Southeast Gateway Group

Maybe you have seen us around this summer. Southeast Gateway Group members manned booths at the Racine Zoo, Pringle Nature Center, Kenosha Cohorama and Racine Salmon-a-rama. We also plan to be at both the Racine and Kenosha County Fairs. Our primary reason for attending these events is to promote environmental awareness among the voters of Racine and Kenosha County. Although we are not campaigning for or against any particular candidates, it is no secret that we are dissatisfied with the environmental voting record of 1st District Congressman Mark Neumann. At our booth we provided post cards for concerned citizens to send to Representative Neumann urging him to improve his record and vote to protect our clean water and wetlands.

According to the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Mark Neumann has the lowest environmental voting record of any Wisconsin representative. Recently he was named to the LCV's "Dirty Dozen" list. Congress Neumann responded by claiming that the LCV is "a typical surrogate group that comes in and starts dumping piles of Washington money into negative attack ads that totally misrepresent the facts." The truth is that the LCV is a non-profit, bipartisan coalition of over 25 groups and is chaired by the former Republican Governor of Kansas. The 25 member groups include the National Audubon Society, the Izaak Walton League, Trout Unlimited, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Sportfishing Association.

To quote Mike Hayden, the former Republican Governor who chairs the LCV, "The six Dirty Dozen candidates we've targeted today have real anti-conservation records. It concerns me that five of these deserving targets are Republicans. At one time, the "conserve" in "conservative" really meant something to the majority of elected officials. Hopefully when it comes to environmental protection, it will again be treated as a universal goal." Please stop by our booth at one of the county fairs and mail a post card to Mark Neumann and urge him to put the "conserve back into "conservative."

Why should you vote, support worthy candidates with money and campaign work, maybe even join a political party? It's not an abstract issue. Unfortunately, not Mother Nature but Congress decides whether you will breathe clean air, drink safe water, and have national parks- and forests to enjoy on your vacations. Endangered species, no matter how valiantly they try to survive, have their habitat from time immemorial taken away by Congress and given to corporate tycoons. You are taxed to the limit while vastly rich corporations pay minimal taxes. Congress decides whether you will receive health care according to your needs or according to the profit to be made. Need I say more?

The National Sierra Club has officially endorsed Lydia Spottswood for the 1st District Congressional seat. The Club endorses candidates on the basis of their votes on environmental issues if the candidate is an incumbent; or, in the case of new candidates, on the basis of their expressed views in an interview, in a questionnaire, or in the press. The Club endorses strictly on environmental records. It has no affiliation with any political party.

Please vote for Lydia in November, and help her with either, money or campaign work, or both. You may volunteer by calling her Kenosha office at 652-5798. The fate of our forests, the oceans and endangered species is totally dependent upon the decisions of Congress. It is crucial to elect pro-environment legislators.

Are we making progress in the effort to replace anti-environmentalist legislators? In 1996 seven of the League of Conservation Voters' "dirty dozen" congressmen were replaced and 17 pro-environmental members elected.(13 House, 4 Senate). The support of those 13 provided the margin of victory on an important forestry bill. However, efforts to cut harmful grazing subsidies failed by eight votes, and we lost by only one on other key legislation. We need to educate ourselves and others on the issues and work harder in 1998 and beyond.

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) tracks votes on environmental legislation and publishes a "scorecard". They also send letters to legislators stating their position on the legislation. You can access these letters on their website at:

The National Wildlife Federation also has a hotline on pending environmental legislation at (202) 799-6655.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) has been honored by the Population Institute as one of the Legislators of the Month - for May and April, respectively - in recognition of his outstanding support for international population and family planning efforts.

In accepting the award at the World Population Center in Washington, -Senator Feingold said, 'Ignoring the devastating effects of unchecked population growth would be a grave mistake ... one that many people, especially politicians, seem all too willing to make."

He characterized the recent passage of the Foreign Affairs Reform Act, authorizing international population assistance with restrictions strongly denounced by population stabilization advocates, as a "wake-up call for those of us who have invested in building a balanced future for our planet."

Senator Feingold went on to say, "There's no doubt that enemies of family

planning will claim this vote as a great victory, but we know that their victory is fleeting and that the sensible family planing principles we support can and will prevail.

He said it would require population assistance advocates to "redouble our efforts to preserve and strengthen international family planning and to show the public what the opposition's crusade against family planning will mean for the future of our environment and the legacy we leave our children."

Please write your senators:

Send your letter to Senator Russ Feingold and Sen. Herb Kohl at: The Honorable____________, U.S. Senate, Washington D.C. 20510.

I was 12 years old when I married. Now I am 36 years old. We lost our land in the flood. My husband has married for the second time. He does not live with me. He does not take care of me. Now I am literate. Now I have training. Now I have courage because I can earn my own living by working.

Four years ago the Centre for Population and development Activities (CEDPA) selected me to implement programs through the Integrated Family Welfare Project. I had a lot of problems to do my job because I was illiterate. I had to write the names of villagers. I had to arrange meetings. I had to find girls who could write for me. I had to find girls to read for me. The project said that if I wanted to foster literacy, I should find 35 people who want to study.

Now I can read and write. I can do arithmetic. I have learned a lot of things from reading books. I learned that in the past there was plenty of land. I learned that the population was much less. Now the population has increased. There is no way to earn a living. Now the forests are gone.

How did this happen? I read that in the past, most children died. If a mother had ten children, only three or four survived. There were no vaccinations. There were few medicines. Now we have to use family planning. Parents can have babies if they wish. The babies will survive.

This is the Year of the Ocean. "Factory" fishing methods, which include driftnets and longlines (with hundreds of baited hooks) several miles long and trawlers scraping the ocean bottom bare of all life forms are causing fish, sea turtles, shrimp, dolphins and other species to disappear from our oceans at a truly alarming rate. For every ton of edible size fish harvested, tons of "bycatch" dies. Quotas and turtle excluder devices (TEDs) are proving to be inadequate solutions.

Poor fishermen whose family diet or income depended on seafood for generations, find their small nets empty. Food is declining for dolphins, swordfish, seabirds, seal, sea lions, whales and all other marine predators, too. So what is a seafood lover to eat? Farm-raised catfish, tilipia, striped bass, mackerel, mahi-mahi and crab are recommended. Unfortunately, shrimp is questionable, since for every pound you buy, seven pound of other sea life died as bycatch.

You can get information about the International Year of the Ocean at these web pages: