The Diversity Affairs Commission of the Marathon County Board has received a significant amount of attention from citizens for their very divisive “Community for All” Resolution which resulted in an insulting and one-sided hit piece by the New York Times attacking the hardworking and wonderful citizens of Marathon County.
Today, on the WSAU Wisconsin Morning News, I read a fantastic letter submitted by a listener which was written to Yee Xiong, Chair of the Diversity Affairs Commission of the Marathon County Board. Because I have received so many requests, I am making it available to read and share below. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Xiong wasn’t able to persuade the members of the Diversity Affairs Commission to support the compromise resolution that was discussed at length with community members who politely and very respectfully met with the Commission prior to the recent Executive Committee meeting. This resolution was much more inclusive of ALL in the community and would have received significant and widespread support among our citizens. This fact was omitted in the New York Times article, nor was it acknowledged at the meeting by Supervisor Xiong or by Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg, when she unilaterally issued her own version of the resolution in the form of a City of Wausau Proclamation at a recent press conference outside of City Hall. I am told that most of the Wausau City Council was blindsided by Mayor Rosenberg’s decision to act alone.
I suggest that you share your sentiments with Mr. Xiong yee.xiong@co.marathon.wi.us and all Marathon County Board Supervisors, including Board Chair Kurt Gibbs kurt.gibbs@co.marathon.wi.us and County Administrator Lance Leonard administrator@co.marathon.wi.us
Here is the listener’s letter:
To: yee.xiong@co.marathon.wi.us
Subject: Community for All
Mr. Xiong,
I appreciated the time you took to listen and share your thoughts regarding the Community For All resolution. I came away thinking that you are an intelligent, thoughtful, well-intentioned, and kind man. I do not envy your position as chair of the Diversity Affairs Commission, as I believe those adjectives do not apply to everyone on the Commission.
I still haven’t heard or seen any need for any version of this resolution. Anecdotal accounts of incidents of racist behaviors or concerns in the county do not justify the need. We have laws and legal remedies to address these issues – if they even did occur. Where is the documentation for these events? Was law enforcement called? If not, why not? Over and over I hear racism IS here because the LIFE Report says so. I, frankly, dispute the findings of the LIFE Report. I don’t believe the number of people sampled was sufficient. I suspect the questions were “leading”, designed to get the desired responses as opposed to accurate, objective responses. I don’t trust the motives of the survey, to begin with: I suspect the desired conclusion was identified and then the survey was designed to gather evidence in support of this pre-determined conclusion. This conclusion was that we are a county with racial issues. Residents like myself who have lived here our entire lives are being asked to forget our own personal experiences and what we’ve heard and seen firsthand and take the word of this report, which refutes our experiences.
We have seen this tactic before. Last summer we heard reporters tell us about the “peaceful protests” while behind them buildings were being burned and looted, police officers were disrespected, threatened, and ignored resulting in staggering property damage and deaths. We were told to not believe what we saw, but what we were being told … just like now. Don’t believe what we experience and see every day, believe the Life Report. I don’t think so! In addition to being misled on the need for this resolution, I have seen no actionable items listed to supposedly address the phantom problem of not being a “welcoming community”. Is this as Nancy Pelosi would prescribe: we need to pass the bill to see what’s in it?
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has spread across the country and has now become the real systemic problem to be fixed. Proponents would have us fix racism with more racism. This logically cannot work. It is not really intended to work, but to create more division and/or to specifically benefit certain people or groups. Who are these people or groups? Those who get paid very well to teach “diversity training” (i.e. LaTanya Campbell) and the Democrat party, the party of racism since our country’s inception. Southern plantation owners were Democrats. The KKK was formed as an offshoot of the Democrat party. Jim Crow and segregation were supported by the Democrat party. The Democrat party even fought passage of the Civil Rights Act. Robert Byrd, one of the longest-tenured members of Congress, was a former KKK leader and was glowingly eulogized at his funeral by Joe Biden. When it’s said that this Community For All (CFA) resolution needs to be passed “to attract workers”, I don’t believe it. We have dozens of legit reasons to come here to live and work. We have always been a welcoming community. I believe the motivation is to attract certain people here, namely, Democrats, using this CFA statement as a dog whistle, a code, to attract more Blue voters. What else makes sense?
On my farm, like most, our policy is: “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. Nothing is broke in Marathon County. While I think you are a nice man Mr. Xiong, why in the world did you go along with supporting the original version of the CFA resolution? It was incredibly racist and insulting, yet you didn’t object to your commission moving it forward? Now we have kinder wording, but the motivation is the same, and there is still is no need for it. Show me you are the intelligent man I think you are and stop this ruse. Enough damage has already been done in wasted time and creating divisiveness in our county.
Sincerely,
Randel Wokatsch
Town of Marathon
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