By Nick Hierlmeier
This weekend was the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. You may not have known that unless you read Erin’s blog post from last week. 😉
While we took last week and this past weekend to celebrate our country, let’s take this week to celebrate our state.
Before we start, I’ll answer a few questions that I know will come up:
- Yes, I know Wisconsin’s anniversary was two months ago.
- No, OG+S isn’t only in Wisconsin. We have attorneys licensed to practice in a number of states, but I’m from Wisconsin.
- Yes, they made a mistake trusting one of the Administrative Assistants with editorial control over a blog post.
Seventy-one years, 10 months, and 25 days after the United States was founded, Wisconsin became the 30th (and greatest) state to join the Union, making it that much more perfect. Nine days later, Nelson Dewey took office as the state’s first governor.
Wisconsin’s constitution had already been ratified by voters two months earlier. As a matter of fact, the original Wisconsin Constitution still stands as the law of the state (with more than 150 amendments) and remains one of the oldest state constitutions still in effect in the United States.
Today, one of the ways Wisconsin is unique is the manner in which its university system is deeply interconnected with state government. For this, we have Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette to thank. He served as governor of Wisconsin for three terms between 1901 and 1906 (terms were only two years long back then) and later served four terms in the U.S. Senate.
La Follette championed and implemented the Wisconsin Idea, which closely integrated the University of Wisconsin with state government and vice versa. He believed Wisconsin’s universities should serve as laboratories of democracy and that their research and education should directly benefit Wisconsinites—and Americans as a whole.
Our firm sees the benefits of the Wisconsin Idea through me: the guy who organizes files, reminds attorneys to do things, and handles a long list of other responsibilities that I genuinely enjoy. Lucky them.
So, cheers to OG+S, cheers to Bob La Follette, and cheers to Wisconsin!