In My Blogyard: Road paved with danger for veterans

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:58 PM CDT

Veterans were willing to risk their lives for their country. But for groceries?

The blogger GINN1, an employee at the Southern Wisconsin Center, wrote with concerns about the veterans who live on the campus and "use the motorized carts for transportation to and from Union Grove."

It’s great that they’re so active. The writer’s fear is for their safety.

"My concern is that they are traveling down 10th Street (Pine Road on campus) on their carts and there really isn’t any place for them to drive other than on the road," GINN1 wrote, hoping that some level of government "could come up with money to add a strip on each side of the road for the veterans to ride on."

Readers sympathized, although some were less optimistic a change will happen.

"If it’s anything like the VA in Milwaukee they won’t do anything," the blogger known as "surgeon generals warning" said. "I see guys up there driving wheelchairs up huge hills and across busy roads with nothing being done for them."

Another resident, identified as ugyff, wrote that the road is "LONG overdue for work," and a previous widening effort was "terrible at best. It’s still too narrow for two vehicles to pass by each other. For all the residents that walk, bike and travel on 10th it’s a tremendous hazard."

Join the discussion at:

http://my.journaltimes.com/greateruniongrove

Their sworn doody

The aptly named blogger C.R. Mudgeon wrote a satirical post about police priorities.

"Over the past months the police have been responsible for collaring people who brazenly walk their canines on the North and Zoo beaches," it began.

It gave winking applause to a crackdown on mis-parked boaters and a security search of a female bicyclist who stumbled onto the route of a presidential campaign. The gist of the faux compliment was clear.

"I sleep better knowing that the beaches are safe from bow-wows and boaters and we are all safe from blond bombshells!" C.R. concluded.

Some dismissed it as whining. MR wondered what’s so hard to understand about obeying the law.

"Do you think your dog gives a rat’s tail whether it gets to go to the beach or not?" he wrote. "Take your dog somewhere else."

Others thought the satire was dead-on. They’d prefer that attention shifted to more serious crimes.

"Otherwise," commented surgeon general, "you’ll just have really clean streets for people to die on."

Join the discussion at:

http://my.journaltimes.com/cityofracine

Caledonia’s roots

A lot of Crestview residents think they live in a dynamite subdivision. Technically, it’s a TNT neighborhood.

Near the end of World War I, DuPont stored explosives on that land as part of a government contract. A 2,000-acre TNT production complex between 4½ Mile and 7 Mile roads was one focus of a book Nick Weber compiled on the history of Caledonia. I posted a few excerpts on the Caledonia Weblog.

"With federal funds backing them, the DuPont Company spared no expense, often paying over market prices for materials," one chapter says. "They employed over three hundred men, working 10 hour days, seven days a week, to build the bunkhouses, dormitories, kitchens, dining halls and the manufacturing plants themselves. Wages for those working on the plant were outrageously high."

So that’s what people mean by the good old days.

To see more excerpts, go to

http://my.journaltimes.com

Click on Caledonia under "Neighborhoods"

Reach online community editor Mike Moore at (262) 631-1724 or mike.moore@lee.net

Special Offer: Get 5 Weeks of the Journal Times for $7!