One of the few unfortunate downsides to life in Wisconsin is the state's ugly tolerance for alcohol on the road. It's something you need to factor in if you live here.

Appleton's newspaper, The Post-Crescent, reports today that Wisconsin is the worst in the nation for drunk driving fatalities. Naturally, Mothers Against Drunk Driving is unhappy about that, as am I.

I am disappointed that more vigorous steps have not been taken to reduce drunk driving here and in many other places.

"We continue to see Wisconsin as coming in as worst in every category of alcohol-related traffic fatalities, underage drinking, binge drinking," [said Kari Kinnard of Appleton, MADD Wisconsin's executive director]....

MADD cites lax drunken driving laws and the lack of sobriety checkpoints in the state as contributing factors to Wisconsin's poor ranking.

Sgt. Jeff Nelson of the Wisconsin State Patrol in Fond du Lac said Friday that Wisconsin does not permit sobriety checkpoints, and he wasn't aware of any legislative movement toward them.

There are penalties for drunk driving if you get caught, certainly, but it seems like it would be easy to crack down on drunk driving by simply having police regularly target the parking lots of bars. Pull over a driver as they leave a bar's parking lot at 2 am, check for alcohol, and then whip out the cuffs. I've driven by hundreds of bars at night and can't remember ever seeing a police car staking out the action nearby. Why not? Why not have sobriety checkpoints near bars? And why not make it illegal to serve a person enough alcohol to suffer from impaired driving?

So why do we have such tolerance for alcohol on the roads?

Legislative efforts to deal with the problem face powerful resistance. I think it's more than just a cultural tolerance for alcohol - I think it's the concentrated power of those who profit from our abuse of the deadly drug of alcohol. The liquor lobby in Wisconsin is powerful and effective. But I hope you'll join me in calling upon our legislators and police to take more vigorous and effective steps in cracking down on drunk driving.

What a shame it is to be the worst in the nation in this vital matter of public safety.

Tuesday night, Nov. 20, Appleton continued a robust tradition of holding the nation's largest Christmas parade. It was a cold, wet night with sleet, so I was expecting most people to stay home. Wrong! The streets around College Avenue were packed with traffic, and even though I was nearly 30 minutes early, I had to park about a third of a mile away. College Avenue was packed with spectators for this exciting parade. I couldn't stay long, but managed to get a few photos. A son is in one of them.








While cute, I was actually slightly annoyed by this 60's-style float, which featured flower children and John Lennon's anti-religion anthem, "Imagine," a song which suggests that the world would be better if we'd all just believe there is no God above us. Does that really fit a Christmas parade? Oh well. Nations that official reject the notion of God have been the worst for genocide and violence against millions, so I don't think John Lennon's creed is what the world needs.



A float pointing out that we are celebrating 150 years of Appleton!

An exciting and successful new business in Appleton is United Translators, a firm started five years by Adalia Jansen, a native of Peru. United Translators, Inc. now employs 10 full-time and 50 part-time employees, and offers interpretation services in 50 languages. She was in the right place at the right time with this concept. I've had a couple of Hmong friends work with United Translators. Excellent company, filling a serious need in the market. Read more about this story in Margaret LeBrun's insightful article, "Language Link" in a recent issue of Marketplace Magazine.

By the way, I recently had a chance to meet Margaret and learn more about Marketplace Magazine. Very impressive. The latest issue just coming out actually features my boss, Cheryl Perkins, on the cover, and reports on her exciting company, Innovationedge. I'm biased, but one URL says it all: see best.firm.ever.com!