submitted by Larry Larrabee; photo by Mary Ellen O’Brien
Club President Andrea Kaminski pictured here with Melvin Juette
The presenter at our December 11 meeting is the Director of Dane Counties District Attorney’s Office of Deferred Prosecution, Melvin Juette. He gave a very inspirational presentation starting with a brief history of his life from the time he was paralyzed by a gunshot wound at 16 on the south side of Chicago. As he says, “My life went from earning respect by intimidating others to earning it by hard work.”
Wheelchair basketball inspired him and carried him to two gold medals in the Para-Olympics before moving to Dane County. His story is about those who positively affected his life and helped him realize it’s ability that counts, not disability.
In 2008 he authored Wheelchair Warrior. Melvin says, “I can control how I react to adversity. Adversity is an opportunity for growth.” He and his wife have been foster parents to 82 children, seven of whom they have adopted. He uses his life experiences in his work with those who choose differed prosecution to help them realize that it’s not about blaming others but about using adversity to become a better person.
He used the story of his life to inspire us, and his life is truly inspirational. Melvin can be proud of his life, and we can be proud to have him as a part of our community where he serves others.
If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch the video here.
Sara Eskrich, Executive Director of Democracy Found, spoke to us this week. She has herself been in electoral politics, as a Madison alder, and she is concerned that policy decisions are often stymied by politics. There is an inability to get anything done, even when a large percentage of the electorate favors a particular policy. Elected officeholders believe that there is no connection between acting in the public interest and getting reelected. One of the major problems lies in the two-party system today, which, in business terms is a duopoly, able to eliminate third-party and independent competition. This is done through legislation that makes it very hard to offer substantial money to independent candidates. This makes it extremely important for officeholders to ask themselves not whether a policy is good but rather whether support for that policy will lead to opposition in their partisan primary. Another practice that hinders effective governance is plurality voting, in which the candidate with the highest number of votes is the winner, even if the vote total is less than a majority.
Dr. Masood Akhtar received our club’s Manfred E. Swarsensky Humanitarian Service Award at this week’s meeting. Along with this award, a $2,500 grant is presented by the Madison Rotary Foundation to an agency of the recipient’s choice. Dr. Akhtar has chosen United Against Hate to receive this grant. After presentation of his award, he took the stage to share information about the state-wide non-partisan movement he started called “We Are Many-United Against Hate.”
Rotarians were treated to excerpts of some of the most memorable hit songs of the 1960s while presenters Doug Bradley and Craig Werner explained the purpose behind their recent book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War. The title of their book comes from The Animals’ song, popularly known as the “national anthem” of Vietnam veterans. In fact, there is no such thing as THE Vietnam War experience.
Rotary Club of Madison, Wisconsin 