Photos of pro-union rally at Oregon capitol

Wow, I'm energized!

Today's Rally to Save the American Dream in Salem, a.k.a. "We are WI," got me fired up to defend truth, justice, & the American way against any and all enemies -- notably Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican cronies, the Koch brothers.

Here's some photos of the event, which was mirrored in every state capitol across the United States.

There was a lot of love expressed toward Wisconsin from Oregonians.

Looks like your best chance of getting interviewed by a media type is to wear an attention-getting outfit.

Many stout-hearted, hard-working union guys and gals were standing up for their Wisconsin brothers and sisters.

I resonated with this sign, since I wish the Tea Party would get flushed down the political drain.

Impressive. A little girl who can speak some German and make a rally sign -- though she almost ran out of room for "Cheesehead."

An initial Salem Statesman Journal story said "several hundred" people were at the rally. I'd say it was more like a thousand.

Some union dogs dragged their owners to the rally.

This dog had an impressive response to a "down" command. It went as flat as possible.

On the sidewalk across the street from the capitol steps, a long line of people waved signs at passing cars, eliciting many supportive honks.

A couple of girls made a clever "I love teachers" sign.

Here's Laurel, my wife, with her hot-off-the-magic-marker sign.

Organizers urged people to wear red and white, Wisconsin colors. Many did.

Somebody apparently had the perfect flag sitting around, waiting for a Wisconsin rally. Or maybe they whipped it up on a sewing machine.

Here's Delana, a friend of ours, with her oh-so-positive sign.

This was the only scuffle I saw at the rally. Maybe the little dog was a Tea Party supporter. No human counter-protesters showed up, so far as I could see.

Comments

[Clark J.]

Commentary I found. Saved me some writing:

After seeing the tactics of the left-wing and their Siamese twin union leaders in Wisconsin on full display over the prospect of still getting a better retirement deal than we taxpayers do, I call for a National Strike Day for every single non-public sector union member. They seem to think we can’t live without them, and they refuse to work without getting more of our money, so let’s deny them our labor for a day or two and see who can’t really live without whom. (NOTE: Every negative reference here to public sector unions does not include police, firefighters and emergency personnel who do some of the most important jobs around, jobs most of us couldn’t do.)

Just think of it, every shop, restaurant, office, factory, gas station, EVERYTHING closed for a day or more. If the government won’t listen to us, won’t instill a minimum amount of fiscal sanity, let’s shut it down.

Government acts as though they own us and the fruits of our labor, more than that, they’ve spending the wealth of generations yet to be born in a never ending quest to…well, who knows? It’s almost as though they’re trying to plug a black hole with money. Well, a black hole can’t be plugged, it will just consume mass for eternity, much like the government, which, urged on by public sector parasites, is incapable of getting enough of our money, so let’s deny it to them.

This is, of course, impossible to make happen. Not only is it impractical, but those of us without the protection of tenure face real world consequences for our actions and would be fired for refusing to work, even for a day, without a valid excuse. We can’t all have doctors standing by to write us “get out of violating your contract free” notes. Non-liberals simply don’t act that way.

But think of the concept.

When public sector unions strike, or have “sick-outs,” our lives go on as normal. If everyone else, or even just a significant portion of us, do the same the country would come to a halt. We pay their salaries, they don’t pay ours. They are the symbiant, we are the host.

The teachers union has already announced that it is willing to accept the financial concessions proposed by Governor Scott Walker, so what exactly is it the teachers union in Wisconsin trying so desperately to avoid becoming law?

What they essentially fear is taking union membership from compulsory to voluntary by ending obligatory union dues. And therein lies the real goal of unions – the money. They’re perfectly willing to accept less money for their members, but not for them.

This fact begs the following question: if union membership is so valuable to its members, why do they fear losing members? How many members would resign from the union if they had the freedom to do so while being allowed to continuing to teach? The answer to that question is something union leadership does not want to risk learning.

The fact of the matter is unions, back when they started, did a great service to this country. They normalized hours and helped create safer work environments for union and non-union workers alike. They also helped rid the country of Dickensian child labor practices. But that was a long time ago. In the years since, unions have gone from protecting the rights of workers to a political organization whose leadership has no interest in the views of their membership, they simply slog forward supporting candidates and causes opposed by many, sometimes most, of their dues paying members. Union membership entitles a worker to certain guarantees from their employer, but it blocks their ability to have a say in how their dues are spent.

If we, as non-union workers, don’t like how a company operates, we can express ourselves by avoiding that business and hurting their bottom line. If a dues paying union member doesn’t like how their union is spending their money they are better served by keeping quiet. They can’t get out, their opinion doesn’t matter to leadership and leadership has subtle ways to pressure, shall we say, dissent.

Governor Walker, in addition to closing the state’s massive budget gap, is simply trying to allow people to opt-out of union membership, and that is a bridge too far for union leadership. They would rather face losing 1500 plus members to layoffs promised if this bill fails than the untold number of teachers who would flee the union if they had the freedom to do so. That’s very telling.

So while we non-union workers can’t strike, we can stand in solidarity with the majority of teachers in Wisconsin who didn’t show up to protest and support their right to freedom of associating by allowing them to join a union or not. (And realistically, what’s the difference between slavery or indentured servitude and compulsory membership in any group that takes part of your labor against your will?) We need to get our fiscal house in order, and one of the biggest causes of that disorder is the extremely generous, to say the least, benefits and pension packages public sector unions get. And we don’t even need a forged doctors note to do it.

-Derek

[Blogger Brian]

Clark J, not a very good idea, to do without public sector employees. Police, fireman, teachers, military, snow plow operators, food inspectors, TSA screeners, legislators, etc etc.

Why do you only include public sector unions in your "useless" dismissal? And why do you exclude police and fire guys/gals? They feed at the public trough just like union members do.

The plain fact, which you're ignoring, is that public workers are just as valuable as private workers. My money goes to the Starbucks worker just as it goes to the teacher. Only difference is, the teacher is performing a much more important job than the barista.

Try going the rest of the year without using the services of any public sector employee. Good luck if your house is robbed, a fire starts in it, or you need health care at a state university medical school. And don't drive on any public roads, because they're maintained by -- shock! -- public employees who could be -- horrors! -- members of a union.

[Clark J.]

Right at the start the writer of the article I presented said:

"Every negative reference here to public sector unions does not include police, firefighters and emergency personnel who do some of the most important jobs around, jobs most of us couldn’t do."

So I don't know what you were reading.

Of course we can't have essential service providers going on strike.

Unions once served a useful purpose, but they have ruined the US steel, automotive and many other manufacturing industries by forcing pricing, as a result of exhorbitant union wages and benefits, that have rendered those industries non-competitive.

This has effectively destroyed the middle class in America and increased the divide between the rich and not-so-rich.

Why do liberals hate the rich so much? It is the rich who have the wit and drive to create the industries and businesses that employ millions. It is wealthy doctors who are smart enough and disciplined enough to get the education to do something that saves lives.

Not every wealthy person is a crook. Not every teacher is a saint. What if you got a good idea, worked hard and made a lot of money? Would that make you be a bad guy? Ooooh!..the evil rich. All hail the cabbage picker! Fact is, they all deserve respect if they are honest. There is a symbiotic relationship here that is necessary and natural.

The wealthiest 1% in this country pay 40% of the taxes. The 135,000 richest Californians pay 50% of the states revenues. It seems to me the rich are a good thing if only government could manage the income they get from them wisely. 50% of the people pay no taxes at all and, in essence benefit from the largesse of the horrible rich.

If you remove the incentive to excel in this country and it is doomed to mediocrity, decay and self-destruction from within, just like the communist soviet empire.

Now the Souix and other indigenous tribes had egalitarian systems that worked successfully but life was simpler then. There weren't millions of products and industries and 6 billion+ people. But even the Souix had their heirarchies. Fact is, people are born with varying strengths. Some will surpass others in accomplishment and ability. That's nature. How are you going to change that?

Free market capitalism, with regulation and oversight to rein in the crooks, is the best system humans have devised for prosperity in the modern, industrial, technological world.

[Blogger Brian]

Clark J., I guess you haven't noticed that the U.S. doesn't have free market capitalism. We have taxpayer subsidized capitalism, otherwise known as welfare capitalism.

Meaning, the government gives massive payments to certain industries. We subsidize oil firms at public expense. We subsidize corporate farmers at public expense. We give tax breaks of all kinds to various businesses at public expense.

Yet when it comes to allowing regular workers to organize at their OWN expense, the Republicans say "no way." When conservatives get serious about making free enterprise genuinely free, meaning no taxpayer subsidies to certain industries, I'll feel better about their efforts to squash unions.

[Clark J.]

I said free market capitalism is the best sytem. I didn't say the USA has it. I agree we have a corrupt form of capitalism. That's why the US is out of money and the system is irretrievably broken and will eventually default on its debt.

Do the Chinese really think they're going to get paid back? Of course not, but they need to keep us afloat so they have someone to sell their stuff to. It's crazy. We buy their stuff with their money and then they give us more to perpetuate the illusion of economic stability. This can't go on.

The government should stay out of business just like you said. No more subsidies. Succeed or fail on your own merits. No more bailouts. Nothing. The government should be a functionary to maintain the infrastructure, law and order, a defense and that's about it, for now, because that's all we can afford and we can't afford that.

If workers want to organize, that's their choice, but they had better beware of pricing their respective industries' products out of business and bankrupting their government by demanding more and more.

I know it's hard to believe that USA has no money. I find it hard to believe that the cheats and crooks in high places have gotten away with this and we let them.

Time to pay the piper.

[Laurie Dougherty]

Clark J, It’s not unions that have ruined the American economy. It’s multinational corporations engaged in a global race to bottom chasing after ever lower wages. It’s Wall Street which has sucked enormous amounts of money out of the productive economy into exotic financial instruments which only they can manipulate and benefit from. It’s the cult of individuality which erodes solidarity and collective responsibility. Divide and conquer is one of the oldest tricks in the book and the the rich and powerful have the rest of us fighting over pieces of a pie which they are constantly shrinking.

Great photos Brian!!! There were several hundred people (maybe a thousand) at the rally in Boston, filling Beacon Street in front of the State House. I didn’t find any coverage in the liberal leaning Boston globe or its related website, but there was a good article in the Boston Herald (online anyway; didn’t
see the print version) which leans right but has a large blue-collar readership.

On Saturday there was also a walk in support of women’s reproductive choice and Planned Parenthood - through several Boston neighborhoods which ended on Boston Common - directly across Beacon Street from the State House. So there was a moment of merger as the women’s march arrived at the Common and gathered at the steps opposite the State House when the Wisconsin workers’ support rally was ending. This walk also drew several hundred people - many of them young women, including one holding a sign that said Republicans for Choice.

Best chant of the day - “Money for teachers and sex education; not for war and occupation!”
Great signs- “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries”
“The KOCH BROS didn’t Pay ME to be here”

Here are some good pictures of the Wisconsin Workers’ support rally from the Beacon Hill Patch..(The Patch is a child of AOL which I guess makes it a stepchild of HuffPost. It’s an online network of local news sites. From what I can tell, despite the corporate origin they have a batch of bright young reporters and do a pretty good job of keeping up with things.) The Cheesehead in the photo and article is a friend of my son’s.
http://beaconhill.patch.com/articles/hundreds-rally-in-downtown-boston-in-support-of-wisconsin-state-workers-3

Also some photos of the march to support Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights, from a local blogsite Universal Hub (as in Hub of the Universe, that’s Boston).
http://www.universalhub.com/2011/supporting-planned-parenthood-and-reproductive-rig

[Susan Boone]

My husband and I own a small business. It is almost impossible just to keep our heads above water, thanks to your union. The demands of your union makes it more difficult.
create more difficulty for us. Walk a mile in my shoes, and and find out how difficult it is. YOU MAKE IT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO STAY IN BUSINESS AND PAY FOR ALL YOUR UNION CRAP.

[Blogger Brian]

Susan, I don't belong to an union. But I support unions. What union are you talking about?

[Inokentiy]

Parasitic system created on the planet hands "chosen" for this purpose the people already in agony. To prolong their life for a while, the parasites will act only as able: to sow death and chaos ...

The Zionists, after seizing power over the UK and the U.S., these countries have turned into parasites living beyond their means. The true rulers of the occupied countries, it is easy to determine the manner of behavior of the power elite. Their credo - a double morality: "all the peoples of darkness and chaos", and they - "elected" - the light of God, all the world's wealth and the kings of other nations into slavery. And some of our analysts, apparently fearing the wrath of the Jewish tribal god Jehovah, the Zionists continue to shy to call the Anglo-Saxons. But this is fundamentally wrong, because there's not so much a nationality, but in the mentality!

After the loss of independence, the U.S. and Britain, have long grasped the throat Zionism, began to carry out just such a foreign policy. When the "Anglo-Saxons" need, they supposedly care about the territorial integrity of states (for example - Georgia after the war in August 2008) when they gain the opposite - the separation and etching of nations - if they support the separatists (Kosovo, Chechnya).

If any state begins to strengthen its army, the "Anglo-Saxons" immediately begin to cheekily shout about the militarization of the country and coming from her threat of war, while cynically says nothing about what the U.S. military budget exceeds the defense budgets of all other countries combined (!). And such hypocrisy in all things.

Live beyond their means can only be someone else's expense - at the expense of other countries and peoples. Other nations do not wish to voluntarily leave earned an honest living national treasure, so to somehow extend the plunder of the world, "Anglo-Saxons" are all possible ways to put pressure on other countries that no one even thought occurred to throw fly constantly desheveyuschie green wrappers U.S. and begin to invest their own funds to develop their own countries.