Madhouse in Madison

A lot of things probably come to mind when you think of Wisconsin. Cheese, of course (they love it so much it's their state's unofficial hat) Superbowl champion Green Bay Packers and of course, The Fonz. Here's something I didn't know until recently. Wisconsin has always been a pioneer among the states in the union as far rights for laborers and unions. They literally invented the weekend. Our economy's practically built on the weekend. People work all week to earn money so they can go blow it all on the weekend on beer, movies, clothes, and eating at Olive Garden. Wisconsin also was the first state to negotiate a 40 hour work week. So now it's ironic to see how determined their Governor Scott Walker is to essentially break up public employees unions. He's presenting this as a measure to put a dent in the state's 3.6 billion dollar deficit but democrat senators of the state are willing to agree that public employees should start paying more for their own pension and health care. Fine, ok, everyone's got to make sacrifices, fine, we get it. And then Gov. Walker says, oh, by the way we're taking away all collective bargaining agreements for you too. That's not balancing the budget, that's an attempt to destroy unions. Republicans gain a lot of power if unions would just go away. In the last election, of the organizations that gave campaign contributions, only two of the top ten contributors were democratic organization and they were both unions. It's pretty assured that whatever happens in Wisconsin will not stay in Wisconsin but there will be parade of state's in similar positions that will follow the cheeshead's lead, like Ohio, Indiana and California. If Wisconsin's public unions fall that will knock over the rest of the dominoes. No collective bargaining hand cuffs workers to be at the mercy of their employer and give them no room to negotiate labor conditions. Pissing off your workers and making them feel small, insignificant, replacable will not spur them on to be harder working. Probably the opposite. You want to piss off fire fighters, cops and teachers? The people that save you from a fire, protect you from thugs, and teach your kid to keep his hands out of his pants because you said he was just being curious? These are the core people of our society. And they're not asking a lot, just that they can have a dog in the fight when the government decides to screw them over again.

P.S. Only five states don't have collective bargaining rights for Educators. South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Virginia. Here are the rankings for these states in terms of their ACT/SAT scores. 50, 49, 47, 48, 44. Happy Presidents' Day!