Citizen Wittrock

Back in September I applied to be a member of the 2011 Fall Citizen’s Academy with the Sun Prairie Police Department. After a background check, I was approved, and class officially began on Thursday, Sept. 22.

Over the past eight weeks I have learned about various aspects of police life, including building searches, drugs and gangs. The curriculum included hands-on experience as well, such as when it was time to head to the Deerfield Indoor Shooting Range for some target practice, to the Columbus Speedway for Emergency Vehicle Operator Course [EVOC] driving or to the downtown police station for my

ride-along with Sun Prairie Police Officer Mike Hartman.

The experience has definitely been an eye-opener for me. During a dispatch ride-along, one of the Sun Prairie dispatchers, Tina Gebhard, made the comment that traffic stops and domestic abuse calls are the two most dangerous times for an officer.

“You never know who is in the car or if they have weapons,” Gebhard told me.

Although I never really stopped to think about it before, it makes sense.

An officer pulls over a vehicle and not knowing who or what is in the vehicle, makes an approach. While most traffic stops are routine, with law-abiding and rational citizens such as myself, the potential for danger is there, which is why Sun Prairie dispatchers keep in contact with officers during calls.

“My most important duty here is ensuring that everyone goes home safe at night,” Gebhard added.

Even though I have enjoyed everything, my favorite parts were when I was able to actually try the things out for myself, such as when I got to do vehicle maneuvers and obstacle courses in EVOC driving, or when my class headed to the range for target practice. Defense and Arrest Techniques [DAAT] training was also a blast - it’s not often you get to drop a police officer and former Marine.

I’m not going to rehash every last bit of it, because 1) it would be a lot of typing and 2) I’ve already done that during my weekly articles for the Sun Prairie Star.

If you want a more in-depth review of my experiences as Citizen Wittrock, click on the following links:

Firearms and EVOC driving: http://bit.ly/tRuTC2

Gangs, Drugs and How to Stay Safe: http://bit.ly/s6Mp5A

Defense and Arrest Techniques [DAAT] and Sun Prairie dispatch: http://bit.ly/rJ6uOk

OWI, Detective Bureau and Internet Crimes: http://bit.ly/u3jVO1

Sun Prairie EMS/FIre: http://bit.ly/sDlxqJ

My graduation ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 10. It’s sure to be a blast, and we will find out who won the Golden Cone Award - given to the person who hit the most cones during EVOC driving Oct. 1.

A Pox on Politicians

The other day while watching the news, I heard that Republican legislators, headed by Rep. Voss, want to change the state’s recall policy. Recent policy states elected officials can be recaled for any reason, but a petition with the names of 25 percent of individuals within the representative’s district - and the names have to be collected within 60 days. To me, collecting that amount of signatures - literally thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of names - in two months - seems like it would be challenge enough for the process.

Republicans however, want to make it so a representative can only be recalled if they have committed a felony or an ethical violation.

This proposed change reeks of political agenda and party-pandering. To me, it doesn’t matter if it is Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. Either way, I would not support the move.

We the people - We the People select who we want representating us not just as President of the United States, but in all offices, from Congress representatives and state senators, to district assemblymen and women.

When Governor Scott Walker presented his union-busting, collective bargaining stripping bill to the people, an outry went out and thousands from all over the state - teachers, police, firefighters, the common man - flocked to the Capital to protest. Within a few months, recall efforts were underway for both Republican and Democrat senators, and in the end, Democrats picked up two seats, not enough for the three needed to gain majority, but it wasn’t in vain.

It is the people who elect their representatives, the people who pledge their hard-earned money to fund the campaigns. I understand the frustration with the $44 million spent on the recent recalls, but stripping even more rights from the voting public of Wisconsin is not right. If constituents feel their lawmakers have let them down in some way, are no longer representing their best interests - whatever that may be - they should have every right to try to recall him or her.

This bill isn’t to prevent another rampaging recall effort from occurring in the future, it’s to limit a party takeover - because our Assemblymen and women, both Republican and Democrat - are incapable of working together. Public officials represent us, and showing intollerance and an unwillingness to work together for the betterment of our county, state and nation is a poor message to send to everyone.

Step up politicians, put aside your petty differences, and work to address an actual growing problem: how to fix our declining economy, growing unemployment rates and budget deficit, while not completely turning a cold shoulder to the most needy. Leave the party-pandering in the dust, please.

The Path of the Warrior

I know it’s been a couple months since my last post. I’ve been busy, so sue me. Thankfully, enough has happened lately where all I need to worry about is what to write about first.

Anyway, Saturday, Sept. 17 I traveled to Twin Lakes, Wis. for Warrior Dash. It was a 3.2 mile run, with 10 obstacles, including 8-12 foot walls,a 16-foot rope wall, crawling under barbed wire and a mesh net, leaping over fire and crawling through a mud pit.

Although my time wasn’t the best (42:03.35), I did make my goal - I did not walk a single step and only stopped when I had to wait my turn at the obstacles.

At the end of the day Saturday I finished 4,632 out of 6,657 finishers, and 214 out of 321 female finishers age 20-24. All things considered, I didn’t do that bad, and I had A LOT of fun. After the mud pit and crossing the finishing line, my foot slipped and I actually went all the way down in the mud. I joked about it and was like well, that’s the way to finish the race! Lol.

After the race, I went through Warrior Wash - everybody lined up to get hosed down by the Randall Fire Department. I just went come on, on some level isn’t it every women’s fantasy to get hosed down by a firefighter? No? Oh well, guess it’s just me. Sadly I missed out on signing a guy’s nipple - guess there’s always next year.

By the end, I was covered head to toe in mud. There was a tiny bit of open space on my face and a space on the upper back of my T-shirt that was clean, but that was it.

It was a great challenge, and now I know that I can handle anything - watch out Tough Mudder 2012 - you’re next!

The just may be a reason for everything...

I was talking with a friend the other day, and we got to talking about some of the ups and downs of life and some of the things we had each gone through growing up. As I sat there with my friend, I found myself wondering if maybe there was a reason I went through the hard, painful life experiences that seem to come up one after another.

The more religious individuals out there will tell you "God never gives you more than you can take." Well my response always was, "Well, just how strong does he want me to be?!" But now, I find myself wondering if maybe the reason for all my trials and my pain isn't becoming clear.

I caught a glimpse and noticed that my friend was struggling more than I, and the more I think about it, the more I find myself thinking that maybe the reason for all my trials was so that I could have strength enough for my friend and myself. I'm not sure how things will fall, but I plan on exploring this thought line further. The journey begins...

Moving Up!

Alright, I promised everyone like two weeks ago that I would post my good news, so for those of you that care and haven’t figured it out yet, I recently got promoted at work. I started June 9, 2010 as the Regional Reporter for the Sun Prairie Star. Over the past few months, I have worked hard covering city and county meetings.

In early April, our Associate Editor, Gina Covelli, accepted the position as the Managing Editor for The Herald-Independent in Cottage Grove. After the news came in, my boss offered me her position, and I accepted. Now instead of covering city and county news, I am responsible for writing lifestyle feature articles and doing the layout for the Lifestyle section.

It’s more responsibility and more hours, but it’s also a step up the career ladder, so I’m excited, and I think I’ll do well in the position, even though I’m a little slow at putting the layout together. But hey, I’ve only got two issues by myself under my belt, so it’s to be expected.

Get up, get out, get going!

In this week's column, I'd like to address the growing divide and disinterest in local government. A lot of attention has been paid to what is going on at the state government level lately because of Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill and his proposed biennial budget, but local and county governmental bodies have remained largely unnoticed, at least from what I have seen.

As a reporter for the Sun Prairie Star, I cover the Dane County Board of Supervisors and the majority of Sun Prairie city meetings. When it comes to city meetings, attendance is pretty much non-existent. Whenever I attend Transit or Tourism Commission meetings, the only ones in attendance are board members, myself and individuals presenting to the board, if any. The Sun Prairie City Council Committee of the Whole meetings aren't any better. Occasionally a resident or two might attend, but that usually only happens when an issue pertains to them, such as when the committee discussed changing parking regulations for recreational vehicles [RVs].

I can't really speak to the actual City Council meetings, as that is something my boss covers, but the couple I attended were sparsely attended, with maybe 1-4 people there. Again, the only exception was the meeting a couple weeks ago when they approved changing the RV parking ordinance.

And Dane County Board? Pitiful. Now, I realize that the meeting is televised, but I find it disgraceful that 98 percent of the time, I am the ONLY media outlet actually in attendance at the meetings. Usually a couple Madison media outlets have a brief about the meeting in the couple days following the meeting, so I can only assume there are a couple reporters watching the meeting from home with a glass of wine.

Residents aren't any better. Unless there is a “hot button” issue or someone is being honored, residents don't bother showing up. Yes, there was an instance back in November when the county was proposing cutting funding for Human Services in the 2011 budget process when more than 100 residents showed up to oppose it, but most of the time between 0-12 people show up – a dozen out of the county's 488,000 residents.

Yet we love to complain. We complain about Walker, and the Wisconsin Legislature, about cuts to schools, libraries, state aid to municipalities, how come our taxes keep going up? What people don't realize is the connection between everything. The federal government gives aid to states for projects, the states give money in the form of shared revenue to county governments. County governments then decide how that shared revenue will be distributed among the local municipalities and the municipalities decide what is important for their city, town or village.

To me, the lack of people showing interest in their local governmental bodies says “we don't care about what happens in our town. Just make all the decisions without our input. After all, you know what is best.”

Now I'l admit, I never once attended a city meeting in my hometown of Antigo, Wis., so I can't tell you what it is like in the north end of the state. However, as part of my journalistic education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I had to attend Whitewater Common Council meetings for Professor Sam Martino's Reporting Public Affairs class.

In truth, the majority of people that showed up to those meetings were from our class, which had roughly 24 students, plus the teacher. However, at every single meeting I went to, I noticed between 5-15 residents in attendance, sometimes more. While even that does not sound like a lot, you have to remember that of the city's 14,000 population, roughly 10,000 are university students. So in a city of technically 4,000 people, 5-15 people is decent compared to other places.

I'm going to be completely honest here. I find the increasing trend of ignoring our own local governments to be very disappointing. With everything that goes on in our own lives, how can we think that what the government, be it local, state or federal, does not affect us and our everyday lives?

So as my title says, get up, get out and get going!

Related articles:

How Walker's biennial budget will impact Dane County:

http://sunprairiestar.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=22&ArticleID=7113&TM=58836.8

How Walker's biennial budget will impact Wisconsin libraries:

http://sunprairiestar.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=52&ArticleID=7149&TM=59432.26

Victory!

Yes, yes, I’m aware. I haven’t had a blog posting in oh, about three months now. Frankly, with everything that has been going on, I’ve been more than a tad bit busy, so I’ll be brief. So far this year, I’ve:

• Attended the Monster Truck Nationals at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison;

• Did the Polar Plunge in Madison (which was pretty gross. Next year I’m back to jumping in Whitewater);

• Covered a bit of the craziness that went on at the Capitol the past five weeks;

• Learned one friend is moving. He has decided to be a deusche and deal with it by cutting me out of his life; and

• Learned another friend is going to be spending the next six years in prison;

Like I said, brief. Now, onto the main event!

On March 12, the UW-Whitewater Warhawk Karate Club traveled to Dubuque, Iowa (well technically Peosta, Iowa) for its annual martial arts tournament. I traveled with the team last year, but at the time decided to represent Halama’s Martial Arts. This year I have decided to cast off those shackles and consider myself dedicated to the Warhawk Karate Club.

Anyway, my weekend stared out crazy, as I worked until about 7 p.m. Friday and then picked up some chicken from Buck n’ Honey for supper before heading home to pack. I don’t know if it is because I am a woman or what, but it took forever to pack, and I actually wound up staying up until 12:45 a.m., and then waking up again at 2:30 a.m. Why, you may ask? Well, simple. Because we were leaving from Whitewater at 6 a.m. and I neede to be on the road by 4:30 a.m. in order to ensure I had enough time to get there, meet everyone and head out. Skipping ahead through the boring drive over details (I rode up in an actual former police car), we got there a little after 9 a.m. and the tournament began at 10.

I must admit, I didn’t get to watch my teammates a lot until the very end of the tournament, which was disappointing. Instead, I wound up helping out with tallying scoring in between my events. However, I did get to see some white belt sparring (good job Mike, Alex and Zach), the black belt sparring and Pete’s weapons form (the things that guy can do with a stick, lol).

Of course us Warhawks dominated, bringing home 16 trophies between 14 participants. Our own Laura Kiskunas walked away champion in the ladies forms and sparring. It was quite nervewracking in sparring as I wound up facing her in the championship match. Despite being up 4-0 at one point, I could not seem to clinche that last point and wound up losing 5-4. I think I got too caught up with “Oh my God! I’m beating Laura. Somebody call NASA because the Earth must be imploding!”

Anywho, Laura captured first in sparring and forms for the women (the division did not include red and black belts), and after sudden death in forms, I came in third.

After the competition (and after getting my butt spanked by David, along with half of the team) we hit up Buffalo Wild Wings for food before drinks at the hotel. Although not quite as many people as last year, we still had about 18 people squashed into two hotel rooms.

I could go into more detail about the goings-on at the hotel that night, because it definitely is a night that I’m going to remember, but I shan’t. The craziness stays within the group, lol.

Next blog: The growing disconnect in local government (hey, they can’t all be fun...but they are interesting.)