Another Can Of Worms

Another Can of Worms  – Bob Haase

 

Truth and Trust – DNR $500,000 Grant

I have written about this before and I will probably write about it again as I think this a becoming a major problem in our country and the world for that matter.  There is a saying that a man is only as good as his word and today many people do not know the difference between the truth and a lie.

A persons word used to mean something and many contracts and agreements were bound with a hand shake to bind the words that were spoken and agreed upon.  When someone was caught in a lie it was a major thing that usually resulted in a loss of trust. Today it seems like people think it is ok to lie and mislead people by using statements and false advertising.  Even our government must think it is ok because they sure don’t do much to penalize businesses that make false promises and use false advertising to defraud the public. Maybe the reason is that our politicians do this all the time in their campaigns and this carries over into the way they run our government.

An example of this is the $500,000 grant that the DNR awarded to the group “United Sportsmen of Wisconsin” last week.  They said that they were a non profit 501(c)(3) organization and when they found out that they lied, they received the grant anyway. The DNR said they did not have to be a 501(c) (3) organization, but the point is that they lied.  If you got caught lying on a job application do you think you would get hired?   In fact other trusted non-profit sports and conservation organizations were not notified or even allowed to apply. United Sportsmen of Wisconsin is actually a strong political action and lobby group with ties to the GOP, and groups such as the Association for Americans for Prosperity, the NRA, and others. They were organized to help support iron mine in northern Wisconsin and the development of wetlands, using the term “United Sportsmen” as a mask. They are planning now on closing the public land next to the mine for public access which includes hunting and fishing so how does this help sportsmen?

Luke Hilgemann was listed as an educator for United Sportsmen of Wisconsin and he was the former chief of staff of the Wisconsin Assembly’s majority leader, Scott Suder.  Hilgemann recently joined the national office of American’s for Prosperity which is the Koch brothers lobbying group.  It may be coincidence that Assembly Majority leader Scott Suder was the legislator that put the $500,000 grant into the state budget.

Things like this happen because they know that they can get by with it and even if the public finds out about it the people won’t care or do anything about it. Because of things like this more and more people do not trust our government to tell the public the truth.  If the people in our country do not trust our government to tell the truth, why should other countries trust our government to tell them the truth?

Telling a lie may seem like a small thing, but it leads to losing trust which is a major thing.  If you are a sportsman or a tax payer, you may want to check into the $500,000 DNR grant and the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin because it is your money they are getting. You may also want to question why this grant could only be awarded to the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin and no other group could qualify. By the way, the grant will provide $200,000 this year, $300,000 next year, and $450,000 in every future two year budget!

–Bob Haase hosts Outdoors Thursday on KFIZ every Thursday at 9:10am.