On March 12, 2011, I was one of the 200,000 protesters in Madison. We marched around and around the capitol protesting our governor's attack on public unions and citizens' rights. I was furious because Wisconsin has always been one of the most progressive of all the states.
Wisconsin's firsts:
-- comprehensive worker's compensation law
-- unemployment insurance
-- child labor laws
-- forest and water conservation laws
We were a state with good government with good governors from both parties. Warren G. Knowles, the Republican governor when I was a child, was a giant in the environmental movement. Tommy Thompson, a Republican, while not my favorite governor, was certainly able to work with both parties to move legislation along.
Our current governor Walker has done his best to move back protections for workers and the environment and refusing to work with the Democrats in the state legislature. Public workers were vilified and threatened. So I marched. I talked to teachers, firefighters, police, librarians and others whose benefits would be taken away. Angrier and angrier, I was one of the first to sign a recall petition that day.
The recall effort continued with 30,000 volunteers collecting signatures to remove Walker from office. Today 1.9 million signatures on recall petitions (3,000 pounds of them) were delivered to the state election board in Madison. It will take months before the signatures are verified but by June there will be a recall election and we all hope this governor will disappear.
It shows that Wisconsin is still Wisconsin. We want our environment protected and our people treated fairly. We don't put up with people like Scott Walker.
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