Anti-choicers are being naïve 

A while back I read a history book about ancient Greece. One story has stayed in my mind. In 300 B.C. the Spartans, from the city state of Sparta, made a rule that only two groups of people could have their names written on what today we would call a wall of heroes.  The first group were those who died in battle. This is not surprising because the Spartans were a warring people who celebrated their heroes.  

But it’s the second group that caught my attention: “women who died in child birth.”  
In the time before modern doctors and medicines death during child birth was very common. It was being as courageous as a soldier for a woman to become pregnant. If she died she was worthy of a place on a wall of heroes.  
Today as Republicans and anti-choice people have been successful at limiting the use of doctors and medicines for pregnant women I wonder if we aren’t returning to those days. I suspect that they have come to believe that all of  nature should be as calm as a sea shore on a sunny windless day.  Women should drop healthy babies easily and their beautiful visages should be available for billboards on the highways.  

The problem is that nature is not always kind. Nature sometimes turns calm sea shores into places where death dealing hurricanes land. The example of the ancient Spartans attest to the fact that pregnancies can be that way. Pregnacies can be either wonderful life giving experiences or death dealing. We cannot be naïve about this.  

I am one who is uncomfortable about affirming all abortions. If a woman were to ask me to decide the fate of the healthy fetus she was carrying I can hear myself shouting, “Don’t do it.” But then I think about what the greater good is in an imperfect world and I realize that decisions about the unborn are best made between a woman and her doctor.  

I doubt if  anti-choice Republicans would be like the Spartans and build a wall of heroes for women who have died in child birth. But I think that they should stop being so naïve as to think that nature will always provide a  wonderful result. Sometimes people need to protect themselves from the ravages of nature and abortion is one way to do it.  
Carl Doersch
Ashland, Wisconsin

The emergence of True Northland

Northland College does not need to close – it has no long-term debt and its environmental and social justice mission is more important than ever. It is on the shore of Lake Superior, surrounded by thousands of acres of public forest, and does cutting-edge research and teaching in natural resource management, water science, sustainable agriculture, sustainable community development and the relationship between humanity, nature, and education. What could be more relevant, especially as climate disruptions intensify?

In the past three weeks, True Northland, a financially sound, mission centric vision for the future emerged from community visioning meetings. True Northland creates a cross-sector intergenerational learning community by opening the campus to community workforce and elder housing, and mission-aligned organizations who can rent office, studio, and lab space. The campus, which was built to accommodate a much larger student body, has plenty of room. 

 A 2023 report from UW Sea Grant finds that a lack of workforce housing is the key bottleneck holding back development of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions in Wisconsin’s northern tier. The report also highlights the need for capacity-building, grant writing, and project management skills. True Northland could help solve all these issues, while also bringing revenue to the college.

 Northland College needs time to realize this vision. The Board of Trustees failed to launch a fundraising campaign to accompany their March 11th announcement that it would close the college if it didn’t raise $12M by April 3rd. As of March 30th, the school has not even contacted alumni to let them know. An alumnus who is a major donor found out about the threatened closure from a relative. There are currently no in-house advancement officers working on this campaign.

 The Trustees’ plea for $12M included no vision for the future and no transparency about how they calculated the $12M amount or the April 3rd deadline. On March 27^th, a faculty committee saw for the first time the budget projections that informed the Trustees’ decision. Their budget model for next year did not include any cuts to expenses or any sources of new revenue. 
 Northland College is too important to let die. The True Northland community-led vision meets critical needs in our region, helps build societal resilience for climate disruptions, and strengthens partnerships with tribes, agencies, and nonprofit partners.
The fundraising that has happened up to this point is not a good indicator of what is possible. Northland Forever, a group of alumni, is accepting pledges to support the True Northland vision. Pledges to Northland Forever are not controlled by the Board of Trustees and will not be used to close the college. For more information visit Northland-forever.com.
Brontë Gross
Ashland, Wisconsin