Over the holidays at my home in the woods, we got over 8 inches of snow starting with huge wet flakes that stuck to every trunk, branch and twig. Then fluffy snow fell and a bit of freezing rain held it all together on the limbs in the woods. Magically, 3-inch tufts of snow billowed over the thinnest of twigs. Glorious winter wonderland.
Moments like this remind me how much we share - not just a love of this place, but a responsibility to care for it together.

That is why last year, when the WI Supreme Court made two decisions to protect our environment, I was overjoyed. In the first case, the State Supreme Court affirmed the Department of Natural Resources' (DNR's) authority under the Spills Law to hold polluters accountable when they contaminate our environment and our drinking water. The WI Supreme Court justices also made a decision that ends legislative interference in the effective enforcement of environmental protections that are critical to safeguarding public health and our natural resources. These decisions get us closer to being able to trust a glass of water from the tap and jump into a lake or river on a hot summer day without a care in the world, things our families deserve in our beautiful Wisconsin.

These protections that our WI Supreme Court upheld last year exist because regular people like you and me fought for them in previous generations. These were people who loved birds, the natural world and wanted to protect human health. These were farmers, hunters, working class people, immigrants, wealthy conservationists, students and more - all finding solidarity and shared purpose in the movement despite corporate interests trying to keep them divided and powerless. In the 1960s and 70s, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets and organized for environmental protections and won: through an executive order that was later ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate, in 1970, Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Two years later, the Clear Water Act was significantly amended to provide many of the protections that the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is now tasked to uphold in Wisconsin.

And our love of our environment and family farms has moved hundreds of people right here in western Wisconsin to organize with GROWW to protect our homes, our water, our roads and more from the harm of factory farms, industrial agribusiness. People who cast different ballots in the election, people who have lived here for a short time and for generations, people with deep pockets and people struggling to hold on to the family farm, all came together to pass operations ordinances in our towns - not because we agreed on everything, but to protect what we love in common. When we focus on what we have in common, when we have curiosity about each other, we can find alignment and act on it together for the benefit of ourselves, our families and our region.

This year, we know all of us in Wisconsin will be inundated with messages of division, especially leading up to the Spring and Midterm elections in April and November. Corporate interest groups and the ultra-wealthy want to divide us - by the color of our skin, by where we are from, how long we’ve lived here - so they can continue to call the shots. They distract us with a deluge of news so that we keep blaming each other instead of blaming them. They pass bills removing healthcare and food for us in our community while giving tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and the largest corporations. 

What would it look like though, if instead of being peons in their game, we got curious about each other, about what we have in common? What if we got curious about what we can do to make housing more affordable so that families can make ends meet and employers can attract employees? What if we got curious about how we can ensure that when we get sick, we can see a doctor without the fear of how we will pay for it? This is possible when we have the courage to put our judgments aside for a moment and enter into conversations with people in our communities about what we have in common, love for our environment, clean water, taking care of our families, values we share, goals we can align on.

For the most part, no one has taught us to be eager about listening and reluctant to judge. Quite frankly, this is what those benefiting from our division fear the most. When someone says something that we don’t agree with, what if we respond with: Why? or How has that shown up in your life? or How did you learn that? And, if you are like me, you will likely be surprised in delightful ways. You will likely feel more connected. You will likely feel more alive. And you may start to see pathways for acting with others in your community on the things you care most deeply about.

And like many of us, even with the best intentions, I slip back into old patterns. The good news is that every day, every conversation, every sentence out of my mouth is a new opportunity to choose curiosity again.

We don’t have to be victims of the messages of division that are fed to us day in and day out. We can step out of that binary, put ourselves in the driver's seat and get curious - together with our neighbors, coworkers, and communities.

Every new year brings new possibilities. In 2026, will you get curious about what we can accomplish when we unite?