GOODBYE, WISCONSIN

Forward ...

It doesn’t take long for a young, enterprising sportswriter to discover that the riveting game is his greatest enemy, because more often than not, the telling of that high-flying event can never do justice to the playing.

I type that from sad experience. Such is the daunting task I face this morning trying to recap my fortunate time in Wisconsin.

My wife and I are leaving the state after 15 years. There are just too many memories of our time here to pack away in one of the many boxes that are littering our fine old house right now. And while words will invariably fail, I wanted to nevertheless lay down several hundred of them before we depart the state on Monday, and begin slowly working our way East — Monkey the Cat in tow — for North Carolina.

I’m working on little sleep, lots of black coffee, and the stress induced by sadness, and the millions of things that still need doing.

I am also excited and thankful for yet another journey in a life I never saw coming that started in Asmara, Eritrea, Ethiopia, with ensuing stops in four different countries on four different continents. I’ve lived in 38 different places in 11 different states, from Maine to California, yet Wisconsin has improbably claimed most of my time.

I have never been in one house for nearly this long.

I still call New Jersey home, even if I haven’t lived there since 1989. My old neighborhood growing up was carved into a few blocks of Plainfield, a hardscrabble, worn out town in the central part of a state that best I can tell is still in a big damn hurry.

People talk fast in Jersey, because if you don’t, you won’t get a word in edgewise. People move fast in Jersey, because if you don’t, you will get run over flat. People laugh a lot in Jersey, because if you don’t, well, fahgedaboudit ...

I will always love the place, but it’s only after you leave that you find out how slow and reasonable it can be elsewhere. I’ll never forget showing up at a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Naples, Florida, after accepting a job at a newspaper there.

I walked into the place to trade out my New Jersey driver’s license. After filling out a few papers, I was called to the desk but 10 minutes later, and handed my new Florida license.

I asked: “Is that it?”

The clerk said: “That’s it!”

I said: “Are you sure …?”

After Florida, there were more newspapers, states, and DMV offices to explore, before ending up in Tokyo and Europe during an 11-year stint with Stars and Stripes — which, incidentally, is once again under attack by the state-run propagandists at the White House.

When it was time to come home to the states, Madison offered job possibilities, a stellar reputation, and was wedged solid between the Atlantic Ocean where I grew up, and California and the Pacific Ocean where the wife I had just married overseas hailed from.

There’s never been a single time I pulled into the driveway of our happy home, and didn’t feel fortunate to be here.

Leaving a thing you love is counterintuitive.

Madison itself rates better than most of the places I’ve lived, and behind a few select others. It’s the victim of a large sample size, but is a good and honest place, which I reckon is the way I would describe many of the people here.

I took a crack at explaining Madison in a piece I wrote a few years ago, so I’ll let a few of those paragraphs loose here:

“Madison is located in Dane County which is geometrically square, and socially wonderful and odd. Madison is so colorful and liberal, it was disparaged in 1978 by Wisconsin’s then Republican Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus as “30 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality.”

Madisonians didn’t much like that insult, not because they disagreed with the stuck-up, frustrated governor, but because it’s actually closer to 77 square miles in size.

Madisonians are a pain in the political Right’s ass, and we take a lot of pride in that. We are also home to the University of Wisconsin, top-flight music venues, museums, bars, restaurants, markets, low crime, and wouldn’t you know it: a destination for the folks in all those small towns looking for some action and vibrance in their lives.

That’s the real reality.

You could also call an election in my town for literally anything and within minutes there’d be lines wrapped around every corner of the city. We are furious voters who have fought to reclaim what’s good and right about Wisconsin and America.”

You’ll know that Wisconsin might be the most battleground-y of all the battleground states, and it has been this hardcore liberal’s honor to stand with the feisty folks here on the Left for what is most certainly good and right these past 15 years.

I can’t count the number of times I stood elbow to elbow with the patriots in his town during protests, marches, and political rallies in the bitter cold. It’ll be in the hundreds, and I am a better man for all of it.

I have never come across a more dedicated group of fighters and do-gooders in my life. If you ever get down — and it’s hard not to these days — I can guarantee you there are thousands of tireless patriots on the ground in Wisconsin working to pick us all up.

When I wasn’t abusing a keyboard, I rolled my sleeves up and threw in with the Team Gold crew here in West Madison. Claudia, Barbara, Ginny and the Gang are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met — tireless, determined, dedicated and Democrats through and through.

Absolutely the very best the party has to offer.

And, yes, I just named a lot of women there, because it is the women who are getting shit done in this country, and are certainly doing their best to restore order here in Wisconsin.

These heroes open their homes for months to canvassers during election seasons, which now seem to run from January till December every year. There is always an important election in Wisconsin. The next one, in fact, will be a crucial State Supreme Court race April 7th, and I still can’t believe I won’t be around to see that one through.

Judge Chris Taylor is running on behalf of the Left-leaners, and if (when) she wins, liberals will have a remarkable 5-2 advantage on the court.

Just a decade ago, Conservatives had the court by that very margin, and things felt a bit hopeless up here following the grotesque, America-attacking Trump’s shocking victory over Hillary Clinton.

That’s when I found my people in this town, and started working like the dickens to start taking things back. With a few notable exceptions, all Democrats have been doing is win up here since then, and I take tremendous pride in having been a tiny part of it.

No matter how hopeless things can feel sometimes, good people, I want you to remember what can happen in places like Wisconsin and that Supreme Court if you put the work in.

Political long-timers up here can’t point to the last time liberals had the court, and if (when) Taylor wins next month, they will have the majority into the 2030s.

I’m so damn proud of the Claudias, the Barbaras, and the Ginnys, it brings tears to my eyes typing all this. They are my heroes.

While I’m emotional and gushing, I also want to mention my friend Emily Kuhn, who is running to be reelected mayor of the neighboring town of Middletown in April, Angela Lang, Co-Executive Director- Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) in Milwaukee, and ALL OF YOU.

Without you, I couldn’t keep this noisy, upstart publication going. Your support and encouragement means everything to this old, broken down newspaperman.

Finally, most special thanks to my wife, Marni, who has the thankless job of managing this move and me. Love ya, darlin’. Happy anniversary.

So now it’s back to the boxes, the bother, and then onto the Battleground State of North Carolina.

There are things to see, people to meet, a wonderful life to get on with, and more and more elections to win.

Goodbye, Wisconsin.

Thanks for making me a better man, and better steward of this frustrating country.

Forward.

(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.)

---

Enough Already is only possible thanks to good people like you. If you don’t subscribe, why not join the thousands who do? And special thanks to the folks who have picked up a paid subscription. I know money is tight, but I couldn’t do this without you. -Earl