So it has gotten ugly in Wisconsin.
It didn't help when massive numbers of teachers called in sick for as many as three days in a row in order to go protest in Madison–forcing some schools to temporarily close doors to students.
And somehow, the Democratic state legislators felt that the best course of action was to skip town. Sure, I get that the tactic was to avoid quorum and prevent a vote and hold out for compromise, but that reminds me of how my six year old storms out of the room when I tell him to pick up his toys. (This tactic has also been tried in other states, but did not accomplish the fleeing groups' aims.)
And then there were the signs that some of the Wisconsin protesters were holding up, depicting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker with a Hitler mustache and making visual comparisons between Walker and other tyrants and dictators. That is of course a level-headed response which invites constructive discourse about Walker's proposal to eliminate collective bargaining and require teachers and other public employees to pay more of their health care benefits. I know that whenever I try to reason with someone I begin by comparing them to Hitler.
To be clear, I disagree with what I understand about Walker's ideas and even more emphatically disagree with how he has declared his unwillingness to compromise.
…But I am utterly ashamed at the behavior of the teachers who responded by ditching their jobs and slapping together asinine collages of past political demons. Worse yet, teachers invoked Palinesque imagery of targets on Walker's forehead and adopted the aforementioned's "reload" slogan on some signs as well.
Did anyone holding those signs seriously believe a reasonable person would look at Hitler's mustache on the Republican governor and then think to themselves "You know what, I really ought to listen to what these people have to say"?
Certainly, the handful of teachers holding those signs were in the minority and probably were not elected to the poster committee by their peers who believed these poorly conceived panels represented the crux of their argument. But, as any debate teacher will remind you, when you are trying to persuade an opponent, never hand them ammunition to use against you.
How about some reasonable discourse in Wisconsin? Certainly, that means the governor and his side need to also come to the table. I'm disappointed that the union leadership thought that a walk-out was the best plan of action. If things get that ugly here in Washington, I can comfortably say that I will not be following Wisconsin's lead, call me a scab if you want. I was raised to talk out my disagreements, and I expect the same of my students. I'm all for voicing your opinions in the democratic process, but to me this was the wrong way to take a stand and contributes to rather than resolves our utter political dysfunction as a society.
Even bigger than all this: when will we as a country learn that when we stand on opposite sides of an issue and just yell and scream about how stupid and evil the other side is, nothing ever gets better?
Me too, Mark.
Thanks for coming back, Kristin. This post was initially about the rhetoric and tactics of the protests, but as the comments clearly show, there are issues we ought to kick around beyond that.
This is such a complicated issue, and all signs foretell continued and increased struggles for funding public employees. My wife and I have lived on tight budgets for years, the NB bonus and salary steps have made it not so tight, but we can go back to living tight again. We know how to feed a family of five on a pittance, so we can go back to doing that. I am willing to take a modest pay cut if it means keeping more teachers in jobs (which prevents further ballooning of class sizes, which clearly negatively impacts student learning).
separate. sorry. I always get that one wrong.
I like what Dr. Pezz said, that people don’t get involved until it’s too late. What are unions in Washington state doing to ensure they’re worth their pay, are reducing waste, and are willing to bend a bit when the coffers are empty?
For example, many of my students have unemployed parents. Some of them have lost their homes. All of them are struggling to find health care and retirement? Not happening any time soon or in any comfortable way. These are the people I serve and live among. Can I really stand on the Capital steps with a sign that demands a yearly salary step increase, a bonus, better health care (for free, even if I’m obese and smoke, because our unions have gained us the Cadillac of health plans), job security, and respect?
I’m really sorry guys, for being a dissident, but I don’t think I can do that. It’s true teachers invest a lot in our own education, do important work, and work really hard, but so do the parents of my students, and many of them are really, really struggling. Their taxes pay my salary.
We can’t be simplistic and define it as a battle between Republicans and Democrats, or rich versus poor.
The reality is, we’d be really smart to step up as a union and say we’re willing to sacrifice.
Have we done it before? Yes. But so have my local librarians, most of whom have taken second jobs because they’re forced to take more and more furlough days and their annual salary has dropped.
Should the rich pay more? Yes. But that’s a seperate battle than standing here and demanding our annual bonus, our salary step increases, and smaller class sizes while the families we serve wait in line at food banks.
Fair enough, Mark. I guess I didn’t take the time to fully comprehend your position. It looked like you were taking aim at the protestors. I stand corrected.
There are plenty of people focusing on the enormity of the issues at hand. I’ve been reading all day about Ohio and Tennessee and countless other places where public employees’ unions are under attack or have already successfully been squashed (there is only local CB in TN for example, how come that fact hasn’t come up more often?). If my contributions here aren’t exhaustively addressing all the issues of this highly complex situation, that never was my goal.
If you look at my past posts, several times I’ve written about my concern (as a high school English teacher) with the dangers of poorly thought-out, vague, or inflammatory rhetoric in the public and political arenas (as well as popular media). This post was in the same vein, not to distract or detract from the larger issues.
Mark, the conversation is ongoing. The Senators will be back, but if they were present now it would be over.
I have not put you on a side. But I do think your choice to protest the signs of a few rather than focus on the enormity of the issues involved is misguided.
I agree you have the right to make that choice.
But Tom, you told me I was on the wrong side… what side is that? (Yes, I’m poking here.)
I don’t disagree with a single position you’ve taken on this thread, Tom. I likewise stand with the teachers who are resisting the stripping of power from organized labor. My point in this blog post has to do with the manner of the response by some teachers in Wisconsin.
I think I’m seeing two debates on here: whether or not the protesters have hurt themselves because of a few extreme signs and whether or not people support the teachers or the governor. Of course, there are nuanced positions within these as well.
Still, I believe the protesters are fighting the right cause, but some are too extreme in their expressions of outrage. Beyond that, I think people in Washington better wake up. It’s coming here soon.
Sides? Here’s where I’m coming from: this is the opening salvo in an all-out attack on organized labor. Emboldened Republican governors are going after unions all over. Those protestors are scared. I’m scared. Public education took a huge hit this week.
@ Brian– while I understand the motive for the Dem legislators leaving, this approach has not worked in the other states where it was tried (Texas with their redistricting, as a prime example) and actually ends up with public backlash. Newspapers in WI also report that the legislators in hiding admit to having had no contact with their Republican counterparts, so I am unclear how this move is fostering further conversation on the issue.
Absolutely, different news organizations have chosen to show different facets of these protests, I don’t disagree with this fact… FOX certain is taking a different approach than CNN. But can I not still be appalled that teachers chose to invoke the imagery they did…even if it was only a few dozen who did so? Can I not still point out that such fiery rhetoric, even if it manifests from “raw emotion” is counterproductive no matter which side uses it? I don’t understand how those opinions and observations automatically throw me to the “other side.”
It is interesting how just this little thread has seemed to build poles: me (and maybe Kristin) on one “side” and the other posters on the other “side.” Yet, what DrPezz writes is exactly my point:
“However, those leading these groups of protesters should be coaching them to help them garner respect and support for the cause.”
So if I agree with DrPezz…which “side” am I on? Is it possible that this matter is more complex than two diametrically opposed camps?
What side is that I’m on, Tom? That’s another issue: either you’re with us or you’re against us. I’m curious, what is it that you perceive is my “side” on this matter?
Here’s a link with a better spin:
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_621358c6-3be9-11e0-a6e8-001cc4c03286.html
@Pezz & Brian: right on. Mark, afraid you’re on the wrong side of this one, buddy.
Despite what people expect, teachers are a general representation of a cross-section of society; we have our extremists and crazies too. That’s reality.
However, those leading these groups of protesters should be coaching them to help them garner respect and support for the cause.
Regardless, this is one more attack on the middle class in general and on teachers in specific. We need to be hyper-vigilant here in Washington State. Our own ranks support bills that would harm our profession or undermine work being done to improve the profession. Too many people remain uninvolved in their representative bodies until it’s too late, and then they act surprised by the results. Disagreement is not an excuse or lack of involvement.
I applaud the protesters but think we need to involve ourselves even more here in Washington. The state has the ability right now to start using value-added measures (despite the preponderance of evidence showing them to be inadequate and inaccurate), ranking teachers, and deciding employment based on one measure. On the other hand, we have pilot districts around the state working hard.
Wisconsin knew what was coming. I wonder how much they did prior to the governor’s election.
Mark, maybe the problem is where you are getting your news. I don’t watch television news, so I have been spared the ugly and inappropriate signs that you protest. I suspect there are very few of them, and I’m not surprised that TV cameras would seek them out. The accounts I have read say that: “The throngs of protesters – including teachers, prison guards and many students – have been largely peaceful. Police reported just nine citations for minor offenses as of Friday. ”
Do you agree that if the Democratic senators had not left town that the bill taking away collective bargaining would already be passed? The only way to keep the discussion going was for them to leave.
I agree that the issue is bigger than the signs. But when the emblem for “our side” becomes those signs (which it has on some WI and national news websites), public support is awfully hard to garner and maintain. This is not just a political battle, this is a public relations battle, and teachers/unions are starting out at a deficit in the current climate. Winning public support goes a long way to compelling the kinds of state house conversations which ultimately need to happen.
I also agree that the dissolution of collective bargaining and unions in general is a serious problem. But just as with any problem, while the right way to solve it may might be hard to find, the wrong ways are easier to find and can set the cause back irreparably.
The sign went too far. But this issue is far bigger than that. There is a huge Republican-led anti-teacher union movement going on, and Wisconsin is ground zero. That’s what we should be focused on, not signs.
Besides, picket signs have always utilized tongue-in-cheek hyperbole. They aren’t the place for discourse, they’re the place for raw emotion. The place for discourse is in the state house, but Walker shut that down.
I stand in support with those teachers.
I’m so glad you brought up the walk out / sign issue. The other day I was just thinking whether I’d take a sick day and protest with my union, or if I’d go to work and sit in an empty classroom. My colleagues could hardly like me less, since things have gotten tense even with Washington’s political atmosphere.
I support a union’s purpose: ensure that workers are treated fairly, ensure that workers have safe working conditions and are paid a fair wage for their work, use the power of collectivity to make that happen. It makes me nervous to think a governor could simply wave a wand and say that it’s not allowed for people to fight for that.
And the media always zoom in on the most unattractive teacher. Always. The one with the misspelled sign, the one who barks into the camera like some ignorant beast. It is embarrassing.
The take away lesson is that if such a battle happens here, those of us who want a reasonable, intelligent discourse need to make sure we’re in the forefront, and not letting the hysterics lead the charge.
As far as I’m concerned, once you start pulling out the targets and the Hitler mustaches, you’ve made everything else you want to say disappear.
And, not to alienate yet another group of people…
I know that in my social circles, not many people take the Tea Party seriously. It isn’t that we even know all that much about their positions–it is that we are all responding to the visual rhetoric: Obama with Hitlerstache, inflammatory soundbytes scrawled on poster board. It makes it awful tough to take anything they say seriously when their public face looks like that. This is where I see the dispute in WI heading. With a different face on the Tea Party, I’d be more inclined to take the time to get to know their positions, interests, passions, and goals… and even if I still came away disagreeing, I’d at least be disagreeing on substance rather than my own knee-jerk reaction. But I don’t care to investigate further because my gut association with them are the visuals they allowed to become the forefront of their campaigns. I’m I right, the “better person” in this respect? Nope, but it’s the reality of argument.
@Clix, there were some much more productive signs, one of them said “care about your teachers like your teachers care about your kids.” My issue is that if people really want to get what they want, they need to be a little more thoughtful about how they go about getting it. That doesn’t necessarily mean waving twenty page treatises, but I wish someone would have though twice about invoking the imagery they did… it only gives the other side one more reason not to listen to us.
@Mike, I’m not against protests. When you say I need to “get on the right side on this one,” I’m not sure what side you think I’m on, but that to me that also shows that we’re losing the ability to have any kind of nuance in discussion… the “you’re either with us or against us” mentality. I am opposed to what I understand about Walker’s position, and I also condemn his stated unwillingness to consider compromise: I state that in the post. However, just because I am opposed to his position doesn’t mean I have to endorse wholesale the tactics employed by others who oppose his position. I truly think that this particular protest will, in the long run, do more harm than good. It offers opponents of teachers and unions too many ugly stereotypes to reinforce their existing irrational and sweeping perceptions of teachers and unions. I can see how you’d classify my post as a rant… that’s what it is. The nice thing about this forum though, as opposed to a protest poster, is that I have the chance to articulate my thinking in hopes that people will take the time to read thoroughly and consider all the elements of my position. That also happens when people in politics permit themselves to engage constructively with one another. Part of my point is that the latter is what we need, what the pols claim they are willing to do, what will be the only way resolution can occur, but what never seems to happen when we stand on opposite sides of the fence and declare “it’s us against them.”
How much discourse do you really expect on a picket sign? Sure, they COULD write a reasoned explanation of their grievances on the signs… but it’d be awful hard to read from more than about a foot away. ;D
I generally agree with your thoughts in your well-thought out and finely crafted posts, but I feel you’re off on an undeserving side rant on this one. The issue in Wisconsin is a state trying to solve its financial problems by messing with the middle/working class (teachers especially). Yes, it’s ugly. Yes, teacher should be in their classes. However, the fresh power of this protest comes, in part, from the fact that the teachers, students, and parents are there. Banks messed up our financial status, not workers, the government let them off the hook, the state is now broke and teachers and unionized workers are supposed to pay for these gov’t and bank misdeeds? I know you know that. But, that issue is bigger than the stupid signs a few teachers chose to swing when most of them made very thoughtful and appropriate signs. I’d say, get on the right side of this one.