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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLetter from my 72 yr. old classmate who is part of Wisconsin's Solidarity Sing Along
Last edited Wed Aug 7, 2013, 12:24 PM - Edit history (1)
(I posted this as a reply on another thread and was asked to make it an OP)
She's 72 years old - my old classmate/childhood friend/neighbor. A lifelong philanthropist who funded and worked daily at her own community emergency services office, and was often at the scene of disasters volunteering with the Red Cross. Whenever any pastor or priest in her small town came across someone in desperate need, they sent that person to her office. She wasn't one of those society do-gooders who wear designer gowns and get their pictures in the society pages writing checks at posh fundraisers. She's always been a down-to-earth, heart on her sleeve, boots on the ground toiler in the vineyard of human suffering.
I worry every day about her safety, and the safety of those demonstrating.
Here's her letter : a written comment submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Administration as part of the public input process on the promulgation of emergency administrative rules:
To the Department of Administration, State of Wisconsin.
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing in support of the efforts of the Solidarity Sing Along to maintain citizen consciousness in Wisconsin and in our nation; I dont believe this activity should be restrained in any way. I see it as the ember of hope that we, the people, will once again have a voice in the future of the United States of America.
We are enormously out-resourced and out-powered by forces beyond our control: corporations whose only goal is taking money from the workers who actually earn it and investing (read, gambling) it in the casinos of commerce. The new restrictions are a manifestation of exactly where the power lies, and the desperation to which the feudal lords have succumbed. The only way we can counter this is by speakingand singingtruth to power. Our society is becoming a place where Jesus would be very angry about the treatment of the poor.
The Solidarity Sing Along started as a way to focus the energies arising with the outpouring of response to the perceived betrayal of our ideals by Governor Scott Walker and his fellow money-suckers. It continues as a place-holder for democracy in a world we hardly recognize. The therapeutic value of singing our hearts out is what keeps us engaged and gives us hope.
Yes, we have our rowdiesbut theyre OUR rowdies, and are committed to non-violence, as we all are. What they may lack by way of finesse or vocabulary, they more than make up for in spirit (and decibels). We try always to be respectful of the rights of ALL.
Were still here. Wherever else we may be, were still here.
Yours for the life of our country,
monmouth3
(3,871 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)And please tell you friend 'thanks' for her activism and sacrifice.
charmay
(525 posts)postulater
(5,075 posts)niyad
(113,293 posts)to the wisconsin version of emperor palpatine.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)Divernan
(15,480 posts)Here's another comment from my septuagenarian, activist friend:
The Solidarity Sing Along is not an event, nor an exhibitit is a happening where any number of individuals (not members of a group) come to the Capitol to sing or to observe.
There are no leaders, therefore there is no one authorized to apply for a permit on behalf of the group.
Anyone can apply for a permit as an individual, but that person must accept financial responsibility for any damage done in the building by anyone, and pay for any additional security deemed necessary by the administration. (This could amount to $50 per person per hour for police, DNR, DOC, etc. security personnel. Since it is reported that security expenditures in early 2011 amounted to $7.5 million, that would be prohibitively costly)
The right to freely assemble and speak are guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land.
"The Solidarity Sing Along is a place holder for democracy."