Am I the only person who is disturbed by the scenes of people storming the Wisconsin legislature and taking the place over on Thursday?
As I was watching visions of Tiananmen Square in 1989 or Cairo, Egypt a couple weeks ago or even The Who concert in Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum in 1979. As far as I know, no one was injured on Thursday; but from what I saw there looked to be an element of danger to it all.
To be honest I watch both Fox News and MSNBC for about two hours yesterday and I still feel like I don't really understand what the problem is. The only understanding I feel I have is that the Republican governor is trying to balance the budget and the unions and the Wisconsin Democrats don't like it. In fact the Democrats fled to Illinois to not have to vote on things. Again, maybe it's just me, but is leaving the state really the adult way to deal with things?
Is this were we are headed in this country? Are we definitely going from not listening to each other and name calling to storming Government buildings? What is happening?
I always thought that one of the differences between being a child and an adult was that adults could act reasonably; talk about differences and find solutions.
Protesting and stating opinions are good and appropriate. Storming buildings and fleeing problems is just childish.
Why do I feel like brushing up on the beginnings of the fall of the Roman Empire?
Rob-
ReplyDeleteThe thing that disturbs me about Wisconsin is how it illustrates that the right wing is out to cynically grab power through "union busting". The budget is more of a “pretext” or “cover” if you will for Governor Walker to impose his agenda. The state workers were willing to take the pay cut voluntarily as well as foot their own benefits. The Governor seems to want to take this a step further than just balancing a budget. I find it equally disturbing that the minority Democrats felt that they had to walk out of their jobs in order to illustrate their point of protest.
I get that some unions have outlived their usefulness and are in serious decline but this vote will set a serious precedent for everybody who works. The Human Resource fallout after the passage of this bill doesn’t look pretty. Already here in Ohio, a similar bill is about to hit the senate and already the vilification of school teachers has begun. As a parent, I can tell you school teachers are a valuable asset to our future and don’t make enough for the service that they provide. But to hear the pundits tell it, teachers make too much and they aren’t teaching our kids. OH Please!!
The kids that are not learning are usually the ones who have little to no involvement from their parents. A teacher cannot be accountable in one school year to reverse a lifetime of parental neglect and/or stupidity!
Again, all this goes to your point of both sides sitting down and hashing out a compromise. Like you, I would like to see folks act reasonably but as we saw last year with healthcare on the heels of the 2008 election and with the budget bills on the heels of the 2010 election, each party feels that it has to go on a power grab and make sure that the other side is beat down and humbled in the process. Of course, according to the followers of FOX and MSNBC, winning an election regardless of how wide or narrow the margin means that a politician is justified in imposing an ideology because he/she has “the mandate of the people” or so they say….
-Matt