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Climbing Through Three-Way Mirrors by Kyle Jacobson Tenacity is celebrated as a cornerstone of strong character. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. We’re sometimes afforded these chances through structure and other times through dumb luck. Structure in that our society is designed around allowing some mistakes to be made and learned from. Oftentimes, juveniles are given lesser sentencing for the same misdemeanors as their adult counterparts. Dumb luck in that I didn’t lose a finger or get pierced by the errant projectile flung when I learned why table saw kickback is so dangerous.
Photograph provided by Operation Fresh Start
Middleton native and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi works to give everyone the same second chances
he was afforded. “There are a lot of important things we learn along the way, often by making mistakes, and that helped me see the potential in other folks. When we look at this through the recent events that we’ve seen that have brought tens of thousands of people out on the streets protesting racism and racial injustices, it’s very clear to me that, as a white American, opportunities were available to me that aren’t necessarily available to young African Americans who were the age that I was when I was getting into trouble.” Not everyone’s scope perceives these events as Joe does. But it’s also true that, for better or worse, not everyone chooses to spend their time paying attention to what’s going on around
them politically. “I came from a family that was pretty engaged in politics. ... It was just normal for me, paying attention to politics and people voting and being concerned. It was something I assumed we all did.” Which may have made him more comfortable putting politics in the backseat during his adolescence. “I was probably more focused on politics when I was younger, like grade school and middle school. After that, I wasn’t really focused on actual politics. I was concerned about a lot of issues, but I was never actually engaged through high school. As a matter of fact, in high school, I was a musician. I was a drummer, and that’s all I was focused on. And I also didn’t participate much in high school. I dropped out when I was a junior. I think the thing that kind of really led me to the things that are my passions today politically stem from that time in my life. I got in a little trouble here and there. I quit school. Then I realized that wasn’t the best decision I ever made. ... Generally, I got to be a real person for 35 years before I ran for office.”
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