Latest news with #MilwaukeeSentinel
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
America hasn't experienced such an attack on democracy. Make your voice heard.
I am 77 years old and I have lived in Wisconsin since moving here in 1964. For a big chunk of that time, I would rise to in the morning, read the Milwaukee Sentinel and then, after work, pore through the evening Milwaukee Journal. Over those years, daily newspapers across the country covered many threats to American democracy, including the Watergate scandal, heart wrenching political assassinations, two presidential impeachments and multiple terrorist attacks. Opinion: Doctors battle misinformation. RFK Jr. is wrong — and measles may only be start. In all my years, however, I have not witnessed an attack on our democracy such as the one we are all experiencing today. To you younger readers, please make no mistake: This is very different and profoundly concerning. What is happening today is nothing short of an effort by powerful interests here and abroad to unravel American democracy as we have come to know it. Younger citizens, this is your moment: Watch, listen, read, question and act. With any luck, one day you'll be my age and you will be able to look back with pride and say, 'I stepped up and made my voice heard.' James Larson, Milwaukee I have lived in this country all of my 66 years, and I have never seen an attack on our democracy like this. At the root of all this destruction is a man who was elected by slightly over half the voters, and a naturalized citizen, both of whom are so wealthy that they will suffer no harm from the effects of their destruction. In fact, they, along with the rest of the richest people, will be the ones to benefit by decreased government spending and decreased monitoring of business and tax collections. In the meantime, absolutely nothing has been done to reduce inflation or deal with other issues affecting average Americans. Opinion: Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan and the 'manosphere' show misogyny is mainstream The Federal government is the only thing preventing predatory credit card rates and loans, ensuring that companies don't pollute our drinking water or our air, ensuring that large companies pay their share of taxes and making sure that we receive the Social Security and Medicare dollars we have earned and are entitled to. I may not live long enough to witness all the damage done by this reckless disregard of the will of the American people, but my children and grandchildren will, and it breaks my heart. Thomas Speech, Milwaukee Here are some tips to get your views shared with your friends, family, neighbors and across our state: Please include your name, street address and daytime phone. Generally, we limit letters to 200 words. Cite sources of where you found information or the article that prompted your letter. Be civil and constructive, especially when criticizing. Avoid ad hominem attacks, take issue with a position, not a person. We cannot acknowledge receipt of submissions. We don't publish poetry, anonymous or open letters. Each writer is limited to one published letter every two months. All letters are subject to editing. Write: Letters to the editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 330 E. Kilbourn Avenue, Suite 500, Milwaukee, WI, 53202. Fax: (414)-223-5444. E-mail: jsedit@ or submit using the form that can be found on the on the bottom of this page. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Powerful interests here and abroad want to unravel democracy | Letters
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Yahoo
Get to know award-winning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigative reporter John Diedrich
John Diedrich started at the bottom of this business. The ground floor anyway. As a college student, Diedrich drove newspaper trucks, delivering the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel across Wisconsin 35 years ago. The job plunged him into journalism, leaving the inky stains of the news on his hands with every shift. A Milwaukee-area native, Diedrich somewhat randomly enrolled in a journalism class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee his freshman year and said he was soon enamored by pace and variety of the job, and most of all by the chance to share people's stories. So, let's get to know Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich: I get the opportunity to delve deeply into subjects, spending months to document how people are being harmed, who or what is responsible and how it might be fixed. My days vary. On some, I go through tips from readers like you and call back folks. Other days, I work with government employees to get data or craft the top of a story. On the best days, I am out talking to people, like Fiesha Parker, whose son was accidentally shot; like Chuck Lovelace, a Park Falls gun store owner helping fellow veterans struggling with mental health; and like David Tate, whose sister, Tiffany, suffered a stroke next door to Froedtert Hospital but because of a little-known policy was turned away and died. The Journal Sentinel is a special news organization because of its commitment to investigative journalism. It has been so since I came back to Milwaukee in 2004 and the commitment remains. I feel blessed to be able to work here and do what I do. I wrote a bit for my high school newpaper (Wauwatosa East '88). Results were iffy. My first reporting job was at the Oak Creek Pictorial, as a part-timer while in college. I still have the printout of an article from my editor, Lorraine, marked generously with her red grease pencil. Then I did internships at the Journal and the Sentinel (pre-1995 merger) and then it was off to my first full-time reporting job at the Kenosha News. I had written about guns for years but I tried a different approach when I was awarded the O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University. I spent almost all my time talking to gun owners about why they owned firearms and their ideas to prevent the misuse of them. I found that suicides account for 71 of 100 gun deaths each year in Wisconsin and there were grassroots as well as government-led efforts to reduce them that hadn't gotten much attention. We changed that. This year, I continued the project, now focusing on accidental shootings of children. I found that parents in these incidents are often charged with felony child neglect in Milwaukee County, while in other counties they are more often charged with misdemeanors or not at all. The response has been powerful and positive. I often started interviews by asking people about when they first shot and why they own a gun today. Those stories were always rich and made it into the articles. I have received many positive comments from gun owners and in fact I have been invited to speak to people like Cam Edwards, who has a podcast on gun issues. Boy, that's a tough one. The stories all have had deeply powerful moments, when I could sense what I think of as the spirit of truth guiding the interviews and pointing me to where the reporting should go. This story comes to mind. I was sitting with an Army sergeant in Fallujah, Iraq, on May 1, 2003. That day then-President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" regarding the war in Iraq. With a grimy face fresh off a harrowing patrol, this sergeant looked at me and said, "I don't know what they are selling back home but this thing is far from over." I felt the responsibility then and now, to carry such messages to those in power. I have to be careful not to disclose too much to protect my source. But I once got a report leaked to me about government malfeasance by having it left in a plastic grocery bag, hanging on the handle of my front door at night. It felt like something out of the Watergate stories. I enjoy reading, composting, backyard fires, riding my mountain bike, being active in our church and checking out new restaurants with my wife, Raquel. We have two grown sons and two dogs, Easy and Fern. John Diedrich is an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at jdiedrich@ This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Q&A: Investigative reporter John Diedrich, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
