i'm realllllllly not into politics, but....

I think I've seen these pictures before...?



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Egypt?  nah, that's not it....



Lybia?  Yemen?  Nope, and Nope.



Oh, that's right.  It's WISCONSIN.  Sorry, I wasn't able to recognize my hometown with all of the protestors swarmed all over the place!

Some of you may or may not be aware of what is going on in Wisconsin right now, but my guess is that every American is to at least some degree.  It's only been all over every news channel for about a month now.  For those of you who don't know, the *very basic* rundown of it is that Wisconsin elected Rep. Scott Walker for governor in the recent 2010 election.  His promise: to repair the Wisconsin budget, which is, like the rest of the country, in deep deficit.  Sounds great, right?!  At the time... yes.  That is, until Walker introduced his budget proposal a few weeks ago, resulting in the largest uproar Wisconsin has ever seen....

In order to cut spending, Walker's bill takes away the collective bargaining rights of state employees, forces them to pay a larger share of their health care and pension plans, and results in about an 8% pay cut.  So, basically "repairing" the state's budget by significantly destroying the personal budgets of  hundreds of thousands of families all across Wisconsin.  Not only will it significantly hurt public employees' salaries & benefits, it also takes away so many of their Union rights.  This, in effect, will hurt major aspects of the Wisconsin public.... an extremely large one being EDUCATION. 

After the recent election, the Republicans hold power in the State senate, however, they need 20 State Senators present for a bill to be passed (there are 19 Republicans).  The Democrats, to demonstrate their opposition to aspects of the bill and try to protest immediate passage and buy some time to compromise and rework it, fled the state to Illinois so they could not be forced back to congress and thus resulting in the passage of the bill.

Now, this morning I have woken up to news that the Republicans found some sort of loop-hole and are inches away from passing the bill, even without the Democrats present. 

Obviously this whole mess has caused tremendous outrage across the state and country, resulting in hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protesting around the State Capitol and across Wisconsin.  The teachers Union urged it's members to call in sick in protest when the bill was first introduced, and thousands of school employees did, forcing many public school districts throughout the state to close for a day or more, and I would not be surprised if it happened again now that they are moving forward with the bill.   

Is this really the United States of America?  I am very sad for my state, and cannot believe that a thing like this is able to happen in our country.  It has ripped the state of Wisconsin apart and who knows when, if ever, the state will be united once again.  One thing is for sure - the public education system in Wisconsin is going to hurt big time as a result.  Looks like the hubs and I better start saving for our unborn future childen's private school tutition ASAP!  (or we could just stay in Finland forever? kidding, family & friends! ;) )

It's a sad day in Wisconsin.

For the record, I do not define myself as a Republican OR a Democrat.  I don't like to debate politics, and most definitely don't like to argue about them.  I just want what is best for my city, my state, my country... whatever that may be.  But THIS, is certainly not it.