All photos courtesy of Max Hermans of Thompson Photo Imagery, Oshkosh.

By Jim Lundstrom

How important is art, culture and history to the fabric of a community? It would seem not very much since arts funding is almost always the first thing to go in these tightwad times.

But that is not the case in Oshkosh, where the community banded together to grab a grand old Victorian dame by the nape and drag her into the 21st century.

After being closed for a season and a half, The Grand Opera House re-opens this month after undergoing extensive $1.8 million renovation to its roof, roof trusses and installation of a modern fire alarm and sprinkler system.

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In the mid-nineteenth century United States the “Know Nothing” movement emerged in opposition to European, primarily Catholic immigration. Vicious, widespread intolerance led historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. to call anti-Catholicism “the deepest held bias in the history of the American people.”

Know Nothing “leaders” like former president Millard Fillmore and congressman Lewis Levin argued that “Popery” could not coexist with representative democracy. Telegraph inventor Samuel Morse in a famous 1835 essay wondered if it were even possible for “Papists” to “repudiate” certain “noxious” Catholic principles. (Had Sam been a complete dimwit like a recent Republican Vice Presidential candidate, he might have said “refudiate.”).

Virulent anti-Catholicism existed into the twentieth-century, exemplified by the Ku Klux Klan’s overt and effective role in crushing Al Smith’s 1928 presidential campaign. Anti-Catholic fear mongering almost derailed John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign and forced delivery of a speech establishing that if elected President he wouldn’t be the Pope’s point main in the White House.

When you look at some of the hot political current events, you may see topics like marijuana legalization in California, drug use in general, violence along the Mexico-Arizona border, immigration tensions. These and more topics have become bigger issues due to the rise of the Mexican drug cartels over the last several years. In this short column, we will explore some of the causes and potential solutions to the cartel problem.

The name Pablo Escobar is the most familiar of the world’s drug kingpins, and despite his takedown decades ago, his shadow is at the root of today’s problems. Since the Colombian cartels collapsed in the 1990s, the drugs did not disappear but merely relocated to Mexico, where violence can now spill directly over our border rather than be quietly ignored as a South American problem.

During Mexican President Vicente Fox’s term, little was done to combat the drug lords, and they grew strong. But when Felipe Calderon took over, he sent 6500 troops to fight the drug lords in December 2006. Today, there are as many as 45,000 troops battling the crime syndicates, on top of the local police forces. A survey of 37 American cities in October 2007 showed cocaine prices had risen 50% in some places while the purity had dropped by 11%. The good news was this showed clearly that the cartels were being hurt. The bad news was that with escalating prices, the drug trade became a far more profitable risk for those involved. The higher risk may also be translating into increased violence, such as the assassination of a popular gubernatorial candidate in June, just days before the election.

In a recent LTTE to the Appleton Post-Crescent, Scene columnist Robert Nordlander castigated a local historian, Dr. Jake Jacobs, for his expose of Lifest speaker Jim Wallis. For readers unfamiliar with this event, it is an annual Christian music festival, held in Oshkosh, which features contemporary Christian music and acclaimed Christian speakers. Jim Wallis was invited to speak by Life Promotions president Bob Lenz, to the consternation of certain local Christian clergy and laity. The concern is because Wallis preaches a doctrine of “social justice” that promotes the idea of wealth distribution through government coercion rather than charitable volunteerism.

Some also cite research into Wallis’ past that link him to support of revolutionary socialist movements, as well as claiming Wallis holds unorthodox views on certain basic Christian doctrines. Obviously, all this is of great importance since the festival is attended primarily by highly impressionable teenagers and young adults.

A peripheral issue, but one equally important, is the bewilderment over why Mr. Lenz would invite such a controversial figure considering the composition of the Lifest audience. Mr. Lenz has had a sterling reputation for his interaction with youth, so the invitations to Wallis and other controversial presenters leave some people who know Lenz scratching their collective heads. The $64 million question is whether this establishes a trend for future Lifest events, or whether Mr. Lenz will seek the advice of discerning critics before repeating similar decisions.