Joel Van Haren
Comments
intShare
February 20th, 2011 12:58 PM
Joel's brother Sam at Saturday's Madison protest
I'm a birther.
That's right – I don't believe the absurd claims of the National Governor's Association that Scott Walker was born in my home state of Wisconsin. If he was, produce the birth certificate!
But I guarantee you they never will. You see, the evidence conclusively shows that Walker was born far away from Wisconsin, in Colorado Springs, Colorado – where his non-Wisconsinite father moved the family after finishing seminary. It does seem to be true that Walker eventually moved to Delavan, Wisconsin where he graduated from the public school system and attended Marquette University for a time. (Perhaps unable to meet the standards we Wisconsinites set for ourselves, Walker later dropped out.)
I mention all this because Scott doesn't seem to know anything about the state to which he immigrated. You see, the history of Wisconsin's labor movement is remarkable. The country's largest public employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) was formed in Wisconsin in 1932 with the simple, yet colossal mission “to promote, defend and enhance the civil service system.” Additionally, Wisconsin's labor unions fought to secure unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, and led the way in the national movement for the 8-hour workday and 40-hour work week – a fight in which seven Wisconsinites lost their lives in 1886.
Maybe if Scott's family had lived for six generations in Wisconsin, like mine — maybe if he weren’t so foreign – he'd get it.
As Walker basks in the national conservative media spotlight for applying union-busting legislation to solve his so-called inherited budget “crisis,” Wisconsinites can decipher the Wauwatosa Republican's stale rhetoric a little better around here.
Walker claims that his mandate for a hike in public-sector contributions to pensions and healthcare premiums is necessary to close the budget gap, but still “very modest” in comparison to national averages in the private sector. He also suggests that inflated compensation and benefits of state, county, and municipal workers merits this directive.Some disagree.
Wisconsin's union workers have expressed concern over the hit they'll take with more real cash coming out of their pockets to keep their benefits, but as taxpayers, they realize the state has bills to pay – they're willing to concede on this. Still, Scotty won't budge.
He knows that's not the issue that brought 60,000 voices in solidarity to the Capitol steps on Saturday.
Walker's unyielding commitment to remove the ability of public employee unions to collectively bargain is at the crux of the most contentious and damaging part of his “budget repair bill.” Yet he maintains that it's the unions that are unwilling to compromise. And on the issue of collective bargaining, he's right.
Walker's bill indicates an extraordinary power grab that goes against the small government platform he ran on in last year's gubernatorial race. His actions exhibit a continuation of the supreme executive decision-making and mismanagement of public resources he sanctioned as Milwaukee County Executive. What would compel Wisconsin's public workers to sacrifice their hard fought labor rights to such a bully?
Walker's thrifty judgment calls at the behest of himself began when he was first elected as Milwaukee County Executive in 2002. He held a hardline on making less and less money available for essential services, like slashing the Milwaukee County Transit System by 20 percent. The bus is a lifeline for Milwaukee's working-class minorities and Walker's actions had the effect of making at least 40,000 jobs inaccessible to people without cars. Walker also neglected Milwaukee's award-winning parks that now require over $200 million in deferred maintenance. Still, after nearly a decade of austerity measures, he left the county bankrupt by refusing to find new sources of revenue and being careless with the money we did have. Governor Walker's solution: “To me, the better example is to eliminate the government entirely."
I beseech Scott Walker to stop running Wisconsin like a business that he owns. The man has been receiving a government paycheck for nearly twenty years, what does he have against us?
My own family, one of immigrants from Europe and India, constitute six generations of public and private sector workers in Wisconsin. My father's late grandfather—Chief of Detectives from Madison, my paternal grandfather—a railroad worker from Madison, my mother's father—a clerk in the state capitol, my father—a senior electrician for the City of Madison's Department of Traffic Engineering, his brother—a DNR warden in Dodgeville, my brother—a Parks Department employee while paying for college, and myself—a former employee of the Madison Parking Utility.
Generations of Wisconsinites have established the vitality of public services and education to Wisconsin's exceptional quality of life. This is lost on Scott Walker. His argument that the alleged swollen budgets of former politicians justify stripping our teachers and public servants of their ability to own and exercise their rights is bunk. Hard times in any business are times to invest and reassure hard-working employees that their service and engagement is crucial to realizing the true potential of the operation. By taking away the voice of the base, Walker would destroy the faith Wisconsinites have in our state government to supervise a tangible democracy.
These are not just decisions on how to manage dollars, these are decisions that affect the mortgages, livelihoods and belief of real Wisconsinites that we have security in our ability to participate in the future of our state, and Scott Walker just doesn't get it. But then again, he's not really from Wisconsin.
No comments:
Post a Comment