Picket

Our new Governor wants teachers and other public employees to make salary and benefit concessions so that he can give all kinds of tax breaks and enticements to corporations. He also wants to severely curtail state school aid, cut the number of police and public safety personnel. These measures ae so counter-intuitive to effective state governance that it would be laughable if it weren't so very sad. As in Wisconsin, he wants to eliminate collective bargaining from the negotiating process - wiping away union rights which have been hard won over the past 50+ years.

Today there was a demonstration in downtown T.C. by teachers, public employees and sympathizers. I don't know how many there were, but there were many.

My favorite picket sign was "Real Nerds Love School".

A close second was "UNIONS - the people who brought you weekends."

Only a teacher would carry a sign that says "I am very upset."

They are chanting "Recall Rick".





We see these actions by newly elected Republican governors as an all out attack on public education. They are also attacking established institutions which are usually supporters of the Democrtic Party. I love this post by my niece Pam on facebook:

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and gave themselves billions in bonuses while paying no taxes? Yeah, me neither.