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Dear Editor:
Miss Jackson's twelve-times-a-day proclamation to us Seneca elementary 3rd and 4th graders 60 years ago was, "Children, do you love each other, are you kind and true, do you do onto others as you would have them do onto you?"
This golden rule exists in different forms from the Bible, to Confucianism, to the Code of Hammurabi. Treating others as you would have them treat you is also the basis of American democracy in the Declaration of Independence. We citizens must look our fellow citizens in the eye and work to understand their values, beliefs, fears, and aspirations.
This value is required for us to work together as equals in representative democratic self-governance.
The Wisconsin legislature's current majority's authoritarian values motivate, even necessitate, them to force their beliefs on everyone. Retention of power and control over the citizenry is considered more important to this ideological elite than either the needs of the citizens or the basic founding values of our nation.
We citizens cannot save our democracy alone, democracy is a system and activity for relating to and working with others. Join in the spirit of the golden rule with your fellow citizens to bring real democracy back to Wisconsin.
Bill Dagnon
Baraboo
(Formerly of Seneca)