The Latest Lies From Wisconsin's Governor

Bear with me for a moment. I would like to apologize to readers from other parts of the country, and world. Your government agents may be less despicable than Scott Walker, but the shenanigans that he has brought to his office need to be seen clearly if we are to avoid losing the tiny grasp we have on the democratic process worldwide. I believe it was Napolean who said, "I study my enemies so that I might hate them more aptly." Those familiar with my writing probably understand that I do not advocate hatred or misunderstanding, but by learning as much as we can about the modus operandi of the people who would enslave us and benefit from our pain and suffering, we can begin to find ways to remove them from their powerful positions and take back some of the wealth and dignity that they have stolen from the general public, me and you, through their exploitation and deceit.

As we enter the fourth recall election season in Wisconsin's history, it is well to look back on the reasons for the prior recalls and what was at stake so that we can realize how important our actions are today. In the early days, the only elected officials that served four year terms were the State Senators and the Judiciary. Until 1926, when the offices of  Governor, Lieutenant Governor,  Attorneys General and other offices were increased to four years, the window of opportunity for recall was too small to make it an effective tool against most elected officials. All that is required to force a recall election is signatures from 25% of the voters who turned out for the last election for that office. The idea that this is easy is often touted by the officials who face recall, but in fact, in my experience as a community organizer, the vast majority of Wisconsin residents are typically unwilling to sign petitions that force capricious extra expenses on the government. Certainly the cost of a statewide recall campaign costs many millions of dollars, but in the recall of Governor Scott Walker, the public has deemed the damage caused by his policies to be greater than the cost of another election process.

Historically, there have been nearly a dozen attempts to garner enough signatures to force recalls, but only four have resulted in actual recall elections. The first, in 1932, against Otto Mueller for his opposition to a tax proposal made by the Governor failed in the ballot box by nearly a two to one vote. The two prior successful recalls were both in relatively recent history The 1996 removal of State Senator George Petak, over his double-cross of the voters on the issue of taxing Racine residents to help pay for the new Milwaukee Brewers Stadium. He had claimed to be against the tax during his campaign for office and supported it when he got in. Again, the recall was utilized to remove State senator Gary George, in 2003, just prior to his imprisonment on corruption charges. The people of Wisconsin have now embarked on a serious campaign against big money, the influence it has wielded over our current representatives and with the election of Governor Walker, there has been a groundswell of sentiment that wishes to have the right to know what an elected official will do before they are elected, rather than having to sit on the sidelines while the big dogs run the State House. Repeatedly, the shouts and cries have gone up around the State Capitol, here in Wisconsin, "This Is Our House!" and the people mean it!

To see and hear the heinous fallout that has come from the policies and pen of a single man is to know the ire that exists in Wisconsin right now. Just yesterday, it was revealed that with a single stroke of the Governor's pen, a loophole that had been closed, that allowed corporations to funnel their activities through shell corporations in other states that have no income tax, was reopened. This single change will take over 300 million dollars out of the state coffers in just the next two years. That is equivalent to 1/3 of the "savings" that Governor Walker has been touting. He says that he has cut the cost of state government and created jobs, but when we look around, we see a different story. Layoffs are in the news almost daily, and as the government programs are cut further, more and more citizens are being forced to live on less. Wisconsin leads (and that is a terrible word) the nation in job loss. We are dead last in job creation and as we look around the state, many of the standards that we have worked for decades to establish are being undermined and eviscerated. One of the most dramatic steps back occurred after the election of Governor Walker, but before he even took office. He pledged to cancel plans for high speed rail between Milwaukee and Madison. Thirty years of hard work had gone into the planning and enabling legislation that would lead to 21st century transportation in the most populous part of the state. Now, the congestion and danger that exist on the highways, as well as the cost in time, fuel and automobile purchase, maintenance and repair will continue to increase for those living in that corridor the foreseeable future.

We need affordable transit, not only in the urban south, but through the Fox River Valley as well. The most dangerous and deadly highway in the state runs through my neck of the woods and because of that, there have been groups trying to get a high speed rail option here for three decades. The current governor has proven to us by his actions that he not only does not care about our wishes, but that he has contempt for them. Rather than entering into any serious dialog, he has sequestered himself from the public and entertained no possibilities for listening to anyone who opposes his quest to turn Wisconsin citizens into tools for the production of increasing corporate power. We the people, must no longer stand by, while our environment is sacrificed, our children and elderly are abused and neglected, teachers vilified, and the voters of the state are spoken to in condescending ways or fed lies that are constantly "propped up" by more lies.

I offer this information as a call for everyone, worldwide, to stand for truth, demand responsibility from our elected officials and command respect from those who are supposedly leading us into the future. We cannot turn the clocks back to the age of Ozzie and Harriet anymore than we can affect the tides of history. We are embarking on a pilgrimage to one of two futures. One, appears to be more in harmony with nature, one another and able to support everyone at a higher standard of living at less cost. The other, I routinely call "business as usual" and involves more money flowing into ever-fewer hands and the power that comes with it keeping ever-greater numbers of us as wage slaves and in poverty. Stand for all that is right and good with the world, Lord and Lady know, we need to change the direction that we have been heading for the past few generations.

Dare I Say It?

The time has come for action. I know that the vast majority of "Americans" shun any mention of responsibility for the supposed freedoms that they love to claim. I also know that the major media sources that feed our country information try like the devil to strangle public discourse rather than encourage it. Considerable experience has also taught me that no matter what obvious path to a better way of life that I mention, probably because they all require hard work and sacrifice in the short run, are ruthlessly rejected out of hand. There is little excuse for the way we have treated one another, no justification for the raping of the planet and no cogent argument for saddling future generations with the lasting effects of war, extractive economic methods that foist boom and bust burdens on those who do not benefit from the boom times, but are crippled by the bust, poverty, ignorance and debt, but I fear, chances are that we will continue to do all of these things if we do not take a stand now for what is right and good in our civilization. Believe me, we are not, as we are told, isolated pawns in a rich man's game, unless we let ourselves be. Taking our civil rights back will be an extremely hard road and there may be more blood shed on freedom's path. Rest assured that there will be sweat, toil and sacrifice, but the change must come at whatever the price. If we continue to let the powers that be railroad us in the directions of their choosing, we are going to fall deeper and deeper into the chasm of ruthlessness and hate, remain at odds with planet Earth and succumb to the evil that drives the ultra rich to pick the pockets of our elderly, ransack the stores of knowledge that we have developed over centuries to pass on to our children and continue to exploit and confound both mothers and fathers who, after all, made a commitment to the future just by having children.

Frequently, when people ask what I do for a living, I say, "I am a living manifestation of the infinite." I say it not so much to enlighten them, because, let's face it, most folks don't have the background or level of understanding to decipher that truth, but for myself, to help remind me of what I do for a living. We are all facing terribly complex ciphers. The puzzles themselves are usually manufactured by various different interests and the pieces rarely seem to fit or have distinct information on them to give us clues about where they go or even whether they "fit" with the puzzle that we may be working on at the time. Recognizing that we are part of a centuries long struggle and that our responsibility is to the next seven generations seems to be a good place to start for many. With this basic starting point, it is easy to see that atomic energy, whether for electric power generation or war, cannot stand the basic test for safety over future generations. The radioactivity that results from our need in this moment will be a dangerous legacy for thousands of generations. One of the pieces of the puzzle will be finding our way to generating energy that does not kill, maim or saddle future generations with the cost of providing us comfort.

Transportation, as well, needs to be transformed. As we learn to reestablish connections to the locations in which we live, produce more of our food locally and begin to re-think the last generations decision to separate people from capital, goods and services, we will have to use triage in dealing with the empty suburbs. When I was a child, even tiny towns had bakeries, medium sized ones had several and it was rare to find a neighborhood that didn't have fresh bread within walking distance. Try that today and chances are you would be wearing out a lot of shoes. The right wingers seem to be overjoyed with their own voices chanting the mantra of "mass transit can't work", yet in truth, it is the greed of folks who live on the city edge that forces us to expand every other service to the point of recklessness and whatever the opposite of thrift is. The properties that lie beyond city services are going for inflated prices because everyone seems to want their little piece of heaven, but then the trash needs to be picked up, eventually hey want curb and gutter and fresh clean water like the rest of us, so we pay for their wants by sacrificing our own needs. Them subsidization of suburban fringe communities is at once a greedy money grab for the outlying communities, hoping for increased revenues from taxes and a multi-generational sentence for those who cannot afford to flee the cities. It has been frequently pointed out by people far smarter than I that the ultra-rich only call it class warfare when we fight back. I am somewhat resolved to the fact that I may forever be a city mouse, but I should not bear the burden of contaminated air, water and soil left behind by the wealthy exploiters of planet earth. We need their wealth and education to help us solve the pressing problems of the city, not having them squander their money and time mowing acre and a half lots that used to produce food.

It is hard to tell a farmer who has struggled all their life that they are not entitled to millions in retirement because they sell their land to Target, Costco or Wal-mart, only to have it paved over and ruined for ever, but one can look back just a few generations and find people who went into farming because of a deep connection to the earth and a desire to do what was right for their communities. Now, many have been kow towed into thinking that it is every person for themselves and if their greed is not as over the top as the next guy, they will end up losing everything. Some say that growing population will inevitably force the further degradation of the planet, but improving the efficiency with which we do business and increasing quality of life for all people, our needs will become much easier to meet and with far less environmental damage as well. We need to stand up and let local decision makers know that we will not tolerate another back room deal to sell out the towns and cities of our great nation for he sake of another get rich quick scheme that only benefits the few at the expense of the many. All of this is hard work that needs doing if we are to leave our children anything worthwhile.

We have been told that the generation gap is inevitable, but that is another popular lie foisted upon us by those who really don't care about us. If your children see you working for a better world, and you explain to them that all of your efforts are to salvage a liveable world for them, you will be surprised at how quickly they will respond to the great and pressing needs as well. if they see you buying into the lies and deception that "business as usual" wants to sell you, they will see what you are made of and hate you to the core. Fortunately, there are more voices joined in the cry for justice than ever. With a bit of work and taking some time to get involved, we are making change happen. It comes at a time when the inertia of bad decision making has all but overwhelmed us, but there are those all across the globe who realize that we must take one last gaps and fight our way back to shore, or we will surely perish. This is truly a fight for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not only for ourselves, but for the coming generations as well. The time has come to stop standing idly by and "waiting for the world to change". We have every right and the responsibility to take charge, not only of our own lives, but the direction of the governments that we supposedly elect and the discourse about what will make this a better place and time to live in. Get involved, become agents of change and remember, the hardest part is starting. Once you resolve to give your life to the betterment of others, the rewards are nearly infinite and the difficulties along the way transform from boogey men into temporary hiccups and gems along our spiral path.