Posted on 02/17/2011 11:58:20 AM PST by Gopher Broke
Tens of thousands of workers and students are occupying the Capitol Building in Madison, Wis., trying to stop Gov. Scott Walker and his allies from passing legislation designed to strip public-sector workers of collective bargaining rights, and to bust their unions. Walker has announced that he is preparing to call out the National Guard and other law enforcement officers.
In response, March Forward!, an organization of active-duty service members and veterans, has issued the following open letter to the Wisconsin National Guard. Please share it far and wide on Facebook and other social media websites.
To our brothers and sisters in the Wisconsin National Guard:
The lives of Wisconsin teachers and school faculty are under attack; the Governor is trying to scare them with the National Guard to shut them up.
We are writing to you as veterans and active duty troops, who are watching closely the growing protests in your state.
Your governor, Scott Walker, is preparing to use you to smash the right of your family, friends and neighbors to peacefully demonstrate.
There are two sides in this fight.
On one side stand thousands of teachers, high school and college students, public sector workers, steelworkers, janitors, firefighters and nurses.
On the other side stands a tiny group of multi-millionaire business executives and corporate fat cats, represented by their good friend Scott Walker.
Those protesting are from the same neighborhoods and communities we all come from. They work the same jobs and attend the same schools. Many of you probably have family and friends demonstrating.
We know why most of us joined the military: for a job, access to health care and the ability to go to college. That is the very same reason why over 10,000 people have risen up in protestfor jobs, decent benefits and education. Those rights are under attack. Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin families are at risk.
There is an economic crisis in Wisconsin, just like the rest of the country. And like his counterparts in the rest of the country, the Governor of Wisconsin wants to make working families shoulder the cost instead of cutting into the pockets of the wealthiest 1 percent.
We have nothing in common with Walker and his millionaire buddies. None of us own any factories or take home million-dollar bonus checks. In fact, unemployment for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is 15 percent, nearly double the national average. We have everything in common with those exercising their right to demonstratebecause we are dealing with the same economic hardships that they are. Their struggle is our struggle.
The Wisconsin National Guard already has a dark history of acting against their own communities. Over the years they have been ordered to enforce racist segregation laws, intimidate and attack civil rights demonstrations and crush workers on strike, including the Milwaukee firefighters union in 1973.
The workers and students in Wisconsin are making history right now. If you are called upon, you will make history tooeither notoriously, by following bogus orders from corporate lackeys to rob your community of their right to demand a better life; or heroically, by standing with your brothers and sisters and refusing to use force to defend the bonus checks of a few CEOs.
Stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the students, teachers, and working families who are corageously fighting for their lives, not against them! They are not our enemies; our enemies are the ones pulling the strings from corporate boardrooms. It is your right to enter the history books as heroes who stood with your community, not as thugs for big business.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/ info@AnswerCoalition.org
Gov needs to use the guard to charge all these thugs with inciting a riot and throw them in jail... oops there goes your teaching certificate..now you are unemployed.....
My husband is in The Guards and he told me that if these cry baby protestors ruined his weekend off he was going to be a pain to deal with. Ive seen my husband be a painI wouldnt wish that on anyone.
Any Guardsman who fails to act when the governor calls them out should be court-martial,ed for dereliction of duty and given the maximum sentence at hard labor.
Not quite. On the other side stands Scott Walker speaking for all the tax-payers who have been bled for decades to fund these useless, lazy bastards.
CANNOT BE SAID LOUDLY OR STRONGLY ENOUGH. This vicious, deceitful screed is straight out of Lenin's playbook. It is a steaming pile of lies. Class warfare, racial warfare, anti business, this letter pulls out all the stops. Every word in it is a lie, including a and the.
Americans have listened to this trash talk for nearly a hundred years. We get it. These are the same terrorists who are destroying our society through overtaxation and swelling the ranks of government.
Teachers make more than an average college graduate in the private sector. That is simply wrong. Excessive government employment and salary and benefits packages are crushing us.
It is unacceptable that government employees should have any bargaining rights. Government employment should be minimum numbers, minimum wage and minimum duration.
The private sector can do everything the government does and do it better. With the exception of the military there is no reason to maintain a government work force larger than 1% of the population. Anything more creates corruption.
Down with the Marxist terrorists marching in Madison.
Who would have thought that Wisconsin would be the site of such an inflection point in American politics? I think this is a BFD, as our ever-articulate vice-president would say.
They are counting on us being timid while they storm te walls and sieze power.
Good illustration of the liberal mindset about charitable organizations too.
Amen.............
Tell you husband thanks for his service. I’ll be retiring at the end of this year since I turn 60 next year. 38 years and counting.
Forget water cannons. Use the ADS(Area Denial System). It penetrates a microwave signal 1/16" into the skin. They'll move!
We have nothing in common with Walker and his millionaire buddies. well payed public servant pigs.
The Wisconsin National Guard Teachers Unions already have a dark history of acting against their own communities. Over the years they have been ordered to enforce racist segregation laws, intimidate and attack civil rights demonstrations and crush workers on strike, including the Milwaukee firefighters union in 1973. kept American kids dumb and dumber and have been paid TOO WELL for it.
The workers and students in Wisconsin are making history right now.acting against those tax payers who pay our salaries. If you are called upon, you will make history tooeither notoriously, by following bogus orders from corporate lackeys to rob your community of their right to demand a better life; or heroically, by standing with your brothers and sisters and refusing to use force to defend the bonus checks of a few CEOs. by standing up for the freedoms of all Americans to have the FREEDOM to tell the unions to go pound sand because they DON'T have the right to hold this country hostage to their greedy piggy demands.
Stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the students, teachers,taxpayers and working families who are corageously fighting for their lives, not against them! They are not our enemies; our enemies are the ones pulling the strings from corporate boardrooms.over payed public unions. It is your right to enter the history books as heroes who stood with your community, not as thugs for big business.Unions.
Better, nes pa?
Well...
I guess I should go now.
Tea Party people are generally made up of conservatives from all walks of life, different ages, sexes, differnty income brackets, different races. They are mostly educated and sophisticated, either by schooling or just plain God-given abilities and intelligence. They know they can make change peacefully, but assertively. Whereas the liberals and their socialist/communist agitators are mostly made up of young, inexperienced people who are easily duped by the media and the politicians. It is these immature dupes the Left is relying on take over America and reshape it into a sort of European Union Frankenstein, where there are few rich, few poor, most people just stuck in some worthless place in the 'middle', with no chance of economic advancement. Unlike Americans, (until Obama Care), they also have no chance of a top medical system that allows just about anyone to obtain high quality medical care when needed.
Mediocrity, from top to bottom, is Obama's and the Left's goal. This socialist plan is designed to make people believe that a big 'benevolent' GOVERNMENT is what we need to survive, and thus will bow down to it. People will hand over their freedom to government in return for government benefits. Meanwhile, the ruling class are getting wealthier and wealthier in Congress and the Senate, and increasingly more powerful as they snatch the power away from American citizens, where the Constitution clearly says the power is to lie. And with all the electronic wizardry at their disposal, the "law enforcement" groups now have the power to watch your every move and deed, and when the time is ready the world will come crashing down on many an un-suspecting American because of his conservative views, his or her "hate speech", or some petty 'crime' like running a red light while Big Brother catches you on camera. And new "crimes" are being writtin into the law books by the thousands every year. If you but look, you can see the ensnaring web being woven in place by government, the trap is already built and is being set, and the elite powers are at the ready to bring the curtain down on freedom.
But there's still hope for a free society. Yes, the Tea Party is non-violent, but that just might be a better strategy anway, because it will be better organized, smarter and more dangerous to the corrupt politicians. What the Tea Party really, really needs to do is stay tightly together, like a family, keep the squabbles to an absolute minimum, grow in numbers and never stop the fight against government corruption and the usurpation of the American people. The Tea Party IS working, just look at last November. The next election will show yet again that it's still working, as more RINOS are uncovered, and run out of office, as in last November's election. More and more liberals are being forced out as well.
The Tea Party is an ENORMOUS power for the good of America, but it must always remember this: those with the most patience and persistence win out in changing government policies, not those who are more vicious and violent. For the Left it's about money, benefits and power. For the Right, it's about FREEDOM from tyranny, for the people and for private enterprise.
WWII was the eternal proof that a free market system is the best system. Mired in a sluggish economy during FDR's socialism, WWII broke out. One of the silver linings in this dark cloud was that American was transformed from a second rate power to the greatest power ever. How? We began manufacturing again, government restraints were removed from businesses, everyone went to work, no matter the pay, business enterprises grew exponentially, and when the war ended the "war economy" transferred smoothly into a peace time economy, making cars instead of jeeps, work trucks and heavy equipment instead of military trucks and tanks, household metal products and tools instead of bullets and bombs. Innovation, something WWII forced us into, moved laterally into private enterprise and we began to design and manufacture all sorts of greatly improved products for the home, the workplace, the farms, the ship building industry and the construction industry. We became an industrial and technological giant. BECAUSE WE WERE FREE.
Let us hope it won't take another World War for us to remember the economic lessons we learned from WWII. FREEDOM for all, including industry, is essential to a strong, vibrant, first-class nation.
What we need are massive taxpayer strikes.
Oh lord, I nearly puked just then.
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