Proud of Wisconsin

Look at the amazing rally the people of Wisconsin held on Saturday:

Madison, Wisconsin

Of course, I didn't see that reported on any of the televised newscasts even though I spent all weekend flipping through channels. Half of the signatures needed to hold recall elections for 8 of the Republican senators for Wisconsin have already been gathered. Of course, it makes very little sense first to elect these corrupt buffoons and then work hard to recall them 5 months later. Will people finally start waking up to the idea that the Republicans' only goal is to rob them and abuse them?

I still haven't heard form people who vote republican what it is they expect the GOP to do for them every time they cast the ballot. There must be some thinking going on there but what can it possibly be? Screw my job, screw my children's college, forget about ever retiring or having any job security, as long as I can rummage in some unknown woman's uterus? 

Republican supporters are a scary mystery to me.

Wisconsin and the Future of This Country

In the face of massive protests of the state's citizens, Wisconsin Republicans demonstrated yet again that they couldn't care less about what the people of the state want. They just spit on the people's wishes and proceeded to vote to curtail the collective bargaining rights of the citizens. The Republican-spurred descent of this country into barbarity continues.

"In 30 minutes, 18 state senators un-did 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller said.

Yes, it will. People will forget and proceed to vote for a Republican candidate in 2012 in happy, sheepish droves. CNN just dedicated 10 seconds to the events in Wisconsin and then offered a half-hour-long segment which used the words "Muslim" and "terrorist" in every other sentence. A few more scary stories about bad, threatening Muslims or Latinos and the people will forget about how the Republicans deceived them in 2010 with their empty talk about jobs, economy, etc. and rush to vote for them yet again.

I'm starting to think that Americans are people who are happy to accept growing poverty, a constant threat of unemployment, lack of social benefits that the rest of the civilized world enjoys freely, sinking living standards, etc. as long as they are promised that they will be able to force women to give birth against their will and prevent gays from getting married. Well, if that's what people want, they should definitely get it. If they are fine with the Republicans treating them like cattle and robbing the blind, let them vote the way they want.

Professors Don't Care?

I really loved our rally in support of public workers in Wisconsin and everywhere across the country. One thing, however, bothered me and keeps doing so today. Aside from me, there was only one faculty member from our university. We are a public university, and are being constantly threatened with losing our health care benefits. The institution of tenure is being eroded constantly. We had all our funding frozen last year because the state wasn't giving us our money. The situation is very precarious for all of us.

David Ruccio has the following to say about the current state of affairs in higher education:

It looks like public universities that can (like Madison) are becoming more like private universities. Meanwhile, well-endowed private institutions may be the only universities where the idea of the university is being safeguarded. Combined, the two tendencies—the privatization of public universities and the privatization of the idea of the university—represent a bridge to the end of the public university system as we have known it in the United States. That leaves us nowhere.

The last sentence of this comment is literally true for those of us who work for public universities.  If (when) public universities fall apart, we will have nowhere to go. Of course, those of us who have been publishing like crazy this entire time, can expect to be picked up by private schools. The rest, however, will be left behind. Why, then, are professors so unwilling to join the struggle for the rights of employees?

Part of it, I believe, is snobbery. What do we have in common with all those carpenters, steel workers, and teamsters? We are still middle-class while they have been displaced from it. We forget, however, that when these intelligent, politically active workers cannot afford to send their kids to our university any more, we end up with the student body that is impoverished intellectually.

Another reason why professors don't care is their belief that this will not touch them. Even though we keep hearing news about tenured faculty being fired all over the country, many of my colleagues like to pretend that this will never happen to them. I can't tell you how many times I heard senior colleagues say, "Of course, this will not touch me. I'm tenured." Have the SUNY Albany, the U of Southern Mississippi and other places never happened, I always wonder when I hear that?">

Of course, I will be told that I'm exaggerating. People are just too busy, I will be told. I don't buy that, though. If a huge crowd of our faculty members had come to the rally, this would have sent a really important message to our administrators. And that would have benefited us a lot more than any silly committee and any useless meeting.

Our Rally in Support of Wisconsin and Public Sector Workers Everywhere

We might be a backwards little town in the middle of nowhere. We might be located in the Bible Belt. We might belong to a very conservative area of the country that keeps voting Republican for no discernible reason. Today, however, we gathered to conduct our own rally in support of the protesters in Wisconsin.

 I started taking pictures before the rally began, so there are not that many people around at this point. A lot more people joined us as the rally began. Altogether, I'd say there were between 250 and 300 people. Obviously, I didn't interrupt the speeches by running around with my cell phones, taking pictures. 

There were steel workers, teamsters, carpenters, teachers, healthcare workers, retirees. Hardworking, modestly dressed people who believe that there is no democracy without the people's right to enter into collective bargaining to improve their work conditions.

 "We are the middle class," said many of the speakers. These are mostly people of my parents' age who have seen their standard of living decline and the hopes of their children and grandchildren diminish. "I want to make sure that my son and grandson have the same rights and benefits that I did as a union member," said a steel worker.

"This is what democracy looks like!" chanted everybody at the end, echoing the rallying slogan of Wisconsin's protesters. "Welcome to the workers' revolution!" a young union organizer exclaimed. Everybody cheered.

Today, I finally felt that I belong in this town.

P.S. Whenever I turn on the television, I see programs dedicated to some Charlie Sheen character who seems to have gotten himself into some excruciatingly boring trouble. Finding reports of protests across the country is not as easy. We need to cover them ourselves, people. Go to your local rallies, tweet, blog, Facebook, do whatever you need to get the word out. 

Report the Protests!

Look at these inspiring pictures of protests all over the country. This wave of protests is being severely under reported by the media. Tomorrow we are planning a little rally of our own, and I will post pictures.

In view of the corporate media's attempts to silence the protests, we need to cover them ourselves and spread the news. See more of these inspirational pictures here. And post your own. Or send them to me and I will post them. If nobody will cover real news, we need to do it ourselves.