In Pictures

I hope the state senators stay in a safe, undisclosed location(s) for a long, long time. Please don't come home, Jon Erpenbach. I lived in Illinois for 4 years. You can hang out there till June if need be.

This is definitely one of my favorite signs - especially for those who don't realize that teachers are making a VERY Difficult decision by calling in sick to attend the rallies.




I loved the Russ Feingold for Governor sign.







Jesse Jackson! I swear he is really there. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

The capitol lawn has been trampled this week, so we were standing in sticky, gooey mud.
I support me! Yay! (Sign in Starbucks)

Maybe you saw my state on the national news last night . . .

I'm glad red has sometimes been my favorite color, because I've been wearing a lot of it this week. I have at least two clean red shirts to go before I have to start over in the red clothing rotation. The new Republican governor of my state has decided that the best way to overcome the 137 million dollar shortfall by giving $117 million in tax cuts to corporations (because, if you've driven into my state from Minnesota, Iowa, or Illinois recently, you know that Wisconsin is "Open For Business") and by busting unions. (Yes, that link is to an opinion article. But the statistic it quotes links back to the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The numbers are good.) Teachers, public employees, union members, students, (news anchors? was it a coincidence that all of the local CBS news anchors wore red yesterday? Maybe so, since the Governor was wearing a red tie. And was it a coincidence that Meredith Vieira also wore red today?) are fighting back by Wearing Red for Public Ed.

As a college student in Illinois, one of the very, very few on campus who hailed from the Badger state, I was always aware of a certain reverence several of the History/Poli Sci professors had for me and my deep Badger roots. This state used to be an amazing place. This state used to be a great place for the average Joe to get a job. While we've had our share of seedy, terrible politicians in the list (Joe McCarthy comes to mind) we have also had amazing progressive leaders like Bob LaFollette who have spearheaded movements to give this nation back to the people. Wisconsin is the state that invented workers unions for state employees. And now Wisconsin is on the threshold of being the first state to take those rights away. Undoubtedly, other states will follow. Ohio will probably be next, but such a bold move will be less surprising coming from a state that voted for George W. Bush. Twice. Allegedly.

And now my governor wants to take away the rights of the citizens in favor of the rights of corporations. And, of course, he is not alone. The Citizens United case, decided by the Supreme Court in 2010, is one day going to give Wal-Mart the power to single-handedly decide the president of the United States, and to appoint all 9 members of the Supreme Court.

It is unsurprising that in addition to bulldozing the rights of workers, Gov. Walker is also willing to bulldoze right through environmental concerns to meet his objective of turning the entire state of Wisconsin into a giant big box store. A few weeks ago he unveiled an amazingly intelligent plan. He wanted to fill in a marsh near Green Bay in the hopes of luring a Bass Pro Shop store to the area. The Bass Pro Shop response? We don't build on wetlands.

(Here is the text of the article, if the link doesn't work: MADISON, Wis. -- Gov. Scott Walker has signed a bill designed to help lure a Bass Pro Shop to a site near Lambeau Field.Walker said the bill creates the opportunity for jobs in Green Bay while balancing environmental concerns.The bill would allow Neenah-based car dealer John Bergstrom to fill in about 1 1/2 acres of wetland between U.S. Highway 41 and the Green Bay Packers' stadium without a permit.Environmentalists are challenging the development and argue that Bergstrom is getting special treatment.Supporters argue the development would create jobs and that there is a reasonable plan to deal with the wetlands.A spokesman for Bass Pro Shop said last week the company had not committed to the project and would not build on a wetland")

Way to go, Walker.

Walker has previously demonstrated an inability to think a project through to the end before barging full-speed ahead into a project. He thought it would be a great idea to redesign Wisconsin's commerce department after the example set in Indiana. Too bad he didn't stop to look at the cold, hard facts. Since Indiana redesigned its commerce department, the move did not create the number of jobs that had been estimated. And the Economic Development Corporation lied about it.

"As governor-elect, Walker has discussed abolishing the Commerce Department and creating a new public-private partnership modeled on the Indiana Economic Development Corp. But that might not be a good thing for transparency. One Indianapolis television station reported that the Indiana agency would not release records to support its claims that it helped bring more than 115,000 new jobs to the state. The station’s investigation showed the agency had inflated those claims. As a result, the state's former deputy budget director - now with the conservative Cato Institute - calls the agency a 'boondoggle.'" (italics added).

In an effort to provide full disclosure, I should state that I am not a union member. I am a long-term substitute teacher. I spend five days a week educating the children of Wisconsin taxpayers. I don't get benefits. When teachers call in sick to attend rallies and the school has to close, I don't get paid.

And let me tell you something else. When the superintendent calls an emergency meeting to tell his staff that there WILL be layoffs next year, when he calls his staff together to thank us for trying to keep things together during a week of social unrest, and tells us that his best advice to preserve the fiscal stability of our families is to MOVE TO A DIFFERENT STATE, there are a lot of long faces.

And when he announces that there will be no school because teachers have to stand up for ourselves and attend rallies designed to stop our governor from forcing a bill through the legislative process before anyone has even read the entire text, people cry. Aides cry. Interpreters cry. Elementary school teachers cry. Middle school teachers cry. High school teachers cry. Secretaries cry. Men cry. Women cry. Principals cry. Superintendents cry. No one is happy that the situation in our state is this grim. No one wants this to be happening. But we all know it needs to happen in order to make our voices heard, and in order to preserve the future for our children.

(Contrast this type of school closure to a weather-related school closure, where teachers try to stay calm and keep kids from blurting out "there's not going to be school tomorrow" because everyone knows this will jinx the situation, and teachers are hoping just as hard as students that schools will, in fact, not be open tomorrow. Then, when school finally is closed for the day, everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief and enjoys the free time. Very few people cry over snow days.)

While this political situation seems very grim from the perspective of a brand new teacher who is really hoping to find a permanent job next year, I do want to point out that we are primarily arguing about money here. While the $6,000 combined pay cut that my husband and I face next year IF we are lucky enough to still have jobs teaching in Wisconsin will be tough, we live in a peaceful country and there will be an opportunity to right this wrong in a few short years. We do not live in Egypt where our very lives would be at stake every day due to political upheaval. It is good to keep things in perspective.

This private sector, big-box, huge corporation mentality cannot be a good thing when it comes to getting healthy food to my table in this Dairy State. Consequently, in an effort to make this world a better place one person at a time, I have had to take matters into my own hands. While I have been a full vegetarian in the past, I also enjoy eating meat, and have been eating meat for a while now. I have pledged to myself (and so far have only forgotten my pledge once during a trip to Culver's after a trip to the gym, the second day of my pledge) that as of last week I will stop ordering meat at restaurants unless I know that the meat comes from animals that have been raised in humane, natural conditions. I have struggled with buying "regular" meat at the grocery store for a long time, so I have pledged to stop that too (although I haven't been buying much of it lately anyway). I am still eating meat, and enjoying it. I have two containers of beef pot roast in my fridge from last Sunday's meal, which I have been heartily enjoying at lunch with my co-workers, dressed in red. But this particular roast came from a grass-finished steer in Argyle, Wisconsin. If I wanted to, I could visit the farm and watch the animals chew their cud. I feel good about that.

So there are things to feel good about in Wisconsin these days. We're not in Egypt, and we have access to grass-fed meat, if we're willing to drive to Madison for the Farmers' Market. But, hey, we were going there to protest anyway, weren't we?