1. United States
2. Wisc.
3. Letter

I am a mother of two school-age children, a teacher, and a proud member of my community in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I oppose actions being made by our current administration that show a disregard and curtailing of free speech and free press, especially the president's rescission request to cut off funding for public broadcasting. Over and over, the president is using his power to shut down, bully, and further intimidate those who do not wholesale agree with and promote his policies and opinions. He attacks agencies such as NPR and PBS who give fair, middle of the road reporting -- and this is based on many external assessments of media bias. He also does not have the authority to "cancel" NPR, PBS, or other actions of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as that was an agency created by Congress. It was meant to be independent from the whims and bias of any presidential or party affiliation, and it has maintained those standards for years. Public broadcasting plays a key role in our state and nation, most especially in rural areas. It gives critical alerts in emergencies and dangerous weather situations, particularly important in places that don't have strong signals for other communications. They provide free, high quality educational programming that our own family has used often, and that is used daily by teachers in our schools. Not only that, but our local Milwaukee station, WUWM, offers fantastic coverage of issues and history important to people here in our area. We are better because of public broadcasting. We are better because of a variety of voices in our news, media, and educational broadcasting. We are safer because of the services public broadcasting provides to our nation. Vote against the rescission request. Thank you for all you do, every day, for us.