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News Republic Editorial: Here's our wish list for 2009

The clock has just about played out on 2008. If we have any wishes for the fading old year, we've got just four days to make them come true. So we turn our attention and our wishes to the New Year.

Here's what we'd like to see in 2009:

*

Whether you agree or disagree with the voting record of the Democratic duo is beside the point. Elected officials are in office to represent their constituents and being present for votes is not too much to ask of our politicians.

 More politicians like Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl. The two U.S. senators from Wisconsin were recently recognized for having 100 percent voting records during the 2007-08 legislative session. That's 657 votes cast, if you're keeping score at home. Only five other senators could make the same claim.

Let's expand the use of specialized OWI courts that give drunk drivers a fighting chance to stay sober.

Offenders must attend intensive rehabilitation programs, submit to frequent alcohol testing or wear ankle bracelets that can detect alcohol in their systems. This heavy supervision is showing more success than jail sentences.

Considering Wisconsin's terrible OWI statistics, it is irresponsible to not embrace a better method.

In 2009 we hope they will also make the grounds more wheelchair accessible, so everyone can enjoy the fair.

* We'd like to see Wisconsin work harder at getting repeat drunk drivers off the road. These so-called "hardcore" drunk drivers continue to get behind the wheel because the fines, license revocations and jail sentences doled out by traditional court systems do not tackle the offender's addiction to alcohol. * Locally, we applaud the organizers of the Sauk County Fair for bringing national caliber headline acts to the main stage over the past few years.

We'd like to see us all try a little harder to love our neighbors even if we can't stand the way they vote.

*  We hope we can "give peace a chance" — at home. This past election year revealed levels of rancor and dishonesty in our discourse that prove we like peace more in theory than in practice.

* A shorter winter would be nice.

* And the re-emergence of 80s hair bands.

School districts like Baraboo are getting squeezed by a number of factors, from state-mandated tax limits to a tight economy to fluctuating energy prices to minimum annual increases in staff wages or benefits.

There must be a better way to fund schools than provide only the bare minimum and then ask communities to tear themselves apart over referenda.

* We hope we'll see legislators display enough ingenuity and courage to tweak the state's educating funding system.

We encourage proponents to continue their efforts to push this important project forward.

 * We hope efforts to redevelop the Ringling Riverfront will pick up steam. Everyone will win if we can find suitable new homes for the Water Street businesses that don't fit into the city's plans for the Baraboo River corridor.

* In the fall, we all need a way to make our week work, even if the Packers lose on Sunday.

* An end to wars. All wars, not just the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. World history tells us this might be a futile objective. What's your take? Send e-mail to www.wiscnews.com/bnr

Waging war with each other seems to be unfortunate and lasting residue of the human condition.

But an end to war remains a wish worth making.

Let's hope all of our wishes come true in 2009.

 * We'd like solutions to our most vexing problems, particularly health care.

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