What do you do when you feel overwhelmed and powerless to change the direction of the country you love? David Baker had to face that question. David wondered how one person could have an impact on the federal government or the state government. However, David Baker loved his community, knew Marathon County, Wisconsin and wanted to contribute to making it a better place to live.
His story began when one of his children commented, “Dad your generation has really messed up our country!” He had to admit it was true. It began to bother him to the point where he wanted to act. But what could one person do? His wife encouraged him when she said, “Why don’t you find others who feel the same way you do.” The journey of making a difference in Marathon County, Wisconsin began. David started talking to his neighbors and anyone who would listen about the way the county government was reacting to the Covid situation. He viewed it as extreme and wanted to suggest some more common sense approaches that would not violate the rights of the citizens of Marathon County.
David educated himself about the structure of the County Board, the rules, the committees, past minutes of meetings, the details of goals/objectives and the implications of policy proposals. David began to notice that the County Board of Supervisors were proposing policies that favored small groups of county citizens without considering the impact those policies had on the majority of tax-paying citizens. He gave a sample of two policies. The first policy decision was when members of the County Board of Supervisors proposed giving powers to the Health Department that overreached the powers that were given to them by the citizens. The proposed Health Department ordinance would have provided the health department with broad powers including the power to restrict people from leaving their home, using Health Department appointed deputies, mandating masking and deciding who were essential and non-essential businesses. The next policy example involved a proposal by members of the County Board to pass a resolution based on Critical Race Theory that caused division within the County and had the potential to restrict First Amendment rights. He then knew something was not right and he had to act.
David created an organization called Marathon County Constitutional Watch as a place for like minded citizens to coordinate their efforts to regain their rights and carefully examine the impact of County Board policies on taxpayers. This eventually led to a cooperative alliance with other groups, such as: Get Involved Wisconsin and a ladies prayer group. More and more people began to work together to take small actions like; setting up booths at the County Fair and other events, going to rallies, and talking to their friends and neighbors about how their county was being run. One of the most revealing actions was to post a color-coded chart of the voting record of each County Board member regarding each policy decision.
The more people got involved, the more encouragement David received to run for the Board of Supervisors. David realized that based on the voting record of a large number of the Board of Supervisors many of them were needing to be replaced if the citizens wanted to regain their rights. So David, with the help of the many individuals and group alliances recruited 15 candidates to run for the Marathon County Board of Supervisors. The results were phenomenal, 13 of the 15 candidates were elected to office!
You can now see how the title of this post “Eating an Elephant One Bite at a Time and How to Impact Your Community for Good” relates to David Baker’s desire to make his county a better place to live. These are the same steps you can take in your community and county.
Here are the actions David Baker took that led to getting elected a Marathon County Board of Supervisors member:
1. Overcome the sense of helplessness.
2. Begin talking about and publicizing the policy issues elected government officials are proposing
3. Coordinate your efforts with like-minded organizations.
4. Decide what actions you can take to make a difference.
5.Take the actions that fits with your abilities.
6. Encourage others to find what their abilities can do to make a difference.
Ok, now it’s your turn. David Baker has shown us how. Go out and begin eating your elephant one bite
at a time and impacting your community for good!
