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beccatoriaI've been following the story of the Unions vs Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Governor pretty much since it broke nationally. Now it's expanded to encompass Indiana, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey (don't let me down, Jersey; before now the worst anyone could say about you was that you were secretly run by the Mafia!), many others.
I haven't posted anything because, well, I'm overseas, and what could I say beyond the obvious? That I am not only impressed but moved by the protesters, by their tenacity and their integrity. That I desperately want them to succeed. That I think about them often. Anyone who knows me at all could have guessed that, but now, after the catastrophically cowardly behaviour of the Wisconsin Republicans yesterday in passing the bill, instead of feeling like I'd be crowding the airwaves with fuzzy support everyone probably already knows I feel, I feel the least I can do is publicly state my allegiance to that cause and my disgust with the way in which the bill was passed.
I am Welsh and I'm American. My father raised me with stories of the Miners' Union Strikes that I'm too young to remember, that went on for over a year, that ultimately failed (after armed conveys escorting the coal; after families were ripped apart because the choice to cross the picket line was literally a choice about whether you could feed your family) and that have left - to this day - the Valleys as one of the poorest areas in the UK. My mother raised me with a strong sense of patriotism towards America and its idiosyncratic, devolved, town-and-city level raucous politics. Not to listen to the anti-US sentiment often expressed over here and to understand the idealistic importance of what the US could and should be, even if that's not what it was right then. I guess that's why I care so much about what's happening right now - what's happening to one of my countries, and how much I don't want it to turn out like what happened to the other one.
Stand firm, Wisconsin. I believe in you.
I haven't posted anything because, well, I'm overseas, and what could I say beyond the obvious? That I am not only impressed but moved by the protesters, by their tenacity and their integrity. That I desperately want them to succeed. That I think about them often. Anyone who knows me at all could have guessed that, but now, after the catastrophically cowardly behaviour of the Wisconsin Republicans yesterday in passing the bill, instead of feeling like I'd be crowding the airwaves with fuzzy support everyone probably already knows I feel, I feel the least I can do is publicly state my allegiance to that cause and my disgust with the way in which the bill was passed.
I am Welsh and I'm American. My father raised me with stories of the Miners' Union Strikes that I'm too young to remember, that went on for over a year, that ultimately failed (after armed conveys escorting the coal; after families were ripped apart because the choice to cross the picket line was literally a choice about whether you could feed your family) and that have left - to this day - the Valleys as one of the poorest areas in the UK. My mother raised me with a strong sense of patriotism towards America and its idiosyncratic, devolved, town-and-city level raucous politics. Not to listen to the anti-US sentiment often expressed over here and to understand the idealistic importance of what the US could and should be, even if that's not what it was right then. I guess that's why I care so much about what's happening right now - what's happening to one of my countries, and how much I don't want it to turn out like what happened to the other one.
Stand firm, Wisconsin. I believe in you.
