VOL. 18 NO.10 -- MAY 15, 2023

Our Stories and Features

Reflections/Jonathan Gramling

Jonathan Gramling

I Just Don’t Understand!

Perhaps the University of Wisconsin is a different place than the place I attended in the 1970s. But I just can’t understand why a Euro-American UW-Madison student would record a racist rant and put it on the Internet. Why is she compelled to say such ignorant things? How could she retain such ignorance when the truth that proved her beliefs a lie surrounded her at UW-Madison?

I loved coming to UW-Madison in 1970. For me it was a wonderland of ideas and people and a world-class education. I met people different from me, from my roommate Tim Bernthal from Racine who was Lutheran and I Catholic to Jeff and Rob, two Jewish roommates from New York with whom Tim and I shared a small rental house. What bound us together, in some ways, was the strong anti-war movement and counter culture that was prevalent in Madison. Madison was a place of enlightenment. -- READ MORE