I visited the Capitol Rotunda today for a spontaneous gathering around the brightly-decorated evergreen, where a group of people just happened to show up to sing (as has just happened to happen every weekday noon for nine months now). The spontaneous happening known as the Solidarity Singalong has gained this exciting level of spontaneity due to the new rules announced last Thursday by the Walker administration, which demand that any planned protest-gatherings of 4 people or more must now obtain permits 72 hours in advance, and be charged for whatever police presence and cleanup are deemed necessary.
The beautiful 36-foot balsam fir from the Brule River State Forest in northwestern Wisconsin was to be the centerpiece in this year's continuation of a beloved Wisconsin tradition: the lighting of the holiday tree. The ceremony traditionally takes place at noon, and is generally attended by up to a thousand people. The gift of the tree gives a chance to showcase the area of the state in which the tree was grown, and this year schoolchildren from all over the state got to create ornaments to decorate the tree. Here's what the Wisconsin Capitol Virtual Tour has to say about the tradition:
During the winter holiday season, the Wisconsin State Capitol Holiday Tree graces the rotunda during the month of December. Typically a forty-foot Wisconsin grown Balsam Fir is selected as the holiday tree. Each year, the Capitol Holiday Tree is decorated with approximately 700 feet of gold garland, 2,400 multicolored lights and 1,400 handmade ornaments donated by Wisconsin citizens.
But this being the Wisconsin of 2011, the politics around the tree began early.
First came the declaration from Governor Walker in early November that this was going to be a "Christmas" tree, not a "Holiday Tree" as it has been called since 1986.
Then several weeks before the scheduled tree-lighting at noon on Friday Dec. 2, Governor Walker decided that he wasn't going to make the noon ceremony after all. Citing some vague scheduling conflict, he moved the ceremony to the early morning, 8:15am to be precise. Though press secretary Cullen Werwie denied that the switch had anything to do with dodging protestors, Capitol regulars were skeptical. This wouldn't have been the first time that a governor was unable to attend the scheduled lighting. However, in the past, if the governor couldn't be present, someone else always represented him, whether the First Lady or the lieutenant governor. To switch the ceremony to a less-accessible time was unprecedented.
Democratic State Senator Bob Jauch, who represents the district that donated this year's tree, called the change "mind-boggling." As I learned from a source close to Sen. Jauch this afternoon, a choir of students from Maple, WI had been scheduled to make the trip from the northwoods down to Madison to sing for the noon event. The students, many of whom had never been to the Capitol before, would have had to leave in the middle of the night to be able to drive to Madison by 8am. The time change made it practically impossible for them to keep their performance date.
Senator Jauch managed to salvage the day for these students, and for anyone else who had counted on a noontime ceremony. He worked with the governor's office to arrange for a second ceremony to be held at the noon hour, celebrating the "Gift of the Tree." The choir sang, elected and appointed officials gave speeches, the tree was re-lit.
Despite Senator Jauch's efforts, however, things weren't the same. People found the two ceremonies confusing; only a couple hundred attended each. And, as the aunt of one of the students reported in a comment on a Wisconsin State Journal story, they couldn't escape the sense that it was a do-over:
My niece got on a bus very early this morning along with her fellow classmates from Maple WI with the idea that they would be singing during the lighting ceremony. By the time they arrived Walker already lit the tree .... I guess they are all upset that they were left out of the ceremony. She said Bob Jauch did a redo for them. She was really looking forward to the tree lighting ceremony. Sad that it had to be this way.
In the wake of the events of this past week, I've now seen two separate Scott Walker parodies of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Both are circulating on Facebook, and both include the Solidarity Singers in a starring role.
From a version by an actor who has starred as Rebecca Kleefisch in the Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker:
And THEN
They’d do something he liked least of all!
Everyone in Wisconsin, the tall and the small
Would stand in his rotunda, the sound clearly ringing,
As each person held hands and started their singing!
They’d sing! And they’d sing!
AND they’d SING! SING! SING! SING!
And the more he saw solidarity sing-alongs,
Walker thought, “I must stop this! It’s sick and it’s wrong!
It’s been days since my lovely bill passed the assembly,
And still they are singing! I feel weak and trembly!”
And here's an excerpt from a version by one of the singers:
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Not just a few Whos but ALL!
He HADN’T stopped Singers from coming!
MORE CAME!
Somehow or other, thousands came just the same!
And the Guv, with his Gov’nor-feet cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?
“I can’t put them in jail! No room for them all!
“They stand hand in hand! Who can I call
“To drag them away, without looking small?”
The Solidarity Singalong now begins with a recitation of the following passage from the Wisconsin State Constitution, Article 1 Section 4:
The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.
Next come the Solidarity carols around the Wisconsin tree. We're using a special holiday songbook with protest lyrics crafted by various singers. The entire book is available for download; paper copies are on hand at the singing for anyone who happens to show up.
The book includes a nod to the Whos down in Whoville as well:
Fah who for-aze! Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Recall, come this way!
Fah who for-aze! Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Recall, Recall Day.
Welcome, Welcome, Fah who rah-moose,
Welcome, Welcome, Dah who dah-moose,
Recall day is in our grasp,
So long as we have hands to clasp.
My favorite song that we sang today was Twelve Days of Scott Walker's Term, to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas:
On the 12th day of his term, Scott Walker took from us:
Fair voting districts,
The shrinking middle class,
Lower than average unemployment,
A united DNR,
Health care for the poor,
Wisconsin's shining virtue,
Good public education,
HIGH SPEED RAIL!
Fair union contracts,
Safe drinking water,
Stem cell research,
And an unarmed populace.
I found myself belting out "HIGH SPEED RAIL!" while holding up one section of the massive RECALL WALKER sign on the balcony, just two letters down from Giles Goat Boy. The new official rule is that the sign may no longer be anchored with the ropes and weighted jugs that were used at first. Apparently that arrangement makes it a "display," which would require a permit, but if it's held by people, it remains a "sign." Since I was holding the WALKER sign I didn't get a photo of it, but here's RECALL:
The singers were having great creative fun with the particulars of the rules. Here's a holiday statement that doesn't trigger a permit requirement since it's only 3 people:
Until you add one more wise guy man, which makes it a rally!
Here's another take on the same theme in the presence of the bust of Fightin' Bob La Follette, the force behind Wisconsin's history of progressive good-government:
And what happened then...?
Well...in Who-ville they say
Did the Gov’nor’s small heart
Grow three sizes that day?
Did he admit his mistake, they all wonder,
Or did he instead blame someone for his blunder?
NO MATTER . . .
The millions in Whoville kept singing together
Solidarity songs, no matter the weather!