Friday, December 16, 2011

12/16/2011

A cold wind was blowing across southern Wisconsin today, and the sky was streaked with grey and black clouds.  The sun poked through occasionally though and all in all it wasn't a very bad mid-December day in the badger state.  I arrived early at the capitol to observe what size crowd would be there to witness the first day of the new illegal/unconstitutional administrative policies rushed through by Scott Walker.  Inside was a group of anti-policy folks mostly observing everything else.  A choral group of high school students sang traditional Christian Christmas carols accompanied by piano.  They sounded quite well especially given the acoustic qualities of the building.

One odd occurrence though, two young guys about twenty years old with dark buzz cuts and black jackets put themselves in the middle of the chorus singers at the forefront of the viewers, against the rotunda railing.  Nobody has ever seen them before and it is odd that they decided to show up on this day.  They were quite rude and aggressive placing themselves in the middle of a performance holding a small ragged piece of cardboard with an unreadable message written on it in bic pen.

The choral group after about three songs, very uniformly and professionally, moved itself thirty feet to the right and including the piano, to remove themselves from the two.  I was impressed by that move, very classy indeed and carried out in under two minutes before they flawlessly began to perform again.  Sadly the two young men stood nest to the perimeter of the group and held they're sign over one singers head.  A terrible display of behaviour and we began to wonder who these two thought they were representing.  After some investigation the piece of cardboard they held read 'so no protest for poor people'  and some of us began to wonder if these two were tea party plants, or just very over-eager and rude counter Walker kids who were going way to far on their first trip to the capitol.

Outside about 350  people joined voices with horns and drums and an array of other instruments at the solidarity sing-along.  Which took place outside today as it does every Friday after a noon and 4:30 p.m. event on Thursdays.  Folks were very enthusiastic and the voices of the singers could be heard for blocks away on the cold December air.

Soon after the sing-along folks gathered inside the capitol rotunda, and held a spontaneous peoples mic check in defense of their rights.  Many people spoke about events relative to where we are at at this moment in Wisconsin, and the voices of the speakers were repeated across the capitol halls.  All was peaceful if a little loud until the lone tea party participant grew aggressive again, he is there every day, and after some shouting and such, actually shoved with both hands, Senator Coggs who was there to witness the event.

Another interesting day at ground zero, I would not be surprised to see large amounts of people mic checking at the capitol again tomorrow.  Of course the big test of how this will all work out in the end comes on Monday the 19th.  That is when police announced they will begin to act to enforce the administrative policy set by Walker, as best as they can.  I do not envy them that, and I am somewhat concerned that Monday also begins Chief Tubbs vacation away from the building.

So until then folks keep the faith, continue the recall effort, and we will see what happens next week.  Thank you all for the solidarity and would love to see everybody that can, be at the capitol next Monday by noon.  It should prove a very interesting time.

On Wisconsin!    FORWARD!!!!

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