Kenosha, San Francisco and Back Again

Dave and I drove south 30 minutes to Kenosha on Wednesday to meet Mary, a retired, white teacher and librarian.  We were joined by a mutual friend.  The four of us sat around a round table in a funky coffee shop which looks out over the Kenosha marina. Given some of the questions we are asking, it seems appropriate that the coffee shop’s name is Common Grounds.

Out and Back with Mary

Appropriately named Coffee House for our Listening Tour

Mary was born and raised in Kenosha which is close to the border of Illinois, an hour’s drive from downtown Chicago.  “Kenosha was a big union town,” with an American Motors plant among other manufacturing.  In the 80’s the plant finally closed.  Her father was a CPA and “fiscal Republican.” “He had his own practice and worked with businesses.”  Mary recounted, “I told him when I was in high school that I was going to be a Democrat.”  He asked her, “Why would you do that?”  “People matter,” she remembers responding, “I’m going to be a teacher.”  She and her father had “talks, not arguments, talks.”  She remembers him responding to her views: “That’s interesting, I never thought of that.”  She remembers not being so open to his points of view.

Mary was married, has a daughter and was divorced.  In 1997 she had a “midlife crisis.” “I quit my job [school librarian], bought a red car, and moved to San Francisco.”  She knew she’d come back -- her daughter and sister and cousins -- everyone was in Wisconsin.  But stayed in San Francisco for 13 years, returning in 2010.  “What did you miss about Wisconsin?” I ask. “I missed the seasons, the cold, the snow.”  In San Francisco Mary worked at the Main Public Library in the children’s section.  “We had 59 languages of books in the children's’ section.  And books in every language were checked out!”

“Did you find like-minded people in San Francisco?” I asked.  “San Francisco was more liberal than I thought.  You got to vote for crazy liberal or a moderate liberal….I believe I met one Republican in the 13 years…”

But now “I’m in a bubble in Kenosha.  Now my problem is that we are in contentious times and I don’t know anyone who thinks differently from me.  I knew a Republican here, but she died a few years ago.”

Friendship

Coincidentally, Mary met another Wisconsin transplant in San Francisco, our mutual friend.  The recounted being in a “welcoming” group at the UU Church in San Francisco and our friend hearing Mary (in her distinctive Kenosha accent) say “I’m Mary from Kenosha.” What a surprise!  The two became good friends.  Every other week they’d meet after work and walk along Ocean Beach talking and talking and talking, ending up at the Beach Chalet for dinner and talking some more: about Wisconsin, San Francisco, friendship, and work...a lot about work.  Their friendship became and continues to be a wonderful part of their lives.  As it turned out, they each moved back to Wisconsin within three weeks of each other in 2010.

Government’s Role

Mary: I never used the word “liberal” I’d say open.  I worked in the schools and saw kids in poverty.  And I approved heartily of the government helping destitute children.  Early in my career I got so angry at parents who weren’t doing enough [for their kids].  Get a job!  Of course, I later learned why they didn’t work.  It is really tough to get a job with no skills, with no work ethic, when you don’t know how to get to a place on time.”

Mary had a boyfriend at the time who was part of a beneficent society. He was proud of their Christmas drive for toys for kids.  Mary admonished: “Don’t buy toys, they need winter coats.  They need gloves, more than one pair of gloves when they lose one.”  Her boyfriend went back and changed the program to coats and gloves.  “And it is still going today,” she says with satisfaction.

Mary recalls, “That was real shocking when I went on Medicare...it was so organized and good.  I remember People saying medicare is terrible.”

In response to our question about healthcare Mary replies, “Healthcare for those who are not union, paid for by cities, don’t have generous supplements...should it be a complete “give away?”  I don’t know?  Like they do in Scandinavia.  I think about that.  I wonder.”

In San Francisco no one ever seemed to object to money being spent on people who were disenfranchised.  It’s such a rich city. At the same time, it was “so hard to see the homeless.”  “In Kenosha - you weren’t allowed to be homeless - police get you into a program or you left.”

She reflects, “My cousin is a staunch Republican, says some terrible things about government, but accepts checks from Social Security and his pension.”  This doesn’t seem “right,” to Mary.

Unions

As a union worker for all of her life, we ask Mary for her reaction to what we read in The Politics of Resentment: rural Wisconsinites resented the pay and benefits of teachers.  “I can see why people might have objected to that.  I remember resenting people on the lines at AM Motors making more than me. ‘I’m affecting the future of our children.’ I thought, ‘not just building cars.’”  But a friend pushed her to “think about work, the value of work.”  “I had to think.”  “People told me...you have the summers off.”

Mary continued reflecting on being a union employee: “I’ll tell you what I didn’t like about the union.  Everyone got paid the same.  Whether you worked hard or not.  It drove me nuts.  I’m sure it was the same at American Motors.  I remember other things that were complained about.  Three years and you were protected [tenure].  But at the same time if you were unfairly accused you couldn’t be easily fired.”

Mary also “Saw what personality could do in the Union.  We got a couple of charismatic leaders...that was a little eye opening and unsettling.  We had someone who I would call “strike happy.”  Bluster.  Husband at Ocean Spray.  He overstepped his bounds.”

Mary is now receiving retirement benefits from the Wisconsin as a teacher, the City of San Francisco as a librarian, and from the Feds for Social Security.

Environment and Global Warming

“I personally didn’t consider the environment as important [before I moved to San Francisco] as I do now.  I just didn’t get it.  I knew about some things.  Then I moved to SF the most environmentally conscious city in the world. When I came back here and it was so much the same. Maybe it’s a little better.”  

[In San Francisco] “It's the way of thinking that was so important. The laws then become a mindset.  You live there and you think okay,  I won’t use plastic bags.  I’ll try not to use paper bags.  We all just chipped in.” “I went back to visit SF and I forgot, I didn’t bring my own bags!”

“Before I moved back, they said mandatory composting would begin.  I’m living in a condo. How is that going to work?!?  They said, ‘oh no,’ here is the bucket and this is how.  They gave me a green bucket.  And then it goes down to dumpster, into a composting dumpster and off it goes.  I was just amazed.”

Mary told us about AM Motors “pollution credits” being sold in the 80’s.  A coal fired power plant bought them.  At the time there was some concern for the hot water being dumped into the lake.  With the smoke stack scrubbers, they were allowed to pass on cheap power and pollution credits to other businesses.  This is part of the reason Kenosha has done well economically (compared with Racine). Near the power plant are some industry and along the freeway (which runs between Chicago and Milwaukee) are a number of large fulfillment centers: Amazon, Uline, Gordon Foods, Jelly Belly. “I do think about trucks and environment.” Mary adds.

Sunrise on Mary's beautiful Lake -- from the deck of Common Grounds

We bring up Global Warming.  Mary responds, “I am so confused by the environment.  I live on this beautiful lake.  I remember when Lake Erie died.  And they fixed it.  I remember when they used to have bubbles in the rivers from the laundry detergent.  And they fixed it. Things get fixed.”

Peter: Do you think global warming and climate change can get fixed?

Mary: “Well here’s why.  They used to talk about that ozone layer.  Do we hear about that any more?  Can we fix that ocean?  Can we get that ocean to cool down?  The ozone layer was pretty big too. I’d like to think that science and ethics can be partners. And that corporate greed can somehow be brought in. That they can want to do what they can. The answer is in science.  I’m optimistic about the future in that regard.

She continues, “Do I worry about it?  Global warming? Yes.  And I worry about everything.  I worry for a lot of people.  And then my sister and daughter say “enough” when I get on my worry rant.”

Politics, Echo Chamber, Obama, Walker, Trump, Pence

Mary: When I moved to SF I was a democrat.  I thought republicans was all about business, profits, regulations, what's good for business, greed, banking.  I never heard of the hatred is now being exposed by the republican party.  I remember when Sarah Palin came on the scene.  She was verbalizing what they were all thinking.  Or not out loud.  That was the beginning of this division.  But when you find someone who thinks the same way you are affirmed. Everybody gets press.  Every idea has a listener. It's easy for people to find other people who think the same way they do.  That is affirming.  And that makes your voice louder.  And that also means that it is very difficult to change people's minds.

Mary remembers, “I met a woman in San Francisco from Milwaukee.  She wasn’t coming back.  She asked me, ‘explain what is happening in our state?  What is going on there?’ I said I couldn’t. I couldn’t understand it.”

Dave follows up, “Can you now that you are back?”

Mary:  No, I’m still in shock (7 years later).  I thought our governor was bad.  But the president in like a 1000 times worse, and he’s not even a true republican if you could call him that?  

She pauses then adds, “Does it affect my day to day life?  Getting in my car. Going to church?  Not really.”

Mary:  The power of the conservative church.  That it would get a toe hold in Wisconsin. The toe hold [of the conservative Christian church] has led to hatred and so that some of the issues sexuality and abortion has affected the government.  Our governor has hate in his heart sometimes.  He is not open to listening to the people I know.”  

Our mutual friend adds, “Not only anti abortion...really anti abortion.  People in front of our clinics yelling and screaming.  Walker wants to make sure abortion never happens in our state."  She continues, “I don’t know if you know that much about Pence.  But women in Indiana are sending him reports on their menstrual cycle.”  Coming back to Wisconsin, Mary concludes, “I was disappointed that our governor was both a conservative fiscal AND social conservative.”

We ask about Obama and his presidency.  “He grew into it so well.  I was uneasy when he was elected.  Did he really have it?”  Mary recalls her black boss in the SF Library saying during the 2008 primaries, “I’m uneasy about this Obama, because he is African, not African American.  He does not know. He had not personal relationship with slavery. She was skeptical.  The day after he was elected, however this same woman said, “I never thought I’d see the day when a “black man” was president.”  But Mary adds, “Then he became a lightning rod for hatred.”

We wrap up most of our conversations with the question: “If you had a magic wand, what would you change...locally, state, nation, planet...you choose.  Without missing a beat Mary answers,  “Oh, I would change the president.”   She continues, “You know there is an alternative for the vice president to step into the role.  But what is the Pence person really going to do to us.  Ignore Puerto Rico.  Show hatred. Build the wall.  Or just focus on that narrow, narrow focus on women's rights.  I think the world is in terror about what is happening.  I didn’t think I’d ever live in a time like this.”

Patriotism

Mary then offers, “But to me the most interesting issue in the past few weeks has been the ‘football issue.’  Oh, I can see both sides of that issue.”

1. The side of the players to say “we people of color have been through a lot.  We love our country, but this is the way we are going to bring attention to the issue: we are not going to honor the flag or the anthem.”
   
2. “And then you get people who are highly patriotic, which I am one, [I want them to] protest in a different way.

Mary: My heart just breaks over that, I can see both sides.  I happen to love being an American.  I’m extraordinarily disappointed in the past year or so.  I just thought America was wonderful.  I’m disappointed more than angry.  I’m disappointed in the State of Wisconsin the leaders of our government bodies (plural).  I’m questioning more than I ever did.  But I’m not moving to Canada.  I’m here.

Mary: When I worked at the library in SF they had me review all the children's books that had anything to do with America.  Because I was the most patriotic American they had. You remember, I taught 4th grade.  I said the pledge of allegiance every day.  And I believed it.

What can I do?

As we near the end of our conversation Mary reflects, “Now that I’m talking to you, I think maybe I need to make my hours count more than I have in this retirement.  I think: why don’t you do something about it.  Stop driving around and playing mahjong and do something about it?”

Mary:  I proselytize as much as I can in a non-political way.  I like to talk about issues. But when you are in a bubble you are preaching to the converted.  Who am I going to talk to?  That is one of the main reasons I want to be in a UU church.  The people I meet there are articulate, educated and want to talk about things.  Now, do I know a dairy farmer?  I wish I did.  To talk politics.

-- Peter