Is Madison Just The Beginning?

Today marks day 6 of the protests in Madison, Wisconsin, against the governor’s plan to reduce the state deficit by making state employees pay into their health care and pension funding and reducing their bargaining rights. The protests seem to be growing daily and neither side wants to back down.

Meanwhile, children in Madison go without school. Teachers all over the city and region have called in sick to either be at the protest themselves or to show support for the protest, leaving the schools no choice but to remain closed. Exactly what lesson are they teaching the kids, overall?

While it’s certainly understandable that state employees aren’t happy about the changes proposed by Governor Walker, is shutting down the schools the way to go? Certainly it shows the kids the American freedom to stand up for your beliefs but what else is it showing them? How much power does a union have when it can simply close our schools and leave the kids to fend for themselves? And how long will the teachers’ union allow it to go on? The state Senate has enough Republican votes to pass the legislation without assistance from the Democrats, although they can’t hold the vote without a minimum of 20 participants and with the Democrats hiding out of state they can’t hold the vote. It seems they’re simply delaying the inevitable since the governor doesn’t seem willing to back down. So how long will the teachers stay out of school and at what cost to the state and to the students?

There are many citizens in Wisconsin who aren’t union members who agree with Governor Walker’s plan; probably more than union members themselves. The governor himself announced long before the day came that one of his foci was union pensions and collective bargaining for state employees. The unions are saying this was a surprise even though they passed out flyers during the campaign that talked about Walker’s intentions. Does the governor now bow to the will of the unions and toss his plan simply because the unions are protesting?

It seems the Democratic National Convention and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have gotten into the fracas, helping to organize the protest and providing people to increase the crowds. After all the hoopla from the left about violent rhetoric from the right, some signs being carried by protesters call for the death of the governor by hanging, characterize him as Hitler and some show the governor in the crosshairs. Yet where is the outrage and condemnation from the mainstream media, Nancy Pelosi and even the President of these signs? Is the violent rhetoric acceptable in this case because the left is protesting? Hypocrisy seems to run deep these days.

It’s not a good time to live in Wisconsin, I suppose. There is no easy answer and it seems Greece has come to America. Is this just the beginning of mass union protests all around the country as some state governments try to get a handle on their budgets by reducing the power and the cost of unions? Who really runs the country - the people or the unions? I think it may be time for us to find out. And I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.