I have to get this off my chest. Like many of you, I have been following the events unfolding in Wisconsin, even with the slight handicap of no longer being able to follow the cable news coverage. (Why? Because Comcast sucks - but that's another column.)

I have heard stories, though; of Glenn Beck linking the protests to his ever-expanding Marxist-Soros-Muslim-WoodrowWilson caliphate theory, of Fox News' shameful degradation of the protesters, of Rush Limbaugh coming to the rescue of the poor, poor set-upon governor, who is only trying to make the situation better by stripping state employees unions of their collective bargaining power.

During the past week, I have seen people on Facebook and various message boards calling the protesters a variety of names, none of them very nice. The favorite profession for their derision is, of course, teachers. They paint the state teachers' union as some sort of almighty, monolithic force that has bullied the state government for too long into doing such dastardly things as ensuring a living, professional wage, upholding professional standards, and closing achievement gaps. The way they make it sound, teachers are a group of do-nothings who babysit students all day long and turn them out onto the streets with heads full of nothing.

As a teacher, I wish that I could tell you that it's a sweet life. How could it not be? Hang out with kids all day, get summers and federal holidays off, government benefits... it has to be an amazing thing, right? Right? Well, you'd be surprised.

Much of my summers the past two years since I started teaching have been occupied with taking courses to earn my full certification as a teacher. The "hanging out with kids" part if great, until you realize that the troublemaking students are with you for the entire year unless they somehow decide that they don't need to be in your class anymore. And the benefits, while not bad, aren't really any great shakes. Teachers often have to work hours after the school day has endded in order to get projects, tests, and quizzes graded. After progress reports are given out, you will inevitably get several calls/e-mails/visits from parents who are anywhere from "concerned" to "outraged" that their child is failing your class, and assuming that it is somehow your fault. The Department of Education (federal, state, and local) is constantly reminding you to increase your adherence to standards (which are usually more a hindrance than a help) and administrators are constantly riding you because you need to send in this form or submit those plans or do some other thing that is so incredibly urgent. Yet, when times are tough, and the need for well-educated people is the greatest, where is the first place that cuts are made? Education.

Politicians view our schools as bargaining chips, ones that they can afford to shed when the time is right. Conservatives accuse liberals of throwing money at education, and liberals will often bow to this pressure in order to avoid seeming like they're "intellectual". It's become so pervasive that we have allowed "intellectual" to be a dirty word. Even the Wisconsin unions protesting Gov. Walker's decisions have said they are willing to acquiesce to his demands for cuts in benefits and pensions. In this case, I can understand this move; if there are assurances that these cuts are temporary, then the good of the state should be first on their minds. However, there is no reason for the state government to cut collective bargaining than to weaken, destroy and overtake the unions that are supposedly holding the state hostage.

Collective bargaining is a cornerstone of the union movement and of American labor. Without it, there would be no minimum wage, overtime, five-day work weeks, or child labor laws. Most of the tea partiers who squared off against the protesters this weekend did so without realizing or appreciating these facts, I would imagine. Yet it's thanks to unions that the 2000 or so tea partiers (not to mention the 70,000+ union members and sympathizers) were able to gather in Madison on a Saturday to express their first amendment rights.

Some will say that this is a jumping-off point for an American insurrection; such claims are drama queenery at its finest. There have been efforts to derail the momentum, such as the laughable Breitbartesque video purporting to show doctors writing sick notes for teachers (even though teachers were told that sick notes would not be acceptable in this case). There has also been an outpouring of support in the form of pizzas sent from across the country to the protesters (gotta love the name of the pizza place taking the orders), and on Thursday firefighters (who are exempted from Walker's proposals) marched into the capital with bagpipes playing in support of their union brethren.


This episode has been a long time in coming, but it is happening now. It may (hopefully) end with the governor coming to his senses and withdrawing his ridiculous demand for an end to collective bargaining. It may end with him forcing it upon the public employees of Wisconsin and dragging it out through a long and tedious court battle. In either case, Americans have now seen what happens when the far right gets too much power and hubris under its belt, and what can happen when people take the initiative to peacefully preserve the rights they have earned over a century and a half of tense, sometimes bloody, struggle. Fight on, brothers and sisters of Wisconsin. Stay strong.