Special Elections Lawsuit, Hispanic Center Of The Fox Valley To Open, How To Spend Your Last Living Days At Home

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Heard On Central Time

A new lawsuit challenging Governor Walker’s decision to not hold special elections to fill two vacant legislative seats has been filed by a Democratic-linked group headed by former US Attorney General Eric Holder. The writer of a new book gives us steps that providers and older patients can take in order to live their last days at home or under hospice care. We talk about choosing a good death. We also hear about a new Hispanic resource center in the Fox Valley.

Featured in this Show

  • National Group Sues Governor Walker Over Empty Legislative Seats

    Wisconsin has two open seats in the legislature, with no elections scheduled until November. A new lawsuit challenging the governor’s decision to not hold special elections has been filed by a Democratic-linked group headed by former US Attorney General Eric Holder.

  • Fox Valley Hispanic Center Hopes To Educate, Connect Hispanic Community With Resources

    When Francisco Cabrera moved to Appleton from Mexico, he didn’t know any English, much less where to go for classes.

    Nearly 10 years later, he’s a fluent English-speaker and a small business owner working to make things easier for people who are in the same situation he was in back then. To do that he’s starting a nonprofit to serve Latino residents — and recent immigrants — in the Fox Valley.

    Cabrera hopes it will connect residents with the services they need, something he felt was missing when he first came to the United States.

    “There probably were some organizations that provided those resources for the Latino community, but I didn’t know any way to learn about (them) at the time,” Cabrera said.

    When he first moved to Appleton, Cabrera said the only way people could get the word out about available services was to leave information at Latino grocery stores and restaurants. There were no local Spanish-language media organizations or newspapers to advertise services to the Latino community, so Cabrera started La Vida Hispana. The Spanish-language newspaper, which prints 10,000 copies monthly, is now distributed to stores from Fond du Lac to Green Bay.

    While the newspaper was an important first step, Cabrera wanted to take it a step further and create a physical space to provide both information and services to immigrants.

    That space — the Hispanic Center of the Fox Valley in Appleton — officially opened its doors last month.

    Since opening, the center has connected people with services and held workshops tailored to teach the community the skills they need to thrive in the Fox Valley region.

    “I learned a lot about the needs of the Latino community in the past 10 years, so the Hispanic Center is going to be the organization that tries to help the Latino community with those needs,” Cabrera said.

    One of those needs includes computer classes held in Spanish. Cabrera said people need to know how to use the computer to pay bills, check their children’s grades and school announcements, and stay connected to the community. The Center already has 30 computers to use during those classes.

    “There’s a lot of people that don’t know how to do [use a computer], and I would like to help them to be more independent and not rely on their kids’ translation services,” said Cabrera.

    Another workshop Cabrera hopes to offer would focus on teaching Latino immigrants how to read and write in Spanish, noting that not being able to read and write in a person’s native language is a major barrier to learning another language.

    He also hopes to partner with other organizations who can use the space to offer additional Spanish-language workshops — like financial or real estate workshops to help members of the Latino community buy and sell homes.

    Cabrera is still in the beginning stages of hiring staff and getting the center off the ground, but one day he hopes to move to a bigger location and serve even more people.

    “I would like to help as many people as I can,” Cabrera said.

  • Resource Center To Provide Information, Education For Fox Valley's Latino Community

    Settling in a new country comes with its share of challenges, from learning a new language to finding housing and employment. Francisco Cabrera dealt with all of those when he moved from Mexico to Appleton nearly 10 years ago, and now he’s working to make things easier for the area’s Latino community. He joins us to talk about what he hopes to achieve through his new, non-profit Hispanic Center of the Fox Valley.

  • What It Means To Choose A 'Good Death' After A Long Life

    As a society, we spend a lot of time talking about what it means to live a good life. But when it comes to talking about having a good death…well, that’s a whole different story. Conversations about end-of-life issues can be some of the most difficult to have, to the point where some would rather not speak of it at all. And perhaps that’s why there’s often a disconnect between what we want for our own deaths…and what actually happens. A doctor weighs in on what it means to plan for a ‘good death,’ and how we can prepare ourselves to have these conversations.

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Judith Siers-Poisson Producer
  • Dean Knetter Producer
  • Chris Malina Producer
  • Shawn Johnson Guest
  • Francisco Cabrera Guest
  • Dr. Samuel Harrington Guest