civility - pretty please?

A couple of procedural moves later, and the Senate of my fair state passed the budget repair bill that has been at the forefront of state politics (and of the national media) for the better part of a month.  It happened last night around 6:30 - B and I were completely (and thankfully) oblivious, as we were out the door headed to Ash Wednesday Mass at our parish.  As of this morning, it is scheduled for a vote in the State Assembly. 

As expected, the fallout - and the vitriol - continues just 20 minutes from where B and I live.  The word this morning is that the state Department of Justice is investigating various death threats against Republican Senators who voted for the bill.  My Facebook news feed has been riddled with insults and name-calling towards our Republican lawmakers - the names are not ones I would like to repeat, not ever.  Governor Walker, who did not finish classes at Marquette University when an undergraduate, has been called an uneducated idiot more than once.  As the sister of a remarkable young woman who will probably never receive a college degree because of various circumstances, this smear is one that I tend to get riled up about. 

It is name calling and character attacks like these that make me wonder, have we - on both sides of the political spectrum - forgotten our ability to be civil?  In times like these I'm absolutely certain that we have.  It's time to grow up - on both sides of the issue - and discuss, with a reasonable degree of civility, the issues at hand.  I understand that this is a particularly hot-button issue, an extremely controversial piece of legislation that has the capacity to shape definitively the future of this state in more than one sphere - fiscally, educationally, politically, you name it.  I understand that many public servants feel especially wronged by this political process.  But enough with the character attacks, and, I implore you, stop threatening our lawmakers!  We're not going to get anywhere in this current political stalemate if we continue to act like hyperbolic and hysterical five-year-olds.   

Thus endeth the rant.... 

UPDATE: Around quarter to four this afternoon, after considerable debate, the bill passed through the Assembly with a vote of 53-42.  Shouts of "Shame!  Shame!" filled the chamber following the vote.  The Republicans were taken out of the Capitol with a security escort, and the Assembly has adjourned until next week.  Governor Walker claims he will sign the bill as soon as he is legally able - that is anybody's guess at this point.  

It looks like this is going to get even more interesting as the news spreads and people begin to organize.  I expect that the isthmus will be buzzing with people for several days to come.  

History in the making, folks.  This is really remarkable stuff, no matter what side of the issue you support.  

can't we all just get along?

While I know that the readership of my somewhat ridiculous ramblings is slim to none, I've very much enjoyed seeing from where my (albeit small) readership comes from.  (I'm talking about you, Denmark!  Hello!)  It's always interesting to log on to post something and to see from what corners of the globe people may be checking in to my humble cyberhome.  (Keep visiting, Denmark, happy to have you here!)  

There is a mess of things happening in my fair city right now, where I've lived for almost seven years, where, ultimately, my husband and I would like to settle down in the long run, someday (after we discern and sort through our graduate school aspirations).  

If you are unaware of the protests that have descended upon my fair city, a quick glance at the following link, from the most recent article from our daily newspaper about the current protests, should bring you up to speed at least a bit.  From the little I know of the current situation (I tend to remove myself from the political climate of this town for various reasons), our dear state is downright broke, and our newly-elected governor is attempting to repair our (possibly crippling) budget deficit.  From what I can deduce, his hope is not to have to declare bankruptcy eventually, and curtail this shortfall sooner rather than later.  Part of this has been asking public employees to increase the amount they pay for health and retirement benefits.  Concurrently, there are measures in his proposal that would strip the ability of public employees (through their unions) to collectively bargain with the government in all things except salary.  (The link above can route anyone interested to further [hopefully nonpartisan] articles, explaining the ramifications of the governor's proposal.) 

Needless to say, this proposal has created a virtual firestorm of dissent that has reverberated throughout my fair state.  My facebook feed is daily packed with rallying cries - call your legislators!  Kill this bill!  Come to the capitol!  Recall (Governor) Walker!  Unfortunately, with these rallying cries also often comes a good amount of vitriol being tossed around.  In various photo galleries from the protests this week, I have seen our governor paralleled to a dictator, with names such as Hitler and the recently-ousted Mubarak as the choice comparisons.  It is at that moment in a political discourse that most often I attempt to tune myself out.  I relish good political discourse - as a former student of political science, I am proud to see my fellow citizens exercising their right to assemble and make their voices heard.  To exercise our rights as enumerated in the Constitution is something in which to take pride - we have a unique ability that not all citizens of the world possess.  However, when the discourse turns ugly, and becomes a campaign of name-calling and hyperbole (and often hysteria, and sometimes downright hatred), I often take a step back and try to evaluate just how this political discourse became an arena of such vitriol. 

I do sympathize with the protesters.  I agree that the haste in passing this bill is likely inappropriate - something that affects this many people is not something to be legislated quickly and compromises should be made to effectively take into account the ramifications of this bill on the working families of Wisconsin.  I acknowledge the historical ability of public employees to unionize and to collectively bargain.  I do not, however, find it necessary or appropriate to launch such vitriolic and outlandish comparisons about the governor and Republican lawmakers of our state.  Since when did we become a state that sinks to name-calling?  To comparing our governor to a dictator?  To portraying our governor as the one who is hanged in a game of hangman?  The hyperbole of these smears is childish and juvenile; it could ultimately hurt and hinder the goals of the protesters. 

Lately, in the midst of these protests, I have thought a lot about our Founding Fathers.  It also helps that I'm reading John Adams, David McCulloch's masterpiece about our second president.  I wonder what our forefathers would have thought about these protests.  I can say with some degree of certainty that they would likely applaud the protests as a laudable exercise of a constitutional right.  I am fairly certain, however, that they would also find the vitriol unhelpful and detrimental to the effectiveness of the protesting.  For as much as John Adams fought to amend the grievances of the colonies before King George, I don't think he would have ever sunk to a level of outwardly and publicly attacking the character of that same king.  For as much as the king caused serious grievances in the colonies, the Founding Fathers would not have called names - not then, not now, not ever. 

Maybe I'm an idealist, and this idea of constructive and amicable dialogue between two political groups is something that just doesn't happen anymore.  Yet I watch and read the news coverage of these protests, and I am saddened - saddened by the haste with which this bill will likely be passed, saddened by the lack of discussion between lawmakers and the protesters, and saddened more than anything by the vitriol. 

Come on, Wisconsin.  We are better than this. 

thank you, Madam Speaker....

thanks to your sweeping healthcare legislation, someday in the far-off future I will need to explain to my children the reason they are still paying for it!  

I wholeheartedly agree that healthcare reform is necessary.  Goodness knows that I've spent enough mindless hours worrying about my own insurance coverage, and what would happen to that coverage if B or I were to fall ill.  I don't disagree that this reform needs to happen - the insurance industry needs to be regulated, and there is a need for access to healthcare for the poorest of Americans.  I just don't think this was the right bill at the right time.  

If we are to pass reforms so vast and so sweeping and so groundbreaking, this legislation certainly shouldn't be done hastily.  It shouldn't have to become law only after payoffs and quid-pro-quo deals take place - that just isn't the way legislation like this should come to pass.  What's more tragic is that these reforms really shouldn't be taking place when a majority of the American people don't agree with it.  I can only imagine what the Founding Fathers would say about the way this law came into being....

I earnestly hope that the predictions of the GOP do not come true after this bill is signed into law: that it will be a trainwreck for our nation, a fiscal calamity, that it will be more devastating to Americans than it is helpful.  I also hope, most earnestly, that the eleventh hour Stupak coalition deals will be more than just meaningless dribble.  It will be the ultimate travesty if this bill becomes the law of the land and innocent, unborn children will have to suffer because of a meaningless, eleventh hour, empty promise.  

Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, pray for us!   

Mary the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States, pray for us!  

state of the union

The evening of the State of the Union is, quite seriously, one of my favorite evenings of the whole year.  As a student of politics in college, there is something I've always found very intriguing about these nights.  All of Washington gathers on Capitol Hill, all three branches of government.  There is pomp and pageantry and tradition aplenty on this one night in January - everything from the seating of the First Lady, to the copies of the speech given to the VP and Speaker, to the Sergeant at Arms bellowing to the Congress the arrival of the president.  As Chris Wallace said this evening, this night bears the closest resemblance to the parliamentary system of England - cheers, jeers, boos and applause from all corners of the chamber.  There is just something about this night that I've always enjoyed - a new blueprint for the country unveiled, the constant clamor between the two parties, the incessant standing and applause throughout the whole of the president's address.  There's just something about this night that really displays the democratic ideal of this country - however cracked and broken it might seem every other day of the year.  

A new president took to the podium for the State of the Union this year - he addressed the nation last year as a newly elected president, so that speech wasn't considered a State of the Union address.  This was the first SotU by a different president since I was fifteen years old.  The speech was, in a word, predictable - full of the same rhetoric we've heard for the past several months.  And following the speech, one year into his presidency, I remain unconvinced - unconvinced of his policy, unconvinced of his politics, and unconvinced of his intentions for this country.  Call me a right-wing nutjob, a moron, an idiot, whatever you will..... but I am just not convinced.  

I watched George W. Bush deliver the State of the Union address for six years - from 2002 to 2008.  His first State of the Union came four months after the deadliest terror attack in the history of this country.  And I may have been an idealistic teenager back then, but when I watched George Bush deliver a State of the Union address, there wasn't a shred of doubt in my mind that here was a man who believed wholeheartedly that the policies he was enacting, however unpopular with the left, were in the very best interests of his country and its citizens, his constituency.  He was a man entirely convicted, driven by a deep love of country and a fierce loyalty to protecting her citizens.  I don't see that in this current president.  I see a chief executive blinded by his own perception of "doing what is right" - even when his policies are so grossly unpopular with the American people.  We see a president passionately embroiled in the healthcare debate - a policy move determined to be painfully unpopular with the electorate, as shown by the Senate victory in Massachusetts and by the dozens and dozens of protests throughout the summer.  Can he not just take the hint?  

Maybe I am just another example of partisan politics.  One could certainly argue this same point with George W. Bush - a president blinded by his own convictions, even when grossly unpopular.  And perhaps I am just another right-wing nutjob who is stupid enough to laud George W. Bush.  Yet I remain convinced that in the wake of September 11, 2001, there was no man in this country more dedicated to preserving my life as an American citizen than, in the words of many leftists, that moronic, monkeyfaced Texan who can't read.  

And as for his successor, his politics, policies, and intentions for this nation?  

......Right now, I am just not convinced. 

the nobel peace prize....

is a complete joke.  No, really, it is.  I would go into a full-fledged rant but it just wouldn't be worth it. 

In one last vent, I'm not particularly a fan of one side of a dispute making its argument and completely disallowing the other side a rebuttal.  It doesn't matter the means by which the other party closes the argument, what matters is that the other side isn't offered even a chance to express their views/opinions/reasons why they disagree.  I also don't like condescension and name-calling.  That's just not fun.  

None of that probably made sense.  It's most me blowing off steam after a pretty juvenile attack on me, wrought with stereotypes and riddled with immaturity.  What's more unfortunate, is that the attack came from a former high school classmate of mine - someone, despite our political differences, I always very much respected (and still do!).   

For the record: I am allowed to disagree with the Peace Prize Committee in their selection!  Get over it!   

Argggggh, sorry.  It drives me crazy!  This is very much a part of the reason that even a political science graduate like myself becomes terribly disillusioned with the American system of governance today.   

Scott Tolzien was just intercepted and OSU ran it back for a touchdown.  Argggggh again!  

A presto

do this.

Fight FOCA.

I signed the petition about an hour ago and there are two thousand additional signatures since I signed it.

I know so little about FOCA, but what I do know scares me enough to want to sign this petition over and over and over again. The fact that it was our new president-elect's primary promise to Planned Parenthood makes my heart ache a little bit, too. How can a mother's right to terminate her child in the womb trump the right of the that very child who lives and exists in her womb?

While we're on the subject - it's never a bad idea to contact your elected officials about this. Yes, in certain areas (such as the liberal bastion of Wisconsin), it might seem futile, but the principle of the practice remains. Yes, the Obama administration will not be in office for over two months, but the ball needs to get rolling on this, the sooner, the better.

Rumor has it that the president-elect called Pope Benedict yesterday to thank him for his congratulations on the victory. To be a fly on the wall during that conversation!

papal ponderings with a new president-elect

Very recently, as in, the past few days or so, I've thought a lot about our late Holy Father, the great Giovanni Paolo Secondo, as the Italians call him. So often I'm so caught up in the happenings of the world and of life itself, that I often forget about him, a man I consider a spiritual grandfather, who, as Christ's Shepherd of Souls on earth held the youth of the Church very close to him, reminding them constantly of God's great call for their lives and of his fond affection for them. 

I wonder how he would respond to today's world. Granted, it hasn't been that long since he was with us, but I feel as though he would probably have enough to say about today's events and happenings. That's the beautiful thing about the Holy Father, regardless of who he is. When he speaks, the world listens. And not just listens. It listens attentively, with great care and respect for him and for the office he holds. His successor came to the United States just over six months ago, and people came out in droves to see him. I heard from the second-in-command for the UN police that the General Assembly was packed. I wonder what he would think about yesterday, what he would have to say to our new President-Elect with that fiery Polish spirit he had. I wonder what his response would be to the political messianism that has run so rampant in this country for the past few months. I can't help but think that part of him would point a big Polish finger in our direction and point us towards our true hope, to remind us that our hope is not in mere mortals, but in He, the Word of the Father, who came to us so humbly on a cold night. To perhaps chastise us for becoming so wound up in the things of this world. To re-orient us in the direction of Truth Himself. This isn't to say that our wonderful German Shepherd hasn't done that already. He's already provided us with his thoughts on the world in more ways than one. His arguments against relativism and for freedom in Christ are truly things the world needs to hear in these trying days. He reminded us not long ago to place our hope not in men, but in God. Il nostro papa Benedetto just seems more meek when it comes to vocalizing these things. His tremendous authority as Vicar of Christ is displayed so beautifully in his writings - he truly has a heart for the written word, and that's a great gift to the world. Part of me just feels that if President-Elect Obama and the charistmatic John Paul II who the cardinals elected in 1978 were to meet someday, my pope would win him over in a heartbeat.

Maybe this is just me trying to synthesize the past day's events. Maybe it's just me trying to think through what the next four years might be like in those areas most crucial to human dignity - the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, most specifically, the unborn of our nation. Or maybe it's just me being me, remembering our Giovanni Paolo, and trying to think of what he might say to this country after having elected Senator Obama.