I don't quite understand where Christian Schneider's coming from (This Is What Democracy Looks Like?" 12/30/11). Is it sour grapes, because we on the left are obviously having more fun, with more style, than his rabble? Witness the participants in the Solidarity Sing-Along, who sing, stamp, sway and polka every day at noon in the Capitol Rotunda or on the State Street stage.
Poor Christian! One reason we on the left are having more fun than they on the right is our clear conscience, something they'll never have.
Ted Voth Jr.
Of all the distortions Christian Schneider made, none was worse than declaring that an "incredulous" Supreme Court reinstated the union-busting bill after it was declared void by a lower judge. This implies that the Supreme Court was amazed it even had to take the case because it was passed in so obviously an above-board way. In fact, the opposite was true: It took an absurd and shameful reinterpretation of the open meetings law by the conservative majority on the court for Walker's bill to become law.
Schneider's article also proves that anyone can use carefully chosen quotes to obscure reality. A Democratic assemblyman screaming in the heat of the moment somehow makes Walker's legislation just? A clueless comment by one high school student discounts the vast majority of teenagers who knew exactly why they marched on the Capitol?
It was also irritating to see Schneider trot out that same tired line that teachers protested for four days because we didn't really care about our students, as if anyone should just sit back while their profession is being attacked. It was about the money, but also about the rights we had bargained for over many years, the quality of life for our children and our students, and the future of public education in Wisconsin. Schneider's cheap shot merely confirmed my long-held belief that there's nothing Republicans hate more than people not shutting up and doing what they're told.
If a hundred thousand people protesting in the streets, a peacefully occupied statehouse and a huge grass-roots recall effort is not what democracy looks like, what does it look like? Corporate hacks writing legislation that benefits corporations, I guess. If we just shut up long enough we'll all get the kind of state Republicans want us to have.
Andrew McCuaig
