baby's first protest
Feb. 15th, 2011 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanter1944So that's what a protest rally is like!
This was one of a number of protests against Governor Walker's budget repair (heh heh, riiiiight) bill scheduled for this week. I finished work, dropped the dog off at home, grabbed a cane and ran back up West Wash to join in. Holy cow, what a crowd. People were walking up, driving up (parking spaces where now?) and disembarking from buses. I asked a friend how diverse the crowd was, and her response was 'Very', racially, age-wise, economically. People had their children along; someone passed me with a toddler in their arms, and I heard reference to at least one or two strollers. This wasn't just a gathering of Madison liberals, either. People came from all over the state, and I do mean all over. We got television coverage from all over as well - Green Bay, Milwaukee, here at home. Someone said nationally, and I hope that's true.
I did have a moment of 'can you say that on the air?' when one speaker got the crowd chanting 'bullshit!' to the proposal. Safe harbor what now? :) There were signs all over the place, including one in one of the aforementioned strollers, and a huge cheer went up when someone inside the capitol put a 'Solidarity' sign in a window. That immediately made me think of the original Solidarity movement, though I'm too young to have known it at its inception, and of the people I mentioned it to, only two understood what I meant. What a shame. Anyway. People were watching from windows all over the capitol itself, and I couldn't help thinking the same thing I did during the protests in Egypt, only with an edited name: Walker, look down and see the people you've sworn to serve. This is not one segment of the population. This is everyone.
I got home an hour ago, and I'm still freezing. Charlie the idiot thought it was going to be warmer than it was, and then the wind picked up. Now I'm under a quilt, thawing out before braving the cold again and voting in the spring primary. There's a protest vigil tonight over on Wisconsin Avenue. I think I'm going.
There's also a second protest, the same as today's, scheduled for tomorrow. Same time, same place. I think I'm going to that, too. I stopped in at the little cafe on the corner on my way home, and two people heard me say I'd just come from the rally and came over to ask me details. These are the people you're serving, Governor Walker. Look down. At risk of both horribly misquoting and misusing Les Miserables lyrics:
Look down and show some mercy if you can,
look down, look down, upon your fellow man.
Then again, given this's far from over, maybe that should be 'do you hear the people sing?'
This was one of a number of protests against Governor Walker's budget repair (heh heh, riiiiight) bill scheduled for this week. I finished work, dropped the dog off at home, grabbed a cane and ran back up West Wash to join in. Holy cow, what a crowd. People were walking up, driving up (parking spaces where now?) and disembarking from buses. I asked a friend how diverse the crowd was, and her response was 'Very', racially, age-wise, economically. People had their children along; someone passed me with a toddler in their arms, and I heard reference to at least one or two strollers. This wasn't just a gathering of Madison liberals, either. People came from all over the state, and I do mean all over. We got television coverage from all over as well - Green Bay, Milwaukee, here at home. Someone said nationally, and I hope that's true.
I did have a moment of 'can you say that on the air?' when one speaker got the crowd chanting 'bullshit!' to the proposal. Safe harbor what now? :) There were signs all over the place, including one in one of the aforementioned strollers, and a huge cheer went up when someone inside the capitol put a 'Solidarity' sign in a window. That immediately made me think of the original Solidarity movement, though I'm too young to have known it at its inception, and of the people I mentioned it to, only two understood what I meant. What a shame. Anyway. People were watching from windows all over the capitol itself, and I couldn't help thinking the same thing I did during the protests in Egypt, only with an edited name: Walker, look down and see the people you've sworn to serve. This is not one segment of the population. This is everyone.
I got home an hour ago, and I'm still freezing. Charlie the idiot thought it was going to be warmer than it was, and then the wind picked up. Now I'm under a quilt, thawing out before braving the cold again and voting in the spring primary. There's a protest vigil tonight over on Wisconsin Avenue. I think I'm going.
There's also a second protest, the same as today's, scheduled for tomorrow. Same time, same place. I think I'm going to that, too. I stopped in at the little cafe on the corner on my way home, and two people heard me say I'd just come from the rally and came over to ask me details. These are the people you're serving, Governor Walker. Look down. At risk of both horribly misquoting and misusing Les Miserables lyrics:
Look down and show some mercy if you can,
look down, look down, upon your fellow man.
Then again, given this's far from over, maybe that should be 'do you hear the people sing?'
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Date: 2011-02-17 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
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