Our Tale of Two Cities
by Meg Gordon
Madison has a bit of a reputation—judgmental, smug and loaded with liberal self-righteousness. For sure, this reputation has been earned. One doesn’t have to live here long to notice pernicious attitudes playing out in tiny daily dramas among this highly educated community—sniping over dog leash choices, bike path and Share the Road power plays and even trash barrel placement etiquette. These are just some mundane examples that illustrate the point.
The real damage from this reputation is that it is being exploited, used as a wedge to divide Wisconsin’s citizenry and taint the good work our community generates. Self-righteousness and smugness does damage the impact of good work. It also helps pave a lazy path for power-seekers to pursue rather than taking on the hard work of consensus building.
But wait, there is more! Madison is 2020’s number two in the “Most Caring City in the U.S.” competition conducted by the personal finance website WalletHub. Our top-tier public research university, medical center, tech hub, seat of government and numerous volunteer organizations like our own LWVDC make Madison a place where a lot of people like to live. To this we say bravo. Most of our multi-textured, highly competitive community is striving to do better, swap the sniping with a hearty ‘How are you today?’ in passing, people we want to embrace, not surreptitiously dodge.
This New Year’s Eve, as we sing The Parting Glass or Auld Lang Syne, cheer those who respond to a problem with ‘How can I help?’ as our poll workers, voter registration and education volunteers did this past November. Cheer our blog authors, forum program designers, legal experts, climate crisis and redistricting activists, and many more. Our League is full to the brim with those whose passion is to make democracy work for Wisconsin, north, south, east and west.
Welcome, 2021! We are ready to work!
Art work is created by San Francisco-based printmaker Sarah Jelley.
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