As some of you may know I have roots in Wisconsin. When it came to football the Packers have always been our team (second only to the Broncos). Why? Because my dad's family are Cheese-heads. In fact, before she passed away my great-aunt Margaret would mail us clippings from the local paper about Green Bay's games. And yes, mailing clippings was what you did before there was internet.
Anyway, I have been watching the events in Wisconsin the last few days in astonishment. You would think it was Egypt! Thirteen state Senators have left the state, the unions are busing in people from places like Louisiana, and doctors are handing out medical slips for people who need an excuse to skip work.
Late last year, I went to Europe with a friend of mine from Wisconsin and he broke the story about the doctors. In fact he caught them on film and Fox News did a segment on it the other night.
The bottom line is that this is becoming a hugely important political event. If you don't live in Wisconsin you might be tempted to think that this does have anything to do with you. You are right, if you are strictly talking about the proposed law.
However, this will impact everyone before long and here is why.
This has become a battle of direction for America. When the Democratic leadership pushed Obamacare on the American people, they did so despite unpopularity. The Republicans then swept the elections in November. The reason the Wisconsin drama is so important is that it will show us if the country really wants to deal with the problems like the Republicans are saying or if they really don't want to rock the boat.
We the people need to address the financial problems and that might mean that some good government programs need to go. It might not be fun. But I hope that Wisconsin is the beginning of an “adult conversation” that leads to meaningful change.
You listed two options -- deal with problems the way (this group of) Republicans want to, or don't rock the boat. There is of course the broad third option: deal with the problems in any of a dozen or so other ways. :-P
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately most of those also require a fair degree of boat-rocking, and will make SOMEBODY very upset.
It's been really interesting living an hour away from Madison and watching all this. A classmate's sister was a leader of early union protests, references to the ongoing events have turned up in sermons (although not, in that case, taking a definite "side" so much as challenging both sides from the Sermon on the Mount, which was being read that morning), Sunday School discussion, Ethics lectures (although I'm not in that class).
Everyone's attention has been effectively captured. Remains to see what happens....