Over at least the past decade, it seems our rights have been gradually slipping away from our grasps.
“These legislators won’t listen to us. We could email our legislators til our faces are blue, but that’s not doing anything. So this attention-getting is the best thing we can think of,” said Kathy Miner, a naturalist and environmental educator at the UW Arboretum, and one of the 50 members of the Dane County chapter of the Raging Grannies.
A hearing won’t be held until at least Jan. 2014 to decide what number of people in a single group will require a permit in order to congregate in the public areas of the capitol building, as defined in a Department of Administration document named “Wisconsin State Facilities Access Policy.” This document lays out guidelines for use of the capitol grounds and building that are deemed “public.” It states that it supercedes and replaces all prior policies and procedures effective April 16, 2013 and refers you to contact Capitol Police with questions.
“The official viewpoint of the Solidarity Sing Along, for participants, has been that what it says in the state constitution trumps that. There shouldn’t be any permit necessary to protest,” Miner said.
This policy is being misconstrued as law, thereby threatening our first amendment rights. According to time, place and manner regulations these protesters are completely within their boundaries. The place, being the State Capitol building, is a legitimate public forum, and there doesn’t seem to be a better alternative for voicing concerns at this time.
The Solidarity Singalong
From the beginning, the Solidarity Sing Along event was scheduled to be from 12-1 p.m. – the specified hour during the work day that the legislators are not in session. The delegated time is not disruptive to those that work in the capitol.
The manner of which the protesters are delivering their message may be bold, but it was never violent at the protesters will.
“We’re there about being peaceful,” Miner said. “And the specific provision in the state constitution, which is what we’re basing this on, says ‘The right of the people to peaceably assemble.’ And the minute we’re not peaceable, that civil right isn’t guaranteed anymore.”
The new policy ushered in by the legislation is what set up the hostile environment. Therefore, the outcome is not the fault of the protesters.
There are videos posted on YouTube where you can see Damon Terrell with his hands in the air, backing away from officers. All of a sudden, one officer lunges at him and takes him down. Miner weighs in, “I can’t make sense of that. I don’t know why [the officer] thought he could do that.”
Scott Walker and his current legislation want to suppress dissent for no other reason than to keep the public unaware of what they’re doing. Active protests threaten their secrecy, and the recent regulation at the capitol is serving that interest.
“Unfortunately for them, (protesting is) our right under the laws of the country and the state. That’s what democracy’s about,” Miner said. “So I get mad, especially when the media, portrays us as a bunch of crybabies who can’t get over the fact that we lost the Recall Election. And that’s really so not true. We are not stuck in old issues. We are continuing to be outraged about new ones, because they continue to do outrageous things.”
It is hard to say what the legislation is trying to gain by cracking down, especially because the attendance had really dwindled, until they began arresting people.
“We had hundreds of people showing up again, because everybody said ‘This is outrageous what they’re doing.’ So, I think they thought that it would make us go away. You know, that we’d get a couple of tickets and say this isn’t worth it anymore. And it had the completely opposite effect,” Miner said.
Arrest of 3 Raging Grannies
“All of a sudden, these officers surrounded us, and there were six or seven of them, all in uniforms, and they said, ‘This is illegal assembly. You’re under arrest.’ They’re supposed to give you a chance to leave. They’re supposed to say ‘Are you participating? If you’re not participating, leave now.’ And I, as an individual, don’t remember being asked that,” said Miner, who is a petite, 62-year-old woman.
Matt Rothschild from the Progressive Magazine was following along, filming what was going on.
“He wasn’t in the way,” Miner said. “He was a little ways behind us, and as we got to the elevator door, one of the officers said to Matt, ‘Stand back.’ And Matt said, ‘I’m a member of the press. I’m here doing my job.’ And [the officer] said, ‘Stand back or you’re obstructing.’ And Matt didn’t change his position or turn off his camera, and so then, they handcuffed Matt and herded us all into the elevator.”
Miner and the two other “grannies” were issued citations for unlawful assembly, while Rothschild, a reporter, was cited for misdemeanor obstruction.
“I’ve never been arrested before [that],” Miner said. “I never thought I’d have a rap sheet. It’s absurd.”
When asked how people around her have reacted to her arrest, she immediately replied, “fist bumps,” with a chuckle. “Everyone says, ‘You go. Go for it. You’re speaking for a lot of us.’ I haven’t had people say, ‘Stop it, you’re being silly.’ I have had people say ‘I wish I could be there for this reason, or that reason; thank you for taking the hit for those of us who, for whatever reason right now, can’t be there.’ It’s really been heartwarming.”
If there were ample alternative means for communicating the messages that the Sing Along participants have, they would be tending to those as well. It would be ideal to have discourse rather than merely drawing attention to causes, but our voices are continually silenced by an oppressive regime.
“As far as [being] effective, it’s hard to say, what else can we do?” Miner asked.
Capitol Permits
Other groups that have been up at the Capitol during the noon hour include the Jefferson and Washington County chapters of the Republican Women of Wisconsin. “We are here to take our capitol back the legal way” by singing. For example, they sang a version of “God Bless America,” instead with the words, “God Bless our Governor,” said Deb Stein, Jefferson County Republicans president.
Props to them for trying to harness some patriotism, but they’re confused. They need to realize that it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican. What matters is conquering the divide, before the divide conquers us with its convolutions.
Her group of eight was issued a permit to sing in the rotunda, forcing the usual Sing Along outside for the day. It seemed they were there out of resentment and disgust of the “liberals,” not for any legislative purpose, certainly not in support of free speech.
With slogans on their shirts such as “Republican Women are the life of the party,” and “I Stand with Scott Walker,” Stein adamantly said that people need to express their views through voting, instead of making the capitol “a threatening, uncomfortable environment to work in.”
It is only threatening because of the enemy relationship the capitol police have set up with the protesters, and uncomfortable because they’re being watched. Obviously people need to express their views by voting, but elections are far dispersed. Most of us have fairly short-term memories, so by the time the next election cycles through, you may not remember who did, or said what.
“We live in an age of so much information that sometimes those things get lost. So if the only time you pay any attention to politics is at election time, you’re missing out on a lot. I think you need to pay attention year-round, and all the time, and when you see something, call people out on it. Because you wait until two years from now, you can’t engender the same kind of response as when something just happened,” Miner explains.
If “we the people” want our country to work for us, there needs to be a transparent view into the happenings of our government. We must demand the rights that our forefathers laid out for us in the Bill of Rights, by taking the initiative to voice our opposing views whenever we see fit. Even if we don’t all agree on every single issue, our right to be present and to be saying what we have to say should be supported collectively.
By inducing these arrests, the current state legislation is abridging the freedom of speech, which is unconstitutional. If anyone is to be punished, it should be our oppressors, for negating the freedoms granted to us as citizens.