The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    SleepinJeezus's picture

    "This is what democracy looks like!"

    By SleepinJeezus on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 7:05am |

     

    Capitol Rotunda 02-19-11 MegRothstein

    The Capitol Building in Madison, Wisconsin has always been for me an inspiration. It's a stunning work of art fashioned from cold granite, and it makes of this unyielding material a very strong, yet welcoming edifice capable of embracing and even shaping the passions and aspirations of the people of Wisconsin. 

    Never in my life have I seen it look so beautiful as in the last week, when it truly became a home for those tens of thousands who have come together to petition their government in non-violent protest of government action that defies our Wisconsin Tradition of Worker's Rights and Justice for All.

    These events have offered great hope for the future success of the Labor Movement in America. Yet, regardless of outcomes, this Capitol will now be enshrined in history as a touchstone for those who will remember that it was on this spot that the Labor Movement became reinvigorated to fight back against those who would destroy it.

    I've now seen it in the faces of the people themselves. We have the numbers and the power to defend ourselves when we come together in solidarity. May we never stray from that lesson, and hopefully we can sustain this movement on behalf of all working families and help shape history itself.

    Workers in America - indeed, throughout the world! - have been under assault by the forces of unfettered capitalism who believe it is their destiny to define limits to our liberty and dignity and to our ability to derive just benefits from our enterprise. These powers that are aligned against middle class working families foolishly chose Madison to launch what they thought would be their final assault on worker's rights in America. They were fools to have not first visited the Capitol, take a look around, and allow this edifice to speak to them of the strength and the depth of appreciation we in Wisconsin have for our history and our values.

    For all of this last week, the chants have reverberated loudly through the rotunda and down the halls of this great building:

    "Tell me what democracy looks like!"

    "THIS is what democracy looks like!"

    It makes one proud to stand in the place that launched the career of Fighting Bob LaFollette and in solidarity with tens of thousands of others who stand tall in defiance of tyrants who would rob us of our dignity and our rights.

    It makes me proud to be from Wisconsin. Go Badgers! This is what democracy looks like! 

    Comments

    Go Sleepin'! Go Badgers! Go Wisconsin! 

    It's a great thing, Sleepin'. And I think it really has been some voltage through people living elsewhere. It's very quickly becoming the symbolic battleground.

    But it's far from over, I suspect. Make sure people understand they're gonna have to battle this one all the way through to the finishing line. I hope Americans understand they're going to need to support Wisconsin if this insanity is to be turned back.

    No defeat, no surrender brother. 


    by quinn esq on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 10:48am

    Thanks, quinn. The degree of respect and admiration I have for your depth of commitment to truly Progressive ideals - as witnessed in your writing and discussions here and at TPM - make your words of encouragement that much more... ummmm... ENCOURAGING!

    It's starting to look like a great time to be alive. Hopefully we can sustain the fight. Meanwhile, I greatly appreciate everyone else who has chosen to get involved. Thanks, Brother Quinn! And Keep the Faith!

    Solidarity!


    by SleepinJeezus on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 12:05pm

    Badgers become Wolverines. Go Wolverines, go Sleepni', Go America, North, South, and in between.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 12:10pm

    WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

    Here in Olympia, Washington we're watching and cheering.  And we're hoping you find the ways to keep it going.  PttP


    by kyle flynn on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 12:51pm

    Ironic is it not?

    I mean Minnesota produces Al & Amy and that balloon headed Bachman.

    We have offered to the world Hubert Humphrey and Gene McCarthy and Donald Frazier but decide to send up that prick Pawlenty as our rep in the repub primaries!

    Wisconsin has delivered full fledged satans like Joe McCarthy and wonderful sane politicians of the caliber of Feingold and Proxmire and Dave Obey.

    I watched some repub prick interviewed on cable stating that the union protesters right behind him were lazy no good freeloaders and that all of his backers were hard at work and could not take the time to show up to counter the protests. Ha!!

    I am proud of the protests brought by the unions in Wisconsin.

    Do we really wish to live in a country where unions have no power at all; no rights as far as collective bargaining?

    Personally I feel that salaries and benefits of public workers must be trimmed during harsh economic times.

    But not without the rich and the corporations ceding some monies and power at the same time.

    I sure hope it works. And by working I mean destroying the repub government in 2012!

     


    by Richard Day on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 2:13pm

    Thanks for sharing your experiences from Madison at dag, Sleepin. Good luck to you and your fellow protesters.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 4:51pm

    And Genghis wants you to know, he's on your side...(I'm his developmentally challenged, half-brother, they keep me locked up in the basement, but I can read his mind anyway...even with that silly tinfoil hat he's always putting on to keep me out of his head)


    by jollyroger on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 5:05pm