Back from Madison: No Riots, No Thugs

Okay, it’s a shoo-in for my favorite of the day, but there were plenty of others I loved:

What Would Bob Do? (reference to Fighting Bob LaFollette)

Dread Scott

I Blame Favre

In Russ We Trust (alongside Feingold for Governor)

If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher

It’s too bad the people who could run this state are too busy teaching

You can’t scare me, I teach Middle School

Don’t refudiate our education

The Superbowl was won by a union

Unions: thanks for the weekend

This private sector bitch supports unions

. . . & for me, seeing the wildcat emblem of the IWW, a portrait of Joe Hill & calls for a General Strike = priceless. Seeing so many unions out was amazing too:  AFSCME, Iron-workers, Fire, SEIU (my grandma’s), and an immigrants rights’ group were shouting Si Se Puede until they were hoarse. My favorite chant? What’s disgusting? Union Busting! But the much more direct kill the bill was chanted to drown out the other side whenever they started trying to defend Walker’s power grab.

The attendance by Tea Partiers is greatly exaggerated. I’d say it was maybe 1:100. Really, they weren’t even a blip: a lone guy with a sign here, a group of five there, & then a kind of gauntlet on the way into the building, but that was it. The mood was peaceful, celebratory, determined, and full of joy and music. The 4PM rally started with the singing of “God Bless America”.

No riots, no thugs.