?Madison: 76 square miles surrounded by reality.? I have often heard that line but usually shrugged it off without giving it a second thought.
That is, until I went home for break to Holmen, Wisconsin.
It doesn?t take long flipping through the newspaper to realize Madison filters out mainstream political thought. If we expect to make meaningful progress throughout the country in eliminating racism, homophobia and other vices, we need to move beyond our bubble to effect change.
Holmen is a small town near La Crosse, with a population of less than 8,000. An average Midwestern community, it is a blend of rural surroundings with a suburban sprawl and is largely inhabited by the descendants of early German and Scandinavian immigrants. And, like any other community, Holmen has its share of intolerance, which is easy for us on this isthmus to underestimate.
For instance, in 2006, only 24 percent of Madison voters were in favor of a ban on gay marriage. Yet, statewide, more than double ? 59 percent ? voted to restrict the rights of gay people. The people who voted ?yes? on the ban are less likely to be the people sitting next to you in class than your neighbor back home.
In Holmen, several individuals recently demanded the school board oppose ?allowing students to have a gay/lesbian vigil? at the high school, as The Holmen Courier quotes. This ?vigil? that some students will participate in is the National Day of Silence on April 25 to bring attention to anti-LGBT harassment in schools. However, some concerned citizens lashed out, saying ?schools shouldn?t be glamorizing homosexuality? and that the ?school board should make an attempt to make sure this day is not recognized.?
It?s not as if the School District of Holmen were mandating student participation or even putting up posters for the event, but there is really no way of preventing any student from being silent for a day. It may be easier for us as college students in large lecture halls to sit in silence, but our protests are understood and probably even shared by those around us. Outside of this university town, such actions and observations are not only less likely to happen but also less socially acceptable.
At the same time as the Day of Silence drama, Holmen was hit with another controversy that would not even be an issue in Madison. Since 1960 there has been a lighted star at the top of a large hill in the village. During the 40 days of Lent, the Lions Club converts the star into a lighted cross. Five years ago, the village bought the land for a reservoir site, and, for the past five years, the public has been paying the electricity bills for the cross.
A relative newcomer to the community complained about the cross being effectively village-owned and operated. The Holmen Courier was flooded with comments lambasting the man who questioned the cross: ?You?re the new kid on the block. You haven?t earned the right to start griping about a tradition.? ?If you don?t like it, look the other way.? Even the village president was quoted in the paper as saying ?We are a Christian community. There?s no getting around that.?
Most students probably recognize the inherent constitutional argument underlying this cross controversy. However, the residents of Holmen who wrote to the paper are not on the same wavelength. We must ask ourselves why this is and what we can do to change it.
And it?s not just Holmen that is outside the Madison bubble. It?s other small towns and villages and cities throughout Wisconsin and the rest of the country. On Monday night during his speech at Memorial Union, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., recalled a comment from an individual at one of his listening sessions: ?If they have a name from the (Middle East), they should be imprisoned.?
We may not believe it in Madison, but there are people out there who honestly believe that all Middle-Easterners are terrorists. There are communities that embrace their religious symbols regardless of its constitutionality. And homophobia is still pervasive in our society. But we rarely notice this in Madison.
We, in this ivory tower that is a university, are surrounded by progressive thinkers, yet communities around us suffer from intolerance and a lack of understanding. Our society cannot afford for us to sit here, complacent in Madison, ignoring the reality that exists beyond these 933 acres of campus.
And we must not rest at simply recognizing this. My writing this column is like shouting in a vacuum. How can we convert what happens on campus and what we learn in our classrooms into change that will benefit greater society?
Combating intolerance won?t happen because presidents or governors will it to end. The solution is neighbor-to-neighbor, grassroots change.
Citizen diplomacy, as Mr. Feingold calls it, can build the foundation for progress not only in communities like Holmen but in other situations as well. We have been privileged to be in Madison for our education, but ultimately we need to do something with that education. We speak of the Wisconsin Idea, and now we must spread the progressive ideas from this bubble to the world outside of Madison.
Suchita Shah ([email protected]) is a senior studying neurobiology.
