Is anyone else sensing a shift in the nation's temperament?

[Poiuyt]

Maybe it's because I'm here in Wisconsin in the middle of the protests against Gov Walker's plan to strip the state workers of their rights. The thing that caught me was the the large group of students from Appleton East High School who walked out in a show of solidarity to their teachers. This happened at other high schools around the state as well. Students in general have been pretty apathetic since the end of the Viet Nam War. I thought it was amazing for a group of teenagers to show this kind of backbone, backbone that hasn't been seen from the younger generation in a couple of decades. Couple this with the larger protests in Madison and Russ Feingold's new progressive organization aimed at fighting corporate influence in government and I think we may have the beginning of a new trend of the left fighting back against the Glenn Becks and the Sarah Palins of this country.

If it is, it's about time.

[Newest Reality]

1. I do feel a disturbance in the Force ...

The time is right to push back the encroaching darkness that envelopes the land.

Let's get some light on the subject.

[lonestarnot]

2. I think I still have the link to the ball. I'm gona check.

[lonestarnot]

18. I found it.

It's green, we're ok. :P http://viewzone2.com/future/indexx.html

[catzies]

30. Nice imagery, well said. n/t

[madmax]

3. Meh, nah

Perhaps in pockets of the country such the student walk out you posted but, at my age I figure kids will use any excuse to walk out of school. :evilgrin:

What I get talking to people is, 'there's nothing I can do about it so why waste my time', or 'everything will work out.' Sometimes I think we're going from semi-coma to coma stage.

Want to see some real action - bring back the draft. You'll go deaf when all the XBox's hit the floor and the protests begin.

[mrmpa]

4. From your mouth to God's ears

[Webster Green]

5. I'm hoping for a major shift.

I watched the video of the high school students marching into the capitol. I loved it.

Hope it spreads like wildfire. Hope the Egyptian model works out well,and spreads like wildfire as well.

We need to squash these fucking repuke poseurs now! They have nothing, and it's totally obvious. too bad the news has been cancelled.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. That's what I was most impressed with also...........

Seeing the students and other young folks actually out standing up for something. That kind of thing is not only catching, but it's also life altering. The anti war stuff in the 60s/70s changed the way I looked at life to this day.

We've got to keep at it though. I'm ready for it to spread to Tennessee.

[dflprincess]

6. From your mouth to Fighting Bob's (LaFollette) ears.

May his spirit be with you!

More on Robert LaFollette for those not familiar with him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._La_Follette,_Sr.

[gateley]

7. I think the fine people of Egypt showed that it CAN be done, and gave us the

kick we needed. That and an evil Governor playing dictator.

Go Wisconsin! :headbang:

[dkf]

9. Exactly what rights were they being stripped of?

Just wait til these kids go to work and realize state workers are pretty much the only ones with those rights.

[YvonneCa]

10. You need to read up on union...

...history, sweety. :) 40 hour week, child labor laws, etc. We ALL have them because unions stood up for them.

[socialist_n_TN]

11. And they'll be taken away just as quick............

if WE don't stand up for them now.

[Little Star]

29. Bingo

[upi402]

12. The right to go pee fer chrissakes!

Many have died to give us what we sneer at today. History repeats. Bring tarp.

[dkf]

19. I've never had a 40 hour work week. Sigh.

Those kids won't know what hit em.

[YvonneCa]

25. Neither have I, and I'm a teacher. But the 'perception' out there...

...is that I have an easy job...that my hours are the same as the kids'...that I have summers off...on and on. It is an incorrect perception.

[YvonneCa]

26. Do you get that this is not just about 'those kids'? If states abolish...

...collective bargaining (and more states than WI want to do this) and don't have to honor contracts they negotiated with unions, that right for workers...that was fought and died for...is GONE?

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Oh if I could count the ways

never mind

[socialist_n_TN]

17. So state workers are the only one who are allowed..........

to bargain collectively? I thought that freedom of association was a pretty basic right. And if the workers want a union to negotiate for them, that's a right too.

And this stuff about paying more into pensions and insurance, how do you think that they got those benes in their contracts in the first place? THEY HAD TO GIVE UP MONEY! The state (or the capitalists in private industry) agreed to those benefits SO THEY WOULDN'T HAVE TO PAY MORE IN WAGES! It's DEFERRED compensation that was agreed to in a CONTRACT.

Good LORD! Back when the banks were being bailed out and yet the bosses were getting those HUGE bonuses, contracts were as sacred as the Bible, Koran, Baghavad Gita, and the Sutras ALL PUT TOGETHER. Yet if it's a contract involving WORKERS, well we can just use that to wrap fish.

[dkf]

21. I was shocked when I realized private corporations don't pay retirement health benefits.

Yup I was a naive child of 2 public employees.

It honestly did not register for years that this is what I had gotten myself in to.

[YvonneCa]

28. And has it registered yet as to WHY? n/t

[BeFree]

23. Good rant... K&R

Working man is wut made this here country.

[trackfan]

14. It seems that the actions on the other side have gotten so fantastically extreme

that we may be nearing some kind of breaking point. At least one could hope so.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. YES

public worker action fund
Wisconsin State AFL-CIO
6333 W. Bluemound Road
Milwaukee, WI 53213

[handmade34]

16. let's hope so...

I'm dying for a little action

[msongs]

20. sorry byt 80% of dems seem to think policies of the top leader are ok with them nt

[slipslidingaway]

22. Most people I speak with see that both Repubs and Dems are a problem...

so yes there is a shift away from party loyalty.

[Odin2005]

24. I think the regeneration of American civil society is at hand.

We are at a point much like 1932.

[rucky]

27. Voters are beginning to experience "be careful what you wish for."

With similar stuff going on in Ohio, even my teabagging co-workers don't have much to say right now.

[Dappleganger]

31. The Sleeping Giant is waking up.