–submitted by Ellsworth Brown
Dan Tokaji, Dean and Professor of Law at UW-Madison Law School, addressed sustaining and strengthening American democracy, focusing on election administration, restructuring elections, money and politics, and the big picture.
With humor, wisdom, a catalogue of issues, and some suggested solutions, Tokaji observed that a unique characteristic of American politics is the profound scale of local elections, inherently partisan, differing by state and often in conflict with federal election laws that, themselves, have changed significantly since the year 2000.
Redistricting, unlimited acceptance of private money, and the need for fidelity to truth further confound the election picture.
If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/kmHObUPTDG8.
On an historic day, when the Club returned to the Park Hotel for the first time in more than a year of pandemic isolation, our speaker was fellow Rotarian Jason Fields. Jason is the new president of the Madison Regional Economic Partnership. He spoke on the topic “We Must Not Accept Complacency.” The title derives from his belief that Madison is a great place to live and work, but his mission is to give his all for everyone he deals with, always. And he construes economic development to mean “to empower people.” All people. He is motivated by the question that his wife asked him: “Yes, Madison is a great place. But for who?” He briefly referred to the statistics we all know, that Wisconsin has huge disparities between its White and Black populations. He and his wife were themselves discriminated against while seeking a home here as they move from Milwaukee. This is never acceptable. Beyond the immorality of it, we have to send a message that this will not be tolerated if we really want to be competitive in attracting talent.
Zach Brandon made an inspiring presentation at our March 24th meeting of the Rotary Club of Madison. As the president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce and past Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, he is well qualified to speak to us about Madison’s present and future in his titled address, “There is Light in the Darkness.” He structured his presentation around the intervening years since his prior Rotary presentation in 2018 which was his third.
Rotary Club of Madison, Wisconsin 