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Too often, said the Rev. Tony Lee, African-americans have focused solely on protest — an important element of social change, but not the only one. . . . Educate, advocate, participate. It is, admittedly, not an agenda as immediately and viscerally gratifying as street protest, but it highlights a salient truth about American social transformation. On the street is where the change is demanded. At the table is where it is made.

— Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.

Accountability for potholes

In the article on potholes, readers should know that in 2012, Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature pushed through a law that granted immunity to towns, villages, cities or counties in most cases for damages caused by insufficient repairs or lack of repairs to a highway. SB 125/AB 180, signed by Gov. Scott Walker in March 2012, takes away LETTERS the general legal

obligation of municipalities to pay for damages involving highway or bridge defects. Local governments now enjoy immunity from most accidents involving failure to safely maintain highways or bridges.

For the previous 162 years, a citizen could sue for the damages and injuries caused by unsafe roads. That was changed by the bill proposed by then-sen. Glenn Grothman. The statute (893.83) used to say: “If damages happen to any person or his or her property by reason of the insufficiency or want of repairs of any highway that any town, city, or village is bound to keep in repair, the person sustaining the damages has a right to recover the damages from the town, city, or village.”

Citizens are expected to keep their premises safe. If someone is injured on my broken steps, I am liable for the injury. Many drivers experience property damage to their vehicles from pothole damage. Mufflers, axles, alignment, tires, rims, all take a beating. And there are some injuries as well. Motorcyclists and bicyclists are especially vulnerable to pothole hazards.

Could this lack of accountability be a reason why the city’s response time for pothole repair in 2014 was at least twice as long as it was in 2013? The city is now off the hook.

Charles Hausmann

Bravo for Schneider

Milwaukee

I stand and applaud the Journal Sentinel for publishing Christian Schneider’s column, “Chisholm’s free speech imbroglio” (April 30).

The Editorial Board has finally gotten one right. Bravo!

Now trying giving some more thought to Mayor Tom Barrett’s streetcar fiasco. Or his opposition to school choice.

Jay Shaw

Wauwatosa

Another bad idea from GOP

Another wonderful idea by our brilliant Republican leadership — add drug test and food rules for those seeking unemployment insurance and public benefits (“Bills add drug test, food rules,” May 1).

But wait! Let's not stop there. Let’s go one step further and test the stellar business leaders feeding at the trough of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. I have never seen such mean-spirited and nasty proposals from the Republican Party. It just doesn’t seem to stop — pass right to work law, let’s abolish wage law, let’s abolish in general decent paying jobs; after all, that’s all we can afford.

This is not the type of Wisconsin I had ever envisioned.

Rosemary Lapaz Larkin

Nashotah

Faith question for Walker

The April 24 front page article on Gov. Scott Walker’s faith prompts a question for me: To which god is Walker praying (“A Matter of Fatih”)

I have been an ordained pastor for 30 years and have preached over 750 sermons from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. The god in the Old and New Testament is overwhelming concerned with “widows and orphans” and the “poor.”

Funny. Walker’s god sounds different.

Nancy Bauer-king

Racine