Michael Moore (How I Got To Madison) "Standing in that Rotunda was like a religious experience"

[kpete]

Mon Mar 07, 2011 at 01:03 AM EST
How I Got to Madison, Wisconsin

by Michael Moore

....................

So, it's three in the morning and I'm a thousand miles from Madison and I see that the open microphone for speakers starts at noon. Hmm. No time to drive from New York. I was off to the airport. I left a note on the kitchen table saying I'd be back at 9:00 PM. Called a friend and asked him if he wanted to meet me at the Delta counter. Called the guy who manages my website, woke him up, and asked him to track down the coordinators in Madison and tell them I'm on my way and would like to say a few words if possible -- "but tell them if they've got other plans or no room for me, I'll be happy just to stand there holding a sign and singing Solidarity Forever."

So I just showed up. The firefighters, hearing I'm there, ask me to lead their protest parade through downtown Madison. I march with them, along with John Nichols (who lives in Madison and writes for the Nation). Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and the great singer Michelle Shocked have also decided to show up.

The scene in Madison is nothing like what they are showing you on TV or in the newspaper. First, you notice that the whole town is behind this. Yard signs and signs in store windows are everywhere supporting public workers. There are thousands of people out just randomly lining the streets for the six blocks leading to the Capitol building carrying signs, shouting and cheering and cajoling. Then there are stages and friendly competing demos on all sides of the building (yesterday's total estimate of people was 50,000-70,000, the smallest one yet)! A big semi truck has been sent by James Hoffa of the Teamsters and is parked like a don't-even-think-of-effing-with-us Sherman tank on the street in front of the Capitol. There is a long line -- separate from these other demonstrations -- of 4,000 people, waiting their turn to get through the only open door to the Capitol so they can join the occupation inside.

And inside the Rotunda is ... well, it will bring tears to your eyes if you go there. It's like a shrine to working people -- to what America is and should be about -- packed with families and kids and so many senior citizens that it made me happy for science and its impact on life expectancy over the past century. There were grandmas and great-grandpas who remember FDR and Wisconsin's La Follette and the long view of this struggle. Standing in that Rotunda was like a religious experience. There had been nothing like it, for me, in decades.

much more:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/07/953455/-How-I-Got-to-Madison,-Wisconsin

[highplainsdem]

1. K&R

[BeFree]

2. My favorite part?

This:
"..4,000 people, waiting their turn to get through the only open door to the Capitol so they can join the occupation...."

Finally we are seeing some real democracy by real democratic people who really believe in democracy.

Ed Abbey said it something like this:
"The only cure for an ill democracy is a big dose of democracy"

Thank you, Micheal Moore, for believing. And leading.

[Lifelong Protester]

3. Thank you, Michael!

Great reflection piece. And truly, it IS all that in Madison.

[madrchsod]

4. the interior of the capital is awe inspiring....

one could have a "religious experience" with no one around.then add in hundreds of people exercising their right of free speech and assembly...

[chill_wind]

5. He's an excellent story-teller. So glad he's there and will be able to

tell the world much more of this story first-hand in the way only he does it.

K & R.