The student newspaper of my alma mater says union protesters in Indiana and other states are to be commended for their "peaceful protests" against "what they believe to be an injustice," but, really, something "should have been done about it in November."
Ah yes, those pesky midterm elections — the ones we students were too busy to bother with. Only 22.8 percent of eligible voters ages 18 to 29 participated in the November midterms, according to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
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To those of you who support the Republicans and their agenda: Congratulations. You won this round. You may want to get as many changes through as quickly as possible, though.
To the rest of you: Keep making your voices heard. Start the movement now that you won't stand for a country that takes away teachers' rights and makes them compete against one another for pay. Let your legislators know that you will be keeping an eye on them until 2012, and if they aren't representing you and your beliefs, you'll wipe them out of office as quickly as they swoop into it.
These are some extreme ideas -- taking away teaches' rights? making them compete against one another for pay? -- even for a predictably anti-Republican-agenda student newspaper. But the student editors are entirely right in their central premise: Elections have consequences, and those who don't partcipate shouldn't grouse about what the winners do. I suspect they're wrong about the need to "get as many changes through as quickly as possible." But I need to do my part to help make sure they're wrong, b
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The bill they're trying to pass allows for the no bid sale or lease of state-owned heating, cooling, and power plants. Do you suppose the campaign literature mentioned that kind of deal at all?
There are recall petitions circulating for Wirch and Holperin, and I suspect that will inspire the teachers' union to start recall petitions of their own.
I lived in Wisconsin for a couple of years four decades ago, and I'm sure that things have changed, but the folk there sure spoke Fightin' Bob La Follette's name in reverence, and I can't think that would have changed all that much. He was a Republican, but he was anti-trust as well.
Sorry kids, like your Messiah & His Disciples so aptly put it:
Elections have consequences.
It's not my Messiah.
In thermodynamics, every action is met with an equal and opposite reaction, but in politics, the opposite reaction is usually an overreaction. Recall petitions lead to elections, too.