Commentary Update for March 29, 2002: Friedhelm Ost, School Chart, Stratz Letter, Green Bay Public Television

Friends:

Dr. Friedhelm Ost, a member of the German Bundestag (Parliament) spoke on the UW Oshkosh campus yesterday. I was able through sheer luck to get an interview with Dr. Ost, which Doug Freshner videotaped for me as part of his "University" series. The interview can be seen on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 8 p.m., right after Commentary on Titan-TV.

Friedhelm Ost is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, Germany's "conservative" party. At one time he was press secretary for former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

My grasp of German politics is not very strong (though many people who watch "Commentary" tell me my grasp of American politics is not so hot either), so I tried to get Dr. Ost to explain in basic terms some of the similarities and differences of the German and American political systems. He talks about a number of issues including the German economy, the nature of the major political parties in Germany, the campaign finance scandal that resulted in Mr. Kohl's downfall, this year's race for Chancellor featuring incumbent Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder v. conservative Edmund Stoiber (who will be visiting Washington in early April), the role of the media in German elections, immigration, and others. He also reflects on John Kennedy's visit to Berlin in the early 60s, as well as his meetings with former Presidents Reagan and George Bush I.

In other news, I have received quite a bit of email from people telling me that they have found the school board candidates' position "chart" helpful. Some have asked for a simpler URL to forward the information. Here it is: http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/school.htm

School Board member Mike Stratz forwarded me a copy of a letter he recently sent to the Oshkosh Northwestern. The paper has yet to publish the letter, but you can see it on the Commentary site: http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/stratzonrepublic.htm

For people who believe that Northeast Wisconsin is ill-served by corporate media, Commentary and other forms of public television serve a vital role in the Community. Public television in Northeast Wisconsin took a big hit recently when Wisconsin Public Television announced they would be shutting down their Green Bay operation. Here's a letter that appeared in the Green Bay Press Gazette earlier this week (included in it is a link to a story explaining the rationale behind closing down the operation): http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/gbpt.htm

Have a great weekend.

-Tony