Sunday, February 13, 2011

Put On Your Rally Caps!

Throughout history, when a tyrant goes over the line and starts taking away the rights of the people, treats them scornfully and with disrespect, and threatens their very well-being and even their lives, the people have rallied together to set things right.

Colonial Americans had their Tea Party (the real one, not the Koch Brothers supporters of today) and the American Revolution.  The French followed suit by storming the Bastille and having their own revolution.  In Poland, there was the Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa.  There are literally scores of examples, the most recent was when the people of Egypt ousted their tyrant, Hosni Mubarak.

In Wisconsin, we have our own version, which culminated in the Bay View Massacre.

Now, here in Wisconsin, we have Scott Walker. Walker, as almost every living person in the state knows, wants to take away workers rights, whether they are public or private sector, unionized or not.  To make matters worse, he's violated our civil rights by threatening military force for anyone who dares to protest his tyrannical maneuvering.

In response, the workers and those that simply give a damn about their home state are rising up to protest these assaults on our rights and our freedoms.  And they are doing it from all over at all sorts of times.  My inbox has been a flurry of activity over the past two days as more and more information comes in.

Here's what I got so far:

The first rally that I know of will be today, Sunday, February 13th.  It will be from 12-3 pm and will be held at 204 W. Lake Street, Horicon, WI.

On Monday, there will be a Valentine's Day rally at the Spaights Plaza on the UW-Milwaukee campus. (Spaights Plaza is the north end of the library.  The rally is at 10:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Tuesday, the 15th, and Wednesday, the 16th, are the big days.  AFSCME, AFL-CIO and SEIU are holding a huge rally in Madison each of the days.

Locally here in Milwaukee, AFSCME will be having buses leaving from Racine, at the Hwy 11 Park and Ride at 7 am, from DC 48 at 7:30 am, and from the Goerkes Corners Park and Ride at 8 am.

The SEIU will be having buses leaving from 17 different cities around the state.  The details can be found by clicking here.

WEAC will also be coming in from all over the state.

Everyone will be meeting at the Masonic Lodge at 301 Wisconsin Ave, Madison at 10 am.  Then at 11 am, the lobby will proceed to the Capitol and lobby legislators until the rally which will be at noon. (On Tuesday, the rally will be on the State Street Capitol Steps and on Wednesday it will be held at the King Street Capitol Entrance.)  At 1 pm, the lobby will go back in to meet with legislators.

There will also be vigils each afternoon on the Capitol Square from 3-7 pm each afternoon/evening, with speakers towards the end of the vigils.

If you can't make it to any of the rallies, or even if you can, there is still more than can be done.

The AFL-CIO has put up an online petition protesting the usurption of power and the violation of our workers' rights and our civil rights. By the way, the petition is insanely easy to sign.

Finally, you can call 877-753-5578 and get connected with your legislator.  Or you can find their numbers here.  Call them and ask them, politely, to stop the insane attack on working families, using the facts that I laid out a little earlier.

However you do it, make sure your voice is heard along with the rest of ours.

Remember, these aren't union thugs Walker is after.  These are the teachers who we entrust to teach our children.  These are nurses, doctors, home health workers, social workers, highway maintenance crews, correction officers and the all the other people that go into making our lives safer and better.

1 comment:

  1. Don't act like you bloated public service employees represent the whole of the middle class, or the State of Wisconsin for that matter.

    Elections have consequences. You're on the chopping block now.

    Deal with it, Chris. Deal with it.

    ReplyDelete