Just a Quick Visit and Entitletown

When I go to visit my family in Madison, I like to visit the capital as well. It gives me the opportunity to talk to my legislators(if they are in - it helps if you call or e-mail first)This trip was no different. So, for those of you who are farther away from Madison, here is a quick rundown and some photos of my visit to the capital. (capitol/capital, I can never remember which one is the proper one to refer to the building itself.)

To start, I wanted to see the "tent city" that the inhabitants have dubbed Walkerville, but that conservatives refer to as Entitletown. As you can see, it's not too imposing. That may be because of the lovely thunderstorm that went through the evening before, or this may be the size it always was. (I'm assuming that those tents I saw had been taken down and put up again after the storm passed through, because with the tornado warnings and the hail, it would take a really stupid person to stay in a tent when they had better shelter available.)



The sign said "Welcome to Walkerville pop: awesome". I don't doubt they were motivated by some degree of self interest as they had signs and other supplies available for the "campers".



"Solidarity City" was next in line. these folks seemed to be truly enjoying their stay.



And the last group was on the next block up. There were no tents on the capital grounds, for which I was thankful.



This is where the drummer was sitting for a short bit before I snapped the photo. I suspect he or one of his fellow war protesters were responsible for the noise complaint call from Mrs. Risser. (Yes, that would be Mrs. Fred Risser, wife of one of the fleebaggers.)



There was also the usual unique types of people common to Madison. (I would kind of like to see a kitty circus.)



I saw no chalked messages on the sidewalks.



And the lawns seem to be recovering.



While I still had to go through the metal detector, the atmosphere was markedly different. There were signs posted on the doors and near the security screening area, but they were helpful and informative signs to let visitors know what is and is not allowed in the building.





It was lighter and much closer to the dignified and welcoming feel of pre-protest visits.



A far more amenable atmosphere in which the actual business of the building may take place.



Even though the day I visited was overcast, the rotunda still felt much airier and lighter than on the day I visited towards the end of the protests which had been a bright and sunny day. I've always enjoyed standing under the rotunda dome and lookiing up. If you happen to be visiting Madison, stop in and see your legislators. They are, for the most part, personable and polite when they disagree with you and downright welcoming when they agree or are looking for input before making up their mind how to vote. It's a participatory process, folks. Participate. You'll be glad you did.



"And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD." ~ Eze 16:14

Where were the TEA Party folks?

Today, my state senator, Joe Leibham, held a listening session. He provided a small booklet(nothing fancy-just the facts-black and white as though it came from your home printer) about legislative changes that had been approved, changes that were under discussion and legislation he had worked on.

Some of the changes that have been approved, as those who have been reading this blog know, are outrageously abusive of the citizens of WI. Some of the more outrageous policy items that were dropped from the budget, are being revisited by our legislators. Things like driver's cards for illegal aliens and lowering the liability percentage from 51% to 1%. ( I had thought both of those items were safely off the table and am quite incensed to find that it is not so. That air in Madison I guess.)

Now I have some problems with Mr. Leibham, philosophically, but I will grant that he has been a strong fiscal conservative in his votes and, in general shows a modicum of common sense, of which I approve. I will address my reservations with him in another post, but I wanted to address something else before I do that and before I post videos of bits of his listening session.

We have a participatory form of government folks. That means we participate. When our legislators do their best to let us know what is going on in the halls of the legislature, we should lend them an ear. When they make themselves available to hear our opinions and concerns, we should equally, politely and respectfully share our opinions and concerns. Now I've attended two TEA Parties. One in Madison and one in Sheboygan. Those gatherings were very well attended and there were many concerns spoken of, at the national, state and local levels. Everyone was enthusiastic and wanting things to be changed, (or left alone in certain areas-change for the sake of change is not a reasonable philosophy). One hopes I might be forgiven for worrying that I might not find a seat at this listening session as I was running a little late. I had been to a few of these before and expected, after such rousing displays of patriotism, that this would be packed with concerned citizens. (Goodness knows we have enough with this legislature to be concerned about.)

When my son and I walked into the room, I was immediately apprised of the fact that I need not have worried. It was a relatively small room and there were more open seats than full. There were, perhaps, 15 people in attendance. They were mostly people my age and older. My son was the youngest person in the room and, with the exception of my son, I don't think (I hope not to offend anyone, here) there were any attendees under the age of 30.

It is fine and dandy to have a rousing rally that brings folks out to show our sentiments, but if we don't follow up by attending and requesting such sessions with our legislators, what's the point? We have effectively silenced ourselves. Sure we can send e-mails and phone calls, but too often those are only done when we are irate or bothered about something that affects us personally. (And I believe we can expect a lot more of that in the very near future here in WI.)

If we leave our legislators guessing what we think or want, then we can hardly blame them for inconsistencies in their votes or for voting however they see fit, or, (in the case of those who may have no principles of their own,) according to whatever activist last had their ear. I know I can't attend all of these sessions and I don't expect anyone else to do so either, but there should certainly be more folks at such sessions than I have seen when there isn't something urgent or outrageous under discussion. We not only have the right to participate in this process, we have a duty. If we are not going to participate, then maybe we should be remembering that when we point our finger at someone there are three fingers pointing back at us.

(My apologies to Mr. Leibham for the original misspelling-it has been corrected.)

"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. " ~Gal 2:11