the general welfare?
One of the goals that the framers of the Constitution set forth in the preamble was “to promote the general welfare.” It is commonly agreed these days that what was meant by this aim was that government was to ensure the well-being of its citizens, including economic prosperity, public health and social services.
It is questionable that the general welfare will be promoted in the budget now before the U.S. Senate if it is passed substantially in its current form. Many people, especially those in Wisconsin, were heartened (and very surprised) when they heard that Ron Johnson was against the dreadful bill passed by the House. However, they became disillusioned when they discovered that Johnson opposed the bill not because it was awful, but because he felt that the cuts being proposed to Medicare and Medicaid were not drastic enough.
Johnson’s net worth has been estimated at roughly $78.5 million, but it does not necessarily follow that because he is so rich he could not possibly understand what losing health care coverage would mean. However, because he favors even deeper cuts than the House has proposed, it suggests that he hasn’t a clue, or worse, doesn’t care what would happen to the millions who would be negatively affected by the bill’s passage.
It appears the welfare of the wealthy will do just fine if the final budget bill winds up looking anything like the House bill that was passed. On the other hand, things don’t look so good for millions of others in the general population.
Jim Rabata
Manitowoc
Our letters policy
Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to htrnews@htrnews.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@gannett.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc letters to the editor on shipbuilding, broadband, budget bill