Wisconsin Perseveres

 

     Waukesha has been through a lot. In 2014, the community was home to the internationally-infamous "Slenderman stabbings" in which two girls attempted to murder their friend to appease the fictional horror character and were given lengthy terms in mental hospitals. Now, Waukesha is home to the 2021 Christmas parade tragedy, celebrating its 125th anniversary and holding a Christmas parade (after COVID cancelled the 2020 parade) with a message of joy. That was put to an end when a monster named Darrell Brooks, Jr., plowed into the parade and killed six people, an eight-year-old boy named Jackson Sparks and several of the "Dancing Grannies," a marching group involved in charitable causes in their community. Sparks fled and took advantage of a stranger's kindness, using said stranger's phone after claiming to be homeless and even having a sandwich made for him by the homeowner, who, seeing Brooks in a t-shirt and without shoes or socks in 30-degree weather, believed him.

     This is just the latest in a series of traumas for Wisconsin. The state has seen an uptick in mass shootings, with more in the past three or so years than in the state's history, and had to deal with both the trauma of the Jacob Blake shooting and the Kyle Rittenhouse case that ended in a white supremacist being acquitted. At the national level, pundits, especially on the right, have tried to make this political. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy jumped in early, clearly believing that, given the timing, this must be a terrorist attack from the left. Donald Trump thought the message here was that Brooks was a bad guy because of his political affiliation: given the fact that Darrell Brooks is a black man, the chances are better than not that he can't stand Donald Trump. For that to be what the former president had to say about the tragedy that traumatized and harmed hundreds of people directly and an entire community indirectly right after receiving a friendly visit from Kyle Rittenhouse (who, even in the midst of all the anger and pain, was arrogantly offered jobs by Representatives Madison Cawthorn and Paul Gosar) is despicable.

     The response from Wisconsinites, however, is why I love my home state so much. The school district cancelled classes for the week to allow the community to mourn. A GoFundMe for that young victim aforementioned, Jackson Sparks, has raised nearly $425,000 of a $20,000 goal in just a few days. No amount of money can bring back Jackson, but rallying around this family and giving them as much time in the world as they need to grieve must at least give them something to hold on to, as does the brave 12-year-old Tucker, who is fighting for his life. Meanwhile, a similar GoFundMe for the psycho killer who will likely be held in lieu of $5 million bail was taken down by the site, ensuring this subhuman scum never tastes freedom again, after community members quickly noticed it and reported it to GoFundMe and the police, both of whom acted with professionalism in this matter.

     It is tragedies like these that define communities. Waukesha has been hurt; Wisconsin has been hurt. The question, everyone knows, is not how hard you fall but how quickly you get back up. In situations like this, fighting through grief and anger, Wisconsin perseveres. How appropriate for a state whose motto is one word: forward.