So just who is this Poverty Possum?
Semi-serious update: Call to Artistic Action!
Some commenters below have been discussing the Power of the Possum as a symbol and familiar, and have suggested that Preble High School could adopt the "Preble Possum" as a mascot. As triplepoint below says:
Proclaim it with pride. Shove it the WI GOP's collective face.
Or elsewhere, as you will.
So I would like to invite our creative community to come up with a mascot worthy of the fine community of teachers and students at Preble High School in Green Bay. Post your creative responses in the comments! Possums can kick ass, or play dead, as the situation demands. It's time for the Preble Possums kick ass, not play dead!
I know I would wear a Preble Possum t-shirt with pride! In Neenah and elsewhere!
From Penguin Pete tumblr site
stcroix cheesehead wrote a diary yesterday about a video gone viral, a recorded conversation between State Senator Mike Ellis, State Senator Sheila Harsdorf, and Assemblyman Robin Vos in a hotel bar, wherein Mike Ellis refers to a Green Bay high school as a "sewer" and "having the poverty possum."
The poverty possum. I've never heard that before, but that term effectively conjured up quite a few mental images, none of them positive. A quick google image search revealed just the kind of images I was picturing for myself:
Mike Ellis is currently the President of the State Senate in Wisconsin. He is from Neenah, WI. These are the racial demographics of Neenah:
These are the racial demographics of
Green Bay, where Preble High School is:
Here is some information about the programs available to students at Preble High School (pdf), the school Mike Ellis called a sewer:
The academic and extracurricular offerings at Preble High School rival any in the state. Academically, Preble students consistently score above the national and state averages. Students also continually have outstanding records in the areas of art, music, forensics, technology, and athletics. Innovative programs include DNA testing, computer-assisted design, subject integrations, and math analysis. The educational focus is to prepare students for the global environment of the next century. Preble operates a traditional eight (8) period schedule.
Preble's class of 2010 has some good looking statistics. 55% went on to 4-year institutions of higher learning. 27% went to 2-year colleges/vo-tech. 43 students took one of two AP tests in Calculus, and over 95% scored a 3, 4 or 5. Over 300 students took the ACT in 09-10, and the school's scores are above both the national and the state average. That doesn't sound like a sewer to me.
But wait! Here is the context for the poverty possum: School Vouchers.
We need to not make it the entire school system, we need to make that Preble, that geographic quadrant and make it eligible like Milwaukee is for a voucher program.
Ah. Milwaukee. Urban. "Failing schools." This is where the poverty possum lives.
Everybody says stupid things now and then, especially while drinking with friends in bars. However, these candid moments are very telling about what people really think.
He apologized for calling this school, in Democratic State Senator Dave Hansen's district, a "sewer." That term should really be saved for his Republican Legislature, which has such disregard for the citizens of Wisconsin, for the rule of law and for common decency.